We usually hear more about how rotten the opponent is rather than hearing anything good about the guy we're pulling for. So here's a little countdown. Hopefully, I'm going to post something every day until Nov 6 that lists some things Mr Obama has done in his first term.
You can take whatever it is as good or bad, of course - I'm just puttin' it all up. Here's the down payment:
50. Killed the F-22: In 2009, ended further purchases of Lockheed Martin single-seat, twin-engine, fighter aircraft, which cost $358 million apiece. Though the military had 187 built, the plane has never flown a single combat mission. Eliminating it saved $4 billion.
49. Helped South Sudan Declare Independence: Appointed two envoys to Sudan and personally attended a special UN meeting on the area. Through U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, helped negotiate a peaceful split in 2011.
48. Provided Payment to Wronged Minority Farmers: In 2009, signed Claims Resolution Act, which provided $4.6 billion in funding for a legal settlement with black and Native American farmers who the government cheated out of loans and natural resource royalties in years past.
47. Expanded Stem Cell Research: In 2009, eliminated the Bush-era restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, which shows promise in treating spinal injuries, among many other areas.
46. Recognized the Dangers of Carbon Dioxide: In 2009, EPA declared carbon dioxide a pollutant, allowing the agency to regulate its production.
45. Expanded Health Coverage for Children: Signed 2009 Children’s Health Insurance Authorization Act, which allows the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover health care for 4 million more children, paid for by a tax increase on tobacco products.
44. Pushed Broadband Coverage: Proposed and obtained in 2011 Federal Communications Commission approval for a shift of $8 billion in subsidies away from landlines and toward broadband Internet for lower-income rural families.
43. Created Recovery.gov: Web site run by independent board of Inspectors General looking for fraud and abuse in stimulus spending, provides public with detailed information on every contract funded by $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Thanks partly to this transparency, board has uncovered very little fraud, and Web site has become national model: “The stimulus has done more to promote transparency at almost all levels of government than any piece of legislation in recent memory,” reports Governing magazine.
Sep 24, 2012
Sep 23, 2012
A Little Football
The take-away quote:
(hat tip = The Atlantic)
"Tim Tebow's throwin' arm is proof that there is no God."
(hat tip = The Atlantic)
Buncha Dopes (cont'd)
I put up a post yesterday that ended with my standard bitch about SIlver Spoon Legacy Pukes.
see Buncha Dopes
My contention is that if I leave a ginormous estate to my kids, then there's not much incentive for them to work at anything, and to participate in a world (ie: an economy) that doesn't function properly unless practically everybody participates in it in roughly the same way. I'm not talkin' about trying to make the field perfectly level by straight-up confiscation and redistribution. That's been tried and it doesn't work for shit either. I'm just talkin' about putting in some rules that make it a lot harder for your great great granddaddy to have greased the skids for you to the extent that you decide to grab for some real power by running for national office just because you haven't much of anything else to do.
Now think about conversations you've had with almost any "conservative", and tell me what they've had to say about "welfare has made multiple generations dependent on government largesse" - and/or - "if you just give stuff to people without making them work for it, they'll decide not to work at all". And of course, these are almost always the same people who scream so loudly about the sheer horribleness of "The Death Tax".
Aristocracy sucks. It's what an awful lot of brave souls decided to overthrow back in the late 18th century. And, weirdly, Inherited Entitlement seems to be kinda the "natural order of things". But that's what we said we weren't going to do anymore. We said it may well be what happens everywhere else, but not here. We're the exception.
see Buncha Dopes
If you can manage it, then you should leave your kids something to get 'em goin', and good on you. But we're not doing ourselves, or them, any favors by plowing the road so perfectly that we end up with cretins like Luke Russert and Chris Wallace and Meghan McCain and GW Bush and Willard-fucking-Romney in positions of real consequence.Something occurs to me when I think about my own disdain for inherited privilege and advantage, that hooks in pretty well with the arguments coming from The Grover Fluffers at places like Club For Growth and The TeaBaggers and practically all of the GOP.
My contention is that if I leave a ginormous estate to my kids, then there's not much incentive for them to work at anything, and to participate in a world (ie: an economy) that doesn't function properly unless practically everybody participates in it in roughly the same way. I'm not talkin' about trying to make the field perfectly level by straight-up confiscation and redistribution. That's been tried and it doesn't work for shit either. I'm just talkin' about putting in some rules that make it a lot harder for your great great granddaddy to have greased the skids for you to the extent that you decide to grab for some real power by running for national office just because you haven't much of anything else to do.
