Comments Posted By michael reynolds
Displaying 491 To 500 Of 839 Comments
I didn't exactly cover myself in glory on this issue either. Too late to the party, too ready to doubt what seemed at first like conspiracy nuts, too quick to accept a degree of ruthlessness.
I honor those who got it right early.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 17.04.2009 @ 07:30
Defend:
Who said "equal?" Your ranting and raving has nothing to do with reality. Covering medical care for a kid whose parents can't is basic human decency. And gee, I doubt your "charity" quite covers the bill.
I want all Americans to have the basics. And I'm willing to pay more to keep those who can't manage to make it from falling to the bottom.
By the way, I also buy the occasional $450 slacks. Zanellas -- nothing hangs like Zanellas.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 19.04.2009 @ 21:01
DefendUSA:
Yes, it does make sense that the top quintile pay most of the taxes: we make most of the money.
Let's say I make 600k a year to pull a number out of the air. Let's say the average person earns 60k a year.
If I pay 40% to the IRS I still have 360k. And I therefore have a pretty good life. Maybe I order fewer appetizers when I go out to eat. Maybe I buy the 30 dollar bottle of wine and not the 70 dollar bottle. Maybe I get an E class Mercedes and not an S class.
If the guy making 60k pays 40% he's only left with 36k. So he can't afford health insurance. He can't fix the car he uses to get to work.
It's really not hard to understand. If we all pay the same rate I get to drink the Macallan 25 instead of the Macallan 12. And the average guy gets to take his kid to an emergency room whenever he gets an ear infection because he can't afford a pediatrician.
It's not unfair, it's not unjust, it's the price I pay for being a citizen and a member of civilization. Crazy as it may seem, I kind of like my fellow Americans and I don't want their kids to go without medical care or school clothing just so I can buy $450 slacks.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 18.04.2009 @ 14:44
So, Democrats inherit an economic meltdown. They do what every credible economist says they should do: spend money for stimulus.
The Democrats cut taxes on the vast majority of Americans and raise it to George H.W. Bush levels on the wealthy.
The Right wing freaks out. Old people collecting Medicare and Social Security wave signs denouncing Socialism. Blue collar folks who got a tax cut protest my tax increase. People living paycheck to paycheck are furious that we're keeping the economy just afloat enough that they won't be living in cardboard boxes.
And Rick is actually proud of all this. Amazing.
Call it what you want, Conservatism or Republicanism, it is at an evolutionary dead-end. Burned out, irrelevant and brain dead.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 16.04.2009 @ 17:26
A TEA PARTY WALKBACK -- OF SORTS
Well, thank God you jumped on board the Taxtanic at the last minute, Rick. Did you get an iceberg-side state room? Have you made your lifeboat reservation? Word to the wise: stay away from DiCaprio, he doesn't do so well.
I'm not laughing at you, not really. For about a week in the 70's I had a perm. I figure it's like that. Sure you'll be embarrassed later, but hey, it's all in good fun.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 15.04.2009 @ 20:22
Joe:
They don't fan the flames because they hate Obama. They fan the flames because it makes them rich and powerful.
I really don't worry too much about a radicalized far right. I don't doubt we'll get a few nuts acting out, hopefully not as successfully as Tim McVeigh. But I suspect that as the economy improves and all the dire nutjob predictions of doom fade, so will the ardor of the far Right.
These people -- as opposed to their opportunistic instigators -- are rage-o-holics. They need someone to blame for their unsatisfying lives, so they search for scapegoats. Pretty much like their fellow nutjobs on the far Left. If they commit crimes we'll throw them in prison. If they just want to vent their spleen as they realize the world has moved on without them, that's their right. This is a free country.
It's actually comforting to realize that people like Limbaugh are just whores, doing it for the money. Limbaugh needs a stable world of private jets, Cuban cigars, tailors, Maitres 'D and drug-mule maids. He's no more a revolutionary than I am. And he has nothing at all in common with the hysterical losers who will show up to tea parties tomorrow and whine about taxes they don't actually pay but that Limbaugh does.
And I think it's especially soothing to realize that the man paying for the teabagger publicity machine is an Australian-American billionaire (my paymaster as well, FYI) who could hardly be any more devoted to the status quo. If it starts getting crazy Rupert will pull the plug.
Considering the fact there were 500 tea parties planned before Fox News even mentioned them, it takes a truly uninformed person to make the claim that Murdoch is "paying" for teabagger publicity. Fox is so late to this party, they are virtually irrelevant.
And I would be very careful in positing that the tea party attendees will be made up mostly of kooks. That's the spin that will come out of it but a couple of those events are going to draw thousands of people, mostly middle class, mostly taxpayers. You will have a hard time saying this is an extremist movement when every indication is to the contrary.
Myself, I think they are a waste of time - especially since because they are so disorganized, there will be little or no followup to tap into the emotions raised by the protests to develop a true grass roots movement that can make a difference in politics. But parroting mindless lefty talking points about them only shows you to be a brainless twit who doesn't know jack shit about the event.
ed.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 14.04.2009 @ 21:44
The document has now been widely reported and I withdraw my earlier concerns as to its authenticity.
That being said it really is rich to see conservatives who derided every liberal objection to increased government surveillance now shrieking like hysterical 'tween girls.
Let me 'splain this to you, geniuses: powers granted to a Republican president accrue to his successor as well. The tools you thought were no big deal when wielded against the people you don't like, now may be directed at you. That's why we need principles -- principles and laws that apply even when the "victim" is someone other than you.
Put another way: if you want rights and protections you're going to have to share them with the whole class.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 14.04.2009 @ 17:25
And I should trust Malkin why exactly?
Let me see if I have this right: everything reported by the MSM is suspect. But a report from a Right wing provocateur should be taken at face value?
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 14.04.2009 @ 09:31
Muffler:
Kudos. I think you may be right.
I just did Google search on a couple of extended cuts from the document, using quote marks. Google turned up only two hits, neither was a DHS or other government site, both right wing blogs.
Not exactly proof of anything, but someone with more time on their hands might want to take a closer look.
Considering the fact that Malkin called two people at DHS who defended the report, one must come to the conclusion that either;
1. The report is real; or
2. You're a nincompoop.
ed.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 14.04.2009 @ 08:20
Does this mean the Right will be rediscovering civil liberties other than gun ownership? Hey, welcome back. Where you all been for the last eight years?
Next thing you'll be telling us American citizens can't just be declared enemy combatants and held indefinitely without bail or charges simply because the President says so.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 14.04.2009 @ 07:40
