Yes Margaret. I admit it. I watched it and very much regret it. Never before have I wished so hard that a “crevasse” would open up and swallow a person whole. If you ask me, the “crack” Sarah Palin should be worried about isn’t on Mount McKinley in Denali National Park. It’s the butt crack hanging out of her teenager’s short-shorts in Palin’s Denial Park. My goodness but those Palin girls can’t wait to test the limits of that abstinence only education to which their momma gives so much lip service.
And poor Alaska. To have that as your spokesmodel. You clearly drew the short end of the stick on that one. I ask you, is the show about Alaska or about how Alaska can be used as a platform for Sarah Palin’s political aspirations? Here’s a little fact you won’t find on Sarah Palin’s Alaska: Alaska led the way in teen pregnancies with an increase of 19% last year.
The show starts off with Palin telling us that she loves Alaska as much as she loves her family. Which means if there’s enough money in it, she’ll quit her family too. But seeing how she’s pimped out Bristol to ABC’s Dancing With a Teenage Mom, and now she’s pimping out the youngest one to TLC’s Sarah Palin’s Grizzlies Gone Bad, I think the family is still paying off enough to keep Sarah coming home at the end of the book tours.
But I don’t want to talk about Sarah anymore. Instead I want to respond to some moron’s comment on this webpage blog about all those Americans sitting around enjoying their lavish unemployment benefits instead of looking for jobs.
Here are the facts. You remember facts, don’t you? Or has Fox News permanently deleted those in your world? Those lavish benefit checks on average are about $375 per week or about $1,600 per month. Only about 37 percent of unemployed workers actually collect unemployment benefits, and the unemployed workers who are not collecting benefits find a job, on average, only about one week earlier than unemployed workers who are collecting benefits.
So here is what I say. Rather than worrying about that extra week at the government spa or the occasional moron who is – wrongfully – gaming the system for $300 a week, how about being grateful for everything you have in your life? Beating people while they are down just seems so unChristian to me. How about you, Margaret?
If you want to beat someone down, beat down all those Republican politicians screaming about lazy unemployed Americans who are staying home collecting those enormous unemployment checks. And beat down Fox News for deciding to make factual reporting extinct. And beat down Sarah Palin just because. I mean it . Really.
Margaret and Helen 
I just recently found this blog. Thank you for your candor Helen. You make me laugh at the absurdity of so many things here in the USA.
LikeLike
By: Jonathan Cooksey on January 8, 2012
at 10:38 PM
I never worked harder than the year I was unemployed. My position was outsourced to India the week after 9/11. God bless our wonderful capitalists overlords. It’s not their fault that they can’t add, subtract or make competent decisions based on anything other than their own greed.
LikeLike
By: Scott on February 22, 2011
at 10:24 PM
My husband decided this was the day to check out la Palinista’s show. I checked out of the leaving room into the kitchen area with my computer in tow. Today of all days! Can’t take her screechy and whining voice and the fakery at play the fews seconds I wandered in there and the show was running. Ah…gr…
I decided to post it on this thread because it was more relevant. If the story about her show not being renewed is true, I say good riddance!
LikeLike
By: Easier on January 9, 2011
at 2:25 PM
Good to be back…hope my dilapidated old computer will let me stay around a while…
LikeLike
By: HoneyJorumples on December 13, 2010
at 5:13 PM
HoneyJo! It is so great to see you again.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on December 1, 2010
at 5:14 AM
On point as usual, Helen! And one brainless Republican congressman on the expiration of unemployment benefits tonight that these benefits do nothing for the economy because people don’t spend it, they hang onto it as long as possible. Yeah, they don’t pay rent/mortgage, don’t buy groceries or pay for goods and services, they “hang onto” it. How do these people walk and chew gum at the same time?
LikeLike
By: HoneyJorumples on December 1, 2010
at 12:23 AM
I got a kick out of the early promos for the show, in which Sarah says something along the lines of, “I’d rather be doing this than be stuck in some stuffy old political office. This is flippin’ fun!”
Sarah Palin, Philosopher, has discovered the principle that sightseeing is more exciting than going to work!
Since in her case sightseeing (in front of a camera) actually pays, and she flipped off her government job, this attitude isn’t hurting her. But I’d hate for young people to learn from her advice.
LikeLike
By: Bambi on November 30, 2010
at 5:03 PM
You are a breath of fresh air! I am glad I found your blog. Live long and give them hell!
LikeLike
By: Frances on November 30, 2010
at 2:22 PM
Sarah Palin’s show might be good, if they showed more of AK and less of the dysfuntional family. Appears to be AK’s version of the “Middle” without the wit of Patricia Heaton or Ma and Pa Kettle visit Alaksa. When I see the Palins, I think of Marjorie Main yelling, “Pa, carry my purse; Pa, wipe the crumbs off that kid’s chin; Pa, where did all these kids come from..are they our kids? or are our kids having kids?” Toad appears about as worthless as Percy Kilbride.
LikeLike
By: MO Inkslinger on November 28, 2010
at 5:13 PM
spoken like a true Liberal..thanks Kreisha
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 26, 2010
at 9:10 AM
Noah is a horse’s ass.
LikeLike
By: Kreisha on November 25, 2010
at 11:18 PM
Thank you Helen for your insight. Just to add to your comments, as a retired citizen I get about $1,700 a month from social secerity. This compares closely with the unemployment benefits you cite in your blog. My son was in a position to leave his job or be laid off. He chose to leave his job rather than be laid off. Consequently, he gets no unemployment benefits. He has no lavish unemployment benefits to enjoy.
LikeLike
By: balingwire on November 25, 2010
at 10:36 PM
Noted. Assumed level of integrity confirmed.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 25, 2010
at 3:38 PM
I like Bristol Palin. She was admittedly shy and didn’t seem to have much confidence in herself. Her family probably pointedly told her what an embarrassment and loser she was.
My wife agrees with opps and anonymous.
That she drove herself from Alaska in her pickup truck says something about her too. She said something about how glad she was to have survived as long as she did because she knows many people hate her and her mother.
Of course, Bristol didn’t belong there. She was nothing but an awkward, gauky single mother. Her mother was the “star” not her. The show wanted her for ratings, and I’m guessing they thought she would soon be gone. Based on talent, she didn’t deserve to make the top three.
Everyone won. The show got its ratings, the right couple won, and Bristol convinced the judges, and maybe herself that she had the guts and skills to better herself under adverse circumstances.
LikeLike
By: James on November 24, 2010
at 8:33 AM
Happy Thanksgiving to you also delurkergurl.
I agree with your point, Keyboard Cowboy. Even without a ruling diety and creator we are as sovereign as an ant colony.
Our family has a history of Deism and Free Thinking which ended with the current generation. Maybe my aunt was right. After God set this up, it left us to our own devices, and most of our prayers serve to make us feel better and stronger than change things, as when two opposing high school football teams pray for victory.
I was taught God is all powerful and intervenes in our lives at appropriate times. If so how does He know which football team is more deserving? I think the foot ball teams are on their own.
Weird things have happened to me all of my life. I usually write them off as mind tricks or coincidences. For example, I was driving from the base to Rapid City to meet my future wife at the bus station. She had had a terrible weekend with her parents over our impending wedding and wanted to be back with me really badly. I knew none of this as I drove toward Rapid City on a back road around midnight.
Suddenly I heard “JIM, JIM!!” in a male voice I didn’t recognize. I stopped my car, got out and looked around. No living person was near me for miles, so I drove on.
We compared notes without my telling my now wife the time of the voice. Her strong feeling coincided with the voice. Was God warning me that my wife would be a basket case, was I hearing things, or was it something else? Maybe my subconscious was processing information.
When I was stationed in England, we lived in six man quansite huts. I dreamed a large brownish red rock was next to my bed. The next morning, the man sleeping across from me dreamed he saw a tall knight in armor standing next to my bed. I asked the color. It was brownish red. Twenty-five years later, he ended a letter with “don’t let the ghost get you.” I don’t believe in ghosts, but I have an open mind.
Maybe we are here because God was bored.
LikeLike
By: James on November 24, 2010
at 8:19 AM
Noah
She had no business being there in the first place.
What sort of star is she supposed to be?
The winner made BP look like an amateur porker.
pathetic.
LikeLike
By: oops on November 23, 2010
at 11:30 PM
Noah
She was a real porker and should have never been on the program at all. BTW what sort of a star is she anyway?
LikeLike
By: Anonymous on November 23, 2010
at 11:23 PM
Integrity check for all of those that were so sure that evil would prevail and the tea party and Ma Palin would steal the dancing with the stars, lets see some humility and admit maybe you don’t know everything.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 23, 2010
at 9:54 PM
Sounds like “sinners in the hands of an angry God” around here.
LikeLike
By: vgman on November 23, 2010
at 9:42 PM
Thanks. Is this a WordPress function or HTML?
Oh, wait, there it is. My son works as a programmer for a local ISP and he uses w3schools.com all the time.
Thanks again.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 23, 2010
at 8:05 PM
Try that again – wish WordPress had a preview key. See the example.
http://w3schools.com/TAGS/tag_blockquote.asp
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 23, 2010
at 7:55 PM
Pfesser53,
Blockquote, as in “
” without the quote marks, of course.
Makes it easier to read than italics – at least to me. 😉
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 23, 2010
at 7:53 PM
KC –
I’ll see if I can find an old article from the ‘seventies about why gods don’t interfere with laws of nature. I can’t think of the writer’s name, but I keep several files of good articles like that.
BTW, how do you do that thing with the indentation for quoting? That is very cool.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 23, 2010
at 7:32 PM
[…] Article […]
LikeLike
By: Palin’s Denial Park | themcglynn.com/theliberal.net on November 23, 2010
at 7:14 PM
Physical laws still exist…why God chose not to intervene? Your guess is as good as mine. That would be a hideous way to die, as would 6MM Jews going to a needless death was unjust in Nazi Germany. Why did God not intervene did? Don’t know. Perhaps he did and we don’t understand the grand plan.
But I think you frame the question incorrectly James. The question isn’t why bad things happen to innocent people. The real question is why a holy and righteous God allows any of us to be here to begin with.
Because if you frame the question with the former, you’re claiming the sovereignty of man. How dare God not invoke his power for our use.
If you flip the script, then you can begin to correctly address your difficult question. When you flip the script, you resign yourself to understanding that man isn’t sovereign, but God.
And that is the way it should be.
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 23, 2010
at 7:07 PM
Happy Thanksgiving, James.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 23, 2010
at 7:05 PM
Happy Thanksgiving. We will be spending the day with my brother and his family at our daughter and son in law’s home in Omaha. It will be an early dinner because our son in law has to work after 12:30PM.
They are big on getting up early for Black Friday. We may spend the night with them if they pursuade us to venture out in single didget cold.
LikeLike
By: James on November 23, 2010
at 6:42 PM
Keyboard Cowboy, I realize the judgment admonition was a warning, and I know we must use our inborn capacity to judge right from wrong to avoid sitting on a hill top waiting for the rapture because of some one told us to do it.
However, I am not worthy to judge Sarah Palin’s or the Reverend Wright’s or any one else’s sincerity. I can judge the effects if any, of their faith on people around them, and I can judge if their actions show some of their beliefs to be misguided or evil. My attitude is based on personal experience.
I have had a rocky relationship with God, whatever it is. Every so often, a man and his daughter wait for rescue in their wrecked truck. The girl, especially is talkative and tells about her life. She is about 14. The battery is still connected, and a fire begins. Near the end, they beg to be shot, but all that happens is they are cremated alive. They will die again and again as long as I live. If God is controlling things, couldn’t he have taken them and many other people more humanly?
On the other hand, I seem to have lived a charmed, happy life. People and opportunities appear when I need them. Even mishaps like my being hit by a pickup or nearly crashing in an air plane turn out all right. The same applies to my wife and kids. Did that happen because I promised myself to live a good life to give the father and daughters’ deaths meaning, and I made choices which took me here? Or was God making it happen? Why was I so special that good things happened to me when others more deserving got the shaft? I helped save a life in the service. Was it God’s will, or was it blind luck?
Sometimes, I think we live in a world of chaotic predestination. Each choice we make limits some choices and makes others more likely. Our minds turn the chaos into order and patterns when the realty is much different.
Yes, Poolman, that was what I was writing. I have asked Jesus into my life, and I believe he is my lord and savior, but beyond that, I am pretty ambivelant about what it all means. Too many conflicting things have happened in my life. Maybe some day I will have the same spiritual certitude you seem to have, but this isn’t the day.
PFessor, I read the speech too. I think Discover Magazine had a short article about a scientist’s finding a spot in the brain which fosters religious belief. Either God planted it in our heads, and or belief in God had survival value. With normal variability, I think it is such a powerful drive in some people they MUST worship something larger than themselves, whether it be global warming, Obama or Sarah Palin. One could call it subverting a built- in need to have a relationship with God.
What about the Neanderthals? We share a few chromosomes with them, and also a belief in versions of God. Neanderthals apparently practiced religious rituals and conducted funeral services at times. Are they “saved” even though they weren’t us?
LikeLike
By: James on November 23, 2010
at 6:33 PM
Yorkshire Terrier boys are easier to get along with as well.
Currently running a Herd of five boys.
Had females for more than 30 years before the first boy wandered on to my doorstep.
Girls fight..and did not like having baths, so one would take out after another and draw blood.
Have a safe one out there!
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 23, 2010
at 6:30 PM
Have a safe and blessed Thanksgiving everyone.
And that’s for both red and blue.
Gone travellin for the next few days.
God Bless.
LikeLike
By: Craig on November 23, 2010
at 6:25 PM
People say
I’m crazy doing what I’m doing,
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin,
When I say that I’m o.k. they look at me kind of strange,
Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game,
People say I’m lazy dreaming my life away,
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me,
When I tell that I’m doing Fine watching shadows on the wall,
Don’t you miss the big time boy you’re no longer on the ball?
I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,
I really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go,
People asking questions lost in confusion,
Well I tell them there’s no problem,
Only solutions,
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I’ve lost my mind,
I tell them there’s no hurry…
I’m just sitting here doing time,
I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,
I really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go.
– John Lennon
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 23, 2010
at 5:13 PM
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 23, 2010
at 4:52 PM
Miss Helen& Miss Margaret – thank you. Thank you both for inviting us into your “kitchen” and letting us spill over onto the porch and out in your yard. Ladies, may this holiday season shower you with the gratitude and love of family & friends. You are certainly treasured by your “virtual” friends here. Happy Thanksgiving!
And to the rest of the kitchen-porch-yard denizens: Stay safe, give thanks, and above all else, save room for PIE!
LikeLike
By: Greytdog on November 23, 2010
at 3:22 PM
HRH Sofia –
Sounds like you are really fortunate to have your family for Thanksgiving. My parents’ family (my sibs) are disintegrating with old age and the attrition of deaths. My own family is still pretty young, so WE are the substitute grandparents now.
They will start streaming in tomorrow: My old friend Bill, who will be staying several days, my stepdaughter and her baby is coming Thursday, my stepson and his fiancee, my old friend Joe is coming Saturday. He’s taking flying lessons and we’ll fly all weekend. Great stuff. My wife is getting the turkeys ready today for the families whose names we got from the church. Good times to never be forgotten.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 23, 2010
at 2:56 PM
Hi Helen,
Now I’m really, really looking forward to your Thanksgiving letter. I know you’ll outdo yourself this year. I know that although you trash talk some of your relatives, that you really, really love them, in spite of their little bits of strange. You should hear about some of MY relatives. Talk about crazy!!! Of course I decided awhile ago that there’s no such thing as not crazy.
We’ll have turkey and pie etc at Favorite Son’s house. That way I won’t be infecting anyone else with the cold I caught the last time I was there, babysitting so Best Daughter (il) ever could get her gray hairs taken care of and the refrigerator working again. I’m afraid it’ll rain on Friday so we might have to do our traditional turkey sandwich and champaign picnic on the rug in the living room. It’s OK, we’ll all be together.
I hope everyone here has someone who likes them and a place to go to be with them. I sincerely hope these are not the ONLY friends some have.
And if you don’t have time in your busy life, I and all your friends here will understand.
love,
Sofia
LikeLike
By: HRH sofia EQ on November 23, 2010
at 2:38 PM
We are programmed for God, I don’t know about for “religious faith”. I think that is more how you meant it, James. So many religions offer truths, but disguise the real path. Man uses these tidbits of truth to MANipulate entire populations for gain. Much like the “people of faith” mentioned by others herein. Even the best spin doctors know that using rails of truth is the best way to hijack the train of perception.
I like real science and the amazing things that we are learning. Aside from all the new knowledge gained from greater vision into worlds we couldn’t see or hear before, we have solid truths that stand the test of time. All the amazing sights and sounds we now can observe both far and up close. All the new discoveries about water and its tie to all life. They all point to their Creator. Like laminin. Google it. See what it is and does and looks like. Amazing!
“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:17)
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 23, 2010
at 2:29 PM
If what you are talking about is peoples need to have a cause or something to believe in in general then I would agree. Having a cause often times give people a reason for being and brings stability.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 23, 2010
at 2:18 PM
Had to share this: Just got a request for an X-ray of the c-spine.
CLINICAL INDICATION: ETOH. PATIENT THINKS HE MAY HAVE FALLEN OFF A HORSE OR HE MAY HAVE BEEN KICKED BY A HORSE. HE SAYS HIS NECK HURTS.
(ETOH means ethyl alcohol on board. Translation: He has been drinking and wrecked his horse. BTW, his neck was just fine.)
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 23, 2010
at 1:49 PM
We seem to have some thinkers posting now. Whew! About time! The Merry Little Band was beginning to wear me out!
On the subject of religion: I think I have mentioned before Michael Crichton’s speech, where he said – like James – that we are programmed for religious faith, and that it had to be filled one way or another. His take was that radical environmentalism fulfilled that need for those who were not religious in the traditional sense – basically religion for atheists.
Thoughts, anyone? I’ll see if I can google it up and reread it if anyone is interested in pursuing the argument further.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 23, 2010
at 1:35 PM
PFessor, I’m glad you liked my “merry little band.”
LikeLike
By: James on November 23, 2010
at 1:33 PM
Yes, I remember your telling me that. I’ll be if he knew, he didn’t care. Probably his next breath was more important to him then.
LikeLike
By: James on November 23, 2010
at 1:30 PM
We are programed for religious faith. Often,we substitute worship of a deity for sports, possessions, or other non- spiritual things. It is the false gods thing.
I live in what was a Mormon county during the great migration. Many settled here later returned from Utah etc.
Religion was hijacked here.
A community of Mormons founded a town and fell under the influence of a man who founded a society of communistic Mormons. They pooled all of their resources and got what the leaders decided they needed. Eventually, they discovered human nature when fearless leader was entitled to more than they. He hid an an attic for two days before he was able to escape with his life.
LikeLike
By: James on November 23, 2010
at 1:26 PM
James, speaking of Swaggart and Falwall – I think I told you this in our private conversation, but did you know that when the Great Homophobe collapsed, he was attended by a gay ER doc?
The resuscitation was, unfortunately, not successful.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 23, 2010
at 1:19 PM
“Merry Little Band.” Oh I like that.
Or as part of the MLB likes to say, “LOL LOL.”
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 23, 2010
at 1:16 PM
Preachers like Swaggart and Falwell for all of their original sincerity used religion as a business. They like Oral Roberts were trapped in a system of their own creation. To survive, they had to raise ever more money. Genesus had a wonderful song and video satirizing people like Roberts, “Talking to Jesus.”
Yes, they used their religion to enhance their political beliefs.
Many begin doing good and end by doing well.
LikeLike
By: James on November 23, 2010
at 1:12 PM
In the case of communism that is a thing that was forced upon its people. I don’t think Palin or Bachmann are capable of this kind of forceful persuasion. I am not a fan of TV evangelists either, but I think you would be hard pressed to call either of these people evangelists. So at first glance I think these are inaccurate examples.
I do understand how weak minded people, people who don’t do their own research, or people who lack conviction in their beliefs could have their religion hijacked. As I don’t suffer from any of these afflictions I have a hard time relating. While I take other people’s opinions into consideration I draw my own conclusions and tend not to let others draw them for me.
Faith is not a word that is exclusive to religion. Again I think using an Evangelist to try and represent Palin or Bachmann are doing is highly inaccurate.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 23, 2010
at 1:07 PM
Ghandi once said something like ” first you ignore me, then you mock me, then you hurt me, then I win.” The Tea Parties could have said the same thing.
Ghandi learned how to use power when he was in South Africa. His pacifistic actions in India trapped the British. They could not react to his civil disobedience too violently without enraging the entire Indian subcontinent. Thus, he used the British occupier’s strength against them.
I’m staying out of the religious argument except to write Jesus had his angry moments such as when he drove the money changers out of the temple. Revelations 2:27 says “And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received my Father” King James Bible.
I don’t think one can say Palin, Bachman, or or Rev. Wright give Christianity a bad name . The Bible tells us not to judge or we will be judged, and I certainly carry a lot to suffer through judgment. Religion becomes too politicized. Unless they offer ritual sacrifices, I’m taking their religious beliefs at face value.
Though I think Poolman is wrong to imply Palin hijacks Christianity, I respect him as much as any here. From what I know of him, he is a good, sincere man. I don’t think he ever called me a name when unloading nasty epitaths on me was in vogue. I also don’t remember Poolman’s getting involved when the merry little band tried to vote me off the site. This has nothing to do over whether he likes or dislikes what he knows of me. Consider this my defense of Poolman as a person when he is right or wrong.
LikeLike
By: James on November 23, 2010
at 1:02 PM
Noah –
” IF it is your God, your Christianity, your Jesus, how could Palin or Bachmann ever hijack it?”
I think poolman is right on the money with “misrepresentation.” It took me a few minutes to think about that one. I believe there are many cases that can be used as examples of this: communism, for example – originally an idea of a political system to bring fairness to all and eliminate exploitation, it was “hijacked,” if I may use that word, by those who used it as a method to power and riches. I think the TV preachers such as Swaggart and Falwell have done exactly the same thing with religion.
