IamPhenom's Comments (1340)

“It's clear our whole political system is broken. It's not just health care reform. It's not just financial reform. It's not just our two wars.

Our system is completely corrupt. You have wives of politicians working as paid lobbyists (cough-Lieberman-cough). You have a system that requires large amounts of money to win an election and stay in power. The McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform ended up being watered down too much and never went far enough in the first place.

We need real campaign finance reform and publicly-funded elections, or we will continue to face stagnation and corporate control.

It was obvious when health care reform did not pass quickly that the overwhelming money being spent against the bill would eventually win.

Of course, the rules of the Senate are also being completely abused. The 60 votes needed for cloture were never meant by the Founding Fathers to be required for any bill to be approved in the Senate. If that was what they had wanted, they would have just required 60 votes for any bill to pass.”

“They could slot her in between Beck's latest conspiracy theory chalkboard rant and Bill O's latest "War on Christmas" manufactured, phony outrage.

Nah, she's way too smart for anyone at Fox. They would never allow any liberal to have a show on their network, let alone one as smart as Ms. Maddow.

Fox is not MSNBC (which gives Republican Joe Scarborough 3 hours each morning). They don't care about balance.”

“By the way, polls also show the Republican Party has the lowest Party identity ever measured. Only about 20% of the American voters call themselves Republicans.

So by your logic, we should listen to the people and the polls....and ignore all Republicans!

Polls showed GW Bush with record-low approval ratings. I guess that meant he should have been impeached, right? Polls showed the American people do not want the Iraq War, yet that didn't stop the Republicans. Polls showed more people felt Al Gore won in 2000, so does that mean Bush was never our President?

It's interesting how your side suddenly is interested in polls again. You only want to cherry-pick which polls are important though, and then distort other polls (like your health care poll distortion).”

“That's because support for the bill is dropping the more it is being watered down.

People want STRONGER health care reform. The clear majority also favors the public option, which is not being included in the latest watered down bill.

Let me guess, right-wing pundits told you to conclude the polls show people want the status quo on health care, and you just accepted their spin?”

“Speaking of opinions nobody cares about...

Thanks for yours.”

“The fact that you do not realize an opinion can be challenged with facts tells everything we need to know about you.”

“Well, we can live in fantasy land and think there is still a chance for single payer, or we can accept the political realities and have a compromise bill. The only thing I care about is that lives will be saved. I'm not going to stamp my feet and hold my breath because I did not get my way on every issue. It's not like health care reform cannot be improved upon later.

By the way, you apparently did not watch Obama campaign for President and did not watch the Democratic Primarty Debates. Obama clearly said he would be increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan. He never claimed he would end all wars. His Afghan plan was also not a "long war" at all. Obama "went small" with his strategy, gave a timeline, and gave far fewer troops than were requested.”

“And just because you want to believe the article, that does not make it true.

Read the Politico article. They don't even back up their own headline. The article says the White House strongly denies the claim. They offered nothing to back up their claim that the White House pressured Reid to make a deal with Lieberman.

Also, you don't have to take my word for it. There are countless examples of Politico getting stories wrong...

http://mediamatters.org/search/index?qstring=politico”

“The White House strongly denies this rumor from Politico. Remember the source here. Politico does not have the best track record.”

“This website has a good collection of Obama's progressive accomplishments so far...

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/30/progressives_and_obama_are_doing_better_than_we_th/index.php”

“Obama has already taken us out of the recession. The GDP is now a +3.2%, which means we are now growing the economy. We have reduced the job losses to the point where last month losses were down to 11,000 from the 700,000 per month losses when he took office. His stimulus package contains massive improvements to US infrastructure. The stimulus also contained large tax credits for things like converting homes to clean energy like solar, so Obama is helping to move our energy policies out of the dark ages. We're about to implement much stronger financial regulations. We're about to reform health care once Congress finally ends their delaying. It's been less than 1 year, and Obama has already turned things around a great deal on the domestic front.”

“Big Government dot com??? You do know this is a website started by far-right loon Andrew Breitbart, and it has been widely criticized for inaccuracy.

It's basically a far-right Republican blog posing as a blog against "big government". Funny how Breitbart and his gang had no problems with Bush's big government. It's amazing how big government only became a problem once Obama was elected. It's obviously just partisan BS.”

“I for one am happy Obama is focusing on repairing America domestically. We won't be able to help any other country, especially Darfur in Sudan, if our economy is in complete collapse and our long term debt is out of control.

Jolie doesn't have any concerns with US domestic policy because she doesn't even live in the USA anymore. She lives in France, which by the way, has universal health care for their citizens.”

“They'd rather get their scientific information from TV and radio political pundits.”

“I see your point, but the judge ruled that Creamer did not cause any "out of pocket" losses to any individual and that his fraud was done to keep his non-profit charity running, not for personal gain. It was still bank fraud, but not all cases of bank fraud are created equal. :)”

“It's getting embarrassing to visit this website lately. This is news? The latest accusation about Tiger Woods is news? This used to be a great blog filled with ideas and opinions. It used to be a place for great progressive ideas. It has become a tabloid rag lately though.”

