Comments Posted By Ben
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OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW: CPAC 2010
Are you sure there were "invitations" as such? If so, I didn't receive one. While I did not attend CPAC, it's my impression they were open to any blogger that applied, and there were plenty of bloggers there who have criticized Redstate in the past.
Entirely tongue in cheek, Ben. I have no doubt that if I had decided to go, I would have been able to get credentialed.
ed.
Comment Posted By Ben On 22.02.2010 @ 10:51
Hi, guys. Let's say I live on $600 a month from my savings, which will end this year. Oh wait, I do live on $600 a month from my savings... which will end this year. I was a teacher who got downsized during the Bush administration, before the Democrats controlled the legislature. I grossed under $30,000 a year back when I was still working. I paid my taxes. I gave to charity. Oh, and I was the guy with his kid at the emergency room, because I couldn't afford health insurance or medical care.
I am a casualty of class warfare, and so are the nice folks who are attending these ridiculous tea parties. I am living proof that we do not, at least not yet, have some kind of Galbraithian mixed paradigm where the poor get socialism and the rich get laissez faire capitalism. I am living proof that fair Michael Reynolds's hard work is not supporting a welfare class. And so are the tea partiers, though they don't seem to know it.
I am ashamed of the tea parties. They are little more than an astroturfed sideshow for some folk's hate and willful ignorance, which has been whipped to a froth by those who should be giving them leadership and counsel. Populist movement, my butt. There is no constructive purpose in holding up signs depicting the president as Adolf Hitler, loudly proclaiming him a fascist, and having as one's sole response to questions about one's assertion: "Well, he's a fascist because he's a fascist."
Let me remind you good people of what a fascist is.
A fascist subscribes to an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. A fascist's views and practice encompass extreme right-wing, intolerant notions.
One might forgive CNN's field reporter for being shocked and dismayed herself at the tea party's Through-the-Looking-Glass revision of the meaning of the word "fascist".
The people attending these tea parties are the ones who would most benefit from lowered taxes, which they'll get a taste of; even from socialism -- which is not what they'll be getting from our government. They'll be getting something far less desirable. I leave it as homework to you to discover the correct term.
The economic disaster we're faced with didn't originate with Obama, or the Democrat-controlled legislature, or even Bush Jr. It has been a long time in the making, and thoughtful people have anticipated it for many years. Longer than Roubini. Longer than Greenspan. Anyone could have predicted this mess by 2006 or 2007.
We're here because of classical economics and neoliberalism, among other preposterous notions. We're here because some of us found it convenient, even profitable, to behave as if those notions were true.
Keynesian economics is not untried, as some suggest. It's been a matter of policy through most of Europe since the 1960s, and FDR's economic policy was heavily influenced by Keynesian ideas. The present situation may be unique, but it is not unprecedented. I hope the current Keynesian strategy is effective. If it's not, well, more neoliberalism and xenophobia will be just what the doctor ordered. One can only hope the good doctor will have taken the Hippocratic oath before his next surgery.
Meanwhile, I implore the tea partiers: stop wasting all that tea. It's the closest thing I have to a health plan.
And Michael: the right doesn't like civilization, because we'd have to raise taxes to be able to afford both civilization and national defense.
Comment Posted By Ben On 19.04.2009 @ 04:00
IF ELECTED, OBAMA WILL BE MY PRESIDENT
Wow. The left has been threatening for 2 generations? I guess you're saying that since Vietnam the left has been killing democracy? To be honest, I hadnt noticed. I personally feel the culture war has been pretty unpleasant since Clinton, gotten worse with Bush but the way Obama is being painted here "He is Stalin/Hitler/Mao Tse Tung/Mugabe/Castro/Bin Laden all wrapped up into on." - come on, be serious.
You can always get people stirred up with enough rhetoric (just look at what happened in Rwanda) - but do you really want the country to go down that road? Isnt there a time to say "Enough!"? I dont want to be at war, I want to be able to disagree but we should all have pretty much the same interests at heart - and have some element of compromise. And what has the left really done that is so bad in the last 8 years - whinge? Bumper stickers? Call Bush unreasonalbe things? Wear offensive T-Shirts? I just dont see what has been done to justify the reactions here. I just dont see what has happened that would not allow some form of compromise. And let us be a bigger person than the idiot in the T-Shirt, when then all is lost.
Comment Posted By Ben On 15.10.2008 @ 06:53
Some of these posts scare the living daylights out of me. Dems say Reps started it with Clinton, Reps say Dems were worse with Bush - and theres no chance that Obama will get a chance.
Where's Country First? You might disagree with some things, but isnt the worst thing that can happen a blockade, no movement whatsoever other than down - look at the mess the economy is in - who would prefer a 4 year vendetta but economic misery to swolling a little pride and trying to make up? Isnt the person offering the hand of compromise the better person? And what happened to turning the other cheek - especially if its for the common good?
Comment Posted By Ben On 15.10.2008 @ 06:24
9/11 TRUTHERS GUT PUNCHED BY HISTORY CHANNEL
Rick, you are just another poor brainwashed fool. You and many others will watch this thing, and accept it as gospel, ignoring obvious problems with the 'documentary' such as the use of hoax websites and claiming they are 'truth' websites, and also ignoring evidence such as the dust analysis that shows at the time of the collapse there was something hot enough to melt (NOT WEAKEN) steel. Oh, and what happened to #7? Who cares, cause anyone who doesn't accept the government's official story must be crazy, right? I guess the website name is true, this place is a nuthouse.
Comment Posted By Ben On 22.08.2007 @ 16:03
ANN COULTER: CONSERVATIVE LOUT
I applaud both Rick, and the other conservatives who have their eyes open and are willing to look at the vitriol Coulter spews without partisan glasses. I cannot fathom how some people can defend her most recent actions, and frankly the fact that conservatives still support her makes me I'm ashamed to call myself one.
Comment Posted By Ben On 7.06.2006 @ 15:33
wonderfully, beautifully said...many thanks.
Comment Posted By ben On 20.02.2006 @ 12:36
i hope W was watching when they caught the bad guys by EAVESDROPPING without a warrant to find out where Rossler lived ! Yaahooooooooooooooo !
Comment Posted By Ben On 7.02.2006 @ 11:26
"at the very least they could learn how to get out of the way of history rather than trying to hamper our efforts to change it."
Let's leave revisionism in the hands of the experts and focus on *making* history instead.
And to Kim, of course we would have had a rather difficult time defeating the Nazis if they had not engaged the Russains. However, we did get the big bomb first so it was only a matter of time. Regardless, there are many truths in this article and I don't think a related opinion on potential outcomes of WWII has a lot of bearing on the rest of them.
Comment Posted By Ben On 2.02.2006 @ 16:23
Need to add
On NPR’s All Things Considered, Chertoff claims, "I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don't have food and water."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4828771
Comment Posted By Ben On 11.09.2005 @ 20:31