I attended an aviation seminar at Falwell’s school a few weeks ago and it is really chilling to see how he has used “faith” to promote a political agenda. If that is not “hijiacking” a religion I don’t know what is. I am a lifelong atheist, not a bible scholar, but from that relatively unbiased position, it seems to me his work in no way fits the tenets and precepts of christianity.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 23, 2010
at 12:30 PM
Pfesser,
Enough snow right now for a sleigh ride, but who’s to say it will be here in next day or so? We have a two day sun shine coming.
Growing up in northwest Iowa, I remember the occasional Caroling Party riding on the back of an empty hay wagon–with a few bales of hay strewn about as functional benches for young teenagers just looking to have some fun.
Ahhh….the holidays are upon us.
Just finished sweeping the front patio and driveway. I noticed the ice on our pond and snow covering the brickwork. The sun was shining through the trees and it made me think about how much the sun becomes our favorite friend here in the Northwest during the winter.
LikeLike
By: vgman on November 23, 2010
at 12:26 PM
Seattle should be getting more snow this winter. We are watching the start of a winter pattern which will bring cold, snowy months to the Pacific Northwest and the northern plains. Farther south, wide temperature swings will bring warmth and cold. The south should be milder than normal. Heavy snow will fall from Iowa and Nebraska north, also in the Great Lakes and Ohio valley.
Our first snow storm gave us four inches of snow on November 12-13, so I have skied twice this season so far. Our next chance will come after the first of the month. Craig McPeck of Snow Day says it will be a memorable winter in parts of the North.Seattle kids will likely have more snow days.
LikeLike
By: James on November 23, 2010
at 12:20 PM
You seem overly concerned with my personal life. That wold traditionally mean I have intellectually stumped you and this is the part where you make things personal. Why you keep doing that is anyone’s guess. I guess the topic of Palin causes emotional outbursts in a lot of folks.
So how exactly do these terrible human beings you have given up as examples misrepresent and hijack your religion?
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 23, 2010
at 12:01 PM
The word misrepresentation comes to mind…
Is your classroom without a teacher today, or?
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 23, 2010
at 11:56 AM
poolman , I guess in my version of the Bible there is room for everyone. Obama, Polisi, even Palin. IF it is your God, your Christianity, your Jesus, how could Palin or Bachmann ever hijack it? My Bible says God is all knowing, all powerful, and all good. How could either of these individuals give God a bad name?
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 23, 2010
at 11:51 AM
Good morning all. I want to thank everyone for the grace they extend to me and others who come here with a sincere desire to spread peace and share information that uplifts and informs. In my ongoing effort to expose evil and darkness to the light – calling a spade a spade, as it were – I must reinterate that which I have stated in several threads here and elsewhere. I originally posted here because I felt that true Christianity had been hijacked by the likes of Palin and Bachmann, giving my God a bad name.
Like Gandhi is attributed to have said, “I love your Christ, but I dislike your Christianity.” Asked how he thought it would be possible to bring India to Christ, he said, “First, I would suggest that all of you Christians live more like Jesus Christ. Second, I would suggest that you practice your Christianity without adulterating it. The anomalous situation is that most of us would be equally shocked to see Christianity doubted or put into practice. Third, I would suggest that you put more emphasis on love, for love is the soul and center of Christianity. Fourth, I would suggest that you study the non-Christian religions more sympathetically in order to find the good that is in them, so that you might have a more sympathetic approach to the people.”
If it isn’t clothed in love. If it doesn’t look like Jesus or do the same things that Jesus did as recorded when He was among us, it isn’t real. If it doesn’t taste right, that is the test. “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him” (Psalm: 34:8) There are many wolves out there in sheep’s clothing. Like I previously posted here November 20, 2010 at 3:14 PM
I’m hoping everyone has an opportunity to bless others and be blessed this season. I am thankful for many things. One of them is all the fine things we share here in cyberspace, visiting on the porch with our gracious hosts.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 23, 2010
at 11:03 AM
Noah:
I guess that means you won’t be here.
Happy days!!!!
LikeLike
By: Anonymous on November 23, 2010
at 10:40 AM
vgman –
How much snow’d you get? I love to ski. My favorite childhood fantasy was the “over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house” by sleigh for steaming hot turkey and ham for Thanksgiving.
We didn’t have enough snow for sleigh rides, but I always dreamed of it.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 23, 2010
at 10:34 AM
Great Article. Thank you for sharing. Keep up the good work.
LikeLike
By: Klaus Cree on November 23, 2010
at 10:23 AM
Here is hoping the new message will be in the spirit of the holiday season filled with hope, promise, and no hate.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 23, 2010
at 9:58 AM
Yes, Delurker,
A new post would be nice. Remember last year’s? It was hilarious! She had every member of the family in that post. I think I’ll go get a cup of coffee in the kitchen!
LikeLike
By: vgman on November 23, 2010
at 9:43 AM
I love a good snow day, vgman. Usually it includes working from home (or not) in pajamas. Your students must be ecstatic! I’ll happily wait until after Thanksgiving for a good snow storm, though, with all the travel going on.
I am hoping for a new post from Margaret or Helen for Thanksgiving. (hint!)
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 23, 2010
at 9:33 AM
Is it strange to see something of value in a statement taken from the context of war? Yes.
Take the quote from the supreme military commander of North Korea in Pyongyang, threatening more strikes if the South crossed their maritime border “by even 0.001 millimeter”.
Perfect example of the use of metric measurement involving the use of decimals.
But made even more relevant by explaining the use of the phrase as a communication tool in a world made dangerous for children by the adults.
Adults who set examples for the children who follow our footsteps.
So, yes. Though strange the lesson may be–it is a valuable one for kids just learning how the metric system plays out in our lives. I might use it as an introduction to Unit Three: Decimals and Metric Measurement.
Have a warm and safe Thanksgiving, everyone!
Cooped up in the house here in the Northwest! Snow Day!
LikeLike
By: vgman on November 23, 2010
at 9:21 AM
Get a life? From a member in good standing on a blog obsessed with Sarah Palin and you want me to get a life? Comic gold.
Think you’ve got it backwards Har-as. I picture one about two axe handles wide.
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 23, 2010
at 9:20 AM
I read a lot of the archives. Where is everybody?
LikeLike
By: heatherp on November 23, 2010
at 7:25 AM
Wow. Dueling scriptures.
I hear banjos.
LikeLike
By: heatherp on November 23, 2010
at 7:21 AM
Keyboard Cow Dung, you horse’s ass, get a life.
LikeLike
By: Sarah on November 23, 2010
at 6:12 AM
Poolman, you’re a good man. Rest easy tonight.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 23, 2010
at 12:31 AM
Poolman, your “message” is a farce. You have missed the basic premise and your light is dim. And I’ve read it all as Apologetics a hobby of sorts, so don’t try to baffle me with your tripe.
Look at the things you believe, you defend, and you sow here. There’s nobody on this site more shameful than you, with the exception of that insufferable Donna the Blowhard. So don’t get all sanctimonious with me.
I know a sham when I see one, just like I recognized Obama a sham long before he took office. And he is a sham.
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 23, 2010
at 12:06 AM
and with you, poolman.
LikeLike
By: Elsie on November 22, 2010
at 11:57 PM
Thanks Elsie. Good-night! Peace be with you.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 22, 2010
at 11:50 PM
You might also read some of Pauls writings as to how to actually preach the good news. Hint: Your way is the highway. “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1st Corinthians 9:22)
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 22, 2010
at 11:45 PM
You have fundamentalist/dominionist types always jerk things out of context to twist the good news, defacing Jesus in the process. Love and servanthood is the face of true Christianity. You have negated His sacrifice and you surely do not know the meaning of grace.
The verse right before the one you quoted says, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” And 3 verses later, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” And really if you found that one, it would behoove you to read the whole chapter and on through chapters 6 and 7 too. It seems to be one that most “Christians” forget. It is only “all relevant” if put into practice.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 22, 2010
at 11:41 PM
Good-night, poolman. I look forward to your contributions another time. We can find good conversation if we know where to look.
And, we do.
LikeLike
By: Elsie on November 22, 2010
at 11:40 PM
You asked a question? You babbled. What question did I not answer?
———-
You know, I always know a milquetoast when I read comments like this – a man whose ears must be tickled, who reads what he wants to read, who hears what he wants to hear:
That’s because four books are the only thing you know. Comments like the above so cheapen grace, that under your own lame definition it renders your quotations of the gospels meaningless. Church pews are full of idiots believing themselves righteous because they attend church. I suspect you’re one of them.
Here’s a heads up Pool Man – you’ve got a whole lot to learn if you’re going to be an effective witness. Your own version is the hot tub version of Christianity – warm and bubbly, but ultimately unfulfilling. That’s why you’re so lost in your day to day decisions; your application is based on a false pretense.
Since all you know are the Gospels, I’ll stay there.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
It’s all relevant Poolman…try to set that to memory.
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 22, 2010
at 11:25 PM
I’m not surprised you would ignore every one of my questions to you. I like the OT, but I prefer the gospels to live by. That eye-for-an-eye justice was replaced at the cross. That’s the gospel. Your own words, as they stand, will condemn you.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 22, 2010
at 10:56 PM
Safe, rare and legal? You’re only fooling yourself Pool man. I’ll bet you don’t believe in the exclusivity of Christian faith either. Tell me Poolman. What personal choice would you volunteer that being aborted should invoke?
Yeah, you support abortion.
You like quoting scripture? Let me prove just how confused you really are…
“When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. ~ Ezekiel 33:8
You’re as accountable as they are Pool man. Put that in your righteous book next time you wish to preach to me.
Obama is no Christian. He’s no Muslim either. He’s a humanist who is what he needs to be at any moment in time, whether kiss a Saud ring, claim the Sermon on the Mount to radical for America, or attend a racist church for 20 years; then claiming to have never heard a word of the anti-American, anti-white drivel. About as believable as your claims to piety. 😉
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 22, 2010
at 10:20 PM
I’m sure you are familar with that road. I sure knew it well at one time. My intent is not to fool anyone. I do not support abortion. Neither do I support war. I support life. I also don’t approve of laws that take away personal choice and liberty. The POTUS has publicly professed to be a born-again Christian. I prefer to not blasphem the Spirit. I am not the judger of hearts. Either way, the Word tells us to pray for those in authority over us. It tells us that God is the one who sets up ALL those in power and He uses them to accomplish His purposes. Who have you prayed for today? Did you pray for any of your enemies? How about the command to love your enemies? That is a tuffy. What do you think Jesus meant when He told us that? Oh, and forgiving all others so in the same way you do, you will receive forgiveness. When are you going there? Don’t be the foolish virgin. Time is short.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 22, 2010
at 10:05 PM
Poolman,
I’m not worthy to be your judge, but if you think pulling the hammer for a malignant narcissist believing himself messianic and pure religion go hand-in-hand, you’re woefully confused – a milquetoast Christian at best.
Let us remember this hero of yours had absolutely no reservations about a perfectly viable unborn child being partially removed from the birth canal, scissors rammed through cranium, the medulla destroyed, the remainder of the brain sucked dry, the dead removed afterward, under the euphemism of “reproductive rights.” That’s who you support.
You’re not fooling me by quoting scripture. Wide is the path that leads to destruction. 😉
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 22, 2010
at 9:32 PM
Thank you, HRH sofia EQ, for your delightful link. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven’t heard of The Righteous Mothers before, so I had to delve around in THEIR website and then move on to some of the other links posted there.
I have already begun to pass along your link to my friends.
Thanks again.
LikeLike
By: Elsie on November 22, 2010
at 9:31 PM
KC, Jesus Christ IS my Lord and Saviour. And You? Walk the walk. It’s the narrow path you plowed over with your bulldozer. I guess your Bible is missing a few chapters, or you haven’t gotten to them yet. How did He say we will know one another? Need a hint?
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 22, 2010
at 9:20 PM
Hey, I’m impressed Pool Man. Quoting from the very book you continually mock. That’s one of the three pieces of scripture that Libs know by heart. The other two being “Jesus Wept” and the always popular “Judge not Lest Ye Judged.”
Me, I always liked second half of the ‘Judge’ not verse – ‘don’t cast your pearls before swine.’
So I take the advice leave an obvious phony like you a turd. 🙂
Afraid you’re still a long ways from me.
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 22, 2010
at 9:06 PM
Keystone,
I’ve BUILT swimming pools in Amarillo. That panhandle is fairly close to yours. I know that flatland pretty good. I’ve breathed that same dust before. I haven’t cleaned any pools there, but I’m sure I wouldn’t find anything new, at least nothing I haven’t come across in the 35 years I’ve been in the pool industry. I began picking up work when I was 12. I have been drawing a paycheck since I was 14. Hell, I was a republican until 2002. Now I’m a registered independent.
I like to build beautiful, new and permanent things, though I have done plenty of demolition and remodeling over the years. Still do. I work in both residential and commercial settings. Mostly below ground, working outdoors in the earth, bringing life-giving water to formerly dry places, thus making it pleasant and peaceful for all who would wish to escape the rat race for a spell and cool their heels.
You’re just a twister blowing across the plains, leaving trailers overturned and trees uprooted, strewing earthly treasures and fence pickets a mile wide. What do you add to society? The “fruit” you’re dropping here is quite rancid.
“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?” (Matthew 7:16)
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 22, 2010
at 8:57 PM
Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. ~ Barack Hussein Obama
Can you imagine the malignant narcissism required to believe you can control the seas and heal the planet? How could you clowns possibly vote for this sham? My Gawd, there’s never been a vainer man with such a thin resume…Failure personified. Bye the way, forget about healing the planet? Where’s the jobs? 🙂
How could you possibly have voted for this? Bleating sheep! Remember this lady? Laid off! 😐 Still going to pull that straight “D” lever, Ms Hart?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112205270.html
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 22, 2010
at 8:52 PM
Again, Poolman. I liked your NASCAR allusion.
Parker, I agree you get a lot of money concentrated in bank accounts, but most of it earns interest and is reloaned to others. Economic activity is enhanced.
I agree we need to return to days of smaller governments etc. but one has to be very careful. Removing too much too suddenly is like extracting a knife from a victim’s chest. It has to be done very carefully and slowly to avert a crisis.
LikeLike
By: James on November 22, 2010
at 8:39 PM
Poolman, the New York Times reported in 2006: “An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the projected budget deficit this year.” I’d quote Thomas Sewell about why,Bush’s tax cuts made it possible, but you’re probably too bedazzled by the alternative version. My memory seems pretty accurate.
Chris Dodd and Barney Frank were enablers.
I agree with Keyboard Cowboy about California.
I also agree with delurkergurl that viewers need to vote on the best dancers. Otherwise the show is more of a travesty than it is.
Omaha radio KFAB has been discussing the airport groping with Barbara Streisand’s “He touched me” playing in the background.
LikeLike
By: James on November 22, 2010
at 8:30 PM
American Narcissus – The vanity of Barack Obama
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/american-narcissus_516686.html
Excellent article dissecting President Fraud and his monumental shortcomings…
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 22, 2010
at 8:24 PM
Oh look! A troll. How unoriginal.
I hope that was in response to your lack of imagination? Troll? That’s it?
Do you know what ails libs the most? No sense of humor and their lame attempt is invariably clustered around vulgarity – a clear sign of arrested development leading to a political philosophy of progressive thought.
It’s so unoriginal, the response is like pulling on a doll string with a canned response.
hahahaha Sarah Palin hahahahaha Troll hahahahah George Bush hahahahaha Christians, always followed by vapid and shallow bodily references.
Under the creed of modern liberalism the individual citizen is not called to maturity but is instead invited to begin a second childhood. Like the child at play, he is given, or at least promised, ultimate economic, social and political security without having to assume responsibility for himself. The liberal agenda requires him to remain in an artificial environment–the daycare program of the grandiose state–where he need not become an adult, take responsibility for his own welfare, nor cooperate with others to achieve what the state will give him for nothing.
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 22, 2010
at 8:11 PM
Oh look! A troll. How unoriginal.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 22, 2010
at 7:59 PM
And you call me insecure? 😆 The welcome mat is not out? Hope & Change baby! That’s the gospel you’ve been selling for two years now. So where’s the beef? 😈
I know the truth is difficult to deal with when you’ve run out of thin excuses, looking for Sarah Palin to blame. But don’t you think the time is long overdue to deem yourself a failure? Face the facts? Be a man? Admit you’ve been misled your entire life and worshiping at the welcome mat of Obama is no way to live your life?
It’s the first step on the road to recovery from abysmal lefty performance due to profound mental illness – recognizing you’ve problem and seeking help. I’m offering you help to understand truth. Don’t allow yourself to be used anymore. Branch out, free your mind, put away the weed, remove yourself from government dependency.
How about it pool cleaner?
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 22, 2010
at 7:52 PM
KC, you need a little sunshine. I can see you did the upgrade and you are able to stack shit to an all new height. This is not a welcome mat for you. Take your insecure and ungrateful self somewhere where you like minds can stroke each others stiff-necked ideals. I don’t see any gospel in your two-step.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 22, 2010
at 7:42 PM
HRH sophia,
That was great! 😀
afa the travel agency business, I remember when that was a happening thing. I always loved going through all the brochures and seeing those exotic pictures of faraway places. Those were quite a lure. Right up to the internet and that put that business out of business and now we have web-based travel businesses. Talk about machines putting people out of business! Yeah, there may be a person somewhere behing the curtain somewhere, but it is very much more anonymous. I remember my family had a travel agent we used for all our travel plans.
I always felt a little safer in construction, knowing a machine couldn’t take away my job. Forgot to consider the banks’ attachments! It was a solemn alliance as long as they wanted it to be. I guess up until they squeezed as much as they could out of it. Now the construction industry has been devastated in many areas like ours. We were never in control really. The big money still have their shares. Now the’ve eliminated much of the competition. LOL. This life is like a NASCAR track, and we’ve seen this lap before. The only difference is the shiny new faces and gear provided by the sponsors.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 22, 2010
at 7:34 PM
I love Margaret & Helen. Ya ROCK ladies!
LikeLike
By: Ametia on November 22, 2010
at 7:29 PM
Dancing with the Stars fans, please vote for the BEST dancers tonight! No championship is about who says they tried hardest or who improved the most.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 22, 2010
at 7:23 PM
Man, I’ve read some liberal screed before, but this one I believe tops the cake. Sorry about being late to the game…
You’re blaming the bankruptcy of California on Republicans? ** GUFFAW **
You people really are rubes. You’ll go down in flames before you’ll admit liberalism has been a monumental failure everywhere it’s been tried. Look at Europe to see your future. Spain is next on the list to burned…
Modern liberalism rejects, to one degree or another, the competence and sovereignty of the common man and subordinates him to the will of governments run by liberal elites. The western world’s twentieth century capitulation to this philosophy is obvious–and the implications for liberty are ominous. But the history of the world also documents the heroic struggles of human beings to escape from tyrannies of all types, whether imposed by the brute force and declared entitlement of a dictator, or falsely justified by economic, religious or political sophistries. The science fiction of Marxian economic evolution, the grandiose fantasy of a New World Order, the utopian dreams of The Great Society, the myth of the divine emperor, have all had their turns on center stage in irrational man’s attempts to legitimize government control and deny individual liberty. The realities of the human condition, especially the inherent sovereignty of individuals and their inevitable differences in choice and preference, render all collectivist doctrines absurd. A rational biologist will not transport a mountain goat to a prairie and declare a match between organism and environment. A rational social policy theorist will not create an environment of rules for human action that dismisses individual differences, ignores the critical roles of free choice, morality and cooperation, and otherwise distorts and violates the nature of man, and then announce that utopia has arrived in a workers’ paradise.
http://superstore.wnd.com/The-Liberal-Mind-The-Psychological-Causes-of-Political-Madness-Paperback
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 22, 2010
at 7:18 PM
Noah, You Jackass. Get a life.
LikeLike
By: Beverly R. on November 22, 2010
at 6:30 PM
I haven’t traveled by air since I left the travel industry. Back then I could get a ticket next to nothing and I definitely took advantage of that system. I haven’t been on a plane since well before Sept 11, 2001. I can’t imagine paying full price and having to practically sit on someone’s lap AND go through the indignity of the current screening process. But if I do, I have a PLAN. It has to do with being a slightly fat old lady and we all know no one wants to see me naked!
LikeLike
By: HRH sofia EQ on November 22, 2010
at 4:31 PM
hit and run*
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 22, 2010
at 4:31 PM
kind of an odd statement HRH sofia EQ , why dont you clarify your statement with a little substantive background and less it and run.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 22, 2010
at 4:30 PM
I used to be a travel agent. 24 years spanning from hand written, 4 part carbon tickets, rates figured out with a foot tall rate book and eventually to the computer. Of course, I could suggest routes and flights that had better stats for on time etc. Now, everyone is at the mercy of the airline programming. No warnings about better times or airlines to fly. Our travel agency went OOB in June 2001. In retrospect, it was probably the best possible timing. Since there was no point in transferring to another agency, I went on unemployment. First time I was ever able to collect since I started working in 1955. The other time I came close to collecting benefits was in 1967 when I quit my clerical job at Columbia University and joined the reservations staff at Eastern Airlines. After one week of training, the pilots or flight attendants or somebody went on strike and they laid me off. When I tried to collect unemployment, I found I wasn’t eligible since Columbia is a non profit.
So, the benefits in 2001 gave me the time to change careers. Current job is just what I’ve always wanted to do. I believe the benefits were even extended for a period of time. Can’t remember why. I guess I must have paid into the system for about 40 years before finally getting a chance to collect. Don’t know what I would have done without that little safety net. Can’t figure out why so many Republicans hate seeing people survive life’s little ups and downs.
LikeLike
By: HRH sofia EQ on November 22, 2010
at 4:25 PM
Noah,
Why do you hate America???
LikeLike
By: HRH sofia EQ on November 22, 2010
at 4:10 PM
I just discovered this blog today! Wow, Margaret you sound just like my grandmom. She was sooo smart and didn’t take any crap from anybody.
Don’t give up on president Obama! Don’t let the republicans take over again!
LikeLike
By: heatherp on November 22, 2010
at 4:01 PM
jsri: The Geneva Confrence prohibits torture. And waterboarding is classified as torture. Even if GWB says “I followed the lawyers advice”, it is still a crime, and you are right; he probably won’t be going overseas to promote his “book”.
