America Shuts Down!

[rbbert]

words of truth !

Not even close

I sincerely wonder what planet you guys branding Obama & Co. as leftists extremist live on. His pick for Secretary of the Treasury was Geitner, a Wall Street insider. Tax rates under Obama are at a historical low. On his watch we saw the biggest rebound of profitability of corporate America and the biggest rebound of the stock market in modern history and CEOs have been making out like bandits. The dirty little secret is Obama is business' best friend.

I guess his "leftism" manifests itself by his refusal to completely write off the collateral damage of this corporate revival (the unemployed, underemployed, uninsured, outsourced and downsized), or having the audacity to pass legislation trying to get the USA to catch up with the civilized world by providing universal healthcare.

much more accurate

From the perspective of the other side if the world, if you guys think the democrats are way left of centre (or even left of centre at all) then you must have moved centre a long way from where it used to be

Perhaps this is a reflection of how completely out of touch a good part of the Republican Party is today.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

From the perspective of the other side if the world, if you guys think the democrats are way left of centre (or even left of centre at all) then you must have moved centre a long way from where it used to be

This. The reason why guys like Obama, with solidly pro-business, pro-military records look leftist to the new American right is that the American right is so far over there that everything is to their left. Hell, the current GOP would have done with Reagan what they did with Romney and McCain -- held their collective noses and nominated the guy they think might be able win a general election instead of one of the wingnuts they really liked (that they merely consider people like Perry, Palin etc, errodes their credibility with the mainstream).

That the GOP has had to nominate guys that were too centrist for them, the last two presidential elections in a row, in hopes of getting someone "electable," speaks volumes about how close to the center, and the will of the people, they are not. But it has not been a winning strategy, because it is so duplicitious. They have to nominate a centrist, who has spent months on national TV running from the far right to appease the base and win the nomination, who then has to turn around and run back to the center (dragging a radical running mate like an ankle weight) as rapidly as possilbe to have any chance of winning the general election.

The American electorate's memory, evidently, is not quite that short.

Tim

 

[jazdoc]

Thank goodness Democrats don't spend the general election campaign walking back to the center after spending the primaries appeasing their base. Nor are they duplicitious.

 

[rbbert]

Politicians are duplicitous, unfortunately, it seems to go with the job. So it all comes down to how much, and whether what they end up doing is good for their constituents (and the country) or not. And really Democrats no longer have to worry about appeasing or attracting the "left wing", because the only alternative is so far to the right it's not really an alternative.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Thank goodness Democrats don't spend the general election campaign walking back to the center after spending the primaries appeasing their base. Nor are they duplicitious.

Sometimes they do, and they are, of course. The evidence that they don't have nearly as deep a problem is that they get to nominate presidential candidates they like. And they win with them. The Democratic equivalent of the last couple of GOP primaries would have been a field full of Dennis Kucinich clones and one Clinton no one really wanted, but they pick anyway because he's "electable." Doc, if you're an old school Republican, you have my sympathy.

Tim

 

[rblnr]

The current Democratic party is every bit, if not more to the left of center as the Republican party is to the right. Ironically, the Clinton/DLC wing of the party has been marginalized and replaced by leftists like Obama and Valerie Jackson. If Hiliary wasn't a women (no snide comments please), she'd never be the current Democratic front runner. Not suprisingly, Elizabeth Warren is already being pushed as an alternative. The current Democratic party doesn't have room for the moderates of the past like Scoop Jackson.

I'm with those who just can't fathom how Obama could be consider left, much lass far left. And the Clinton comment is head-scratcher to me that across the board, at every level, taxes were higher under him vs Obama. Although he did balance the budget ...

 

[jazdoc]

I'm with those who just can't fathom how Obama could be consider left, much lass far left. And the Clinton comment is head-scratcher to me that across the board, at every level, taxes were higher under him vs Obama. Although he did balance the budget ...

"‘I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them." -- NYT Film Critic Pauline Kael after the 1972 election

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

I live in a very special place: the suburban American south. Republicans on all sides of me -- friends, neighbors, relatives...everybody, everywhere. And all but a very few of them know better than this tea party nonsense.

Tim

 

[jazdoc]

Touche Tim.

Humans are instrinsically wired to seek out others with their beliefs and reject out of hand those who differ with them. We have to accept that we will never dig as deep into others ideas but I believe it pays to try and understand the other person's point of view. It's ultimately more interesting and clarifying to challenge your perceptions. (Hence my signature line.)

 

[Gregadd]

Probably true too. Americans have notoriously short memory - which is a good thing in volatile times.

Republicans will waive another failed tax scheme in front of them. Or promise to protect them from another Boogeyman. All is forgiven.

 

[rockitman]

Touche Tim.

Humans are instrinsically wired to seek out others with their beliefs and reject out of hand those who differ with them. We have to accept that we will never dig as deep into others ideas but I believe it pays to try and understand the other person's point of view. It's ultimately more interesting and clarifying to challenge your perceptions. (Hence my signature line.)

That is exactly why I don't watch Fox. I agree with most of what they say, save for the tea party obstructionists. I prefer to hear what the biased major liberal media has to say...keep your enemies close...so to speak.

 

[mep]

Did we ever have unbiased news networks? Did David Brinkley, Chad Huntley and their ilk slant the news like Fox does against Democrats and CNN does towards Republicans?

 

[rockitman]

Did we ever have unbiased news networks? Did David Brinkley, Chad Huntley and their ilk slant the news like Fox does against Democrats and CNN does towards Republicans?

Bottom line, politics suck on both sides. It's all about conquer and dividing the nation, sad to say.

 

[mauidan]

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

That is exactly why I don't watch Fox. I agree with most of what they say, save for the tea party obstructionists. I prefer to hear what the biased major liberal media has to say...keep your enemies close...so to speak.

If you want to have a clue, you have to get your news the old-fashioned way; read. And multiple points of view. Cable news is crap. Shallow. Insubstantial. Politically skewed so badly that the truth hasn't a chance if coming out. Don't care which one you're watching, turn it off. It's candy. Empty calories. Slow poison.

Tim

 

[rblnr]

"‘I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them." -- NYT Film Critic Pauline Kael after the 1972 election

Well, NYC ain't America.

Not that it matters but just as a btw, Pauline Kael was the New Yorker mag critic, not the NYT critic.

 

[rblnr]

If you want to have a clue, you have to get your news the old-fashioned way; read. And multiple points of view. Cable news is crap. Shallow. Insubstantial. Politically skewed so badly that the truth hasn't a chance if coming out. Don't care which one you're watching, turn it off. It's candy. Empty calories. Slow poison.

Tim

Regardless of the bent of this station or that, most of the issues are way too complex to be related and understood in a 2.5 minute news blurb.

 

[rockitman]

View attachment 12255

I think Sebilius needs her

resignation. She will give John Stewart and interview, but not congress..pathetic !

 

[mauidan]

I think Sebilius needs her

resignation. She will give John Stewart and interview, but not congress..pathetic !

I agree.

Sebilius and no one in the White House wants to take responsibilty for this $400M mess, which was three years in the making.

I don't think this Obamacare rollout is a total failure, it can always serve as a bad example.

 

[rockitman]

I agree.

Sebilius and no one in the White House wants to take responsibilty for this $400M mess, which was three years in the making.

I don't think this Obamacare rollout is a total failure, it can always serve as a bad example.

I understand the tech contractor responsible for the code and bad architecture is CGI out of Canada who was recently fired by the Canadian Gov't for their failed attempt putting together a medical registry. The original contract price was $45 million for the Obamacare website. I understand they have spent close to $190 mill now....