Comments Posted By Surabaya Stew
Displaying 91 To 100 Of 255 Comments
Nicely said Rick, thank you!
Comment Posted By Surabaya Stew On 7.06.2009 @ 01:11
OBAMA'S CAIRO ADDRESS: DID IT LIVE UP TO THE HYPE?
Read the PJ Media article, then read all 60 replies...ouch! To be sure, I expected disagreement in most of the comments, but the level of hate on display is amazing. (My favorite was when one of them accused Rick of taking the name of the lord in vain by saying "Jeez", which happened to be the name of another commentator!) Crap like this makes me wonder about the future viability of PJ Media if folks like these are representative of their readers.
It's not as if civilized commentary is impossible on mainstream Conservative blogs; LGF has turned in quite an enjoyable site to lurk around now that they have banned the worst of the kooks. The Volohk Conspiracy is a joy to read, with the commentators usually bashing the posters! (Right Wing Nut House is pretty good at this too, but that should go without saying.)
Comment Posted By Surabaya Stew On 5.06.2009 @ 19:44
CONSERVATIVES KEEP LEARNING THE WRONG LESSONS FROM REAGAN
So yes, adopt Reagan’s principles which are timeless artifacts of conservative thinking. Adopt his optimism about the future, his belief in the wisdom of crowds, his determination to overcome obstacles to achieve goals.
Doesn't this sound like our current president?
Our current president has no discernible principles. And his faith in the American people is lacking if he believes we can't make our own decisions about everything from health insurance to EFCA.
ed.
Comment Posted By Surabaya Stew On 1.06.2009 @ 11:17
THE MOST EXPENSIVE DATE NIGHT IN HISTORY
Couldn't Obama have attended at least 1 meeting or other event when he visited my city? That way, taking Michelle on a date could have easily justified! I guess he saved us all a few bucks by not taking Air Force 1, but going to the Big Apple just partake in some culture was quite unjustified (as Rick points out) as DC no longer the artistic and culinary wasteland it was back in JFK's term.
The only way this could have been worse is if he had used presidential transport to make a fundraising jaunt. A number of previous presidents have used Air Force 1 flights solely to raise money for their party at events across the country, with no thought of the waste in taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, it seems that presidential transport options are solely at the discretion of the Chief Executive and therefore exempt from congressional limits. A real shame, me thinks!
Comment Posted By Surabaya Stew On 31.05.2009 @ 22:35
DEALERGATE: STATISTICAL COINCIDENCE OR POLITICAL BIAS? (IMPORTANT UPDATE BELOW)
cdor, you have a point in that what is happening to these dealers now isn't capitalism, but certainly the previous situation with odious state laws protecting local dealers from competition and closure wasn't very capitalistic either. Were actual free-markets running the show over the past 50 years, there would have been many fewer Chrysler dealers facing disaster today.
Comment Posted By Surabaya Stew On 30.05.2009 @ 12:06
Nice to hear those moderate creds, Stew. My question is, “Why no sympathy? You got a problem with compassion?” What evil did they do?
What, being a believer in Capitalism disqualifies me from being a moderate?
Seriously, those dealers were running an independent business affiliated with a corporation that had been in trouble for some time. (Didn't Chrysler almost go broke 30 years ago? Shouldn't that have been a warning?) They knew of the inherent risks this industry runs every year; certainly they should have noticed fewer big-3 brands on the roads every year over the past 5 decades. They took a bet that Chrysler would turn itself around and they lost.Now, there may not be 100% transparency as to which dealers made the cut and which didn't (this should be followed up on even if there is no political scandal), but its clear that a significant number of dealers were going to lose out in any case. Any deal that would allow these 789 dealers to stay in business or to be brought out at market value would involve a great amount of capital to to paid for by us taxpayers. Liquidation of the dealers is tough medicine, but in this case it is probably the best of the bad options available. While I have sympathy for the employees to soon be out of work and the dealers about to be bankrupt, I believe compassion should not spread to extraordinary actions to "save" a shrinking business model.
cdor, perhaps this does not sound like "moderate creds", but I do lean in the direction of economic conservatism. When combined with a socially liberal stance on most issues, I think it evens me out as a political moderate. Hope this clears things up...