LikeLike
By: cryptoclearance on November 22, 2010
at 3:25 PM
delurkergurl – re: screening
I think this thing is coming to a head. I believe it is going to shift to profiling, which the Israelis do with great effectiveness. The American public is only going to put up with such indignities so long, and I believe that time has come. My wife flies quite a bit in her business and the things she reports having seen are just infuriating.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 22, 2010
at 2:55 PM
Mageen in Old Virginny,
While they are having us undress and being felt up…
Al Qaeda will take out a Fed X or UPS plane over a big city.
We all know its a matter of time.
LikeLike
By: Craig on November 22, 2010
at 2:52 PM
Gotto agree.seeing way to much of Palin lately.
The reality show is over the top. Not even watching or wanted to.
Her credibility and political worth is being wasted.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 22, 2010
at 2:47 PM
Creamed –
You beat me to the punch. Video of Barbara Bush’s comment on Huffpo:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/20/barbara-bush-sarah-palin_n_786454.html
When the grand dame of your own party doesn’t support you, you have a problem. Of course I think Palin will never run for president. Why would she do that? She can run about, look cute and have no long-term responsibilities except to be seen and cash the checks.
Also there is that pesky baby problem.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 22, 2010
at 1:20 PM
poolman on November 22, 2010 at 9:34 AM
GWB wouldn’t dare go global with his book tour unless it would be to “friendly” (if there are any left). Elsewhere, sooner or later he might get scooped up as a war criminal and put on trial. If so, it might be a bonus to have Cheney accompany him.
LikeLike
By: jsri on November 22, 2010
at 1:08 PM
Interesting comment from Mama Bush, regarding the Mama Grizzly Palin: “I sat next to her once. Thought she was beautiful. I think she’s very happy in Alaska. And I hope she’ll stay there.”
LikeLike
By: Creamed on November 22, 2010
at 11:51 AM
Craig- LOL!
nope, not armed insurrection
gotta go to work – back tonight or tomorrow
when I have some time…
LikeLike
By: alaskapi on November 22, 2010
at 10:31 AM
delurkergurl.sorry i were not able to answer the question..ill repost..stretch yourself and give it a shot. What is gained by giving them more money through increased taxes if its just going to be spent poorly and mismanaged?
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 22, 2010
at 10:15 AM
Gregorio, you horse’s ass, get a life already.
LikeLike
By: Harold on November 22, 2010
at 10:04 AM
Just had Econ52 last semester. Noah, trickle down works pretty well, but money can EARN money, so when you get a lot, you get an unfair advantage over people who have to earn every dollar. As you get more and more wealthy you get a lot of money concentrated in bank accounts and investments of a very few people and that means the ordinary worker’s wages get depressed and his standard of living and his ability to create wealth goes down so the whole country suffers.
This country did the best when the government was very small and did not interfere with business but also had regulations to keep money and power from being concentrated in the hands of a few, like the railroad barons who raped everybody.
LikeLike
By: Parker on November 22, 2010
at 10:03 AM
Alaskapi,
“I have to warn you however that I’m about as far left leaning as one can get without falling off the map, when it comes to what I think we should do about it.”
And so what would that be. Take armed control of industry? Revolution.
Taxing those companies that go overseas?..I can agree with.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 22, 2010
at 9:55 AM
Poolman, my poor mother in law (in her 80s) is pretty upset over the new screening procedures, since she has to fly next week. I’ve heard the TSA plans to make some adjustments but not before Thanksgiving. Her anxiety over it may be worse than the reality, but either way it is terribly upsetting for her.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 22, 2010
at 9:54 AM
Sorry, Noah. I should have checked with you before sharing financial opinion from Warren Buffet. I should have known he didn’t know what he was talking about. My bad!
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 22, 2010
at 9:51 AM
I need a break, seems discussion is out, fighting the last ten years is in, so Happy Thanksgiving all!
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 22, 2010
at 9:42 AM
Proven facts are easy to reference. A small amount of searching will easily dispute false claims. Meanwhile, I hope “W” decides to go global with this book tour. I hope, hope, hope!
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 22, 2010
at 9:34 AM
delurkergurl trickle down works quite well and it is a proven fact. It is what keeps people who want to work for others in a j.o.b. employed. Our government is the #1 misuser of money in the world. It does nothing effective. What is gained by giving them more money through increased taxes if its just going to be spent poorly and mismanaged?
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 22, 2010
at 9:23 AM
November 24 is going to be a huge protest day against the scanners. National opt-out day is being planned in airports across the nation. In Germany they got more extreme.
December 7th, the French are planning massive withdrawals from banks to attempt to collapse those institutions they feel are controlling the economic decline. This could be interesting.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 22, 2010
at 9:19 AM
I did not read all the comments, so, maybe this is repetitious. I hear the rhetoric all the time about unemployment benefits. In this state, Oregon, you have had to have had a job to get benefits. You do not qualify if you quit or got fired from a job. You have to be laid off. You do not have to accept a job that pays less than your benefits. You must conduct a job search. you must pay taxes on your benefits. when you run out you are screwed. No more is coming. Your employer pays an unemployment INSURANCE premium to the state so you don’t go on welfare when he eliminates your job. Why did our jobs go away? Ask a republican and see if you don’t get more rhetoric. Thanks GW for your good stewardship of the American worker!!!!!!!!!!
LikeLike
By: william palmese on November 22, 2010
at 8:55 AM
Warren Buffet on taxes
“The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we’ll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you,” Buffett, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said in the interview. “But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on.”
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 22, 2010
at 8:52 AM
Wow! Its been pretty heavy on this blog lately which has concentrated on the economy, jobs, off-shoring, etc. In just 48 hours we will hit the heaviest travel day of the year, particularly for the airline industry. The security measures at airports aren’t doing anything to aleviate that crush. OK, I can see the use of the metal detector, but gosh all heck! The other two methods meet the criteria for invasive! Things are really heating up on the Scan and the Pat Down. Want to bet someone will get all those fashion models who get naked for PETA to show up at the airport in the buff to totally make a point?
Also, you can get a job as a baggage handler at the airport without submitting to a background check. What good is it to put passengers through all this and not get just as rigid about the folks who throw your luggage into the maw of an airliner? And I do mean throw! Anyone of those people could be nefarious and add a bomb to the pile.
There is just something so out of kilter in this situation. Maybe somebody will come up with a great idea for resolving it over the holiday.
And Helen and Margaret and all the congenial gang, have a happy and hopefully tasty Thanksgiving.
LikeLike
By: Mageen in Old Virginny on November 22, 2010
at 8:50 AM
Craig-
I am deeply concerned about the loss of manufacturing jobs, amongst others, in this country and it has bugged the heck out of me for years that forecasts for job growth lie waaaaayyyyy too far towards the so-called service sector. There is no real future in turning the American workforce into a vast pool of underemployed slaves to an economic model which views them as expendable chumps unless they are lucky enough to land in the chips.
The devaluing of the American worker and the blows to dignity, parity, and personal fortunes has been unrelenting in the last couple of decades.
It has pitted us against each other in recent years or had us turn our backs on our neighbors to save our own lil patches…
I have to warn you however that I’m about as far left leaning as one can get without falling off the map, when it comes to what I think we should do about it.
LikeLike
By: alaskapi on November 22, 2010
at 8:40 AM
Poolman… RE Body scanners.
That topics makes me furious. What could possibly be worse than taking away our freedom AND then making a personal monetary gain from it? (except starting two illegal wars, bankupting our country, and stealing an election of course) There has to be a special place in constitutional hell for people like him and all the “Bushies”.
LikeLike
By: lori on November 22, 2010
at 5:56 AM
that should read a monthly overhead of $50
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 22, 2010
at 2:29 AM
judith…careful what you read and be mindful that just because it is in print doesn’t make it true. Keep in mind there is a lot of hate posts on Jesus. Direct sales is like any other business, there are good and bad so research is a prudent course of action when looking at any kind of business. The one I am affiliated with is generating about $3500 a month on average with under 2 years time invested and under $200 total upfront cost and a monthly over heard of $50. For those looking to get their feet wet in business without the financial risk of a traditional storefront type business it is a great way to start.
cryptoclearance if and when you have anything of substance to say about my post please feel free to try and dispute the facts. Until then I will write it off as an emotional outburst and give it the consideration it is due.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 22, 2010
at 2:28 AM
I’ll stay with the facts and graphs as previously submitted that agree with the truthout link over your or my recollections.
Who were the stockholders of Fannie and Freddie? They are the ones steering those ships. This is a tired argument. Frank and Dodd are just salesmen. They don’t hold the money nor wield the power. Industry has been writing our laws for decades, at least. Look at W’s actions his first year in office. It’s ALL about industry and promoting criminals.
“…not the government’s to lose.” ALL the government’s money is supposed to be OUR money. Just like the $3.4 trillion the Pentagon misplaced during the Bush and Clinton Administrations.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 21, 2010
at 11:22 PM
“I haven’t read “The Architect: Karl Rove……..” I don’t think I could stomach reading the whole book. Is it a bio by him or about the bastard?” JEAN
Jean,
Until you have read or studied someone how can you make a logical decision?
Your mind is already made up. That’s a poor decision making process.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 21, 2010
at 10:50 PM
The article in that link has some errors and omissions.
This is from memory, and I don’t have time to check, but I think this close to what happened. The Economic Growth and Recovery Tax Act of 2001 was passed to end the recession, and it did by the end of the year.
9/11 happened as the economy was recovering at an anemic rate and it sent the economy into another slump. The Jobs and Growth act passed a year or two later with cuts also on dividends and capital gains. After the tax cuts the unemployment rate fell to the lowest level since WW11.
I remember politicians like Senator Kerry continously asking when we would have a net gain in jobs until we finally did.
Bill Clinton had help from the Republicans who’s Congressional control forced him to the center. We lost beaucoup jobs during Bush’s final year because the current recession had begun as much under Democratic control as Bush. The Frank/Dodd corruption in Fannie and Freddie helped start the down turn. The more accurate job count would be just before the economy failed.
Presidents don’t create jobs. They craft policies which influence our economy. The House especially deserves as much credit or blame for what happens as the president because it controls the purse.
Finally, the $700,000,000. supposedly lost because of the tax cuts is not the government’s to lose. It belongs to we tax payers. Besides, that money would have to be factored against the economic activity it created.
Bush and Clinton did something right. Obama and the current Democrats have failed. It is why they lost the election.
LikeLike
By: James on November 21, 2010
at 10:12 PM
Nice visiting with you too no one’s puppet. I also think we might find more commonality in time. As for Conagra’s tax rate, heavens no!
There may be nothing ingratiating to us about Palin, but to millions of people she is as much the bees knees as Katy Perry is or Myle Cyrus was. I’d be happy to keep her where she is. President is nightmare territory. We have commonality there.
I wish you were interested in pop music, NASCAR, history, or the weather. It would be nice to know your opinions about some of those subjects. Earlier, I made a mistake when I wrote that today, Jimmie Johnson was the first to be national Sprint Cup champion five times in a row. Richard Petty and Kale Yarborough were champions at least as many times, I think.
LikeLike
By: James on November 21, 2010
at 9:52 PM
Nice talking with you James, I think we might in time find more commonality, deep down I just know, you don’t really think you should pay the same tax rate as Conagra! But James, I must tell you there is nothing ingratiating about the Palin!
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 21, 2010
at 9:28 PM
“Donna, I don’t know Norm Pattis. Is he on the web? If so, where do I find him?” Jean
AAhhh Jean, Norm Pattis. That’s Donna’s alter ego.
She begs you to his allure. You will find him quite your type.
Donna has written of him before.
Jean “Google”.
OK..You remember that term.
Where does’t thou get all thy information from to entwine your audiences with your opines about the past , present and future? Google. Jean Google.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 21, 2010
at 9:24 PM
Thanks Poolman. We all know this, and they just cannot get out of their micro worlds.
here is a link to peruse:
http://www.truth-out.org/the-great-tax-cut-debate-myths-and-facts65294
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!I hear screams of LIBERAL MEDIA!!!!!!! Bring it on you naysayers. but make sure it is the truth and verified.
LikeLike
By: cryptoclearance on November 21, 2010
at 7:57 PM
“Do you think of lazy deadbeats when you hear “unemployed?” I have never heard you say anything like that, and it certainly doesn’t sound like you.”
No not me..I was there in 2001 on 911 when I was let go after 20 plus years at Bell.
My boss who hired me and ten years older than I got to retire..I got three weeks of health care and two unused weeks of vacation time.
I went to work looking for a job and got one the following February making lsss than half than I had at Bell, but still in my field. It was menial work at a Junior College. But I had health insurance for the family.
Never have I condemned anyone for losing a job or not having one by choice. There but for the grace of God go I.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio/Craig on November 21, 2010
at 7:28 PM
“Craig, please learn from the experience of your good friend. His story is not unique. How would it make you feel to hear someone call him lazy and to get a job? There are more like him than the lazy deadbeats you think of when you hear ‘unemployed’.”
Craig – did I miss something? I don’t recall you or any other commenter referring to the unemployed as lazy or deadbeats. It seems to me that we are all pretty much on the same page on that issue. I have to admit though, I’ve scrolled over or just skimmed a lot of the long posts, so I could have missed it, though.
Do you think of lazy deadbeats when you hear “unemployed?” I have never heard you say anything like that, and it certainly doesn’t sound like you.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 21, 2010
at 7:09 PM
Craig, please learn from the experience of your good friend. His story is not unique. How would it make you feel to hear someone call him lazy and to get a job? There are more like him than the lazy deadbeats you think of when you hear ‘unemployed’.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 21, 2010
at 6:51 PM
Yes, our host has a wicked wit. That is why many of us are drawn here. This is her blog and set up for her and Margaret for their pleasure. That is what it says. Those of us that are here to honor the host and enjoy her words and wisdom always thank her for her graciousness and usually comment on her post. Then some of us hang around and chit chat until she serves up another fresh homemade delicacy that we can savor and share.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 21, 2010
at 5:57 PM
My gosh Poolman..
Our host herself is a little condescending just to Republicans at large.
So if an occasional rebuttal is condescending then some are thin skinned.
I nor James as far as I know, have not used curse words which I cannot say everyone who have posted here “left or right” leaning can claim. Our host uses them liberally.
But as you said my intentions have been, “to be included” in the communication.
But we all have our own viewpoints and values. That’s what makes us ..individuals.
Yes I have seen some who have had no intention but to provoke, perhaps to ascertain
another person’s views. Some do it without little hesitation for being provocative.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio/Craig on November 21, 2010
at 5:29 PM
I just want to say I live in Alaska and Sarah Palin flew in under the radar and hopefully she will fly right out of our state.
I also collect unemployment after 6 months without a job I decide to apply I get $254/week so not much. I also know that when I was employed I paid into unemployment insurance not much but I did, I don’t know if that is just an AK thing or what, I never paid it when I lived in MA.
LikeLike
By: Stace on November 21, 2010
at 4:39 PM
Gregorio, I was stating an observation based on information provided by one of the commenters here that seems to describe some of the visitors here from time to time. I don’t perceive your intentions as ignoble, per se, rather occasionally provocative and generally spontaneous. Other times they appear contrived and somewhat condescending. I’m sure no one pays you to be here, so I can ascertain you’re sincere in your motivation.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 21, 2010
at 4:02 PM
No one’s puppet, you might also include energy in states like Wyoming and North Dakota. An article in the Tri State Neighbor I suggested to you discusses what you mentioned–the difficulty for young people to enter farming. The average of farmers in a North Dakota county is about 61.
What worries me is the drought cycle. The Midwest becomes very dry every 18 to 23 years as it has done for at least 500 years. The last time was in 1988. We are overdue. Another drought cycle also affects the plains from here west. Consider what the fear of and later actual poor crop will do to the markets. George Soros and others are already investing in commodities as a hedge against inflation.
That’s terrible Gregorio. We are in a new world, and as several have written, some of us may have to create our own jobs. But that is a dangerous move requiring skill and luck.
tana, Sarah Palin is smart with good instincts. My guess she wants to ingratiate herself with a wide audience to show she is not how her enemies have portrayed her. She is the right- wing Obama, and unless the Democrats change their economic policies or the economy improves in spite of them she might run and win.
I don’t think it will happen, but you have a right to be nervous.
Jimmie Johnson just won his fifth Sprint Cup championship. It has never happened before. The odds against it were probably better than Sarah’s becoming president, but who knows?
LikeLike
By: James on November 21, 2010
at 4:00 PM
Alaskipi,
Did you see the ABC news series this past week as they visited China
businesses and schools?
The kids are leaning English as a second language in grade school and go to school as much as 30% more during the year.
It was interesting to see all the products that are being made and sent to the U.S.
Such as the solar collector panels. High tech. They asked the boss how much the workers made on the line. $6000.00 a year.
How can we compete with that? China is keeping their currency cheap,building all our products and eventually we will all be
call center operators.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 21, 2010
at 3:41 PM
Poolman are you referring to me ,James and Perfessor?
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 21, 2010
at 3:34 PM
alaskapi and James,
Just had a good friend “hosed” this past week.
A wall street “listed” company he had worked for in bulk medical equipment sales
to hospitals in St. Louis let him go about 10 years ago. He found another job and moved to DFW. He worked there until 2007 when he was let go from that company.
After almost a year of search his “old” company in St. Louis asked him back,bought his house and paid for his move back home to St. Louis.
So now for the past two years he’s been working steadily. At almost the time that my friend lost his job in 07, His wife an MBA and former Pharma divisional rep was let go from her pharma job. Both were out of work together for almost 6 months.
After they moved back to St Louis she was unemployed but still wanted to work. With an MBA she went back to nursing school. we always need RN’s right.
She just graduated and got her RN job two weeks ago.
That’s when her husband came home and said the same Medical company which had hosed him once ten years ago..hired him back for two years ..did it to him again last week.
He just turned 62. She is 58. He still wants to work.
My friends company bought another company. Then the co-joined higher ups decided to keep the 30-40 somethings of the other team. Him, his boss and another one up the ladder GONE.
Not many 55 plus jobs out there white or blue collar.
Nurses,Doctors,lawyers and I guess tax people are the only ones with work. That is except for all the workers it takes to re-lay a road or build a new bridge.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 21, 2010
at 3:30 PM
Nothing is more telling or more disturbing than the fact that this woman is basically priming America for her run for the presidency by DOING TELEVISION REALITY SHOWS. Not, say, boning up on international policies, reading the great histor…ians of our time, engaging in political life in any meaningful way (iow, stumping at Tea Parties is not meaningful), nope, just jibberjabbering away on television.
That’s actually really scary to me.
LikeLike
By: tana on November 21, 2010
at 2:25 PM
“Anytime is a good time to start your own business if you have a product or service people want and can afford.” – no one’s puppet
Or you could just do like Michael Chertoff and his body scanners. Create the need and then profit from it. Look at all the PNAC members that have amassed wealth by MANipulating the marketplace.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 21, 2010
at 1:47 PM
Direct selling? Yeah, we looked into that.
Try Googling “SMC” and “scam”. (This company just as an example – there are several, but this is the best known due to the infomercials).
You might not want to go there. Whatever you do, do your research, and plenty of it. You could end up considerably poorer, instead of richer, if you’re not extremely careful.
LikeLike
By: judith on November 21, 2010
at 1:34 PM
cryptoclearance, it is really a waste of energy to try to reason with the handicapped. We have made all kinds of accomodations in our society to make them feel normal because most of us feel it is the humane and compassionate way to be. These actions were promoted by primarily liberals and progressives that paved a way for them, but still some are without gratitude and have the tendency to bite the hand that feeds them. I have been patient and consistent in presenting factual documentation to show them the greater reality, however many still choose their own closed-minded ideals, regurgitating their mantras for all of us to wallow in the experience.
Like the obnoxious relatives that overstay their welcome, these are the outcasts that don’t have a playground of their own to run and swing in. They think the first amendment gives them the right to trespass and deface private and public property at whim and with no consequence. Respect has no place in their cadence.
I suspect, and as preflyte noted, some are here only to disrupt and paste the same inane and unoriginal propaganda here and in every other “liberal” space they can find. It isn’t designed to educate or enlighten, rather to instigate, disrupt, and annoy. These are the same types who think that cheating is acceptable if it helps their cause or side.
If they recognize these as their own tactics, then this will likely be called a hateful and personal attack. It is the common response. But really it is an observation on my part based on the experience this site has brought to me. I, for one, have been more than willing to trust and concede the benefit of doubt, engage amicably, and hope for more. However, I have learned not to hold my breath. Unfortunately by not doing that, I usually get a full taste of the stench which may be either brain rot or possibly fecal matter improperly disposed.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 21, 2010
at 1:33 PM
As I said, red states economies agriculture based, including products specifically sold to farmers and the processing of agriculture products. At the moment production and consumption are approximately equal or better in the farmer favor, but things can change, (world markets, disasters, interest rates, and price of oil) these things will take their largest toll in young farmers, because of their high indebtedness. When that happens, the big cats, corporate farms, profit.
Anytime is a good time to start your own business if you have a product or service people want and can afford.
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 21, 2010
at 1:13 PM
So, Hannah, what else do you have? Better think fast because I’m about ready to check in on NASCAR.
LikeLike
By: James on November 21, 2010
at 12:54 PM
You know how people like Hannah and cryotoclearence are, Noah. They are like petulant children who have to defend themselves with name calling because they were standing in the wrong line when God handed out wits.
LikeLike
By: James on November 21, 2010
at 12:52 PM
No one’s puppet, yes most of the red states are more rural, but I think it would be good to understand what they are doing right. Today’s Omaha World Herald has a guest editorial by Barry L. Kennedy president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce. He quoted an ad the state of Nebraska bought in Time Magazine which bragged about Nebraska’s low tax rates, strong manufacturing base, good labor force and balanced budget. It was printed in 1938.
Today, according to the Associated Press, Nebraska is the third most economically healthy state in the union. One reason is the low cost of doing business in Nebraska. Neighboring states mostly do relatively well too. Western Iowa tends to be Republican and the East and central Democratic. Western Iowa’s economy approximates Nebraska’s. Is it because the rest of Iowa has more cities and population? I don’t know, but it would be nice if someone conducted a study to understand why.
Meanwhile, Omaha faces a possible recall election because overly lenient police and fire fighter’s union pension contracts were too generous. The city has narrowly avoided bankruptcy, and taxes are up.