Now think about conversations you've had with almost any "conservative", and tell me what they've had to say about "welfare has made multiple generations dependent on government largesse" - and/or - "if you just give stuff to people without making them work for it, they'll decide not to work at all". And of course, these are almost always the same people who scream so loudly about the sheer horribleness of "The Death Tax".
Aristocracy sucks. It's what an awful lot of brave souls decided to overthrow back in the late 18th century. And, weirdly, Inherited Entitlement seems to be kinda the "natural order of things". But that's what we said we weren't going to do anymore. We said it may well be what happens everywhere else, but not here. We're the exception.
Sep 22, 2012
DumFux News
When it gets this bad, you're goin' over the cliff.
There has to come a time when nobody is unaware of how fuckin' stupid everybody thinks you are if this is where you get the information necessary to participate in the world and to conduct the actual living of your life.
Viewer Tip: hit PAUSE a few times at the end so you can read the "corrections".
There has to come a time when nobody is unaware of how fuckin' stupid everybody thinks you are if this is where you get the information necessary to participate in the world and to conduct the actual living of your life.
Viewer Tip: hit PAUSE a few times at the end so you can read the "corrections".
Stay Tuned
Reports are coming out of North Africa now that have Libyans storming some-to-several camps or buildings and militia headquarters and killing at least 2 people in protest of the attack on the American consulate in Bhengazi last week.
From The DailyTimes:
From The DailyTimes:
Libyan protesters ousted a militia from its headquarters and seized a raft of other paramilitary bases in second city Benghazi early on Saturday in heavy clashes that left four people dead.
The seizure of the headquarters of Ansar al-Sharia - which has been accused of, but denied, involvement in the murder of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans last week - came after tens of thousands took to the streets on Friday to protest against the power of the militias.It bears watching.
"Buncha Dopes"
Chris Wallace tries to be legit, but he almost always falls a little short. I get the feeling he's not happy with his position at DumFux News, and I think it's because he knows the jig is up - even a big chunk of the die-hard centrists who tune in for Wallace or Bret Baier or Shep Smith have recently come to understand just how crassly partisan Rupert's Playhouse really is.
So, when Chris has to do a promo spot with the boneheads on the morning show, he can barely disguise his contempt; and apparently, the feeling is mutual.
And BTW - Chris Wallace is another reason I'm so totally against supporting any but the absolute minimal kind of intergenerational handoff.
If you can manage it, then you should leave your kids something to get 'em goin', and good on you. But we're not doing ourselves, or them, any favors by plowing the road so perfectly that we end up with cretins like Luke Russert and Chris Wallace and Meghan McCain and GW Bush and Willard-fucking-Romney in positions of real consequence.
No more Clintons, no more Bushes, no more Rockefellers, no more Roosevelts, no more Kennedys etc etc etc
No dynasties, no aristocracy, and no Sliver-Spoon Legacy Pukes allowed.
So, when Chris has to do a promo spot with the boneheads on the morning show, he can barely disguise his contempt; and apparently, the feeling is mutual.
And BTW - Chris Wallace is another reason I'm so totally against supporting any but the absolute minimal kind of intergenerational handoff.
If you can manage it, then you should leave your kids something to get 'em goin', and good on you. But we're not doing ourselves, or them, any favors by plowing the road so perfectly that we end up with cretins like Luke Russert and Chris Wallace and Meghan McCain and GW Bush and Willard-fucking-Romney in positions of real consequence.
No more Clintons, no more Bushes, no more Rockefellers, no more Roosevelts, no more Kennedys etc etc etc
No dynasties, no aristocracy, and no Sliver-Spoon Legacy Pukes allowed.
Sep 21, 2012
Racist Asshole Alert
From Addicting Info:
And, yes, Obama’s race is a factor, contrary to what conservatives will (and always) say. Lynching a black man – even symbolically – in the South is a deliberate statement. It’s meant to invoke the “good ol’ days” when white southerners could terrorize the African American community with impunity. When contacted about this by Burnt Orange Report, Johnson responded, “I don’t really give a damn whether it disturbs you or not. You can take [your concerns] and go straight to hell and take Obama with you. I don’t give a shit. If you don’t like it, don’t come down my street.”This is terrorism. Luckily, this particular act is on the low end of the Terrorism Spectrum, but I can't help thinking it's just more evidence that we're a little closer to pickin' up the Civil War where we left off.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)