Comment Posted By Surabaya Stew On 29.05.2009 @ 23:36
A day late and a dollar short? You’re kidding me, right? Since when does it become necessary to respond to completely unfounded and fabricated BS.
They were allowed to deep six the dealers because of bankruptcy. That was some clever plan they hatched. All they needed to do was give up control of the company and wipe out the shareholders for this “gift”.
Good grief. You wingnuts just don’t think.
jharp, I'm not sure where you got the idea that I believed that Chrysler is going bankrupt just to close down excess dealers. What I was saying is that they could have avoided any accusations of unfair play by simply disclosing the above information in the first place. While I have little sympathy for the dealers predicament, I can't blame them for thinking that the closures were made by some bureaucrat or political operative when Chrysler did not disclose exactly how the determinations to close each dealer were made.
Oh, and thanks for popping my "wingnut" cherry; as a political moderate, I was wondering when somebody online would accuse me of extremism. Trouble is, I'm not sure which side of the political spectrum this "wingnut" is supposed to be on...
Comment Posted By Surabaya Stew On 29.05.2009 @ 18:08
Finally, Chrysler replies to this story, a day late and a dollar short. I'm still not clear on how the master list of closings was made or who finalized it, but Chrysler has been eager to deep-six a large share of its dealers for years, and this crisis is the perfect excuse to do so at little cost to them. That could explain their reluctance to reply to the story previously, as one does not bring attention to ones self when being presented a politically sensitive gift.
Comment Posted By Surabaya Stew On 29.05.2009 @ 12:46
PRINCIPLE SHOULD TRUMP PRAGMATISM IN SOTOMAYOR VOTE
Even if Sotomayor looses the Senate vote or withdraws her nomination, what's stopping Obama from picking somebody else more liberal for the high court? From what I've read, this candidate is not out of the mainstream on very much. Aside from one dumb speech over 10 years ago on the alleged wisdom on latina judges, there's not a whole lot to go on to make the case that she is unfit.
Most of the country believes that a president is entitled to his own choices for judges, so a big confirmation hearing debate won't do much to sway the voters anyway. (Also, this is happening so early in Obama's first term that even fewer people are going to remember it in 2012.) Attacking Sotomayor is a dead end for the GOP, and the sooner they realize it, the better off they will be.
Comment Posted By Surabaya Stew On 27.05.2009 @ 17:26
SMALL TOWN HEROES FROM THE HEARTLAND
This interesting article on our nearly-forgotten American heros could use some clarification on the choice words of "elites" and "big city". When reading this article, as a native New Yorker, I feel like the small-town resident forced to listen to how great the urban cores of America are! Frankly, we urbanites can do without these sort of homilies.
Fact is, the only New Yorkers who badmouth the heartland are precisely the ones who come from it in the first place.(That is, the ones who escaped the farm to live in Manhattan or Brooklyn.) Never have I met a native New Yorker with anything worse to say about towns like Clairsville other than they could never live there. On the other hand, I know of many transplanted, former rural-living, Americans now living in "my" city who really do despise the kind of places that they grew up in.
For the most part, it is not patriotism or poverty that makes rural americans sign up for the services in large numbers, its just their way of escaping their existing lifestyle. (This attitude can also be found in the inner cities, where the armed forces offers a way out of the narrow and dangerous ways of the ghetto.) In the case of "new" New Yorkers, they just chose to go to art school or do a corporate internship rather than join the army to escape places like Clairsville. Why these folks have a giant chip on their shoulder about the(ir) heartland is really beyond me, but please let's not mix all "big city elites" up in this way of thinking!
Comment Posted By Surabaya Stew On 25.05.2009 @ 22:46