I agree, we face a possible depression, and maybe with inflation. I also agree we need to stay in touch with our representatives. I understand why it makes you crazy. I would be too, if I thought it would do any good.
Did you see the link I posted to one of the farm news papers we subscribe to?
Thanks Noah. I agree considering starting ones’ own business is a good idea if one has a plan. I think one can get help and advice at least in some states. It can be risky. Only a small percentage of businesses survive the first five years, but it is an opportunity.
My wife has accumulated several months worth of food in addition to what I raised and processed from our garden. It is a throw back from the hard times. It makes her feel more secure, and it comes in handy when we are snowed in. Thoughts of depression make me wonder if it will have other uses.
LikeLike
By: James on November 21, 2010
at 12:46 PM
you are a sorry idiot. keep up the bullshit. most of won’t respond to your rantings and lies. deal with it or get off this forum. none of us care about your lack of memory. Noah.
LikeLike
By: cryptoclearance on November 21, 2010
at 12:45 PM
[…] you’ve never read Margaret and Helen, you […]
LikeLike
By: Open Thread 11-21-10 | Blue Wave News on November 21, 2010
at 11:38 AM
Wow Hannah, ur one of them cultured folks aren’t you?
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 21, 2010
at 11:30 AM
Actually, james, you are the sad one.
you Ass.
LikeLike
By: Hannah on November 21, 2010
at 10:58 AM
Too bad for you, Hannah. You’re stuck with me for awhile. You sad little woman.
LikeLike
By: James on November 21, 2010
at 10:20 AM
Hanna for you to not like James means your just closed minded. He is in the top 3 of the most polite debaters on here.
When I reposted it last time James Hank threatened to have me banned from the site.
The pizza delivery guy we had deliver pizza last week has a masters degree and cant find any work. In Michigan we have lost thousands of jobs that will never come back. In the town 10min south of me they have had the distinction for having the highest unemployment of any city in the nation, very hard times here.
I am myself and suggesting to others to look into home based business in the direct selling industry. close to 40% of my annual income currently comes from this industry. Very low cost to get involved and good upfront and back end money.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 21, 2010
at 10:16 AM
James and all, red states for the most part are more rural and the people there are often served by smaller regional banks, they didn’t benefit from the bailout. They have to make their money the old fashion way by loaning it out, often as operating loans to agribusiness. The large national banks are still floundering in this mortgage mess and they are still giving out huge bonuses, I would absolutely rejoice if I read bonuses were given to those who saved the bank and served the bank’s clients, but when it is the same people who created this miserable mess benefiting, it makes me crazy. But I am concerned that the red states have yet to follow the rest of the country into the situation where farmers can’t get operating loans and we have massive farm foreclosures. That is when we will rename this Recession to a
Depression, keep your Congressional Representatives on their toes people, you have a lot of power, the House has a reelection every two years, so they better answer to us.
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 21, 2010
at 10:16 AM
Love Margaret and Helen!
Used to love reading all the comments as well…until James came along.
LikeLike
By: Hannah on November 21, 2010
at 9:37 AM
I know how you feel Shawn. Our son was unemployed for a year, and he lived on temp work. Our daughter in law hasn’t been able to find a job in a year and a half. Even temp work has dried up in their part of California.
Too many of you got screwed. Welcome to the “Brave New World.”
LikeLike
By: James on November 21, 2010
at 9:17 AM
Noah, you need to repeat that post from time to time.
I also like alaskapi’s post. There is nothing so cruel and impersonal as unrestrained economics. We can mitigate’ the effects, but only to a point.
During one of the debates, Charlie Gibson asked Obama why he wanted to raise the capital gains tax instead of lowering it because history showed a lower rate brought in more revenue. Obama replied it might be true, but a lower rate wasn’t fair.
That exchange illustrated Obama’s ideological as opposed to a utilitarian approach to the economy.
Forbes issued a report early this year. “The Global Debt Bomb” showed that the those suffering most from debt and recession were five “blue states.” Among the five most fiscally sound were three red and two mixed states.
Forbes’ methodology included unfunded pension liabilities, changes in tax revenue, debt per capita, and similar factors. Daniela Perdomo at SpeakEasy disagreed with some of the interpretation and cited in and out migration as an important factor in the red state’s success.
I disagree. The migration was a function of bad conditions in blue states.
The United States is a salad, and before we send more good money after bad, we need to study why red states are on the whole thriving better than many blue states. We should compare what Bush and Clinton did to understand why they were more successful than the current leadership. We also ought to look at Germany who took a different path than we did. Their economy is recovering faster than ours.
LikeLike
By: James on November 21, 2010
at 9:07 AM
I have had more friends out of work in the past two years for longer lengths of time than I can remember. Many of them have been out of work for over a year. A few are doing things like felivering pizza despite college and technical degrees and extensive work experience in well paying jobs. Why? Because that’s all that’s out there and it pays more than unemployment and they are trying to pay both mortgageas and COBRA payments.
A lot of my friends are sending out tons of resumes and get no acknowledgeament at all. Do you know how demoralising it is to send 100, 200, 300 resumeas into virtual black holes? Then there are the friends who go through 4 interviews, sometimes ladting for two hours per episode, & then … nothing. Silence. No callback. Nobody knows who you are when you call to follow up.
One of my friends finally accepted a 6 week contract to work 4 states away because it was the only thing she could find. Now she has a one year contract. In the meantime, they’ve lost their house to foreclosure because the couldn’t catch up on their debt from the bankruptcy they suffered when her husband was out of work because of health problems.
Talk about a vicious cycle.
I have at least three sets of friends, hard working honest people living within their means who have filed for bankruptcy because of job losses; at least one who’s lost their home and another who’s been on the verge twice (& these are not fancy overpriced homes but small homes or condos in working class neighborhoods).
I have one or two friends on unemployment who quit trying. Hard to blame them when theay’ve lost everything and can’t get anybody to even give you the time day when you send in a resume.
For some folks,unemployment is the only thing between them and a foreclosure. For some it means being able to eat. It’s not a luxury. I think if we can afford to give billions of dollars to the industries who set up this mess in the first place — enough that a year later those industries can spend big chunks of that bail out money to lobby congress to block financial reform and regulations — we can afford the comparative pittance to help all the workers who got screwed in the process.
LikeLike
By: shawn on November 21, 2010
at 8:48 AM
Great post, Alaskapi!
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 21, 2010
at 7:06 AM
‘Retirement and security are not out there anymore
Big business whether republican or democratic backed, is scamming all Americans.”
——————–
I agree and I also think it has been backed by both parties.
I don’t know much about the manufacturing sector except the general shift to offshoring American jobs with the reasoning that labor costs are/were too high. It has long concerned me that there is a disconnect there .
Convincing Americans that their neighbors have no right to have decent paying jobs so they can buy cheap goods is kinda weird but it has worked to an amazing degree. As has demonizing organized labor ( there are some bad guys there but not like BB loves to pretend is the norm)
In much of the far west and especially here it is resource extraction which runs the economy.
The tensions between corporate operation and public interests are constantly in the news but it is rare the Corps get called on the carpet.
This case should be cause for cheers by everyone :
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704170404575624332712843478.html
But it is my guess that BP will spin itself out of yet another corner it backed itself into. They will certainly try.
There is ample evidence that their cost cutting measures of the last few years have contributed to not only the spills but to a culture of fear for job security amongst employees to the point folks are keeping their mouths shut to keep their jobs even if it means they may be harmed or killed on the job.
I have watched this job fear thingy grow in other places here- mining, logging, fishing. Logging basically collapsed here with BB denouncing environmentalists as the bad guys and encouraging their employees to do the same when the underlying issues were more along the order of the high cost of timber sales in the Tongass National Forest to the US taxpayer made no sense anymore along with the losses of local employment when too many logs got shipped out of the country whole instead of being milled here- which was BB’s way of operating. Didn’t hurt them at all to leave…
There are a few small local operations left which supply milled products locally and are doing fine. There is enormous value there in the solid jobs and connections to local communities. We are now over dependant on goods being shipped in and send way too much money out of the state for basic supplies.
I’m not sure that resonates with folks elsewhere as you most of you live with huge power interties and connected road systems and so on. We have over 150 stand alone power companies due to the far flung nature of communities in this huge state. While we have a certain pride in our barge and air abilities to get supplies in and out of remote areas we also have little political will in the Southcentral part of the state ( ANC and the valley- the big population area ) to confront the need to support rural Alaska… from which most of the monetary blessings they enjoy flow…
I grow ever more concerned that keeping all of us competing for jobs that stink and calling each other names keeps everyday people from looking closely at whether we really want goods so cheap and in such abundance that we close our eyes willingly to giving up decent jobs to have it all…
The boss and I have dropped affiliation with the Chamber of Commerce, NFIB, and a couple other business league outfits because they all spout the same stuff as BB and ignore our reliance on the goodwill of our community and decent wages and working conditions for staff as a part of our success so far.
I find myself wondering if the isolated nature of my community makes these things more obvious than they may be elsewhere…
LikeLike
By: alaskapi on November 21, 2010
at 6:50 AM
cryptoclearance check the post at By: Noah on November 18, 2010
at 9:32 PM. sorry to clutter your argument with facts.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 21, 2010
at 5:56 AM
“the last stimulus didn’t work” ?????? it took more than a year for the previous administration to nearly bankrupt this country, didn’t it? count about 8 – And now you want it fast? Instant gratification. short memory?
LikeLike
By: cryptoclearance on November 21, 2010
at 3:11 AM
>>The tax relief money was not used to create jobs. That is already proven fact. Jobs in this country were growing at a faster rate during the Clinton administration, before these cuts were implemented. The false claim is that by extending them, more jobs will be created. These are not jobs for Americans. Any jobs created were out of the country. Most of the money went out of the country, too. The last administration had the absolute worse record of job growth, no matter how you slice it. Of course these are facts, something you “conservatives” have difficulty grasping.<<
great post and link, Poolman. No, they will never take the time to actually get the facts and admit that we live in a MACRO world. Their wold consists of their own little micro bubble.
LikeLike
By: cryptoclearance on November 21, 2010
at 3:03 AM
No one’s puppet, if you want to read first hand how farmers and ranchers think, Google Tri State Neighbor at http:www,tristateneighbor.com. It links to other publications like Iowa Farmer Today, and to blogs.
My wife and I subscribe to around twenty newspapers and magazines, including the two I listed. Sadly, US News and World Report is closing down.
LikeLike
By: James on November 21, 2010
at 12:09 AM
I agree no one’s puppet. A farm recession in the 1920’s preceded the Great Depression, and farm values crashed in the eighties. Events in the eighties while unrelated were a prelude to our current difficulties. Rural recessions have often presaged national down turns.
My wife and I usually bought used farm equipment at auctions or at dealerships. Its one reason why we survived. Used machinery lowered our overhead. But your point is valid. So many farmers bought used machinery dealerships had to reorganize as their finances were drained.
As you wrote, rural areas and the cities they support tend to miss the extremes, so while much of the country is suffering it isn’t so bad in much of the heartland.
Right now, I am worried about our own commodities bubble. We are a favored group right now, but things could change fast as the housing market did.
The Bush tax cuts were put into place when the 9-11 attacks exacerbated the recession which had begun during the last of the Clinton administration. Kennedy and other presidents had used tax cuts to temporarily stimulate the economy, and it worked with Bush too. The recovery was not as robust as it would have been had not so many jobs been outsourced, but it was a recovery.
I agree about the banks.
Stanly Kurtz described how the housing market was politicalised with bad loans which banks turned into toxic resources that polluted the world market. Our banker told me government officials inspected their books and insisted they loan money to low income people even though their chances of repayment were modest.
The last stimulus obviously didn’t work. One reason was it concentrated on funding governments and temporarily preserving already existing jobs. Relatively few new jobs were created, so instead of making new capital, the government was recirculating what already existed. As government funding ends the jobs disappear.
We need a different form of stimulus than the last one. Money has to go directly to consumers and to businesses.
Elites on both sides run the world to suit their fancies. The only viable revolutionary counter force is the Tea Party. There will be no comparable force on the left for at least the next year. A Gallup poll showed 18% self reporting liberals, 21% moderates, and 54% conservatives. The numbers are against you. Current events confirm my belief.
I think liberals and conservatives could find agreement on a few key issues and if they could unite the grass roots power might change things for the better. I’d really like to see liberals and conservatives dilute the Tea Party into a moderate force. Otherwise, it will be more of the same unless Democrats and Republicans cooperate and compromise. And yes, even my wife and I could be affected.
LikeLike
By: James on November 20, 2010
at 11:58 PM
Stress causes the body to release certain chemicals. Cortisol and adrenaline, which are normally issued in extreme situations.
LikeLike
By: raz-siood.net on November 20, 2010
at 10:49 PM
Thank you for sitting through that dreck so that we didn’t have to !
LikeLike
By: SarahT on November 20, 2010
at 9:20 PM
This dovetails with those other articles.
Taibbi: the Tea Party Moron Complex
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 20, 2010
at 9:10 PM
It would seem that the liberals and conservatives disagree, what is the crux of the problem? Conservatives think, business is afraid to expand (rehire and retool), because the businesses’ taxes are going to go up. Liberals think, businesses are not rehiring or buying new equipment for two reasons, one is of course there no one, including the government, who can afford their product and/or services. The second is the businesses, particularly small businesses can’t get operational loans, because banks are hoarding the bailout funds they received, money that was meant to recirculate throughout the economy. Well they are delving out huge bonuses of course. Does it really seem more likely to anyone, that after eight years of reduced taxes, years in which the economy nosedived, while CEOs gold plated their offices, that was the answer then or that it would be the answer now?
It seems to me, that rural communities are always a couple of years or more behind Wall Street when it comes to Recessions. Didn’t farm land values fall drastically in the eighties, much like housing is now. And of course that resulted in farm sales, and farmers bought used farm equipment at auction rather than new. My friends in the mid-west and family in Texas tell me the housing and job markets in their small towns are hardly affected by the current recession and I hope it stays that way, but I know it won’t if this mess isn’t fixed soon. So my point is, if the government doesn’t stimulate the economy even James is going to be affected.
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 20, 2010
at 8:08 PM
That is a good article. We already have a nancent revolution in force, the Tea Party. Imagine if right and left could join forces over one or two concepts they agree on.
I don’t know how to encourage our representatives PFessor. I call and write them so often they recognize my voice. When time permits, I visit their local meetings and ask questions, and I write letters to the editor. No idea if it does any good.
LikeLike
By: James on November 20, 2010
at 5:46 PM
We have a wingnut problem.
“Imagine a nation, the rulers of the land, sea and air, a nation whose children are groped and strip searched in airports, a nation willing to follow a semi-literate pit bull known to be a puppet of Wall Street and Tel Aviv. Imagine an entire nation of people who do little but call each other ‘wingnuts.'”
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 20, 2010
at 5:28 PM
poolman –
Great link. Now that’s more like it. I couldn’t agree more and I’m neither liberal or conservative. When libs, cons AND libertarians can get behind a plan, you just might be onto something.
Those ideas are exactly what I hear ordinary folks support every day. Why do you think it is not being done, and how do you think we_the_voters can encourage our …ahem…representatives in Wash. to get on the stick?
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 20, 2010
at 5:13 PM
Dismissed,
“Sight is a faculty; seeing is an art.” – George Perkins Marsh
We Can Fix America If We Focus on What ALL Americans – Liberals AND Conservatives – Want
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 20, 2010
at 4:48 PM
Poolman –
(snip of all scripture)
“What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence” — Hitchens
Dismissed.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 20, 2010
at 4:31 PM
Now..That’s some Heavy Ju Ju.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 20, 2010
at 4:10 PM
Also, too,
“Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:44-46)
For food products and people it is wise to check the ingredients and not just go by the packaging. Marketing is king. Don’t be subject.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 20, 2010
at 3:14 PM
For all who have exploited others for profit,
“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted ; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure ! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure ; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.” (James 5:1-6)
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 20, 2010
at 2:47 PM
jsri, if the Naughty Monkey pump fits…
😀
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 20, 2010
at 2:44 PM
alaskapi,
I liked your comments about big business. But what has been lost here is that most BIG business is taking the jobs out of the country, leaving us with many of the lower wage jobs. Yes there is BMW in S. Carolina and some General Motors jobs as well as supporting companies in providing parts. But the middle guy or the one who has say 20 or fewer employees are probably the ones most effected by the possible tax increases.
I worked for a helicopter manufacturer who took “ALL” of their civilian production line to Canada. It started out as a Canadian contract to provide Canada with a helicopter manufacturing capability with Canada providing the acreage outside Montreal as well as the physical plant. Then Bell provided the plans and people to build a military helo for the Canadian military. After that it was to be just a Canadian licensed Bell manufacturer. Quickly though the management thru design or by accident decided because of rising labor costs and unions activity, ALL civilian helos ended up being built in Canada. Bell in Fort Worth became a supplier of transmissions, gear boxes and blades until they were trained and provided the technical capability to do it themselves.
Bell then sent the production of the V-22 military aircraft from Fort Worth where the 6 prototypes were built and tested to Amarillo Texas. Why? Labor costs. No Unions and thus all production of the delivered aircraft to the military is coming out of the Amarillo plant. The only thing coming from Bell in FW are the gear box systems and blades. The fuselages are built in South Philly and air shipped to Texas and married there.
Then the new Marine Cobras which were designed and tested in FW were also sent to Amarillo. The only thing constructed in Fort Worth now is blades and transmissions. Other than that some mods on existing scout aircraft and design mods are the only thing existing. Where there were once 6.000 employees now number less than 3,000.
We once had a media department with 27 employees. Its now down to eight.
I told a friend of mine who was 44 at the time I was laid off that he would not see retirement there. And just as I thought, I was replaced with a younger person four years after I left. My friend who I warned was laid off less than ten years later this past May. He was 53.
Retirement and security are not out there anymore
Big business whether republican or democratic backed, is scamming all Americans.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 20, 2010
at 2:42 PM
Not that it will do any good, but even GOP judges are saying enough with the obstruction:
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/20/gop-judges-letter/
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 20, 2010
at 1:45 PM
I believe this post was originally about Sarah Palin and I think it is time to get back to the subject because yesterday, former Hilary Clinton aide Jami Floyd referred to Sarah Palin as an “extraordinary ass.”
That may be a bit of hyperbolic over-reaching although I’d bet many male repugs look at her not as a complete ass but at least as a piece of one.
Sorry. Even I have to defend SP once in a while.
LikeLike
By: jsri on November 20, 2010
at 1:43 PM
As usual Helen, I agree with you 100%. Keep writing what I’m saying and thinking 🙂 My “Representative” ( and I use the term loosely, Heath Shuler voted against extending unemployment benefits. He is one of those dumb as a stump Blue dogs…and there is over 12% unemployment in this part of his district.
LikeLike
By: Corie on November 20, 2010
at 12:55 PM
Thank you so much for shining light into the dark places in our world. I love that you responded to some of the ignorance posted in response to your blogs and that you mentioned the “unchristian” behavior being exhibited. I find myself reluctanct to call myself a Christian for fear that I’ll be lumped into the same lot as those self-centered, judgemental, unloving people that seem to have the loudest voices. Still, I have enough hope to believe that most people can and do care about their neighbors and some of them even remember Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor as yourself”.
LikeLike
By: Julia Walters on November 20, 2010
at 11:50 AM
I wonder if any of these folks have ever tried living on $375 a week. Talk about not in touch with the people!!
LikeLike
By: Barbara on November 20, 2010
at 10:58 AM
That’s all right No one’s puppet. I knew what you were doing. I focused on you and ignored the rest. I have lived in the city and on the farm. There is a tremendous cultural and economic dichotomy between the two. Regional differences also abound. I live on a cultural divide between the cowboy West and heartland agriculture. As you write, we need to understand each other. As some posts show, we don’t.
No we don’t run our household on a quarter million. As I wrote the two times it happened were flukes, but I know people who do, and I tried to illustrate how they also struggle at times. Money is more egalitarian here. People socialize without much regard for incomes, and those who have it don’t flaunt it. And yes, the tax man will come. We follow the rules.
I’m sure folks in the kitchen wonder what that crazy James will do next and they wish I would shut up.
To the hostiles:
… I can plow a field all day long
I can catch a catfish from dusk till dawn
We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too
Ain’t too many things these ole boys can’t do
We grow good ole tomatoes and home made wine…
…Because you can’t starve us out
And you can’t make us run
Cause every one of them old boys raised on shot gun
And we say grace and we say Ma’am
And if you ain’t into that we don’t give a damn.”
Hank Williams Junior
Or:
When I was in school I ran with a kid down the street
And I watched him burn himself up on bourbon and speed.
But I was smarter than most, and I could choose.
Learned to talk like the man on the six o’clock news.
When I was eight teen, lord I hit the road
‘But it really doesn’t matter how far I go…
I can still hear the soft Southern winds in the live oak trees
And those Williams boys they still mean a lot to me
Hank and Tennessee
I guess we’re all gonna be what we’re gonna be
So what do you do with good ole boys like me?”
Don Williams
Enjoy your dinner.
LikeLike
By: James on November 20, 2010
at 10:20 AM
My son was on unemployment. He gave up and went back to school. More debt, but hopefully he can ride out this rough patch and find a job in a year or to.
I always wonder why people are so vicious to those who they look down on?
I always told my kids that they had a hole in them that the hate fills.
They seem to have an awful lot of hate don’t they?
Sarah palin is the worst of them. She is a millionaire many times over, yet she is still soliciting money from those less fortunate then her. She has to maintain the fiction that she may run for POTUS just to keep those donations coming in. You would think she would say. Enough! till I make my decision keep your money for your family. But no, unearned money must be like an addictive drug.
How many millions are in Congress? Many. And they have free health care. They want to deny to the rest of us a chance to be able to buy health care. Not get it for free, but a chance to buy and be able to protect our families.
Unemployment keeps people off welfare.
How christian and way to show family values, let the masses starve and die.
Well that’s a sure fire way to get rid of all those pesky people!
LikeLike
By: Diane on November 20, 2010
at 9:36 AM
Make their into there
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 20, 2010
at 9:24 AM
Rather think James, the tax roll back won’t affect you and yours, it doesn’t sound as if you and the Mrs. run your “household” on a quarter of a million per/year, sorry you are middle class tax payers just like the majority of us. One problem solved!
