Disqus - Latest Comments for lurxst

Re: Spinsters and Shysters Dressed as “Do-Gooders” (Guest Voice)

lurxst — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:42:58 -0000

Brown is famous for being a master propagandist. He is exploiting the minor disagreements between climate researchers (Taste Great! Less Filling!) and glossing over the near unanimous consensus about the need to pull back from the tipping point. They are counting on the ignorance of the average American in regards to science and research methods, "That guy said trick, did you see that? He's trying to TRICK you!!" in order save his patrons some (big) money.

Re: Getting it Right? A Half-Hearted Afghanistan Strategy Revealed (Guest Voice)

lurxst — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:10:57 -0000

All he had to do was announce: “We win — they lose.”

Mr. Reagan, what exactly do we win?

I suppose we can send you a mixed box of civilian and military body parts if that will make you feel more secure. Afghanis will resent us as occupiers until the day we leave. All our war will not stop another terrorist attack from happening somewhere, sometime in the world. Reagan is patently a proponent of endless war, so his advice and concern mean next to nothing.

Re: Ignoring Krauthammer or aiding Second Coming? Palin predicts Jewish “flocking” to Israel

lurxst — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:31:05 -0000

Is it any surprise that Palin's entire global perspective is straight from the "Left Behind" series of novels?

Re: Dealing With Conscience-Driven Joe

lurxst — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:15:04 -0000

Hmm Joe's received about $1,037,402 from the health insurance industry, that couldn't be influencing his conscience could it?
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.p...

Or maybe its just his burning desire to remain relevant.
http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2009/10/...

Or maybe its because his wife sits on the board of directors for Wellpoint.

Re: When Did Classic Liberalism Die?

lurxst — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:11:39 -0000

So the Democratic party, through their solidly controlled liberal media arm will become like Fox News?

Re: The GOP and the Coming Civil War

lurxst — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:12:32 -0000

I love all the handwringing and despair over the U.S. becoming socialist. Like that could ever happen in an oligarchy.

Re: Conservatives Who Don’t Cut Taxes

lurxst — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:05:06 -0000

~~How about we ask Congress to spend on vital infrastructure before expanding safety nets to the middle class, and ask that they stop spending on pet pork projects back in their home districts, before they put their hands out for more revenue?~~ CS

Why does it have the be the middle class that gives up its safety net?

Far as I can recall in recent memory a lot of huge corporations and banks got a gigantic safety net - bailout, under the guise of protecting the essential financial infrastructure.

Pork barrel spending, while problematic because it limits its federal dollar benefit to limited number of constituents, is miniscule in the big budget picture and wouldn't amount to 1% of actual costs for needed infrastructure projects. Thats akin to saying we have to fix the broken tail light before we can replace the transmission to get the car going again.

Re: Conservatives Who Don’t Cut Taxes

lurxst — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:49:35 -0000

Is there somewhere a real risk that the rich will "take their ball and go home" if they feel taxes are too high? They already exploit loopholes in existing tax structure to use offshore banks and hide taxable assets and income despite ever plunging tax rates. At what point would a wealthy person say, "thats alright, my taxes are fair". The answer, "never".

I think its all a lot of hooey. Wealthy individuals haven't stopped putting their money into the stock market because they fear having to pay taxes on the income. The money is there but it is currently being used to further money games that arent generating real growth. That fact has a very tenuous connection to anything doing with "tax rates". Meanwhile, the infrastructure that these rich individuals and corporations depend on is crumbling from lack of tax revenue to keep them in working order. The army that protects their overseas investments. The schools that produce their workforce.

I call bull and say its not that Goldwater reforms haven't really been adequately implemented. I think there's been ample demonstration that the philosophy is flawed and will not produce the intended results. Instead its only destroying the middle class. We are already seeing the wall street rich begin to "eat themselves" as they run out of pensions and middle class investors to rip off.

Re: Bush’s Doctrine of Preemptive Attack About to Be Changed?

lurxst — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:25:48 -0000

The problem with the Bush Doctrine was that in most cases any policy like that should only be reserved for strikes against nations that pose an actual mortal threat to the U.S. (read: nukes) and shouldn't allow the same standards to be used against a country that can only minimally impact our interests through terrorist attacks. I think that despite any logic that might be contained in the Bush Doctrine it is irrevocably attached to the act of using lies and trumped up intel to launch attacks against a country that DIDN'T pose a mortal threat to the U.S.

Re: “Tonight, We Are All ‘Too Irrational To Be Dealt With Sanely’”

lurxst — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:02:51 -0000

So will Republicans hate the NFL now?

