jbatch's Comments (81)

“Do you really believe this is about trust?

Republicans are simply afraid that when people can see for themselves how they are working diligently to protect the profits of insurance companies rather than the interests of the people they represent, they'll revolt against what's left of the Corporate Party of America (AKA repbulicans).

Trust?

Nope, just afraid that transparency will force them to stop spinning, lying and otherwise carrying water for their corporate overlords.

Get a clue, Averal”

“Sorry barksalot, but Broder is dealing with a very old deck. Contemporary Republicans put Party before Country, they have no interest in governing, only in obtaining and exercising power.

Take, for example the long-standing breakfasts majority and minority leaders used to have every week to plot out how, together, they would manage the business of running government -- Gingrich unilaterlly cancelled them when the Repugs came to power in 1994 They also initiated the practice of witholding bills from the Dems until the last minute, barring them from conference, not to mention impeaching a Democratic President on a trivial matter (as oppsoed to starting a war under false pretenses, lying to th American people, violating the Constitution ...)

Now they seek only to block ... Too often these proofs of Republican perfidity are swept aside as "partisan," but they aren't. They're simply facts demonstrating how much the world has changed since 1994.

That Broder still talks of bipartisanship merely shows he hasn't a clue. That you seem to think he's got a point shows you don't either.”

“No, but believing we are entitled to repeat (regardless of whether others have or have not) before any of some 150 countries get even a first shot at hosting either is.”

“We've been eclipsed?

Let's see, there are about 190 nations in the UN; three other countries have hosted a World's Fair since we last did. So somehow it's our turn again, and we've been "eclipsed" if we don't get to host a world's fair every third time, damn the other 187 countries?

How's that logic work, exactly?

Man, you're so jingoistic it hurts.”

“May I introduce you to the Dining room table?

Dining room table, this is Ottoman; Ottoman, this is Dining room table. I'm sure you two will get along famously, considering you are both from the same planet -- that is, Planet Noclue.”

“While I agree with the need for preventative medicine, I think it's dangerous to conflate things that depend upon personal responsibility and therefore cannot be legislated, with things that can be legislated.

In other words, of course whatever system we have needs to be centered on staying well, but we can't pass laws saying you must eat well, exercise, get plenty of rest etc.

We can, however assure that medical care is provided to all and is affordable.

Rewriting the sandards of care is distinctly different from rewriting the rules for access to that care, and conflating them will only make both impossible to achieve.”

“Th people who wanted to tell Mr. Shiavo he couldn't carry out his wife's wishes; who want to tell you who you can sleep with; what positions you can use; who want to tell women what a woman can and can't do with her body are warning about intrusive government, now that the people who want to defend choice are in power. That about right?

Wow. Hypocrite, they name is Republican.”

“Entrance to medical school is strictly limited -- and once out, there's a defacto cartel, in that fees are established by need -- you can't negotiate some things -- like access to health and life.

Sorry, go sell free market myths and manias somewhere else. We're all full up here.”

“Wouldn't silence be accepting what is, rather than seeking something new? You know, something like universal health care that delivers better health at less cost?

You seem to repeat mindless right wing slogans as if they were dispositive. They're not; they're just slogans.

And by the way, the biggest threat to liberty and the greatest source of tyranny in our society comes from corporate control of governance.”

“Liberty would be for favoring a choice -- you know, like a public option in addition to the extortion so-called insurance companies offer.

So I guess you favor Obama's plan and are against the Blue dogs and corporate tyranny?”

“The B-1 bomber and other stealth aircraft have the same problems that made the F-22 useless. They have to be refurbished after s single mission; they have to housed in specially equipped hangars -- located in Missouri and England.

That's why the old B-52 carried out the vast majority of bombing missions for every conflict, including Kosov, Iraq and Afghanistan.

We could cut the military budget by more than a third and not sacrifice our security -- the star wars fanasy; Sea wolf attack subs; next gen helicopters; stationing troops in Germany, Panama, Korea, Japan, etc etc.”

“OK, you heard her resignation ramble -- an inchorent collection fo non-sequitors, ffubs, fumbles and babbling that would make Bush sound like Churchill -- and yet Kristol is salivating over the prospect of her being a Party leader?

Kristol is a solt, but he can speak. Surely he can't listen to her for even a second and think she could lead anything.

Good god -- if this Party still commands 30% of Americans, let's find them, and put them all in texas and let them do whatever it is they want ... but let's move the wall up from the Mexicna border to the Texican one.”

“Promoter? Believing that abortion is a choice that the woman makes -- not one others make for her -- is hardly "promoting­."

And if you're so against abortion, why do you object to birth control -- which prevents tens of thousands of abortions each year?

And if life is so sancrosanct, why do you support flushing unused embryos down the toilette instead of using them to do research which would save lives; and why do you support the death penalty and war, whch have killed real people, not unformed lizzard zygots?

And why do you judge, when your Jesus told you not to? Especially since Jesus never mentioned abortion or birth control.

Your ancient superstitions are not only inconsistent, they are dangerous -- your postiions cause that which you profess to object to..”

“Please, let them go. Encourage them!”