Sorry about everyone jumping on you for answering my questions, we all know their is a breach between rural and urban dichotomies. Only way to get past all this partisanship in my view is ask and listen. And PFessor is wrong, the IRS will come after you.
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 20, 2010
at 9:23 AM
hooo!
There’s a whole lot of hasty generalization popping in here right now!
Creating yet another divide between rural and urban America is not going to get anyone anywhere. BTW that is one of whatzername’s favorite ploys- to actively wedge herself between any resolution of the problems between the two. Something her followers fail to see is that she is totally pro-urban in Alaska ( or what passes for urban here) and purports to stand for a largely rural base Outside…
James- I don’t care how much money you make I simply disagree with the idea that taxes stifle employment as a matter of course. Your own small operation in no way reflects what big business is and has done in recent years. I manage a small business and there is no way that all the rhetoric spewing from the big Corps has anything to do with the reality of what it is to be a small business… but they sure like to try to include us in their gobbeldygook and hold us up as the poster child for certain economic policies.
Currently, big business appears to be demanding safety and security it denies to others before it will step up to the plate and be part of anything… that is very different than the risks small businesses take everyday. Period.
There is a serious problem with identifying too closely with the crap the corps are pushing- each small business is tied more closely to it’s own community and the fortunes of it’s neighbors in a way big business is largely immune from- as BB can bring resources to bear from outside a local area to offset downturns and/or can pull out of a depressed area to shelter itself.
There are many, many other problems with this whole thing and small business needs to quit falling for the horsepunky.
LikeLike
By: alaskapi on November 20, 2010
at 8:17 AM
James –
I tried to tell you.
There is an old saying: never explain; your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it. Explaining yourself to some here is like trying to explain the concept of left-handed vs. right-handed to Martians. It is impossible, because they have no point of reference. City-dwellers whose life’s work consists of shuffling papers have no concept of steaming cow shit at five in the morning, and you can’t help them, because they don’t *want* to understand. That is not their object. They have no empathy and no interest in hearing about a self-made man; they are just looking for an easy way to criticize someone who has actually LIVED his life, and by trying to explain, you have given them more ammunition. (The real problem, my friend, is that you HAVE lived and they have NOT.)
All the trolls know is that you resist being forced at gunpoint (Don’t think the Man has a gun? Don’t pay your taxes next year.) to turn over that which you have rightfully earned to those who have NOT earned it, so no matter what you say, you are the enemy. They will concede no points well-made; there is no quarter given. They aren’t your friends.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 20, 2010
at 7:01 AM
For the love of God, James, get your own blog.
NOBODY wants to hear about your coveralls.
Really.
LikeLike
By: Jeff on November 20, 2010
at 5:09 AM
Less is more James. Less is more.
LikeLike
By: Hank on November 20, 2010
at 1:40 AM
“The cornerstone of the multibillion-dollar system of federal farm subsidies is an iconic image of the struggling family farmer: small, powerless against Mother Nature, tied to the land by blood.”
“Being labeled as a family farmer immediately qualifies me as someone who needs help,” he said. “Name one other business like that — there are none.”
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 20, 2010
at 1:37 AM
As far as those greenbacks are concerned, wikipedia says, “Farm subsidies have the direct effect of transferring income from the general tax payers to farm owners.”
“Some critics argue that the artificially low prices resulting from subsidies create unhealthy incentives for consumers. For example, cane sugar has been replaced with cheap corn syrup, making high-sugar food less expensive.[28] However, it should be noted that beet and cane sugar in the U.S. is a beneficiary of subsidies and price controls that result in artifically high prices.
Market distortions due to subsidies have led to an increase in corn fed cattle rather than grass fed.[29] Corn fed cattle require more antibiotics and have a higher fat content.”
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 20, 2010
at 1:24 AM
Farmers cost us more than just the subsidies the government pays them. There is also an environmental impact. Organic farming is one thing, but when you are messing with chemicals and genetics, it can get tricky. MANipulation of nature isn’t usually wise.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 20, 2010
at 1:06 AM
James, if your children are unlikely to farm, and that seems to be the case, why are you concerned about the tax on the farms they will inherit, they will probably sell them off and they can pay the inheritance tax out of the proceeds. And what you set aside for a scholarship, that is a deduction isn’t it?
LikeLike
By: No one's puppet on November 20, 2010
at 12:26 AM
Maybe it is apples and oranges. Our days of squeaking by the $250,000. net income line are over. Both times were flukes, but I am arguing it is unfair to our richer neighbors to have to pay the higher rate. They are like us, only with more land. I don’t know if our local furnace company nets over $250,000, but if they do, they deserve a break too. They are nice people. Their keeping the Bush tax cuts will help our local economy.
I don’t wear coveralls. I wear jeans, and except for a good broad band computer connection, I can’t think of any thing I need or want that I don’t have. We save what we can for possible future medical emergencies and for the scholarship fund we want to set up for our local high school graduating classes. I want it large enough for it to be self sustaining. We also want to accumulate enough money to let our kids pay the inheritance tax.
LikeLike
By: James on November 20, 2010
at 12:00 AM
Real tax data:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 19, 2010
at 11:50 PM
James, we aren’t discusing your gross income, but instead your net income. Perhaps you and I are discusing apples and oranges? In which case your Bush tax cut will be renewed. If not, how many pairs of coveralls do you need?
LikeLike
By: No one's puppet on November 19, 2010
at 11:01 PM
No one’s puppet, farmers like us create many jobs because we buy stuff. Our money keeps implement and seed dealers in business. We buy groceries, cars and computers. Farmers’ Co-ops live because of the farmer, and they employee scores of people ranging from grain market analysts to herbicide specialists. Small towns wither when farmers do poorly and prosper when they do well.
Omaha’s unemployment rate is about 5.4% and a local economist gave some of the credit to farmers. Our area from Grand Forks to Dallas is one of the most economically viable parts of the country an it is in part, due to the money farmers circulate.
Before Roundup- ready soy beans, and when we had a little money, we hired crews of local teenagers and sometimes migrant hispanics to help weed our bean fields. Our family worked beside them. Yes, we wrote them off as a business expense, but in the leaner years, they were earning more per hour than we were paying ourselves.
Our larger neighbors like the one with 8,000 acres hire several workers full time. Some will provide them with houses and a side of beef or two during the year as well as insurance.
I am not bragging, but since you called me selfish, I will enlighten you. We paid a woman’s rent for two months during a nasty divorce. We paid $800, for a young woman’s knife set. She worked as a chef at a casino, and her ex- husband had stolen her knives. Employees had to provide their own cutlry. We also bought a new computer for a couple who needed it. One woman called my wife a “reverse thief” because of the stuff she kept delivering when they were gone. We also collect clothes and other items and deliver it to a shelter in Omaha every month or so. My wife also rummages through the school trash cans at the end of the school year because students often throw repairable items away. She fixes jackets, etc and quietly gives it to students who can’t afford their own.
For these reasons, I think our keeping the extra money does our locality more good than letting the government expropriate it. If our taxes go up, we can’t help as much.
Its part of our culture. Many people with a little money help their less fortunate neighbors. The retired farmer with Warren Buffet’s stock is paying our Town and Country legal expenses.
We are not wealthy. We are comfortable, and right now, this is one of the happiest times of my life. We are beginning to reap the rewards for the blood, sweat, and tears we shed over the years. Can you imagine, our daughter who sometimes calls on her way home from work demanding “entertain me. I’m bored” said “thank you for feeding me and giving me a home.” How can it get any better?
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 10:44 PM
Alive and Well, Poolman & Delurker, hear yee, hear yee! And yes, Kathy D, who votes for these crazy people? The logic does not make sense does it?
LikeLike
By: Easier on November 19, 2010
at 10:05 PM
We need to do a PR campaign directed at the Afghans for the USA, Inc.’s occupation. They didn’t get the message about 9/11.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 19, 2010
at 9:54 PM
Sorry about the long post about farming, but farmers do that. I have visited with British, Brazilian, Canadian and other farmers. We are all the same. We talk and talk. We probably have more in common with each other than some of our own countrymen.
You know how I keep score over political arguments etc. Most farmers I know do the same with their businesses. A farm magazine we got today has an article about it with interviews. If a farmer bought a tractor or stalk cutter which went bad, he will worry about it for years. One of my big mistakes was paying too much for a tractor cab at a farm sale in 1976. One of my best decisions was emptying a bin of corn and selling it for $5.20 a bushel before rain took the price down in August, 1995.
The reason, I think is a psychological need to feel a sense of control in a potentially chaotic career. A platoon sargent did the same thing in Vietnam. If a man died or was wounded, he gathered his grieveing men around and told them why their friend became a casualty. It was because he made a mistake. If they didn’t blunder as he had, they would make it back to the world.
This is just a wild guess. I think losing the Bush tax cuts would cost us around $2,000 to $4000. and some of our larger neighbors up to $20,000. As you can see it is chicken feed and will not in itself put someone out of business. However, it is money taken out of the local economy, and if one imagines a bad year ahead, it is one more hurdle to overcome.
I asked our daughter if she would consider farming when she wasn’t sure about picking a college or major. Her reply was “ARE YOU INSANE!?”
Some on the right said Obama didn’t offer any tax cuts. They are wrong. We had a small one. Right now, it is a very good time to be a farmer.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 9:54 PM
delurkergurl, farming is one of the most physically dangerous and demanding occupations in the United States. Sometimes surveys in Iowa ranked agriculture in the top ten.
Our farm is too small to have many $250,000. years, but it happened when we sold our cattle herd and happened to have one of our best crops in the same year. The other time, we had a very good crop prices when we sold a combine and a disk to a neighbor. It also took us over the edge. Our larger neighbors farm much more land and as you could see from a neighbor I cited with 8,000 acres a good year earns a lot of money. Since we rented out our land, we will never have to worry about passing the limit unless we decided to sell some of our land. We don’t plan to do that.
Farming is boom and bust. Rainfall and temperatures can be perfect and if prices are also good as two years ago and now, you can make a killing. Usually, input prices rise with the crop and nulify some of the profits the following year. That happened about 2008 when oil prices rose. Fertilizer and other oil based tools rose faster than the price of grain and the 2009, crops brought less money before the price of herbicides and fertilizer fell. Seeds are genetically altered to kill all manner of pests or to withstand drought etc. They cost a lot of money now. Farmers no longer buy many varieties of wheat, soy beans or other seeds. They buy the rights to use the seeds. Farmers are no longer able to save non hybred seed for next year’s use. If they do, the company will sue them. You may have a good season and hope to cut expenses with your own seed in the next year, but not now.
Next year, hail may wipe you out, or a drought or flood will kill your crop. Sometimes localized disasters coincide with low prices giving one the worst of both worlds. A bad machinery or land purchase can coincide with a poor crops and or prices to take you under.
Irrigation is another gamble for those who use it. While it evens out the yield from year to year, it costs a lot of money. A friend told me he spent over $500.00 for each rotation of each pivot. It is more than that now. One might irrigate too soon, and end up with an inch of rain which negates the benefit of all of that spent money. Irrigation motors fail at inopportune times, such as when corn is withering in the sun.
An example of boom and bust for us began in 2004 when everything worked in our favor. We had over 200 bushel corn and 55 bushel beans. Prices were pretty good considering the good crop. Elevators filled and they piled corn on the ground. It was a good year.
Drought hit a 20 mile wide area including our farm in 2005. Neighbors to the north had corn fields insurance agents estimated at 5 bushels per acre. Our corn yielded about 30 bushels per acre and the beans 20. Areas outside of our drought had wonderful crops, and the market crashed. Crop insurance let us get enough money for the next crop, but that was about it. We lived on my wife’s teaching salary and unsold grain from the 2004 crop. 2006 was more of the same with another crop failure.
Most now have crop insurance, and can use the grain or livestock market like stock traders. Forward contracting also helps. Of course some of that is a gamble. One can contract grain for a certain price and it might surge a few dollars more than what you have contracted. Or you might contract a certain amount of grain and have a poor crop. Then, you have to buy grain to fulfill the contract, and if the price is higher than what you contracted for you lose doubly. Or, you might get a big margin call.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 9:34 PM
So trying to logically wrap my mind around all of this. If we are to be honest, what the majority of you are advocating is forced redistribution of wealth. If they won’t give it willingly, then it should be taken by our government. Am I the only one who thinks, especially considering the country we live in, the American dream and all, that this comes across as terribly unethical?
I do know that the top 5% of income earners already pay 80% of the tax base. I think this is a lot by anyone’s standards.
Could anyone explain to me how putting more taxes on business helps us create more jobs, or even creates more prosperity?
So we are clear, saying you support placing more taxes on the wealthy is the same as saying you support increasing taxes on small business. Since has James clearly showed small business owners are in this income bracket.
In backing up my theory that this is the party of hate, I see the wealthy being demonized for no other reason that they have, and those that demonize them have not. All of the wealthy people I know have had to make sacrifices to get where they are at. They were willing to do what others were not. That is not to say that their are not those that had it handed to them, but since our tax code cannot discern the hard worker, from the one born with the silver spoon, they are all effected.
I know many of you are against the death penalty because of the innocent that could possibly be effected. So lets transpose that to this tax on the wealthy. No matter now a person attained their wealth you have to be ok with it being taken away. Even if it is a person who started with nothing and through hard work and smart and innovative thinking acquired his wealth. I find myself having a hard time articulating exactly why on so many levels this is wrong. I just know my conscious, or gut feeling tells me this isn’t right. These are not the principles that this country was founded on. I refuse to believe that this is the spirit of what the USA is supposed to stand for.
This notion to me smacks of discrimination. We are taking a class of people who have and we are telling them they must give more than others, and we are asking our government to by force of law to support this discrimination. How is this form of discrimination any different than racial or sexist discrimination, and how can anyone this day and age be ok with that?
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 19, 2010
at 9:08 PM
I’m not saying that the wealthy are all evil. Evil finds its way across the entire class/race/culture spectrum. Many good people work for corporations that participate in aiding evil directly or indirectly. They put in their time, receive their pay and sometimes benefits, to do a job that profits someone, somehow. They may be just a small piece of a huge puzzle that enables a bigger entity to grow and thrive. What are we helping to thrive? We feel less responsible for the whole if we manage to be responsible for our part and the boundries that establishes. Does that company help or hurt the planet? Are you making bread or bullets?
We live in a complex world. It has been made complex by design, primarily so that distortion of good and evil can be accomplished. Thereby our natural compassion that chooses to overlook the evil to promote the good is exploited. Most of these evil corporations have healthy PR campaigns to give them a good image. A necessary expense that generally pays off. Look at tobacco. Now BP. We love them, they’re so warm and cuddly. Harley used to be American. We sure sold out. None of the crap I can buy today is made to last. It isn’t profittable to make it to last forever. Capitalism beat out craftsmanship about the same time a job beat out an occupation. I build stuff to last. I’m a dying breed.
Profit is king in a capitalist run environment. When money is all it’s about, people suffer. Those doling out the money control everyone that uses it. Look at the FED. Who is profitting there? It’s against our constitution, yet has existed 98 years. WTF? Those in control are usually so far removed from the point where the impact of their actions touch humanity that there is no conscience required to make decisions. From the top on down, gaming the system, something many do or try to do, also undermines the entire balance. The responsibility is easily shifted where there are many levels and layers between a job and a position and a stock holder. Where’s the line? It get’s foggy. Sometimes we prefer to keep it that way.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 19, 2010
at 8:31 PM
Ruh roh. The pope is off message! I wonder what his penance will be?
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/19/pope-is-no-tea-partier-benedict-backs-guaranteed-health-care-fo/
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 19, 2010
at 7:45 PM
…AND beat down all those Republicans who make more than $250,000 a yr & are telling everyone that their big plan for this next year is to keep the Bush tax credits for the rich (but not the poor) and take out Obama’s health care reform. What kind of idiot is against health care reform?! Who votes for these crazy people???
LikeLike
By: Kathy D on November 19, 2010
at 7:33 PM
I have been giving this some serious thought. I think the masses -vs- the wealthy is a significant manipulation of the message. I don’t have anything against wealthy people. I work for them. I am related to some. I’m friends with some. I’m not against them. Most are wonderful people. They aren’t equivalent to the big corporations I’ve come to distrust and resent after seeing my friends and neighbors suffer. Being wealthy doesn’t make them happier people. I don’t envy them even though sometimes I’d like to trade my problems for theirs.
There’s a bumper sticker that says “Democrats serve the PEOPLE. To me it sort of sums up the difference between the two major parties in this country. I care about all people, even the wealthy ones. However, I’m a practical sort and can’t help but think that helping the people who have been screwed out of their jobs will benefit more from meager unemployment rations than the wealthy (or those they trickle on) from tax cuts. It’s just not right to give tax cuts to those who are managing OK at the expense of, or as a ransom condition, for those who will literally return every cent of their unemployment rations to the economy on luxuries like house payments, bread, gasoline, etc, AND STILL BE SUFFERING. How does anyone benefit from casting those people aside? They are consumers! They have homes that will get foreclosed on, dragging down our home values in the process. Hurting them hurts us all.
I’m all for tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. How about as a reward for hiring unemployed people?
James, I’m not sure what doesn’t feel right about your story. I keep thinking, how are people operating on such narrow margins still managing to pull down a quarter mill a year and fitting in the top 2%? Really, how much will the Bush tax increases burden you? Because I’m just not seeing it and I want to understand.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 19, 2010
at 6:57 PM
“Having means to live within requires the sort of fiscal strength where the upper echelon isn’t richly rewarded for farming out jobs to other countries and for shielding income in legal & illegal ways, etc.”
I believe you are talking about two separate issues. Firstly, although you have tried to associate “fiscal strength” with another topic (the government’s rewarding bad behavior), that is not what it means; the two are in no way related – any more than ice cream and quasars are related. Fiscal strength refer to the ability of a country (or a person) to have his checkbook balanced and be ready to weather hard times.
The second issue (shielding income inappropriately, &c) is one of “fairness,” I believe – or more to the point, the government’s right – and DUTY – to see that the playing field is level and that nobody takes advantage of others. Serious Libertarians feel this is the only legitimate job of government – protecting the weak from the strong.
I think this regime and the one before have failed completely on both issues. My sense of right and wrong is strongly Libertarian; I am not liberal or conservative (although Libertarianism can be pretty well approximated as “fiscally conservative and socially liberal”.
‘It’s far more complex than your “let them eat cake” philosophy.’
That is not my philosophy.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 19, 2010
at 6:54 PM
James, you’re a farmer, you aren’t going to create anymore jobs. Good one! Too bad it doesn’t create more jobs private or public. If you did create a job or two, you’d just write it off as a business expense anyway, geez. Atlas…most boring book in print!
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 19, 2010
at 6:53 PM
YOU I would elect to office. Any office. Your pick.
I know, you have too much common sense for that. But I appreciate you anyway. 🙂
LikeLike
By: hope on November 19, 2010
at 6:47 PM
But James, you think, that all of our children and grandchildren should pay for you and others like you to have a low tax rate. The word for that is selfish! I am very happy that you have weathered various financial adversities, now you are in a position to help your country….
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 19, 2010
at 6:45 PM
OK..
Let me see if I can post something that both sides may agree on?
How about the new and improved screening techniques?
I returned from San Diego earlier this week and exited from Lindberg field where all the stink originated because of the “don’t touch my junk” comment to the TSA officer. I went thru the scanner held my wallet above my head and stood for 10 seconds..then exited to a set of footprints to stand atop, where they hold you until the technician ..somewhere in the building wired or called them and said I was clear.
Would be be better off getting private security firms or let the airlines screen us themselves because of our proven flight history with them?
I believe the guy at Lindberg wanted to create the stir just because he was video taping the encounter. But then there was the four year old being patted down and screaming the whole time. Pilots and flight crew members should be exempt. If their peers trust them and the pilots are FAA certified then why be scanned?
What say you Dem’s, Pugs?
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 19, 2010
at 6:18 PM
I love Helen & Margaret! I wish I could say it as well. Because I am sooo fed up.
I feel as if we are living in a bad movie! (Palin calls the President and his wife Racists, Limbaugh says the President is like graffitti on a wall) and it’s okay.
Where is the outrage?
The Republicans won’t pass extended unemployment benefits (because it encourages people to be lazy! Please!) but they want the wealthiest to get benefits and extend the tax cuts….even though it will cost us billions.
And then what is almost crazier is that our President is going to allow this absurd, not helping anyone, billions of dollars a month war continue for the next 4 years. The money from these wars could solve an awful lot of problems at home.
Where is the outrage??
LikeLike
By: betterbeach on November 19, 2010
at 6:04 PM
Job losses were also greater during the years since these cuts were established. Now I’m sure we helped employ foreigners and helped make the wealthy wealthier, but it hurt our nation more than anything else. Add to that the deregulation of the banking institutions and it is easy to see why we are where we are. We were sold to the highest bidder. Decimation of the middle class.
It has nothing to do with calluses, because the bulk of these wealthy elites have never had to do any real manual labor. If they got any calluses at all, it was from holding on to tightly to those greenbacks.
Ignorance breeds ignorance. Better use protection.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 19, 2010
at 6:02 PM
The tax relief money was not used to create jobs. That is already proven fact. Jobs in this country were growing at a faster rate during the Clinton administration, before these cuts were implemented. The false claim is that by extending them, more jobs will be created. These are not jobs for Americans. Any jobs created were out of the country. Most of the money went out of the country, too. The last administration had the absolute worse record of job growth, no matter how you slice it. Of course these are facts, something you “conservatives” have difficulty grasping.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 19, 2010
at 5:52 PM
Our son finally got the computer- related job he had trained for in college. Silicone Valley had begun to revive, and he was the company site’s first hire in two years. They knew him because he had worked there as a temp. His boss told him to thank the tax cuts for his job. I don’t know if it was true or not, but his boss seemed to think so.