Re: My Own Mixed Reaction To Obama Peace Prize

lurxst — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:21:01 -0000

I was just thinking about how horrible it will be if this award goes to Obama's head and he starts thinking he can really resolve some of these problems, like he was the President of the United States or something,

Re: Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Doesn’t Bring American Partisan Peace Ceasefire

lurxst — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:45:30 -0000

Congratulations President Obama. I hope the award will encourage him to stand true to his convictions and not bow to political expediency, especially when it comes to cleaning up Bush' foreign policy clusterf**k.

Re: Intellectual Conservatism Isn’t Dead: It’s Resting (Guest Voice)

lurxst — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:21:35 -0000

I like that term, political entertainment complex. It is a good shorthand for much of the feigned outrage and outright buffoonery that populates talk radio and the Fox Propaganda network. The commenters and talking heads are not out to reform policy or establish idealogical ohesion amongst their listeners. They are making money by throwing firebrands, trying to top each other as to who is most outrageous or who hates libruls the most. Beck is a blowhard who would like to think he is Stephen Colbert, only without the wit and good writers.

Re: IF I was Michael Steele…

lurxst — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:59:53 -0000

Steele is doing such a great job, I hope they can let him continue without interference.

Re: Why Talk Radio Political Culture Conservatives are “Winning” and will Win

lurxst — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:40:30 -0000

EEllis, I will see your "my deranged obsession is reasonable theirs isn't" and raise you,

1 war in Iraq
1 credit crisis due to lack of regulatory oversight,
1 No Fly List,
1 lying Attorney General,
1 outed CIA operative for political gain,
and,
100 tortured unlawful enemy combatants.

I got more too. ; )

Re: Why Talk Radio Political Culture Conservatives are “Winning” and will Win

lurxst — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:29:07 -0000

"No more so than the dehumanizing of Bush and Cheney, IMO, tidbits. They were portrayed as evil warmongers and were often accused of shredding the Constitution "

But, they were evil war mongers who shredded the constitution...

I think an important point so far missed is that Bush, et.al, earned their villification through their actions and over a period of eight years. So far Obama has been in office 9 months. The rhetoric against him was hyped up before he even took office and had done "anything" to deserve the scorn. To me this is a sign of a deeper problem than idealogical differences. Its rooted in racism, fear and a desperation ploy by the republicans to remain viable in any pathetic fashion they can muster. There are plenty of progressive bloggers, congresspersons and journalists who are holding Obama's feet to the fire in regards to his pledges of leadership and policy changes. It was rare to find a conservative commenter or any sort who did the same during Bush's most heinous decisions and policies. It was a lovefest.

How many more years of failed conservative policies are we supposed to endure before everyone finally figures out its based on greed, misanthropy and only serves to make a small percentage of the rich richer while turning the rest of us into waiters and car washers. No thanks.

Re: Newsmax Calls for a Military Coup in U.S.

lurxst — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:51:34 -0000

When some fringe wacko, filled full of Fox Propaganda Network gibberish; encouraged by his elected Republican lawmakers calling the President a "liar" or "enemy of humanity" or the "anti-christ"; having been inundated with radio blowhards questioning the validity of the president's citizenship and equating him as some marxist dictator, when this wacko finally blows and does something to try and kill the president or some member of congress, it will be really great to look back at all this and say, "Wow, we never saw it coming."

Fairness doctrine returns.

Re: Is Extremism Becoming Mainstream?

lurxst — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:14:10 -0000

I believe that many leftwing conspiracies seem to come from some basis in fact or are making up for lack of sunshine in regards to government activity. Right wing conspiracies on the other hand, seem to be crafted from whole cloth with little logical connection to real events.

Leftwing "extremists" said:
BushCo lied about Iraq buying yellowcake, turns out they were right.
BushCo lied about Saddamn having WMDs, what do you know.
BushCo had a plan to invade Iraq from day one of the administration, now we have an FBI whistleblower finally released from her gag order, naming names.
Patriot Act wasn't about terrorism, turns out its mostly use for drug enforcement.
BushCo politicized the justice department to pursue political rivals, turns out its true.
BushCo lied when they said we weren't torturing people, what is revealed looks like torture to just about everyone in the world.

Righwingers are worried that Obama is Kenyan and will push us all into socialism if we get a national health system. I don't think they really know what socialism is, and apparently a birth certificate isn't good enough proof for them.

I think its dishonest to attempt to equivocate reasoned beliefs with lunatic ramblings in pursuit of some centrist nirvana where we are all just so cool and can say all of it is extremist.

Carrying a gun to a political rally. Language that borders on death threats. Thats extremist.