“Gee wilikers, Harry, I wasn't sure who this Roberts fella was, so I looked him up in Wikapedia and guess what? Here's what it said, "He is generally considered to be of the judicial conservative wing ..." And guess what else? He worked for the White House Counsel under Reagan.

Yeah, it sure would have been hard to know he was conservative.”

“You know Jason, one of the things I've always hated about conservative journalists is that they took things out of context and put misleading headlines over it when they did.

Now you just did that exact same thing.

The full context of Reid's comment shows he was refering to them as ugly because they were giving the Obama administration a hard time.

Shame on you.”

“Nazi sympathizers can be canonized, pedophile priests protected, but an innocent 9 year old girl who has been brutalized cannot rid herself of a curse and be forgiven for a non-crime. This organization is criminal, and a source of more evil in this world than any devil or daemon ever could be.”

“You can't run up a $10 trillion deficit over 8 years and then suddenly claim to concerned about deficits. Their real concern is that most of the money goes to someone other than their rich crony patrons.

C'mon. Do they think we're that stupid?

That raises a scary thought -- about 30% of Americans seem to be that stupid.”

“A better idea: tax according to road and environmental damage caused by the vehicle -- some weighted average of miles traveled, and vehicle weight, and vehicle emissions per mile.

This way, you'x preserve incentives for clean and efficient vehicles while dealing directly issue of raod damage and vehicle use.

Let's face it, a Prius going 15,000 miles a year doesn't do the road or environmental damage an Excursion does going 7,500 miles per year.

If we don't factor in weight and emissions, you end up with the bizarre outcome of efficient light vehicles subsidizing inefficient rad wrecking vehicles which cement our addiction to foreign oil.

Would that be bizarre or what?”

“Hmmm....

Mytake and Markinaz, are you guys kidding? It's cold in Phoenix? Greenspan left a factor out of his model?

Dudes, this is the collective wisdom of every climate scientist on the globe except the few who take money from coal and oil interests, not the ruminations of a single neoclassical economist blinded by ideology or some yahoo confusing the single day temperature of a single city for Global long term trends.

As for the methane question, USGS is just plain wrong -- the first salvo in this serious feedback loop was fired in 2005 when a Russian bog the size of Germany and France combined released about 9 billion tons of Methane as it melted.

In 2007 and 2008 atmospheric methane concentrations started going up for the first time -- most of it from the Arctic, and near shore clathrates -- a huge source of methane -- began to bubble to the surface.”

“You're right. Hoover was better.”

“If these remarks were made as part of a debate, then I assume that someone rebutted these false contentions, and I assume they pointed out that the White House manufactured bad intelligence, subverted the CIA, and ignored good intelligence. I assume they also noted that Bush and Cheney were pushing for a war with Iraq from Day One; that their first reaction to 911 was to ask how it might be used as a pre-text to invade Iraq; how the Downing Street memos quoted Bush as saying that the intelligence was being "fixed" to justify an Iraqi invasion etc. etc. etc.

My question is, why weren't these rebuttals reported in the press? Why wasn't the headline, "ROVE
CONTINUES ADMINISTRATION'S IRAQI LIES"?

It matters that they be held accountable for their lies and that we keep the record clear.

These scum bags cannot be allowed to rewrite history -- not simply because it would be a gross miscarriage of justice to allow these scalawags to delay history's inevitable march toward a true and just accounting of their crimes, but because until that happens, we run the risk of repeating their criminal march of folly in Iran, in Afghanistan, and anywhere else where the neocon philosophy of military might solves everything leads us into new and different disasters.”

“Well Glenn, when you foment mindless hate 24/7 why are you surprised when it comes back at you?”

“Barack Obama just made his first major mistake. It's not that Hillary would not make a superb Secretary of State -- she would be. Rather it's that she would refuse to be only a Secretary of State. She's already shown that she'd go off-reservation by leaking this ...

Seen any other leaks from Obama's camp?

Nope. Not a one.

But if she gets in, she will NOT be a team player, and herding this cat could be a full-time job. At a minimum it would be a major distraction.”

“Once again the press is complicit in this whole sordid mess of a campaign. For example, the Ayers and Acorn thing have legs, but a real case of voter fraud in California -- complete with fabricated documents -- goes unreported. The politicization of the Justice Department and a bald-faced attempt to use its machinery and influence to fix elections by the Bush administration -- the greatest violation to our constitution by a sitting administration in the history of our Republic -- gets scarcely any coverage.

And Joe the plumber -- an obvious plant voicing Republican talking points becomes a celebrity and continues to get coverage. Never mind that Joe's question was so obviously bogus -- he's not a registered plumber, he's in debt and in no position to buy his company. But even if he were, it would have to gross more than a $1 million a year for him to take home the $250 thousand that would put him in the position of paying more in taxes -- and even then his marginal rate would go up by 3% -- so let's say in a great year he earned $300 K profit -- his tax increase would be $1,500 dollars.

That is not going to make the difference between Joe buying a company and not buying one, and Americans should know that before going to the polls. But the ignoramuses who call themselves reporters are too lazy or too scared or too right-wing to report it.

Journalism has become”