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mac



Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17744
Location: Berkeley, California

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Steven--you seemed to have not read the memo that extremism is the reason that people have fled from the Republican Party. Here's a comment from the New Republic on your boy Whacky son Paul:

Quote:
Ron and Rand Paul are often described as libertarians, but their politics represent a distinct—and peculiar—strand of libertarianism known as paleolibertarianism. While libertarians and paleolibertarians both start from the same limited government premise, paleolibertarians take that ideology in a decidedly populist, right-wing direction. Paleolibertarians’ enemy is not just big government, as the leading paleolib thinker Murray Rothbard explained in a 1992 essay (unearthed by Reason reporters Julian Sanchez and David Weigel in 2008), but rather, the “unholy alliance of ‘corporate liberal’ Big Business and media elites, who, through big government, have privileged and caused to rise up a parasitic Underclass, who, among them all, are looting and oppressing the bulk of the middle and working classes in America.”

Paleolibertarianism’s intellectual hub is an Alabama-based think tank called the Ludwig von Mises Institute, which Rothbard helped found in 1982. (Rothbard had studied under its namesake, a famous Austrian libertarian economist.) Another one of the von Mises Institute’s founders, and its current chairman, is Lew Rockwell, who served as Ron Paul’s congressional chief of staff from 1978 to 1982 and remained one of his top advisers for years afterward. Rockwell, who has frequently brought the von Mises Institute into alliance with neo-Confederate groups such as the League of the South, has written in favor of racial separatism; and, in 2008, after The New Republic’s James Kirchick discovered numerous racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic passages in Ron Paul’s old newsletters, Reason’s Sanchez and Weigel reported that Rockwell was their likely author. (Rockwell has denied this.)

Ron Paul has served as a “distinguished counselor” at the von Mises Institute, which has published his books. And, while Rand Paul has never had any formal associations with the organization, it’s clear that its leaders have played a key role in his intellectual development. “I tell people when they ask me if I know Lew Rockwell that I used to ride to work with Lew Rockwell and Ron Paul back in the late 1970s, maybe early 1980s,” Rand told Rockwell in a radio interview last year, “and I got to hear all kinds of great conversations on the way to work about philosophy, politics, religion, you name it, and I guess I was always very, very interested in that.” Similarly, in a videocast Paul did lamenting the fact that he never met Ayn Rand, he said, “One of the ones I was lucky enough to meet through the years was Murray Rothbard, and, when he came to speak to interns in the early 1980s in Washington, I was privileged enough to drive him back to the airport and got to talk to him about things.”

Their influence on Rand Paul is readily apparent today. From his (now retracted) opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act to his claim that passage of cap-and-trade legislation will lead to the creation of “an army of armed EPA agents, thousands of them,” Paul, like his father, exhibits all the hallmarks of a paleolibertarian—including an affection for conspiracy theories. In 2008, for instance, while campaigning in Montana for his father’s presidential bid, Paul gave voice to a loony idea—shared by his father—about the construction of a NAFTA superhighway and the creation of a single currency, the Amero, for a North American Union. “It’s gonna go up through Texas, I guess, all the way to Montana,” Paul said of the superhighway. “So, it’s a real thing, and, when you talk about it, the thing you just have to be aware of is that, if you talk about it like it’s a conspiracy, they’ll paint you as a nut. It’s not a conspiracy. They’re out in the open about it. I saw the YouTube of Vicente Fox talking about the Amero. . . . I guarantee you it’s one of their long-term goals to have one sort of borderless, mass continent."


Ron's magazine published articles that are considered racist, and Rand's opposition to the Civil Rights Act, and severe paranoia, makes him unelectable. As long as the right continues to flog incoherent but radical libertarians and conservatives they are doomed.

Christie is another matter entirely. To start with, he is both smart and pragmatic. The question is, why did he eat Philadelphia? I doubt that American's will vote for a man so palpably unable to control himself--even if he would make a decent President. Jeb is the best of the Bush boys--but George kind of ruined the brand. That, plus the proximity of neocons eager to try another stab at nation-building in countries undergoing tribal conflicts make him pretty well unelectable--although he could raise lots of money.

Simple facts. Unless the GOP moderates its position (need to get rid of Cantor to do that, not gonna happen until after more losses in 2014), stops bashing women, African Americans and immigrants, it is doomed. Tell the evangelicals to sit down and shut up, or vote for a candidate closer to their values. Tell the bigots the same thing. Start practicing professionalism in governance--the field that they want to work in.
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MalibuGuru



Joined: 11 Nov 1993
Posts: 9293

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Agriculture Department said Tuesday that an email interpreted as instructions to stay consistent in messaging on sequestration was just a restatement of already-established facts.

"Recently, a member of the APHIS field staff suggested to the agency’s budget officers that budget cuts in the APHIS Wildlife Services program could be spread out across 24 states in a particular region in order to avoid furloughs," USDA spokeswoman Courtney Rowe said in a statement.

"The budget officers explained that the employee’s suggestion had already been communicated to Congress as part of the Administration’s FY2013 budget proposal and will be included as part of the sequestration plan," Rowe added. "To be clear, the APHIS budget officer explained that USDA is already proposing these steps in order to avoid furloughs. USDA is committed to doing all we can to minimize the impact of sequester our employees and the farmers, ranchers, and rural communities we serve."