Lower taxes give people and businesses more money to spend, and in theory, that is how it makes jobs. Bush’s tax cuts helped cut the unemployment rate, but as you wrote many of the jobs and businesses were small like dog walkers. I think our globalization policies and lax rules for off shore tax shelters still let good jobs leave, even with equable taxes. Still, I think the unemployment rate during Bush’s adminstration was four or five percent. People began to lose jobs as the economy failed. I could be wrong since I didn’t look it up, but it is how I remember it.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 5:19 PM
Haven’t these tax policies been in place since 2001 or 2002? Jobs/businesses like dog walker, party planner have been created… small businesses indeed. But I am not exactly sure how the decreased taxes have served to stimulate job creation… it seems unemployment has inched up since it was enacted. Just sayin…
LikeLike
By: dawn on November 19, 2010
at 5:00 PM
I’m not saying “let them eat cake.” I’m saying higher taxes make it harder to create new jobs.
Major employers farm jobs to other countries because of economic rules which dictate that they maximize profits to survive. Our wages and some corporate taxes are higher than in other countries, so naturally companies which can will operate where expenses are lower. We need to offer incentives to pursuade them to keep the jobs here or to attract more foreign companies.
I was wrong about the globalization Clinton and allies on both sides of the aisle developed in the ’90’s. I thought it was a great idea at first. It would help third world countries earn better standards of living. Unfortunately, it hurts ours.
Our son lived through it. His first permanent job out of college ended when the company closed the site and opened a new one in Pakistan after transferring his Pakistani co- workers back home. Except for temp work, our son was unemployed for about a year.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 4:45 PM
Having means to live within requires the sort of fiscal strength where the upper echelon isn’t richly rewarded for farming out jobs to other countries and for shielding income in legal & illegal ways, etc. It’s far more complex than your “let them eat cake” philosophy.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 19, 2010
at 4:31 PM
You have a point PFessor. Thanks.
I love my wife too much, Jeff.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 4:27 PM
That should read “Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength” is right out of Orwell. Love means hate. Peace means war. Big Brother is Good.
Fiscal strength comes from living within your means, Comrade; not sucking the lifeblood out of those whose work and entrepreneurship actually powers this now-foundering Ship of State.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 19, 2010
at 4:24 PM
My wife and I are not millionaires in the sense we can actually spend it. The money lives in our land. It has become essentially an interest bearing annuity.
I’ve heard of that Poolman. I could be wrong, but I don’t think many local small business people, including farmers would agree with those folks. Some are operating with thin margins. The millionaires in that group may be high on the food chain where they actually have real money to spend and have access to more tax shelters than the people I know. As I wrote, I could be wrong. I am just speculating about the forty. That is also a small number for the number of rich people in this country.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 4:22 PM
Get a room you two.
LikeLike
By: Jeff on November 19, 2010
at 4:19 PM
“Patriotic Millionaires” for fiscal strength to ask pres O. to d/c tax breaks.
That’s right out of Orwell.
James, don’t bother telling your story. All it does is bring out the “Horatio Alger” snide remarks and folks who never had a callus on their hands in their lives poking fun at your hard work.
By god, I like you better all the time.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 19, 2010
at 4:17 PM
“More than 40 of the nation’s millionaires have joined Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength to ask President Obama to discontinue the tax breaks established for them during the Bush administration.”
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 19, 2010
at 4:11 PM
Yes PFessor, I do feel like Hank sometimes. If Atlas visited this site he would surely Shrug.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 4:04 PM
That’s how we did it, no one’s puppet. We got tax refunds in bad years and paid taxes in the good. However, the higher rate takes money away from the business like a slowly bleeding wound.
I am not crying. I am proud of what we did. We are not millionaires, we are multimillionaires…on paper. The average farm parcel is estimated to rise another 10% this year. That’s better than the stock market. The higher property tax better helps support our school and my wife’s teaching salary.
We could, but we take no Social Security and I am still on my wife’s health insurance plan.
We put ourselves through Hell to get where we are. Our children grew up fast during the hard times because near the end of it we were caring for my parents at home, taking care of an aunt, and doing what we could for my father-in law who died of Alzhiemers disease. The children first started working with us at the age of three, as soon as they could hold a corn knife.
Our son drove a tractor for eight hours a day when he was 11 when it was time to mow hay, and he drove the pickup which hauled straw we picked up after the wheat harvest. The day after senior prom, our daughter was disking stalk ground because rain had put us behind. They did their home work in tractors after midnight during harvest as they unloaded corn into bins. My wife taught school by day and farmed at night.
When my father required 24 hour care, I watched him during the day and farmed at night and on weekends when my wife and kids were home.
Better farmers than we failed during the eighties, and we should have gone out of business too, but we persevered. Desperation is a powerful emotion. I felt like a vulture as I scouted failing operations for something cheap we could use, but I did it. Two days before my mother died, my wife sobbed “I can’t take it any more. I’m drowning.”
Our children’s high school classes had lived through such economic and other trauma they invented their own “no child left behind.”
Our experience left marks. We still live poor. Our three cars date from 1999 and 1991. Two nights ago, my wife talked our daughter through buying a new pair of shoes. Though she is in her twenties, our daughter is a therapist in charge of an independent site and she still has problems spending money. Our son earns a lot of money, but like our daughter, he saves every penny he can and spends little money on himself. Their spouses are not that way.
We earned what we have, and we give a lot of it away to people who need it. Our money belongs to us, not the government, and my wife and I can put it to better use locally than a tribe of bureaucrats with visions of sugar plumes dancing in their heads. That’s why I object to a higher tax rate. That and the danger it will discourage small business activity. Our story is not unique.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 4:02 PM
James –
I recommend you dig out your copy of Atlas and leaf through to the scene where Rearden converses with his ?brother, ?sister, their spouse and his mother in their opulent digs – financed, of course, by HIS work, and his alone. The thing that really stood out for me was the open, complete, undisguised disdain the parasites had for the man who was paying all their bills and keeping them in style. I have seen it a hundred times since, but never to the degree I see it here, now.
As a taxpayer, do you ever feel a little like Hank? I know that I sure do…
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 19, 2010
at 3:57 PM
NOP you crack me up! Your comment reminds me of one f my favorite Molly Ivins quote… Fish gotta swim, hearts gotta bleed!
LikeLike
By: dawn on November 19, 2010
at 3:13 PM
My heart bleeds for you James, pay up on the years you make money, and get a refund the years you lose money. How is that not fair? Actually don’t bother to answer, because I don’t like to hear millionaires cry!
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 19, 2010
at 2:48 PM
We have kept most of our machinery to avoid the taxes and to help our renter when he needs it. We also sold our grain over a period of three years to keep our income down.
My wife and I only own four farms, and one is over 120 miles away, so we always rented it. Compared to some of our neighbors, ours is a small operation.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 2:37 PM
Yes, no one’s puppet, that’s what I’m telling you.
We have rented the farm ground now, so it is no longer a problem for us, but our adjusted income made it to over the $250,000 line once or twice. We also earned a negative $25,000.00 a time or two.
Hypothetically, suppose you farm 8,000 acres of land equally divided into soy beans and corn. If 4,000 acres of corn yields 200 bushels per acre at $6.00 per bushel, you earn a gross income of $480,000. if my math is right. Soybeans at 50 bushels per acre and $11.00 dollars per bushels yield $220,000.00 for a total of $700,000.00.
If you watch you pennies by using used machinery, using as little hired labor as possible, etc. it is hard to adjust your income to below $250,000.00. I suppose it can be done as I described earlier, but when you retire it catches up with you on that last year.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 2:17 PM
Correction
“tell us how it is done?”
LikeLike
By: jsri on November 19, 2010
at 2:05 PM
And with all your wisdom and experience, you’re going to tell u hoe it is done?
LikeLike
By: jsri on November 19, 2010
at 2:04 PM
“Same avatar. Same person.
He is an idiot. Not surprised”
Apparently you haven’t been looking in the past week or so. Several posts have been made with the “same avatar” on behalf of several people – James and several others as well.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 19, 2010
at 1:38 PM
That’s BS James and you know it, you pay taxes on your adjusted income, not on your gross. Do you mean to tell us, your adjusted income is over a couple hundred thousand dollars?
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 19, 2010
at 1:25 PM
Same avatar. Same person.
He is an idiot. Not surprised.
LikeLike
By: Jackson on November 19, 2010
at 1:20 PM
You are right PFessor, poor troll John…
This one’s for you John.
delurkergurl’s link is right to a point. We could spread our income around by with holding sales or contracting grain to the next calendar year, pre -paying for next year’s supplies at a discount, and also paying bank interest on New Years Eve.
However, increasing the rates from 33% to 35% and 35% to 36.9% is not as insignificant as the article implies. If you work on tight margins, those extra thousands of dollars going to the government slightly weaken the business, especially when as in farming, this year’s profit can become next year’s five figure loss.
“Most business owners would not see a tax increase though the most profitable businesses would.” The operative word is “most.” In our best years, “most” would not have included us. We have neighbors with farms large enough to keep them away from “most” several years a decade. Of course, one can always go John Galt, but that is bad for the economy.
If there is a dividing line, I think it should be closer to a million dollars.
In my opinion, Michelle Backmann’s pants are not on fire. They are smoldering.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 1:19 PM
Jackson said –
“Noah, that was a horrible remark at 10:50.
You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Did you read his post @ 0812 that said it was not he?
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 19, 2010
at 1:10 PM
Helen & Margaret – keep blogging! You reperesent many of us!
LikeLike
By: cryptoclearance on November 19, 2010
at 1:04 PM
Noah, that was a horrible remark at 10:50.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
LikeLike
By: Jackson on November 19, 2010
at 1:03 PM
Right on, Helen. Always love to read your perspective. Thanks for setting that guy straight on unemployment benefits.
LikeLike
By: Susan Savia on November 19, 2010
at 12:48 PM
More stench… this time it’s Michelle Bachmann’s pants, which are on fire:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/nov/17/michele-bachmann-gets-it-wrong-taxes/
It’s infuriating the lies the “liberal media” lets flow, entirely unchallenged.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 19, 2010
at 12:30 PM
For the moment, I’m going to take my “famous liberal bias” over to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 19, 2010
at 10:46 AM
Because our Senate race here put some focus on what part the fed has in state UI- in the form of Joe Miller saying the states should bear the cost and administration entirely I’ve been poking around some :
Click to access d10440high.pdf
This was interesting in that the multi-decade drift in solvency affects us all in the end.
Here in Alaska the employee and the employer bear the cost, other places the employer carries the cost.
The lazy welfare queen/unemployed/whatever meme has been the favorite of folks who choose to make generalizations about who uses public programs when they don’t like the idea of public programs in general.
We all too rarely actually look at the programs themselves and see hows, whats, and whys and all…
LikeLike
By: alaskapi on November 19, 2010
at 10:15 AM
“Noah said an extraordinarily racist and ugly thing several comments back. It just goes to show who and what he really is. Disparaging comments about dark skin, crack-mamas and so forth are exactly what I expect to hear from reactionaries, members of the KKK, the Westboro Phelps family and Tea Party hangers-on.”
Did you read his post just before yours where he said that was not him?
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 19, 2010
at 10:04 AM
You are, once again, 100% absolutely correct…………about everything !!! Truly,the morons are who they are and no amount of facts can change that. It is the ignorant Republican voter once again……..regurgitating what they were told to think.
Not watchin’ TLC until that idiot Palin and her show are gone. It is yet another vehicle to keep her name out in public. And, did you see the vile message on her teenage daughter’s Facebook page or on Twitter in response to someone saying that the show was failing? It had more “bleeped out” words than actual words Why is that language ok with the Baggers and Yay God people when a Palin spawn uses it, but let anyone else use words like that and they are all having a major hissy fit. Consider the source, consider the family, like mother like daughter. Obviously they have no sense of decency. Family values, my butt !!!!
As to the moron who wrote about unemployment……..if fat ass, drug dependent Limbaugh and the others had regular jobs with regular salaries and lost those jobs, don’t think for one minute that they would not be collecting their unemployment check.
Many of the unemployed are executives who had high paying jobs, or self employed people who were making 200,000 a year.
These Republican morons think that only poor people of color are collecting unemployment………get the facts, folks. They think only poor people of color are able to get affordable health insurance because that is what they are told 24/7 by liars. Get the facts and use your brains.
Fact………foxnews was rendered a decision by the courts that allows them to lie about anything and everything. Check it out, Google it. They are using PUBLIC AIRWAVES. They pay nothing for the benefit of lying. They will say anything to keep the people who are paying them the big bucks, to keep paying for their lies. There used to be rules and regulations regarding broadcasting but once again, thanks to Ronnie Reagan, those regulations are gone.
The Republicans are the ones who blocked the unemployment extention , but you won’t even hear that from the mainstream media. They have blocked it at least 3 times this year………they do not care about anyone but themselves. It is a game for them. A game of power. Do not think for one minute that there is one Republican leader out there who gives one poop about the bottom 99.9%.
The moron who responded about unemployment benefits does not get that the only way to a strong economy is jobs. And there are no jobs, you moron. they are all in communist China !!!!!! A strong middle class with disposable income will bolster the economy and the Republicans do not want that. It is a dangerous game these Republicans are playing. They want a Fascist Oligarchy with big business running the show. They don’t want a strong middle class, they don’t want a middle class, period, so Mr Moron, they don’t give one rats ass about you. How many of the members in congress are from the middle class?? Nada, zip, zilch. You have to have money to run and win and every one of them, Republican and Democrat, could all survive if they lost their jobs………none of them get it……well, maybe one: Barnie Sanders and thank God for him.
A homerun again, Helen……..don’t let the morons get to you.
LikeLike
By: Colorado Blue on November 19, 2010
at 10:02 AM
Alive and Well, good post! I also think things will turn around and turn out happily. Part of the idea of a progressive tax is to spread the sacrifice around equitably. I hear a lot of folks screeching “class warfare” when it is even suggested that the wealthiest among us pay their fair share. The screechers view this position as maliciously putting a penalty on people who are rich. No, its just equitable sharing. I do not hear the same screechers doing their thing when the poor and the rapidly vanishing middle class got whomped with taxes and none of the tax shelters ginned up for the rich. The wealthiest among us would get a 4% hike if the Bush tax cuts fade away. 4%. In their strata, that would be chump change anyway. The screechers (John Boehner included) need to get past the 2 year old stage and grow the dang up.
LikeLike
By: Mageen in Old Virginny on November 19, 2010
at 9:34 AM
Noah said an extraordinarily racist and ugly thing several comments back. It just goes to show who and what he really is. Disparaging comments about dark skin, crack-mamas and so forth are exactly what I expect to hear from reactionaries, members of the KKK, the Westboro Phelps family and Tea Party hangers-on. These dingleberries of our great and free society abuse their freedom of speech, but eventually they will hang themselves with their flapping tongues.
The Right is indeed well organized. Robo comments across the net by party activists will continue to appear no matter what the rest of us say or do. Lies repeated do not become true, however, as the truth stands alone. Short term memories of the feeble-minded may be swayed, but history will bear out the facts even if Lynne Cheney is allowed to create her own version of reality.
I have confidence ultimately in the inevitable continued progression of our society along the paths of civil rights & liberties, human rights & social justice, social rights, fairness in ethics and in trade, decency and full disclosure in politics, social tolerance, environmental protection, labor rights & consumer protections, and capitalism which is tempered by true democracy, universal healthcare, social security, protections as well as hand ups for the underprivileged, and a system of progressive taxation.
I believe in humanitarianism, not animalism. I prefer to live in a civilized society created by intelligent design. This is our destiny. It is what sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Humankind has struggled against oppressive forces throughout history and has made remarkable progress down through the millennia. I’m not going to stand idly by while the loud-mouthed, greed-driven and hate-mongering minority among us ruins the great society in which we live. I believe I am in the majority, and when push comes to shove, the majority will prevail.
LikeLike
By: Alive and Well on November 19, 2010
at 9:17 AM
Dear Margret & Helen,
I just found your blog, and I’m so glad I did. You are awesome!
Will you be writing a book? If so, I will be first in line to buy it.
LikeLike
By: Gwen on November 19, 2010
at 8:56 AM
Hank, sorry if the truth hurts. It proves my point that this party of hate is completely intolerant of anyone who doesn’t share their point of view. By all means ban me if your able to as I plan on reposting that set of information every time your kind tries to perpetuate lies that the dems had nothing to do with where we are at today. I was under the assumption that the 1st amendment was respected here and we were free to speak our minds. If this is a place where I can be banned for intellectually exposing people to the truth then I’ve no place here, do your worst.
FYI that last noah post wasn’t from me but I assume most of you know that.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 19, 2010
at 8:12 AM
James –
Ignore the trolls. There is so much hyperbole, indiscriminate trashing and unclear thinking here that is quite pleasant to read posts by someone who has actually done a few things in life beyond going to college and delivering pizza.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 19, 2010
at 8:10 AM
James, nobody really cares about your opinion…opinions.
Stop hijacking the blog and get your own.
LikeLike
By: John on November 19, 2010
at 8:02 AM
A headline is “John Stewart to media: How about laying off the Palin kids?”
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 7:52 AM
To those who AREN’T trolls….remember your scrolling key.
And, a word of caution: don’t feed the trolls…it just goes to their hips, and, their heads. A lot of their synapses are misfiring anyway, and not much is left up there other than their well-developed hatefulness and anger….
Welcome to you who exhibit reasoned discourse and are not combative:
Joe B., Disparaged, Alive and Well, Hank, and any others I might have missed in my scrolling along. I would enjoy reading more from your thoughtful minds as we go along. Please continue to contribute here.
Scrolling on…
Good Morning, Pi!
LikeLike
By: Elsie on November 19, 2010
at 7:42 AM
alaskapi –
The Lamestream article is pretty good. About what my Alaskan friends tell me, actually.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 19, 2010
at 7:37 AM
Alaskapi, even if we had cable, I would rather watch shows like Bones, House, or Fringe than Palin’s Alaska realty show. The first one seems to have good ratings. It will be interesting to see if it continues.
Maybe if Sarah’s career in television will be so lucrative she will discard plans to run for president. Probably only in one of Fringe’s alternative universes.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 7:31 AM
I skimmed the threads last night while visiting on the phone with our son, and I don’t have time to carefully read them this morning. This is from memory.
Lori is right about the auto bail out. I also agree with Warren Buffet who credited Bush’s Tarp and Obama’s continuing the bail out with saving the economy.
To someone who wrote rural folk are uneducated, as Gary Sinese said in “The Stand”, “country don’t mean stupid.”
Many people venture into alternative universes or the land of lies. Noah’s long post needs to be repeated to remind them of the truth.
No president can create jobs. They can only help create conditions that might foster employment. Private businesses did create jobs under the Bush administration. They have not done enough during the Obama administration. More people are also on food stamps or ranked as poor than during the Bush years.
Cutting government spending will be a problem without inflicting pain. My numbers are only from memory. About 83% of the economy is social welfare and military, usually considered untouchable. Poorly funded pension funds are also taking more governmental resources every year.
Back in our poor days when I repaired my boots with duct tape, and fixed a tractor tie rod with electric fence wire because we couldn’t afford more, our daughter wanted a cabbage patch doll because all of her friends had one. She didn’t get it, and some of her friends’ parents who indulged them lost their farms and businesses. We survived.
Admittedly, pulling two heavily laden gravity wagons full of grain at peak speed down the road was risky with wire holding the tie rod together, but one does what one has to do to survive.
European nations are learning the meaning of austerity as we did. It will soon the be the United States’ turn.
Many blue states do pay more taxes than they get back, and the reverse is true in some red states.
LikeLike
By: James on November 19, 2010
at 7:25 AM
I don’t have TV so I don’t have to think about whether to watch whatzername’s-alaska but it has been interesting to read and hear other Alaskans’ take on it
http://alaskadispatch.com/blogs/palin-watch/7521-confessions-of-a-lamestream-media-reporter
LikeLike
By: alaskapi on November 19, 2010
at 7:22 AM
“There’s a stink on the porch. I thought it was skunks but it turns out it’s bait. Lots of rotting bait.”
Agreed. I think you may have stated it perfectly.
It’s so easy to get yourself wound around the stump over things that never happened. We’ve seen many folks – even right here – get their heads handed to them when they didn’t first get their facts straight before tearing into someone else. Some slow learners have had them handed over several times.
I think we all have had experiences with unemployment, whether our own, someone we know or someone we care for. It is not fun; “demoralizing” doesn’t begin to describe it. I’d like to see where the original post is that is being referred to and then I’ll HELP you jump his feces. But not until then.
Hillbilly – ref: Dr. Johnson concerning the prospect of being hanged in a fortnight. Replace that with “starve.”
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 19, 2010
at 6:35 AM
Thanks for addressing your commentor on the unemployed. Speaking as a one who lost their job (of 16 years) because they decided to close our farm last year, I went from making 55k a year to drawing unemployment of $250 a week (the max allowed in FL). Cobra for our family would have cost $1600 per month if we chose to purchase it. I was lucky, I found a job, actually 3. None of them come close to what I was making before and I have no benefits.
What I do have an issue with, is trying to understand when I hear people say that they have given up on looking/finding work. That, I cannot fathom. Especially if you have a family that likes to eat and wear clothes.
LikeLike
By: Hillbilly on November 19, 2010
at 6:13 AM
There’s a stink on the porch. I thought it was skunks but it turns out it’s bait. Lots of rotting bait.
Do something constructive with your intellect, and have a wonderful day!
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 19, 2010
at 5:31 AM
Phyllis –
“People that think “we” are living comfortably should try walking in our shoes…living every day wondering how we’re going to hold our lives together while the clock is ticking on the benefits. It’s not fun at all, trust me.”
I keep reading about someone’s saying the unemployed live comfortably, but I must have missed that post. My partner is off this week and I am doing the work of two by myself, so I don’t get over to M&H often and PROB missed it, but I wonder if we are going around and around over something that was never said.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 19, 2010
at 4:49 AM
Answer: Both.
LikeLike
By: Craig on November 18, 2010
at 10:56 PM
Am I Gregario? or Craig? Or both?
LikeLike
By: Gregario on November 18, 2010
at 10:56 PM
Yes. But I am willing to take your tax dollars and use them for my personal needs. If you are stupid enough to give them, I am smart enough to take them. Unlike those darker skinned people who don’t pay them but then take them anyway.
Show me what happened since 2007 and not 2009. Show me!
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 18, 2010
at 10:50 PM
Thank you Helen, for your common sense and truth.
The right is very well organized. Their trolls can’t spell, or write coherently, but they are well-trained. Kind of like Palin Inc.