“Well said Roy.”

“The bubble burst under GW Bush. That is what happens when you fight two longterm wars while cutting the upper income taxes. That's what happens when people like Cheney tell us deficits don't matter, and when they play games like not putting the Iraq/Afghan War funding in the federal budget.

The previous Democrat (Clinton) who had 8 full years to impact the economy led to an economic boom and a federal budget surplus. Democratic domestic policies have a proven track record. You can go back to liberals like FDR for further proof of how Democratic policies improve our economy and quality of life for our people.”

“What are Republicans going to do when we are in full recovery next year and booming again by December 2010?

Clinton takes a horrible Reagan/GH Bush economy and creates an amazing economic boom with Democratic domestic policies. Bush takes Clinton's booming economy and budget surplus and creates complete economic collapse. Now Obama's Democratic policies have brought us back from the brink yet again.

Yet all we will here from Republicans is that their theories about what we should do are correct. Nevermind that every time we actually put their polices in place, they are bad for the country. It does not matter to the partisan right. They don't care about data and statistics. They care about stupid slogans and empty promises of future tax cuts and small government that are never kept.”

“The right-wing does not want to answer this question, but if Rumsfeld was doing a good job, and he was just going with the recomendations of his generals (who he claims were not asking for more troops in Afghanistan), why did the Bush Administration remove him?

The fact that Rumsfeld was pushed out kicking and screaming from the Defense Secretary position tells you that his own administration felt he was failing at his job. It shows that Rumsfeld was NOT listening to his commanders at all, or THEY would have been fired, not Rummy.”

“Try to use logic.

Look at the current situation in Afghanistan. The military situation has clearly been deteriorating for many years now.

Then look at the tiny number of troops we had pre-Obama in Afghanistan (between 10,000 and 15,000 max).

Then look at how often the Generals are requesting more troops from Obama. Obama sent 18,000 more almost immediately upon taking office, and 50,000 more were later asked for (with 30,000 given by Obama).

Now, how could the Generals NOT have been asking for more troops in Afghanistan over this time? You're telling me that it wasn't until Obama was elected that we suddenly needed more troops there? That defies all logic. You can logically conclude that Generals telling us now that we need 50,000 more troops have been saying this for some time.

Also, General MacKiernan is not the only General or former General who has publicly stated that military commanders had been requesting more troops in Afghanistan for some time, but were repeatedly rebuffed. So any timeline of MacKiernan's job status would have to ignore all the other Generals who have spoken up about troop levels in Afghanistan.”

“Centrist. He's still pretty conservative on many issues, especially defense/war.

I read his blog from time to time to get different perspectives. He's had one of the better right-wing blogs for some time. I could tell he was heading in this direction. He's been battling some of the far-right blogs like Atlas Shrugged or Michelle Malkin who are aligning themselves with fascist groups. He also strongly disagrees with the anti-science positions the far-right has been taking, as well as the racism coming out of many members of the Party.

Charles Johnson strikes me as being very sane and reasonable overall, so I can see why he is breaking from the far-right blogs.”

“First you need the Democrats to go off the rails into radicalism, and that won't be happening anytime soon, especially with a very (frustratingly) moderate President leading the way.

Maybe one day you will see the light the same way Charles Johnson has. The modern day Republican Party is a joke. They use "small government", "low taxes", and "more personal freedom" as political slogans, but they never actually follow those slogans when in office. Then they later disavow all the Republicans who did not follow the slogans, saying they were not "true conservatives". It's a way to avoid ever having to practice what you preach. They promise more freedom and smaller government, don't deliver it, then they tell you the Republicans who didn't deliver it were not real Republicans.

Republican strategy: promise, don't deliver, disavow, rinse, and repeat.”

“Politico is yet another Republican front group posing as a news outlet. Politico was founded by Fred J. Ryan, former Chief of Staff to Ronald Reagan, and longtime business partner of the Bush family (Fred Ryan ran Riggs Bank with GW Bush's brother....Riggs Bank was also linked to illegal money transfers for Al Qaeda and right-wing dictators). Ryan is also President of the Ronald Reagan Library and runs Reagan's "legacy" public relations while also running Politico. On top of that, Politico purposely hired only right-leaning to far-right journalists.

Politico only has a circulation of a small town (32,000), yet Politico reporters are invited on most television stations for commentary. They lose a ton of money, like most right-wing media outlets. In fact, their paper is distributed free, but still has only a 32K circulation.

Politico is yet another phony news outlet subsidized by the right-wing to spread their agenda.”

“Heart-warming stories. The efforts of these heroes not only helps their communities, they can inspire all of us to do more.

This is a nice event CNN has put together. Most television in general is garbage. It's nice to see a show with actual meaning and purpose for a change.”