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Chris Kelly

Chris Kelly

Posted: December 8, 2010 01:54 PM

"Today marks a lot of tragedy... Tragedy comes in threes. Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth Edwards' passing and Barack Obama's announcement of extending the tax cuts, which is good, but also extending the unemployment benefits."
-- Christine O'Donnell

"There's more to being smart than noticing how some shit is like some other shit." - Chris Case

Christine O'Donnell isn't very bright, even by Tea Party standards, but she has a point about Obama, taxes and Pearl Harbor. It was pretty ballsy for the president to agree to cut taxes on the super rich, during wartime, on the anniversary of our entry into World War II.

Our economy is a shambles, but at least our irony is cheap.

It was also pretty ballsy of the Republicans to threaten to shut down the government to get those tax cuts, during wartime. In 1942, in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, the American government raised the tax rate on income in excess of $200,000 to 82 percent. This was a compromise. Roosevelt's first offer was to take it all.

You see, America was at war.

There's probably a word for the kind of person who wants his countrymen to kill and die for him, but won't even pay peacetime rates for it, but that word isn't "patriot."

It's not "traitor," but you can see traitor from here.

I guess I can believe that Christine O'Donnell could lose the thread between loving one's country and wanting to pay for its upkeep. She's a moron. I believe when she drives she makes car sounds. But what's everyone else's excuse?

If you know someone -- maybe even a family member -- who can't make the connection, you don't have to argue with them this holiday. Just show them this Disney cartoon:


It has a talking duck in it. It might even be simple enough for a Tea Partier to understand.

 
"Today marks a lot of tragedy... Tragedy comes in threes. Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth Edwards' passing and Barack Obama's announcement of extending the tax cuts, which is good, but also extending the unem...
"Today marks a lot of tragedy... Tragedy comes in threes. Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth Edwards' passing and Barack Obama's announcement of extending the tax cuts, which is good, but also extending the unem...
 
 
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09:31 PM on 12/09/2010
Greed, Hatred, Corruption, and Ignorance are the new cornerstones of GOP ideology.
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07:13 AM on 12/09/2010
Her inner Witch grabbed control of her mouth - AGAIN
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ProgressiveVoice
04:04 AM on 12/09/2010
I'm not sure the cartoon makes good propaganda today. We may be at war but the economy is not running at capacity as it did during WW2.

Watching the cartoon did make me wonder why the Left doesn't run PSA-style ads to counter the Right's "gov't is the problem". Imagine the impact of a visual version of everything the anti-gov't crowd would have to give up. One version could show a guy in his pajamas on a rant against taxes / big gov't, to his wife or at his TV. The next morning, the guy gets up and everything he had courtesy of gov't would be gone. He gets in his car and drives to work - same thing. At work - more of the same. More changes when he gets home from work; his parents and his in-laws are now living with him and his wife and adult children - no SSI for the elders or education assistance for the kids. The ad could end with the guy happily preparing his 1040 or "ranting" to his wife about all the direct and indirect benefits they receive through gov't spending.
03:18 AM on 12/09/2010
Interesting cartoon. I think that today, the GOP would make such a cartoon to reflect that taxes ae the tool of socialism, facism and al-Quaeda.
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roninroshi
Oni ni Kanabo (鬼に金棒 )
10:35 PM on 12/08/2010
An excellent article...Thanks!
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JohnJudy
10:13 PM on 12/08/2010
Silly libruls! Taxes are always bad! Every time a millionaire pays taxes a puppy gets cancer. I'll bet we could get Al Qaeda to surrender if we cut their taxes! Palin-Snipes 2012!
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stanblack
Memawpepaw
10:11 PM on 12/08/2010
"I believe when she drives she makes car sounds." Classic. The only line that has made me chuckle out loud all day.
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Guscat
06:45 AM on 12/09/2010
Fanned. Agreed.
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07:15 AM on 12/09/2010
I can hear those tires screeching now - I wonder if she's dicovered her own "pearl harbor" yet?
10:08 PM on 12/08/2010
I really am disappointed that Christine O'Donnell did not make it into elected office in the 2010 elections. I am more disappointed than ever today.

She is so much the perfect poster-girl for what our members of Congress are today, most of them, on both sides of the aisle, and wherever they put the chairs for the independents.

If anything she would be a little too chirpily naive, which would be no problem. Just add a little jaundice make-up. After she had pocketed her first half-dozen "memory-aids" from lobbyists she would have the correct facial expression.

As for her equating the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the death of Elizabeth Edwards and Obama. She did get them in the correct order:

The bombing of Pearl Harbor was a complete surprise. The death of Elizabeth Edwards was less a surprise; she did have cancer, after all. And Obama going lap-dog, again, was, of course, no surprise.
03:22 AM on 12/09/2010
I think you missed her point. She was not lamenting the fact that Obama went lap-dog (she said that was good), rather that in exchange for doing so, he got the concession that unemployment will be extending for another 13 months. She is equating the extension of unemployment benefits to Pearl Harbor! If that is not shocking enough, bear in mind that this comes from someone who has been living of political donations for years.
08:54 PM on 12/08/2010
The cartoon would be more relevant if it showed Scrooge McDuck paying taxes, not working stiff Donald Duck. We don't have a problem with working people not paying enough taxes; our problem is with NON-working people not paying enough.
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jdunaway65
08:52 PM on 12/08/2010
Only slightly off-topic...

The Bing Videos suggestions above had one entitled "Christine O'Donnell's Masturbation Stance."

What? Has WikiLeaks found an e-mail that tells what position(s) she uses?
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Shaun Hensley
The American Experiment has failed
08:17 PM on 12/08/2010
Christine O'Donnell is right about Pearl Harbor?

Let me guess.. she was against it?
08:01 PM on 12/08/2010
Finally, a Paris to $aruh's Britney.
07:58 PM on 12/08/2010
if there's anything 'cheap', it's the series of potshots mr. kelly takes at people he doesn't like in the guise of an article.
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CommodoreP
Darn the torpedos, full speed ahead!
06:55 PM on 12/08/2010
I have been wondering, if we all have to tighten our belts and so we cut the services to the poor, but we all have to do our part, why the rich (even over 1,000,000) don't have to do anything?
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LetsGoSteve
07:40 PM on 12/08/2010
Plenty of rich people do an awful lot of good with their money. I know of one multi million-heir who travels to Africa installing new wells, in an effort to supply safe water. He does this all without fan fair and without government involvement. Progressives would rather take the money from the million-heir, give it to the United Nations in the hopes that it may some day provide safe water for an impoverished people.
03:26 AM on 12/09/2010
That is really impressive. I also know many very rich people, but not a single one of them does any such thing with their money. I'm afraid your example is quite the exception.
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skantea
A Resource Based Economy
08:06 PM on 12/08/2010
Because the President and all other high powered politicians are NOT the top of the food chain. They all answer to someone, and it's not the American people.
06:25 PM on 12/08/2010
Even by "tea party" standards huh. Aren't you a smug, righteous, snob. You must be a college grad, some ivy league school I’m sure?
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kellym33
09:53 PM on 12/08/2010
You must be a tea partier?? God forbid someone is a college grad!! I would much rather someone be smug about their intelligence, than for someone (Sarah Palin) to be smug about their lack of it.
11:58 PM on 12/08/2010
Enough with the anti-intellectualism. Being smart is actually useful.