No scare tactics. Just pointing out that we don't live

• If McCain/Palin win this election, - then you can pretty much count on
  • Applause!!!!!! - nm
  • you don't know this - this just irritates me - me
    • Christians do that, not Muslims. - Give me a break!
      • no, no, that's not what I meant - sorry, will try to explain myself - me
      • BINGO... that's why the rabid Religious Right does - NOT belong in the White House.
        • The major difference between Christians and... - sam
          • oh, REALLY? So snipers or bombs taking out - OB surgeons doesn't count?
            • Sigh. nm - sam
              • Last-worditis. - (again)
    • Geez.... RANT ON! - i hear Prozac helps this alot. (nm)
      • you agree with the op? - me
        • I agree that if McCain/Palin win this one, - we're all up s___ creek.
          • and others feel the same way with Obama - me
  • and would you be 1 of those people that claim the - other side uses "scare tactics?" -hypocritic
    • I think Palin IS a scare tactic. She & her fellow - Christian soldier goons scare those of us who
      • You need to read up on the forefathers... - sam
        • Christians who had the good sense to MANDATE - secular legislative process...sm
        • HITLER WAS A CHRISTIAN..... - sm
          • If he ever was a Christian, he certainly renounced it.... - sam
            • The Nazis and Adolf Hitler are commonly thought of as representing the antithesis of Christianity an - sm
            • Last-worditis - nm
    • All I'm stating is that this election may determine - U.S. viability in the future.
  • Hear, Hear! - A voice of reason. szq
    • "Voice of reason"? Now, how do you get that out of - the post? Just the opposite in my opinion.nm
      • More like a voice of scare tactics. - ermt
        • No scare tactics. Just pointing out that we don't live - under a big, bulletproof plastic bubble.
  • you got it!! - Sue
    • Amen! Did you see today that the polls...sm - oldtimer
      • Must be the boobs and the lipstick on - that pitbull.........
      • There has been a big swing in past few days of - women going for McCain-Palin. nm
        • Not true. This is the latest poll, figures submitted just today. nm - oldtimer
          • See inside for link. - oldtimer
          • no, not true - sm
            • There has been a big swing to McCain in... - sam
        • Hillary is probably behind the scenes saying. - "I told you so!" nm
  • Republicans - Lee
  • I MEANT 'not LONG after' - I can't type - worth *#s& this morning!
    • All I can say is, I completely disagree with you! - and not just voting for "the woman".nm
      • Actually, I will be MUCH more worried about - National Security if Obama is elected!.nm
        • If the rest of the world doesn't hate us quite as bad, - we probably won't need it as much.
        • At least he won't select the Arab emirates to protect our ports - nm
        • Think diplomacy. Try it. You might like it. - Beats the pants off of war. amfm
          • I dont WANT war. Dont judge me! - but wont negotiate with terrorists either!. nm
            • Since when does talking with other country leaders - equal 'negotiate with terrorists?'
        • Me too! I think Obama is the scary one (sm) - Me
          • I sort of agree with you, but I think.....sm - Me too
            • YOU MAKE OVER $250,000 a year - sm
              • I never said I made $250K a year... where did you get that from my post?...sm - Me too
                • You won't pay more taxes - sm
                  • I understand the payroll tax on only over $250K....sm - Me too
                    • You need to talk to someone who has - sm
            • Then you need to vote for Obama. A vote for McCain will...sm - oldtimer
          • 'Good head on her shoulders?' She can't see past the - windshield of her own snowmobile.
          • You hit the nail on the head regarding Obama. - sam
          • Yes, and Obama has at least 1 friend - who is our enemy. Scary. nm
            • And the Repubs don't? - ?

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu

I live in Wisconsin and am often also in Minnesota.

No, I'm not a stalker or a weirdo (my opinion, anyway).

Rush just seems to have a problem keeping all his pills straight. What does that tell you. He's was buying stuff in parking lots. He was visiting multiple doctors. He has other people's medications on him and yet, he slams someone about pill use ...hypocritical I say.

We hate Bush, we hate Rush, we hate Rove...that is the right's mantra. Everytime we point out something that the right cannot defend or they just simple disagree with...out comes the ***the left's hatred is so palpable we can feel it. They are so negative and hateful about everything and everyone, ***   That is just not true. I personally have not hated anyone in politics since Nixon and I was young then and did not realize that hating him would accomplish nothing other than making me angrier and angrier. So that ***the left hates*** falls on deaf ears here.

February 8, 2009

IT AIN'T FEARMONGERING IF IT'S TRUE.... Just today, the LA Times has a good report on the unprecedented pressure on state budgets right now -- pressure that will not be alleviated by the federal recovery plan because Sens. Collins & Co. believe state aid isn't stimulative enough. While state shortfalls will lead to painful cuts in practically every state, Nevada is poised to get hit much harder than most.