In an email obtained by POLITICO written by Charles S. Brown, the eastern regional director of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said he had asked whether there was “any latitude” to spread aquaculture cuts out among 24 states rather than in just eight to minimize the effects in any one state. APHIS's budget office told him that was exactly what they'd already decided to do.

“We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs,’” the budget office said. “So, it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be."


Brown said he has until Friday to produce a plan to make $263,000 in cuts to aquaculture -- the farming of fish and aquatic plants -- in his region.

Republicans have interpreted the budget office's guidance as an effort by the Obama administration to strongly control agencies' messaging on sequestration -- something the USDA denies.

Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement that the email is evidence that the administration is trying to dramatize the effects of spending cuts. “The Obama administration is doing everything they can to make sure their worst predictions come true and to maximize the pain of the sequester cuts for political gain. Instead of cutting waste, the [administration] is hurting workers. President Obama should stop protecting wasteful government spending.”
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MalibuGuru



Joined: 11 Nov 1993
Posts: 9293

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

However, Obama continues his Hugo Chavez politics as evidenced above. They are all on the same page. Chris Christie or Jeb Bush might be the next frontrunner. I definitely want someone unique and forthright.

Mac you'd probably call Washington and Jefferson facsists... Smile
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mac



Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17744
Location: Berkeley, California

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bard--time to take your anti-anxiety medicine. Obama is still a moderate Republican from Chicago; the closest thing to a radical in his first administration was the Administrator of EPA. Chavez has his country into the ground, is a dead man, and actually is a socialist, but pretty inept. You and NW belong to a shrinking minority--the frantic fringe of the Republicans. You can claim you hated Bush for spending--but you didn't call him the names you call Obama.

So it matters not at all what I think of the Paul's, or whether they are in fact racists. It is possible that they are so whacky that they think opposition to the Civil Rights Act is just what we must do to re-establish liberty in this country. But it plays as racism--and playing out as just whacky doesn't help them outside of their jerrymandered or Texas districts. They are out of the mainstream and they scare the women, the children, and the children of immigrants who can vote. That is why they are unelectable. As the New Yorker said about Dominos, and the GOP. You can claim that the reason that you lost was not that the pizza was lousy, but that the box wasn't pretty enough. Trust me, the pizza is lousy. Try to sell the same pizza with a different box and you will lose the next presidential election.
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MalibuGuru



Joined: 11 Nov 1993
Posts: 9293

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 10:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You should have heard what I called Bush in 2000.
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pointster



Joined: 22 Jul 2010
Posts: 376

PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 12:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

stevenbard wrote:


Mac you'd probably call Washington and Jefferson facsists... Smile



They weren't fascists, but they were slave owners.
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boggsman1



Joined: 24 Jun 2002
Posts: 9118
Location: at a computer

PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As we hit 14300 on the DOW today, I thought I would post an op-ed from
Michael Boskin from the WSJ on March 6 th 2009, the day the S&P 500 hit 666. Boskin is one of the Rights' favorite economists/predictors, who has one of the worst track records of any living human.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123629969453946717.html
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MalibuGuru



Joined: 11 Nov 1993
Posts: 9293

PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 11:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

boggsman1 wrote:
As we hit 14300 on the DOW today, I thought I would post an op-ed from
Michael Boskin from the WSJ on March 6 th 2009, the day the S&P 500 hit 666. Boskin is one of the Rights' favorite economists/predictors, who has one of the worst track records of any living human.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123629969453946717.html


This sure reminds me of the last few years of the bush administration. Property values skyrocketing again. Easy Gummint money, Stock market above 14,000. Seven years later, and this is a victory?

You and I both know what will happen when bond investors start to sell....And sell they will.

I can only imagine what would have been if Bernanke had lowered rates in 2007 to todays rates.
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mac



Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17744
Location: Berkeley, California

PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 11:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bard--in support of my thesis on extremism in the Republican Party, there is a nice article on Cantor in the current New Yorker. I'll give you the two best lines. People paying attention know that Cantor shot down any deal between Obama (who, the right says, won't negotiate) and Boehner (who, I say, can't lead the whackos). The article is a pretty detailed review of the Republican responses to their election disaster. Best lines. First, on Cantor: "In Virginia, his favorable rating is twenty-seven percent, a fct that makes a statewide run for office in the near future a grim prospect." (Must by mrgye and his buddies.) Second, and this is priceless: From Tom Cole, a pretty conservative guy:

Quote:
"Some of these guys will hold a political gun to their head and threaten the President:'Do what I want or I'll pull the trigger!' Like he cares. "
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boggsman1



Joined: 24 Jun 2002
Posts: 9118
Location: at a computer

PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 12:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

stevenbard wrote:
boggsman1 wrote:
As we hit 14300 on the DOW today, I thought I would post an op-ed from
Michael Boskin from the WSJ on March 6 th 2009, the day the S&P 500 hit 666. Boskin is one of the Rights' favorite economists/predictors, who has one of the worst track records of any living human.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123629969453946717.html


This sure reminds me of the last few years of the bush administration. Property values skyrocketing again. Easy Gummint money, Stock market above 14,000. Seven years later, and this is a victory?

You and I both know what will happen when bond investors start to sell....And sell they will.

I can only imagine what would have been if Bernanke had lowered rates in 2007 to todays rates.

tsk tsk Bard.
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