profmsf's Comments (106)

“I suggest that everyone send Joey a bag of chocolate coins wrapped in silver to symbolize his selling out of the voters who have kept him in office all of these years. He obviously needs the money more than we need better access to health care.”

“Opt out is a great idea. After a few years, we will be able to compare results between states that opted out and those that did not. If those of us who support not-for-profit health insurance are correct, then our states should benefit both in terms of the overall health of our residents and in our levels of economic activity as it becomes less expensive to do business and easier to operate small businesses in our states. The recalcitrant states will become ever more feudal.”

“Republicans should all pull their kids out of the public school system. After all, it is socialized education. Republicans don't need education anyway. They should keep the kids home all day tuned into Fox News.”

“Is Sunstein no longer at the University of Chicago? Kudos for Harvard if they got him.”

“Please change the headline to "Is It She?" Bad grammar belittles your efforts.”

“Stille! Der fuhrer hat gesprochen!”

“The longer Franken stays cools, the better the people of Minnesota will feel about him as their next Senator. Coleman's antics will almost certainly have the opposite effect on his political fortunes.”

“I nominate Roland Burris as our next Ambassador to Burkina Faso!”

“Very unfortunate but the right thing for all involved.”

“The officlal line on this is that is makes no sense to raise anyone's taxes in a recession but this is not necessarily true. The important thing to do in a recession is to make sure that consumers do no have less to spend. We could accomplish this by repealing the Bush tax cuts while cutting lower rates by enough to offset the revenue increase from the repeal. In other words, we could make the tax code less flat/more progressive. How one feels about this is a political question but the safe bet to make seems to be that it would be unpopular. Officially Democrats and Republicans have different attitudes towards the flatness or progressivitiy of the tax schedule but unofficially they both rely on affluent donors to fund their campaigns so it is really in no one's political interest to do it ever. Whether or not it is good public policy depends on one's views of tax policy and deficit spending.”

“I wonder how many Tennessee auto workers voted for Corker over Ford in 2006?”

“In his initial press conference announcing the original TARP, Paulson said that the government "would protect the taxpayers to the extent possible." That should have been enough of a red flag to both sides of Congress to call his bluff but it was not. Both Paulson and Bernanke have worsened this crisis by holding to atop down view of economic activity. They believe that prosperity depends on unregulated financial markets that can allocate investment and assess risk in the most efficient way. That is why they view the current crisis as primarily one of liquidty. Restore liquidity to the banking system, they have argued, and markets will solve the rest of our problems.

Their approach has failed because it is fundamentally wrong. Our problem is one of solvency. Banks have lost money and debt securities have fallen in value because borrowers cannot repay their debts. We will solve the liquidity problem by solving the solvency problem. Paulson and Bernanke should be spending money to create jobs. Only that will put money back into the bankings and markets in a sustainable way. The money already distributed is evaporating quickly as asset prices continue to decline.

Like social change, economic growth comes from the ground up. Our financial services industry is only as strong as the real economic foundation on which it rests. Obama must replace Paulson and Bernanke with officials who have a bottoms-up view of the world to move us in the right direction.”

“I think you mean "Rabid." We are supposed to be the literate ones.”

“Many conservative Christians oppose gambling so this can be effective in those areas.”

“Isn't this just the GOP version of a stimulus plan.”

“We should see this endorsement on or after November 5.”

“At a time when Congress wants to relieve American taxpayers of another $700 billion, John McCain wants to go back to Washington to get the heist done. Barack Obama wants to discuss it with the people who will pay for it. Do you really need to know anything else?”

“If I were President, I would fire him.”

“Mark Halperin will believe that he is actually being sent to the showers when 1st Dude hands him the bar of soap.”

“"We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents," Sarah and Todd Palin said in their brief statement.

The Palin's use of the word "decision" implies that Bristol had a choice. Did she? I hope someone asks the governor about that.”

“We don't elect people based on their resumes, but rather on the votes they get. This may not be a good thing but it is so. If it were otherwise, we would already have elected Ted Kennedy ('76), GHW Bush or Howard Baker ('80), a whole lot of people other than a 46 yr old former Governor of Arkansas ('92), and Gore ('00). Obama won the nomination only by a whisker but win it he did. Biden's great resume raised him no money and got him no primary votes. Biden needs Obama's political skills as much as Obama needs his policy experience. In sports we call that a team.”

“This guy makes my gaydar go off. Good to know there are still some Log Cabin Republicans despite all Rove has done to discourage them. Hang in there Mark. The GOP has a big closet for you and your friends.”

“Does Wes Clark have cooties? Why has he not surfaced as a serious VP candidate throughout this process? Because he told an "inconvenient truth" about the lack of relationship between crashing a plane and commanding a ship of state? This campaign needs more than a little passion.”

“I could not disagree more. I saw the ad last night and thought it was exactly right. I was paying attention to the events so all I took away from it was "Middle Class First" which is all I needed to hear. Everyone knows who had been making out under the GOP. It is a simple message which requires little concentration to grasp. Just right for the Olympics audience.”

“Obama Hilton '08!”