Re: Campaign Free Speech For Corporations—Why Not?

lurxst — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:41:00 -0000

Unfortunately $250K does not purchase the kind of media that $5 million does.

Removing corporations from the equation is the only good answer. I would say allow them to contribute and then have the FEC be more stringent in monitoring, but the FEC is just as often toothless and unduly influenced. We've seen too many examples of how regulations get enforced based on the priorities of the party in power, who gets appointed to the commission. Even with FEC recommendations corporations too often get a pass. If they are willing to spend a billion to get their way, it matters little to a corporation if that is done in media buys or in fines. They still get their way.

The thing that makes me most angry is that I am certain that via my 401k I have shares in companies that are using my investment to actively campaign against my interests, regardless of a shareholder vote or any such democratic legerdemain.

I am always made sick to my stomach when I listen or read debates about the foundation of corproate personhood in Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific, to think that it was based on an "accidental" clerical error and not on actual Supreme Court agreement.

It will end up being the degradation of our democracy into ruin.

Re: Why Obama is Right to Avoid/Ignore Fox News

lurxst — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:45:20 -0000

Fox News is a oxymoron. I see no benefit to Obama in legitimizing what they do by treating them as an actual, objective, news provider.

Here is a clip showing the objective newshounds at Fox News stirring up the crowd at one of the tea party's that they heavily promoted and organized. Exhorting the crowd to hold up their Obama=Hitler signs.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909180037

If only Obama would be nicer to Fox News.

Re: Uncovering the Race Card–Reluctantly

lurxst — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:21:06 -0000

All this hatred and disrespect for the president over healthcare reform, which everyone has a stake in and the only real potential losers are the insurance companies.

Imagine how crazy its going to get when we start tackling cap and trade, employee free choice and immigration reform.

I think its important for the house to reinforce its rules on decorum now and not let this kind of behavior continue to exist among the elected representatives.

Re: For Annie Leibovitz Even $40 Million In Real Estate Is Not Enough

lurxst — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:41:25 -0000

jeainnj, I believe you are thinking of Ann Geddes. Leibovitz has made some of the most notable photographs of the last 30 years.

Re: Anthony Weiner Tears off the Mask

lurxst — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:02:11 -0000

These healthcare threads are truly generating the most discussion I have ever seen on TMV.

I agree with many posters that there does appear to be some disconnect in ideology over what healthcare is, a basic right that we want to afford ourselves, or a commodity where only the privileged can afford. If the will is strong enough, there will be minimal problems in coming up with a way to pay for universal coverage for all. I think there is a tremendous amount of misinformation and effort being spread by those who stand to lose money due to changes. So, thats it, money. Money is more important than our public health, our competitiveness in the world market, more than freeing millions from the yoke of lack of preventative care or rehabilitative care.

In terms of insurance, I don't know that any of the other insurance models that are being compared (auto, home, life) truly equate to health insurance. Its true that they all are attempts to "hedge the bets" against something catastrophic, but when it comes to health care, its not just catastrophic costs that are problematic, like when you have a car wreck. Insurance doesn't cover regular wear and tear, but when it comes to our bodies, thats a large proportion of what the coverage is being used for. Regular outpatient, preventative care has been priced way out of the abilities of normal wage earners. And unlike some of the other things we insure, we dont really have an alternative to seeking medical care. We can't grow our own medicines (MM proponents may disagree) and we can't operate on ourselves. We can however seek alternate forms of transportation or fix our own house.

Oh I did find one innovation from the Health Insurance industry. They invented the "pre-existing condition."

Re: Anthony Weiner Tears off the Mask

lurxst — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:46:25 -0000

So Joe was speechless in trying to defend insurance company profits? Medicare functions with a 4% admin margin and the people who receive Medicare tend to universally approve of it (other than it could cover even MORE medical expenses, say dental and vision).

Jazz I think from your posting history that you are very concerned about the "trojan horse" of incremental healthcare reform, so I am surprised at your glee upon hearing a congressman finally speak the truth and having his conservative interviewer get totally flustered in his inability to refute the logic. Joe had nothing left to throw at the argument.."but...the free...*gasp, cough*...market...gasp...sputter."

Do we have any good reference points to the innovation and added value that the insurance industry has brought to the American healthcare system?

Re: Not Feeling Depressed Enough?

lurxst — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:47:15 -0000

Back on topic here: A nice little tidbit to make "deather" republican heads 'splode.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-republ...

A nice list of the Republicans who voted for End of Life Planning/Counseling, er.. death panels, back in 2003 before they had to derail healthcare reform.