Here is a short YouTube video of a rightwing guerilla Internet training session: http://bit.ly/aEb9GJ
It’s the Big Lie. If you say something often enough, people will start to believe it.
For example, the latest RW talking point I’ve seen is that liberals are locusts, eating up all the hard-working rightwing tax dollars.
But the fact is that for every dollar in federal tax Californians pay, they get back $0.80. For every dollar Alaskans pay, they get back $1.83. Louisiana gets back $1.85, Mississippi $2.02, Oklahoma $1.35, and so on.
Click to access taxburd.pdf
The Blue States support the Red States, and always have.
And the Koch Brothers pay for the Tea Party, and liberals pay for most everything else. If the right actually gets that “small government” they are shouting for, they will really be in trouble.
LikeLike
By: Preflyte on November 18, 2010
at 10:30 PM
Gregario drive IH20 through Louisianna, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina and then get back to me.
LikeLike
By: Hank on November 18, 2010
at 10:19 PM
It’s called spamming Craig ( and Noah). Don’t test me.
To answer your question Craig, every major economist will tell you it’s about what we avoided and not where we are now.
LikeLike
By: Hank on November 18, 2010
at 10:17 PM
How many stimulus dollars are left yet to spend?
And for what?
Cut the taxes.
I have an insurance policy strictly to pay for my sons inheritance. Its not much but maybe he will get 300-400K. Should he have to divie up to some crack baby’s Mama for being indulged ?
Your democratic attitudes wreak of 1917 Russia
LikeLike
By: Craig on November 18, 2010
at 10:00 PM
$arah Paylin will not go away if we keep watching/paying them. Much as I dislike her for her uneducated meddling in politics, she’s got some great handlers and publicists and she’s going to be a thorn in our sides until the grizzlies come home. I wish she would just stay home and take care of her disabled son, and encourage her daughter to do the same.
As to unemployment, my husband is still collecting it for another week. He’s sent out or applied on line for over 300 jobs since his job went to the Philippines last December 21. In the meantime, we’ve gone $20,000 in debt but he’s finished his bachelors degree. He has had exactly TWO replies from those queries. Both with thanks but no thanks.
It’s not a tax increase, it’s letting a tax break expire morons.
AND on another note, go Ron Paul! It’s not about right and left, it’s about right and wrong! He’s nailed this issue!
http://www.prisonplanet.com/ron-paul-unleashes-on-tsa-enough-is-enough.html
Love to you all, even Craig/Gregorio/Noah even though you get old fast.
LikeLike
By: dawn on November 18, 2010
at 9:59 PM
Show me the Stimulus…….
Show me the improvement for the last three freaken years………….
How many stimulus dollars are left yet to spend?
And for what?
Cut the taxes.
I have an insurance policy strictly to pay for my sons inheritance. Its not much but maybe he will get 300-400K. Should he have to divie up to some crack baby’s Mama for being indulged ?
Your democratic attitudes wreak of 1917 Russia
LikeLike
By: Craig on November 18, 2010
at 9:59 PM
OK Poolman then 22 months? and the answer is?
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 18, 2010
at 9:58 PM
“Show me the improvement for the last three freaken years………….” – Gregorio
Maybe a few math lessons will help.
22 months = 3 years?
Or not…
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 18, 2010
at 9:52 PM
Show me the Stimulus…….
Show me the improvement for the last three freaken years………….
How many stimulus dollars are left yet to spend?
And for what?
Cut the taxes.
I have an insurance policy strictly to pay for my sons inheritance. Its not much but maybe he will get 300-400K. Should he have to divie up to some crack baby’s Mama for being indulged ?
Your democratic attitudes wreak of 1917 Russia.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 18, 2010
at 9:49 PM
I’ll give you republicans one thing. You got that cut and paste thingie down. Oh, and for the 4th time on just as many threads. The snapshot’s still accurate. Too bad you didn’t take in the whole race. The finish line is where the winner is announced. And how many times must we debunk the same bs? Ho Hum. Play amongst yourselves for awhile. I think it’s gonna start raining…
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 18, 2010
at 9:46 PM
Noah, I am friends with Helen’s grandson and if you post that stupid same post again, I will personally call in a college favor and ask him to block you. You’ve made your point. Move on and stop posting the same crap over and over.
LikeLike
By: Hank on November 18, 2010
at 9:44 PM
And just how many road construction people do you know JOE?
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 18, 2010
at 9:43 PM
“Thousands are being put to work in the construction industry fixing and improving our roads and other infrastructure all up and down the state. That’s trickling down to merchants who are already seeing increased sales beating the figures of the last few years.” Joe B.
OMG,… And those are all road improvement or new road jobs. And how many road construction jobs were lost during the last 12 years? How many does it take to repair a road? Three to work and one manager to watch, while the other four are on break. Trickle down..Oh Pleeeeze!
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 18, 2010
at 9:43 PM
Thanks Helen! I was unemployed for a while and collected benefits. It was about 13 years ago, but after taxes, my net was in the vicinity of $200 a week. Yes, I was living it in the lap of luxury! Morons that have no critical thinking ability at all would begrudge somebody already destitute the little bit that is still keeping that person going. Tough luck right! And yes, the poster who stated that it is a choice between COBRA or keeping this meager amount for other necessities is so right. How could some human not being able to identify with the pain of other humans is just beyond me.
LikeLike
By: Easier on November 18, 2010
at 9:42 PM
Poolman, I thought it was “Twice nothing is still nothing”.
Course, both would constitute higher math for Yosemite Sam.
Poor old schmuck.
LikeLike
By: judith on November 18, 2010
at 9:37 PM
Seems a good a time as any to put some facts straight.
The day the democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009 it was actually January 3rd 2007 the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, the start of the 110th Congress. The Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.
For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is “Bush’s Fault”, think about this:
January 3rd, 2007 was the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress:
At the time:
1. The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
2. The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
3. The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
4. George Bush’s Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!
Remember the day…
1. January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.
2. The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
3. Thank Congress for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5 GDP and 4.6% Unemployment to this CRISIS by dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fiasco’s!
(BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie – starting in 2001, because it was financially risky for the U.S. economy, but no one was listening).
And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac?
OBAMA
And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie??
OBAMA and the Democratic Congress
So when someone tries to blame Bush…
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007…. THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!
” Bush may have been in the car, but the Democrats were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel they were driving. Set the record straight on Bush!
It’s not that liberals aren’t smart, it’s just that so much of what they know isn’t so” -Ronald Reagan
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 18, 2010
at 9:32 PM
Thank you, Helen! So often, you write what I think, but so much better than I ever could! Would that all the Palins go back to Alaska and live in happy obscurity—NOW! The same might be wished for many new Republican Congresscritters.
LikeLike
By: Bluefrog on November 18, 2010
at 9:29 PM
Hey KC, if you upgrade to a 10 gallon, you could probably gain a little stature. Course it wouldn’t change the content. Shit to the tenth power is still shit.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 18, 2010
at 9:08 PM
I wouldn’t watch SP’s Alaska even if I had cable! She advocates killing off wolves faster than they can reproduce, yet she says she loves the state? She loves what she can take from it!
On the other subject, I lost my job in Jan ’09 and have been taking p/t jobs when and where I can to survive. I’ve also been cleaning houses – so much fun! If it weren’t for my unemployment benefits that I’ve paid via taxes for years and years, I’d have lost everything by now.
I’ve been job hunting and interviewing a lot – just not getting the offers from all my hard work.
People that think “we” are living comfortably should try walking in our shoes…living every day wondering how we’re going to hold our lives together while the clock is ticking on the benefits. It’s not fun at all, trust me.
LikeLike
By: Phyllis on November 18, 2010
at 9:03 PM
Helen, you are a breath of fresh, clean, honest air. Thank you so much.
LikeLike
By: Shash on November 18, 2010
at 8:40 PM
I couldn’t watch “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” But then again, I choose not to have certain images in my head permanently like the SAW series of movies. And train wrecks. And anything that anyone gets impaled on.
Thanks for watching so I didn’t have to.
LikeLike
By: LibertyLover on November 18, 2010
at 8:34 PM
Tex aka Keyboard Cowboy, your flavor still shines through. What did I teach you about turd polishing? Oh, that’s right, it’s a new day and you can’t carry over those tidbits of knowledge with your limited capacity. You shitkickers have a hard time with that larnin’ thing. Poor wittle Tex, gotta change his handle to sneak past the door.
Is that a response to me? What was that? If so, I was pointing out how stupid you were.
Don’t worry. In this crowd, your pals won’t notice.
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 18, 2010
at 8:22 PM
brian –
All any Palin opponent would have to do for a campaign ad is play Katie Kouric’s interview with her – over and over – and the Democratic nominee could go fishin’ for the duration of the campaign.
Whether one is Democrat or Republican, Right or Left, we need at least two parties, each with viable candidates. All Palin does IMHO is make it easy for everyone to believe the ReBiblicans are not serious.
LikeLike
By: PFesser53 on November 18, 2010
at 8:04 PM
Tex aka Keyboard Cowboy, your flavor still shines through. What did I teach you about turd polishing? Oh, that’s right, it’s a new day and you can’t carry over those tidbits of knowledge with your limited capacity. You shitkickers have a hard time with that larnin’ thing. Poor wittle Tex, gotta change his handle to sneak past the door.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 18, 2010
at 8:03 PM
I’m sure there are unemployed people who are lazy,but I’m also sure there are rich people who are lazy,right? I’m sure there are corporations who are taking welfare who are lazy,right?
LikeLike
By: brian on November 18, 2010
at 8:00 PM
I know some people want Sarah Palin to be the GOP nominee because it would be easier for Obama to win. I say don’t wish for it. Palin could win outright if the economy worsens,or the Repugs could rig the voting machines like the did in 2000 and 2004.
LikeLike
By: brian on November 18, 2010
at 7:59 PM
Hey Poolman.
You just lost 64 seats as party. You just lost 682 state legislative seats, the most in U.S. history. And you’re still trying to blame that on the euphemism of the ‘Party of No’? Are you kidding me?
The lies didn’t work last month. What makes you think they’re going to work this month?
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 18, 2010
at 7:51 PM
I haven’t seen such weak, vile propaganda since we had Jews dancing for the cameras at Auschwitz. What a bunch of losers. I’ve always found the female libs even more vapid and vulgar than the males libs. Guess I was right.
Now we’ve got libs threaten to neuter and/or eliminate Republicans? Ha ha ha…I certainly hope you attempt that – every rotten “progressive” needs to enter the fray when you do. I encourage that. 🙂
Open season on libs in self-defense? That sends a tingle up my leg.
LikeLike
By: Keyboard Cowboy on November 18, 2010
at 7:46 PM
He isn’t even running fully staffed. “For 22 months, the Obama Administration has been undermined by Senate confirmation obstruction.” The party of no has done everything in their power to undermine and thwart progress and to oppose this POTUS. This is like no other time in history. It is amazing how much Obama has been able to accomplish with such opposition. Too bad all Americans are not interested in the betterment of all.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 18, 2010
at 7:41 PM
The stimulus package was approved in February of 2009. That is why it has been attributed to the Obama administration. The stimulus money is helping Arizona. The stimulus money is helping Texas. I don’t know what the gripe is about it. It saved plenty of jobs and created more. But those are facts. Silly me.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 18, 2010
at 7:33 PM
To Gregorio, Noah and their bitter, like-minded repromates:
1) You won this round at the polls, so lose the ugly attitudes and cheer up already.
2) Thank your lucky stars I’m not in charge of you, because if I were, you’d be neutered in a heartbeat. That’s what I do with stray dogs.
3) Someday you might just reap that which you sow. Watch out, lest your misanthropic politics come ’round and bite you in your pimply asses someday.
I mean it, really, and now, in my own personal reality, you have completely ceased to exist as sentient beings. You are naught but fleeting bursts of hot gas from the ass of mankind.
As for Sarah Palin and her take on Alaska, well, that’s sure some half-baked Alaska! It’s too gooey where it needs to be firm, and it’s too flaky when it needs to have some substance. It falls flat in every way.
LikeLike
By: Alive and Well on November 18, 2010
at 7:11 PM
Sunshine: I say that these people cannot handle a black man telling them what to do. The racists have come out of the woodwork. and there are lots of them. Will they ever admit it? They don’t even know that they got screwed by Bush and the neocons. Lets blame it on the black guy! And hide the racism with ignorant rantings.
LikeLike
By: Linda on November 18, 2010
at 7:07 PM
Gregorio, guess what, there is no ‘lesson’ in your smart-mouth words? It seems that you and Noah are like minded in your put downs of the ‘liberal media’ for which there exists no such thing. And it simply boggles one’s mind that you find this blog so repellent to your mental makeup, but yet insist on being here to invade our space, throwing criticisms at one and all, when it’s so clear that you should really be on one of Palin’s blogs where the meat is red and raw; just the way you like it.
BTW, it matters not that a state is red or blue, it matters more that color does NOT actually represent ALL the people in that state, perhaps a lot of the electorate didn’t vote and therefore, you have no way of knowing what’s actually going on in some of those states. But it really means nothing because as you know, some states are so fickle that one year they’re blue and the next, they’re red. So despite the fact that I live in a red state, it seems to me that more people here agree with progressive ideology thinking it’s just insanely ignorant that those people voting for the Teapublicans, just voted AGAINST their own self-interests.
No one with a half a brain would believe that our dire economic situation could be fixed in just two lousy years because after all, it took eight years of lame-brained Bush to drive our country’s finances off a cliff by keeping TWO wars off of the budget, as well as those HEFTY TAX BREAKS he gave himself and his wealthy republican friends which increased the national deficit tenfold [seems you fail to realize that he was left with a ‘surplus’ from Democratic POTUS Clinton lest you forgot him]. I don’t understand why the bitching coming from Teapublicans about Obama being anti-business exists, because once he took office, the stock market [Dow] has soared going from under 7,000 to about 11,000 points. What’s not to like about Obama being in office since he has done more for corporations, Wall St. and the Dow than Bush/Cheney ever did, so Obama IS turning the economy around whether you care to admit the ‘factual truth’ or not!
And the only reason the deficit was ever even mentioned was to create ‘another diversion’ since the Teapublicans have no solutions for the other really tough issues facing our country [that is except the tax CUTS they so desperately want for themselves and their wealthy friends and on that, they scream their LIES that those tax cuts will create jobs – and they think that most informed Americans are buying into that load of garbage]. With them now in charge of the House, I’m anxiously waiting for them to start producing viable results! I’m wondering, where are all the jobs they promised? It’s been almost two weeks now, and I’ve seen nothing in any newspaper stating that there are plenty of jobs in every state as a result of the Teapublicans winning many of the House seats. Wow, I can’t wait to say, “my friends, look here, the number of available jobs is now in the millions throughout the country and anyone looking for a stellar-paying job with excellent benefits should come in for an interview. We’re hiring on the spot!” Rejoice!
But, until the Teapublicans produce, I’m just gonna ignore them [and you two] because I’ll be long dead before their lies ever come to fruition.
LikeLike
By: Disparaged on November 18, 2010
at 6:58 PM
>>Grandma J: You and Helen are both correct: the worker has UI premiums taken out of his/her paycheck and the employer pays a matching amount.<<
not in all states. I lived in a state where the employer paid it. I paid nothing. However upon moving to another state, I realized that it varies state to state.
LikeLike
By: Linda on November 18, 2010
at 6:53 PM
The trolls seem to forget that Bush and the Repugnants were in charge for 8 long years and the Bush tax cuts didn’t create jobs, did they? They all went offshore. Why weren’t they asking and begging the beneficiaries at the top to create jobs? President Obama didn’t get any help from the Repugnants. In fact, their only goal was to say NO to everything just for spite. Is that what one would call doing the work they were elected to do which means working for the PEOPLE they represent? I know most of us don’t think so. What say you?
LikeLike
By: sunshine on November 18, 2010
at 6:48 PM
“Don’t forget also that the unemployed who are collecting the unemployment ‘INSURANCE’ have been paying into that program all their working life.”
“This is not true. The employer pays the unemployment tax. I am all for this, but we weaken our argument when we get the facts wrong.”
Grandma J: You and Helen are both correct: the worker has UI premiums taken out of his/her paycheck and the employer pays a matching amount.
LikeLike
By: lt elf on November 18, 2010
at 6:31 PM
Lori: I hope you’re right, but considering Republithugs are not hiding the fact that they will oppose anything President Obama proposes, even if they have proposed the same item or endorsed it in the past, I’m not holding my breath about any bipartisan support. The Republithug agenda is to destroy President Obama any way possible even if they destroy the country in the process. They’re true vindictive, vicious nihilists, who care only about their personal wealth at the expense of absolutely everyone else.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, October 24th: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
LikeLike
By: Joe B. on November 18, 2010
at 6:19 PM
You can’t deny it! THERE MIGHT BE NOT ENOUGH BRAINS BUT THE “BUTTS” SHOW!
LikeLike
By: Luuis M on November 18, 2010
at 6:18 PM
and one more attta boy!
Passing the DREAM Act is the right thing to do. It has received bipartisan support in the past, and my strong hope is that we can get bipartisan support for it now. B. Obama
LikeLike
By: lori on November 18, 2010
at 6:06 PM
yayyyyyyy Obama!
Today, General Motors relaunched itself as a public company, and American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM. We are finally beginning to see some of the tough decisions that we made in the midst of crisis pay off.
LikeLike
By: lori on November 18, 2010
at 6:04 PM
Who was it that said I’d rather be dead than red? Well zombies can be both now, can’t they?
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 18, 2010
at 5:57 PM
Helen, as usual, we love your blog!
LikeLike
By: Linda on November 18, 2010
at 5:40 PM
Joe B: great posts. Unfortunately, the ignorant do not want to learn. And the naysayers apparently think they have a forum here – until they are ignored…….;-)
LikeLike
By: Linda on November 18, 2010
at 5:39 PM
Welcome, Joe B.
And Greytdog, it seems you know that an open mind doesn’t have to be so open that your brains fall out.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 18, 2010
at 5:34 PM
Gregorio: Now you’re just being a troll, but I will say I see stimulus money at work all over the place here in central California. Thousands are being put to work in the construction industry fixing and improving our roads and other infrastructure all up and down the state. That’s trickling down to merchants who are already seeing increased sales beating the figures of the last few years. Don’t forget all the Republican governors who hated the stimulus package but who took credit for it by handing out over-sized checks, Bobby Jindal for one.
LikeLike
By: Joe B. on November 18, 2010
at 5:32 PM
The other sham about the luxury of living ‘on the dole’ is that the cost of COBRA insurance for family coverage costs as much or more than the unemployment benefit. That means unemployed people have to choose between medical coverage or rent/mortgage. Medical coverage gets scrapped and then when something happens, their financial lives are ruined.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 18, 2010
at 5:29 PM
Gregorio: The poorest states have always been the South. Although many states, both blue and red are having budget and debt problems, keep in mind that the country as a whole was flushed down the toilet as a result of rampant deregulation beginning in the ’80s with Reagan. Clinton has some blame for signing deregulation passed by a Republican congress, but the willful amnesia on the Right about the fact that Clinton had the smallest deficit increase and the only balanced budget in decades is mind boggling! States are hurting because they were on the receiving end of the federal Republican shit rolling down hill, so don’t start making false equivalencies by ripping the country into 50 separate economies.
And since I’m from California, I can tell you most of the state is rural and Republican governors and Republicans in our legislature have brought government to a halt because a 2/3 majority is needed to pass budgets and the Republicans won’t increase taxes by a penny! If not for their annual government shut downs and refusal to levy taxes for revenue California would not have a debt problem. All that is changing now that the voters have passed an initiative that will only require a simple majority to pass a budget. Unlike the something-for-nothing teabagger crowd, I don’t mind paying my fair share of taxes.
LikeLike
By: Joe B. on November 18, 2010
at 5:25 PM
[…] Philpot composes the travelogue. var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_config.linkname="North! to Alaska"; […]
LikeLike
By: North! to Alaska « From Pine View Farm on November 18, 2010
at 5:09 PM
“Shovel ready projects”
Where is your stimulus.
Filling potholes?
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 18, 2010
at 5:08 PM
Still like that Hope & Change thing in the Projects and unemployed of your big blue cities?
Still waitin for that stimulus or was that just a tickle up my ass of the governments fingers trying to get more in taxes.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 18, 2010
at 5:06 PM
Joe B.
So you consider “everything” West of New Jersey
And East of Berkely California as rural?
“It’s blue states, not red states, which are suffering decades-old decline and an economic descent marked by steady population loss and abandonment by commerce and industry.
In President Obama’s left-tilting universe, these blue states are fortresses of liberal governance. For years, states like New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and California have all marched lockstep in accord with liberal orthodoxies — with similar disastrous results.”
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 18, 2010
at 5:02 PM
“Douchebag”
Calling names?
Really Greytdog?
Is that how you want to post?
And I thought you were a free thinker and open to
opposing views?
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 18, 2010
at 4:41 PM
Sorry; that’s “Mein Kampf”.
LikeLike
By: Joe B. on November 18, 2010
at 4:36 PM
Noah:
I never said anything about being against any programs to help small business, as long as the business truly is SMALL. Republithug and FOX propaganda uses tax code loopholes that declare even wealthy business owners and corporations to be SMALL businesses. If you pulled your head out of the ass of the FOX propaganda channel and looked for your information sources elsewhere, you might know that.
Regarding rural America; that’s just American demographics, not meanness. Interesting that a member of the racism “immigrants-are-coming-after-our-jobs”, homophobia “gays-are-coming-after-our-children”, scare-the-white-people, “Muslims-are-taking-over-the-country-with-Sharia-Law”, “Barack-HUSSEIN-Obama-is-a-Kenyan-Socialist-totalitarian-Nazi-Communist”, party is implying that Democrats are the “party of hate”. Either your projection gives away your self doubt or you’re a student of “Mein Kampt” . . . or both.
LikeLike
By: Joe B. on November 18, 2010
at 4:35 PM
Joe B.m despite what the Liberal media tells you to believe, having money isn’t a crime. So this tax cuts for the rich thing. Could you explain to me why you are against small business getting a tax break so they can create more jobs? I hear there is a recession going on and some folks could use a job.
Ennealogic, thanks for the grammar lesson. I find those that cannot argue points of merit often go for the cheap shot and personal attack. You lived up to my every expectation.