The Times report noted, for example, that Nevada is "facing the most serious shortfall," and lawmakers will have to cut a striking 38% from its state budget. The impact across the state will be both drastic and unavoidable, most notably in the state's public schools, which will soon face a 15% cut.

It wasn't surprising, then, that Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) criticized Senate "centrists" for cutting $40 billion in state aid from the stimulus package, noting that the aid, which appeared in the House version, was intended to stop states from "laying off cops and firefighters, money to help keep teachers going." Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada rejected Frank's comments, labeling the remarks "fearmongering." Indeed, Ensign seemed encouraged by the fact that state budgets, including his own, would have to be slashed, calling the budgets "bloated." He said, "What we should be doing is cutting back."

Got that? As the recession worsens, and government spending is needed to prevent more Americans from losing their jobs, a leading Republican senator whose own state is about to get pummeled, believes it's a good idea to "cut back."
I can think of a variety of ways to respond to this nonsense, but I think Matt Yglesias summed things up nicely:

The idea that it would be good for states to cut back in the midst of the recession is stupid. The idea that the recession won't, absent federal aid, lead to layoffs of state employees such as teachers and firefighters is also stupid. But the idea that it's simultaneously true that the reason we should eschew aid is that states need to cut back and also true that it's fearmongering to warn of layoffs is doubleplus stupid. What does Ensign think cutbacks consist of? States will be reducing vital services. The cutbacks will have the immediate impact of reducing the incomes of laid-off families and beneficiaries of state programs. That will have an additional impact on businesses where the newly laid-off teachers and cops used to work.

And the reduced level of service will have its own bad economic impacts. Cutting back public safety budgets will mean fewer cops on the beat. That means more crime which will further reduce economic activity. State cutbacks to child care subsidies will make it harder for people who lose jobs to find and accept new ones. The cutbacks to mass transit services that are happening across the country will introduce additional rigidity into the labor market and reduce patronage of businesses that people are accustomed to reaching via transit. And in the most severe cases, cutbacks in assistant to the severely impoverished will have a decades-long impact on the well-being of their children.

Sen. John Ensign is entirely comfortable with all of these developments -- those dreaded state budgets are "bloated," after all -- but doesn't want anyone to acknowledge this publicly. Pointing to reality is "fearmongering."
It's not enough for congressional Republicans to stand in the way of sound economic policy during a crisis; they also want to discourage everyone from talking about it

I should probably refrain from any dialogue and perhaps just correct posts that are obviously erroneous (like the one about poverty in the U.S.).  Correcting factual errors on their posts would probably be a full time job.  Besides I enjoy the research and learn lots!!

Thanks for reading and thanks for your comments.

Disturbed by her misrepresentation of her activities.  disturbed about the way her far-far right beliefs could damage our country if given access to power.

The disclosure that last month Governor Palin's church hosted the executive director of Jews for Jesus, who told congregants that violence against Israeli Jews is God's punishment for their failure to accept Jesus, is going to be the next club that Mrs. Palin's leftist critics pick up against her. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency quotes Mrs. Palin's pastor at Wasilla Bible Church, Larry Kroon, as saying that he doesn't believe Jews for Jesus are deceptive. "Look at Paul and Peter and the others — they were Jews and believed in Jesus as the messiah," he told JTA. "There's gentile believers and there's Jewish believers that acknowledge Jesus as messiah. There's Swedish believers."

They go on to half-assedly defend Palin by mentioning Jeremiah Wright and how there's no "religious test" for the presidency, but the Jews For Jesus are far outside the mainstream even for practicing evangelicals. Jewish Defense League Anti-Defamation League [I do know the difference! Whoops!] head Abe Foxman is pretending it's not a big deal by invoking the Spanish Inquisition (done by Catholics, not Protestants!) but his own organization has a longer, richer history of warning people about the deceptive and offensive tactics of the Jews for Jesus.

Sarah Palin's Jews for Jesus setting up shop in Wasilla, Alaska almost reminds us of Michael Chabon's charming The Yiddish Policeman's Union, his detective novel set in an alternate universe in which Americans settled Jewish WWII refugees in Alaska and Israel died before it was born. The incongruous idea of a Jewish settlement in far-off Sitka gives the book much of its uneasy atmosphere, especially in the mentions of the current fictional President of the US, an evangelical Christian promising to finally kick those Jews out of the pristine frontier, "pledging to restore Alaska for Alaskans, wild and clean."

The Democrats more or less handed Florida over to the Republicans when they selected (sorry, we'll say it) a black man without a rich history of pro-Israel hawkishness (even though he saw the light and came around pretty dam quick). This, though, might actually put it back in play.