Joe B. is the perfect example of how this party of hate is out of touch and deluded. They assume where you live and your income level means you are not smart and by default made an ignorant decision. They are of course wrong, and this last election showed them the error of their ways, not that they learned anything.
Again the first sign of ignorance is an inability to find any merit in the opposition and to blanket them as all being evil. It shows that an inability to think for one’s self. Ahh to live the life of the ignorant sheep.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 18, 2010
at 4:16 PM
Gregorio: Yep; see WHERE the red is? Rural America is not known for being real big on education, and really big on racism and holding their guns with both fists. The same red-necks with FoX “News” on 24/7 as background noise beleiving everything they hear are too lazy to do a simple Google search or switch to other channels to counter the FOX lies.
The real criticism should be leveled at the apathy of those who don’t fit the Republithug mold who tend to sit out mid-term elections. When everything goes to Hell in a hand basket and they do turn out, the map turns blue real fast.
LikeLike
By: Joe B. on November 18, 2010
at 3:43 PM
Thanks for another interesting and great post. As always, your point of view and straight talk is refreshing and much enjoyed.
Gregorio/Craig/Douchebag – so glad to know that you’re excited about the demise of the Great American Democracy. Bet you can’t wait until we’re trailing Somalia in technology and mathematics.
LikeLike
By: Greytdog on November 18, 2010
at 3:42 PM
Now all you lil Democrats out there..
Go get yer maps of the election results…
Got em?
Now see how much of the map is in red ?
Now see how little is blue ?
End of lesson.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 18, 2010
at 3:29 PM
Noah, I’d be delighted to discuss facts with you, but not here. You can find my contact information by following my linked screen name.
Until then, I’d recommend you study up on the difference between “your” (possessive pronoun) and “you’re” (contraction of you + are).
Best wishes!
LikeLike
By: Ennealogic on November 18, 2010
at 3:12 PM
Noah:
Yes; the Republithugs will do the “people’s business” of selling the country down the river to Big Oil, and any other huge corporate interests that line their pockets. Too bad those “people” are just the rich fat cats who fund the FOX “News” propaganda machine. Tax cuts for the rich, no unemployment insurance for those who have lost their jobs from deregulation and outsourcing. Only the most irrational, willfully ignorant lunatics among us fall for the Republithug propaganda and vote against their own self interests.
LikeLike
By: Joe B. on November 18, 2010
at 3:01 PM
Go, Helen! give ’em hell!
LikeLike
By: Verle Ellis on November 18, 2010
at 2:56 PM
Ennealogic, I understand your confusion. When one makes all of their decisions based on emotional outbursts and hearsay and avoids facts at all costs, embarrassing posts like yours are bound to happen.
Your all welcome to go get your torches and pitchforks and go on your witch hunt. Meanwhile the Republicans will move on without your pettiness and do the people’s business.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 18, 2010
at 2:42 PM
Gosh there are a lot of hateful people.
Little people who just snipe and run.
The Republicans must have done something right or more likely the people voted to have the Republicans do the right thing for the next two years.
The democrats have had two years of Runaway spending, Bailouts, Assisting the powerful unions and giving Grandma/coeds a chance to blog. And their biggest target is Palin. I think yee have more issues than that to deal with.
LikeLike
By: Gregorio on November 18, 2010
at 2:35 PM
I was really hoping that people wouldn’t watch this stupid show and then TLC would have to admit that they made a huge mistake in airing it. But all those tea partiers probably turned on all their sets in the house. Just like they are all calling to keep big ole Bristol on Dancing. Don’t watch it myself, but of my friends that do, they are all upset that she’s still on, especially with all her ‘talent’.
LikeLike
By: Vicki on November 18, 2010
at 2:34 PM
judith –
“It’s cash or nothing for us from now on. We’ll find a way to make it work. I’m really good at this.”
My dad lost his job in the mines in the ‘fifties and we were without ANY income for six years. I was just a tiny boy, but I remember it. He had saved money for years on a miner’s pay and we just tightened our belts and went forward. We had a big garden and an even bigger field of corn for the horse, so he could plow the First garden. I don’t remember it in a bad way at all, but after my dad’s death I was going through his things and found his bank book. I could see the numbers getting smaller and smaller until they went to zero. He got a job just as the money ran out. I couldn’t imagine the stress he and my mother must have felt.
LikeLike
By: PFesser on November 18, 2010
at 2:30 PM
Oh, no! Watch? That? Arrghh! Helen, I appreciate everything you do for us, but please – don’t risk your brain cells and/or sanity unnecessarily.
And yes, please, let’s stop discussing the grifter family, seniors and juniors. They only have the power we give them by our attention.
As some will remember, DH (& by extension, I) had the fun-filled experience of his unemployment, a little over a year ago. That lavish allotment didn’t come close to making up for his loss of pay. He was six whole months looking for work. I’m employed and he actually had applied for Social Security early (which started in the nick of time), and we still nearly went under.
We managed to keep up the house payments, but with huge drops in house value, we barely escaped becoming ‘upside down’ in value. Meanwhile, we maxed out all our cards and are currently paying them back down and not using them. The only Christmas expenditures here will be for the kid, wife and grandkid – likely around $100 or less (there’s a birthday in there, too).
I don’t know where the new statistics on how Christmas spending is going to be up are coming from. Certainly not from here on the front lines. We did the budget figures a little while ago and DH said “Did you know we spent only $50. on clothes in the last year and a half?” I didn’t have the heart to tell him that was yarn for the new baby – we spent $0 on clothes. Baby was warm, though – and stylin’.
Meanwhile, don’t talk to me about tax breaks. Minnesota has been run by and for the top 5% for years now. Property tax increase this year is 18% and it doesn’t come close to covering the loss of basic services.
And speaking of – I’m incredulous at the Fed’s latest plan. Apparently, they’re going to try to spur employment by increasing prices, but making credit really, really affordable. Meanwhile, the Repubs are going to try to get rid of all that regulation on banks and credit companies. Ok, I was here for the last round of that, and so were you. They get you in up to your follicles and, once they have you vulnerable, start grabbing every last penny they can get their hands on, by fair means or foul.
Do they think we can’t remember? It’s cash or nothing for us from now on. We’ll find a way to make it work. I’m really good at this.
LikeLike
By: judith on November 18, 2010
at 2:22 PM
Oh I’m laughing… sorry, but trolls are just so funny sometimes!
Noah said,
“…attacks on the daughter of Palin…”
Is that like the son of God, just feminized?
The DWTS daughter is 20 years old, has gone to court with her mother’s money and lawyer, to keep her latest son’s father from sharing custody of said child. She, and her mother btw, badmouth said father all the time. This “daughter of Palin” reportedly contacts People magazine directly with scoops and gets big front page spreads that pay tens of thousands of dollars a pop. She is a big girl now, and just happens to be the weakest dancer on DWTS this season even though you wouldn’t know it by her progression. The popular votes are not coming from DWTS fans, they are coming at the urging of rabid right-wing radio talk show hosts and fan/cult sites dedicated to her mother.
Noah, sooner or later you are going to have to disabuse yourself of the notion that Sarah Palin is the Holy Saviour of the USA. I recommend sooner — the longer you let that notion fester, the more painful it will be when the boil bursts.
Helen! thank you once again, dear lady, for your sage words and infectious sense of humor!
LikeLike
By: Ennealogic on November 18, 2010
at 2:18 PM
I’m no Palin fan (really?) but I have deep sympathy for anybody who has trouble with their children. My kids and my stepkids have been marvelous; they are the only reasons I get out of bed in the morning; I feel so lucky. (Touch wood). My stepdaughter just tried her first felony case and won an acquittal yesterday!
Some problems can be traced to poor parenting, but I think we all know people who did everything possible to raise their kids right and they just went off the rails. A really good guy and his wife from my residency program have a son who has been in trouble with the law since he was ten and is now in jail AGAIN; his little sister is attending Penn State on a full academic scholarship. Palin makes me ill, but sometimes kids just screw their own lives up and the parents’ guilt is unbearable.
LikeLike
By: PFesser on November 18, 2010
at 2:14 PM
B. W., could be and if it is, no wonder, there is no downside to being an unwed mother in the Palin family. Mom hires you an agent, you get on the gravy train, and because you are young, you probably think the money will rolling forever. I’m sorry for Bristol, but if this is true, I feel double sorry for Willow, the The Palin daughter market is saturated.
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 18, 2010
at 1:55 PM
Noah, just go enjoy the man love you talked about all during the last post.
LikeLike
By: John on November 18, 2010
at 1:45 PM
The party of hate is alive and well. The false prophet leading her sheep two by two. I won’t attempt to engage you in debate Helen because you have already proven your all about sensationalist sound bites where facts of substantive commentary are trivial little notions you cannot be bothered with. I will add that your attacks on the daughter of Palin has sent you to an all new low. The only comfort I can take is my belief in karma and that one day that ill and hate you wish on others will be visited upon you in spades.
LikeLike
By: Noah on November 18, 2010
at 1:24 PM
There must be some newspaper and tv station that needs a really fine, talented, to-the-point editorial writer. Please, please contact this woman and give her a wider audience. We need more of this! Helen, you are awesome.
LikeLike
By: Terri on November 18, 2010
at 12:37 PM
[…] Need I say more than there is a new post at Margaret and Helen? […]
LikeLike
By: Flushing Out the Despicables « A Feather Adrift on November 18, 2010
at 12:35 PM
This just in. IF true, it will cast a doom and gloom pall on “abstienence-only” and Palin the parent: http://www.nationalenquirer.com/willow_palin_pregnancy_shocker_sarah/celebrity/69687
LikeLike
By: B. W. on November 18, 2010
at 12:34 PM
PFesser, I just wish they weren’t fostering her off on us!
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 18, 2010
at 12:06 PM
“Don’t forget also that the unemployed who are collecting the unemployment ‘INSURANCE’ have been paying into that program all their working life.”
This is not true. The employer pays the unemployment tax. I am all for this, but we weaken our argument when we get the facts wrong.
LikeLike
By: GrandmaJ on November 18, 2010
at 12:04 PM
Joni –
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
LikeLike
By: PFesser on November 18, 2010
at 11:54 AM
You are the BEST!!!! I love your blog.
LikeLike
By: Joi on November 18, 2010
at 11:51 AM
Alaskans may have been asleep at the switch in the primaries, but they rallied to defeat Joe Miller – with a write-in campaign! That is almost impossible, but they did it.
Reports from my friends in Alaska are that Palin was elected initially because nobody was paying attention, but once her capabilities were understood, most there can’t stand to look at her. For most, they are mortified that she is associated with that Great State, and are looking for ways to get her to move.
LikeLike
By: PFesser on November 18, 2010
at 11:50 AM
With every blog, Helen, I love you more! I recently had the experience of collecting about $300 a week for two months while on medical disability after a procedure gone horribly awry. Of course, according to the Republican line of thought, I should have sucked up that lung damage, double pneumonia, and septic shock and just kept right on working. But I definitely agree–it’s not easy living on $300 a week, and I am single with no dependents anymore. I can’t imagine trying to support a family with that amount of money.
The response I always have to people who want to cut off all welfare because of the few who are gaming the system is that I’m sure they would just love to trade places with someone on welfare. Usually shuts them up fairly quickly, although not always. And sadly, yes, I find it very unChristian of the “Christians” who are just so darned uncharitable. They definitely give the ones who are truly trying to follow Christ’s teachings a bad name. Unfortunately, there seems to be a whole lot of them out there.
LikeLike
By: Joni on November 18, 2010
at 11:46 AM
You have my sincere sympathies for watching any part of that show. If advertised on another channel I turn that off too. I don’t understand why someone (other than Joe McG) doesn’t take her on and reveal what a nasty, foul-mouthed fake she really is? As for the idle poor cashing in on unemployment — BUNK. What I want to see is the next time some Republican stands up to berate the unemployed is for THEIR minister to call the local newspaper and say they may go to my church but they aren’t listening to what I say.
LikeLike
By: MSLemon on November 18, 2010
at 11:28 AM
Helen, I adore you. Please take your vitamins and eat good breakfasts. Ideally you’d run for President (and win) in 2012 (and 2016), but I’ll settle for you just being around to blog for a long, long time.
LikeLike
By: Steve H on November 18, 2010
at 11:23 AM
To whoever maade the statements about the unemployed should be spending their time looking for a job.
May I inquire as to what jobs?
Unfortnately, their jobs were sent to China or India Or some other country with very cheap wages. And guess who sent those jobs overseas? you got it.REpublicans. and those same repugs want to send more jobs overseas.
The thought of what Palin could do in the WH is beyond scary.
And how long could she take the heat before she resigns?
Palin is such a shining example of the FAmily Values issue so dear to the repugs heart.
LikeLike
By: Grandma Katie on November 18, 2010
at 11:08 AM
No Helen, we did not watch it. We won’t watch it. And that dipsy daughter is still being propped up as a dancer by her moms fans, despite consistently lowest scores in that dancing show that so many people love to watch. Straight D-‘s is not worth any praise in my book.
LikeLike
By: Micky-T on November 18, 2010
at 11:07 AM
When will the rest of country get it? Thanks, Helen for keeping Palin in the proper light.
LikeLike
By: Carla on November 18, 2010
at 10:57 AM
I refuse to watch any tv show that has any member of the Palin family on it. That is just my way of saying, “Sarah, shut up and go away”.
LikeLike
By: LiberalWoman on November 18, 2010
at 10:54 AM
I admire your decency and fairness on behalf of everyone suffering in our recession.
For the Stupid, it’s easier on their few brain cells to stigmatize the unemployed (and bundle in their racism too) than look at FACTS about who are affected and how their lives and their children’s lives are being turned upside-down.
LikeLike
By: B. W. on November 18, 2010
at 10:50 AM
She has tainted my view of Alaska. I used to love Alaska, being a former resident, but now I am like….ewwwwww
She is the worst campaign for Alaska ever.
LikeLike
By: Johanna on November 18, 2010
at 10:44 AM
Can you give some sources to support your facts? (Not that I don’t believe them, but I’d love to show this to someone I know – but without a source, it won’t do any good).
LikeLike
By: Mandi on November 18, 2010
at 10:26 AM
As always, you rock! Really. I mean it.
LikeLike
By: 2legit on November 18, 2010
at 10:23 AM
Helen, I salute you for having the intestinal fortitude to watch an hour of Palin, I never could have done it, and I’m drawn to disasters. So glad you did though, so you could write about it. Thanks!
LikeLike
By: no one's puppet on November 18, 2010
at 10:21 AM
Love this blog!
LikeLike
By: Susan Mayberry on November 18, 2010
at 9:59 AM
Oh, Helen, what thou sayest!
Have done the unemployment “benefits” thing a few times before in my life. Yes, its a way of getting my tax money back when I need it but the way the state employment commissions treat you is abominable! Did the $$ help? Barely. I live in a southern state. Need I say more?
LikeLike
By: Mageen in Old Virginny on November 18, 2010
at 9:56 AM
While the grizzley-ette in my state benefited greatly from the Palin halo effect in spite of being denounced by most of the regular Republicans, I notice that the Palin blessing didn’t go over so well in her home state. Guess they already know what that means.
LikeLike
By: mamculuna on November 18, 2010
at 9:54 AM
The other thing about unemployment? You have to have had a job to get it, though certain jobs DQ you and and some jobs make you jump thru hoops to get any at all.
LikeLike
By: Cat on November 18, 2010
at 9:32 AM
Helen,
Another one hit right out of the park!
Please write a book. One book from you would out sell all the coloring books from the republicants.
Educated, Intelligent, factual and a strong leader,
we need more “Helen’s” to step forward and start being LOUD. You have to be able to be heard over the din. It is the only way to get the truth out there.
Love you
LikeLike
By: Mikat on November 18, 2010
at 9:16 AM
GOD DAMN FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LikeLike
By: Micheal Morvitz on November 18, 2010
at 9:11 AM
Bravo Helen! Your words are so wise. Sarah Palin does truly need a good, solid beating, doesn’t she?
LikeLike
By: Sid on November 18, 2010
at 9:02 AM
Good Morning Helen! Facts? They don’t care about facts.
LikeLike
By: poolman on November 18, 2010
at 9:01 AM
Oh geez, Helen, I needed your post this morning because you said it all so much better than I could ever hope to and it’s right on the money. Last night my husband was channel surfing, turned to Palin’s show, called me into the room, and said, “honey, I thought this show would be one you were awaiting anxiously to see”! Oh lord, we laughed out loud while he turned it off – heaven forbid that TLC would be able to add even one more number to their viewer list! There is no way we could ever waste our time on listening to one screeching word that moron had to say and it’s pitiful that Alaskans have to put up with their lovely state being ‘used’ for her to make even more money. It’s a given that no matter how much money she has, it will NEVER be enough for her and she will NEVER give even one penny of it to charity in order to help another human being; like one of those people who is desperately searching for a job and in dire need of those unemployment benefits Helen spoke of.
Hi avotresante, I LOVED your comment as it speaks truth to power just as Helen’s post. It’s so nice to know that others here see right through all that Paylin over-exposure and I pray that America will have reached their tipping point because ALL that saturation has made her minions into absolute sheep who have virtually no idea what the definition of ‘critical thinking’ means. If only they would look it up and start doing it [thinking, that is] perhaps they could start to understand that their votes only added to the profound problems in our country as we’re well on our way to becoming a banana republic.
Hi Delurkergurl, good to see you this morning and I hope all is well with you and that you have a good weekend.
Hi Donna, I also loved your comment but so sad to know that you are thrilled to have that lousy paying job because the benefits far outweigh the pay. What has this country come to? It’s simply not right and not fair and I’m so angry that Paylin can ‘USE’ others and other things to rake in the dough when we all know there is nothing she says that’s even worth one red cent! That’s the crux of my anger and I see it with those Republicans in Congress who wouldn’t give up their lucrative pay, and particularly the great benefits, because they can disparage government until the cows come home, but boy, do they ever LOVE their cushy jobs. That’s the unfairness I can’t tolerate.
LikeLike
By: Disparaged on November 18, 2010
at 9:01 AM
Denali denial denies dancing doll doing daddy’s doodoo deferring darling dear daughter’s diatribe …
Makes as much sense as this woman and her tribe does! Keep it up Helen. We must overcome this plague.
LikeLike
By: teacher on November 18, 2010
at 8:20 AM
Great post, Helen.
And I’m sure that Denial Park has exorbant entrance fees as well. It’s all about “payin’ palin”.
LikeLike
By: vgman on November 18, 2010
at 8:11 AM
As alway, Helen, you are right on the money.
I’m a ballroom dancing fan, having taken lessons when I was young, and I’ve enjoyed watching that show until it became Hoofing It With Brisket. At first, I was shocked, but now that everything is so incredibly obvious, my thinking has changed.
As Dr. Phil likes to remind us, when you choose your behavior, you choose your consequences. With that in mind, the saturation of the Paylin family “values” all over the tv opens the floodgates to what kind of people they really are. I know people who aren’t normally too politically motivated (but who watch tv) who are suddenly very aware of Tea Party tactics. These previously undecided voters may actually vote in the next election.
So, it’s all a good thing. The consequence of hubris is more exposure, which may bring this country closer to a tipping point. That’s how the energy feels to me, anyway.
LikeLike
By: avotresante on November 18, 2010
at 8:03 AM
Like I tweeted recently, “Please God, let me wake up in a world where Sarah Palin could not possibly have her own TV show.”
She’s like an annoying fly you just can’t swat.
LikeLike
By: Debra Schubert on November 18, 2010
at 8:02 AM
I don’t want to talk about her anymore either. Ever.
LikeLike
By: Meredith on November 18, 2010
at 7:57 AM
Here’s a link to MSN Money giving a chart of how much unemployment you’d receive in each state:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/how-much-jobless-pay-would-you-get.aspx.
It’s just plain EVIL to suggest that someone who’s struggling to survive on such small amounts is living high on the hog and lazy because they can’t find a job. Every time there’s a Republican President my state job has been eliminated and those months on unemployment were the worst…I’ve run through my savings buying prescriptions for my asthmatic kids, lost my apartment and had to move in with my parents and had to borrow money for gas to go to interviews. And since the Republicans also cut funding for Vocational Rehab I’ve had to find a job all on my own. I thank God every day for my crappy, low paying job with good benefits. And it would be unChristian for me to say that I hope the blowhards to spew their nonsense would end up in the same boat so I won’t (say it out loud).
LikeLike
By: Donna P on November 18, 2010
at 7:56 AM
Good morning, Helen! Thanks for making my day.
LikeLike
By: delurkergurl on November 18, 2010
at 7:54 AM
Don’t forget also that the unemployed who are collecting the unemployment ‘INSURANCE’ have been paying into that program all their working life. By the way $375 is pretty good. Down here in Florida, which has been run by Republicans for years, the unemployment insurance is only a little over $200 a week. Not enough to even buy groceries, or put gas in the car so you can go to a job interview.
LikeLike
By: Alan on November 18, 2010
at 7:35 AM
Can you tell me the source for the unemployment benefits statistics? I’d like to share them, but – being another dinosaur who believes in facts – I want to make sure I’m on solid ground before I do.
LikeLike
By: suburbancorrespondent on November 18, 2010
at 7:33 AM
Ahh, you’ve made my day Helen! As usual you are spot on…I just wish Sarah Palin and her dysfunctional family would just go away! Can you believe Bristol is still on Dancing With the Stars???My goodness that chick can’t dance, but I guess since the mid-term elections are over, all the Tea Party radicals feel the need to focus on something else to vote on, so they’ve picked the Palin kid. Talk about a mess….
LikeLike
By: Jazzydee on November 18, 2010
at 7:32 AM
When I grow up, I want to follow in your footsteps,Helen. I don’t have far to go as I’m all ready 61. Helen, you’re my idol and you really “say it like it is”! Keep up the good work!!!
LikeLike
By: LindaB on November 18, 2010
at 7:28 AM
Sing it sistar!
LikeLike
By: lori on November 18, 2010
at 7:24 AM
Thank you, Helen!
LikeLike
By: Donna on November 18, 2010
at 7:16 AM
Well said Helen!
LikeLike
By: Beth on November 18, 2010
at 7:07 AM
Yes Helen!!
On all counts !
LikeLike
By: alaskapi on November 18, 2010
at 7:03 AM