The Democrat Thread

[bmags]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washingt...erve/?page=full

[Balta1701]

sick of people acting like bipartisanship means complete capitulation from the party in power and then the minority party still doesn't vote for it.

You think Washington is bad, you really ought to check out the state with the worst credit rating in the country.

[Balta1701]

Who were the unamerican idiots who voted against? And I am not being sarcastic here - I really find it distinctly unamerican for people to vote directly against a measure to give fair hearing to US citizens in a grievance against the government.

Don't forget, this is also a handout to an interest group; trial lawyers, who now get to litigate an extra 750,000 cases or so for the people wrongfully on that list.

 

Here's the roll call vote for you.

 

---- NAYS 3 ---

Broun (GA)

Poe (TX)

Westmoreland (GA)

 

(Westmoreland is the guy who got 2/10 of the ten commandments down on the Colbert Report)

[NorthSideSox72]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washingt...erve/?page=full

NEA gets money from the stimulus bill?

 

LOL, what a joke.

 

[bmags]

American culture is one of our biggest exports.

[NorthSideSox72]

American culture is one of our biggest exports.

OK. I don't disagree with the general point, but, please show me how this is a "stimulus" item, and how it will generate positive returns.

 

[Balta1701]

OK. I don't disagree with the general point, but, please show me how this is a "stimulus" item, and how it will generate positive returns.

The money for artistic projects is almost by definition ready to be injected into the economy. It may take years to draw up a plan for a highway, obtain the right of way and fend off legal challenges before the bulldozers start rolling. But to buy a canvass and some paintbrushes, or even some metal for a public sculpture, is comparatively straightforward. That puts quick money into the pockets of the companies that build, sell and ship those artistic materials as well.

 

"The money goes straight into the economy," says Janet Echelman, a sculptor whose giant metallic nets have revitalized public parks and downtowns from Texas to Portugal. "I pay two full-time assistants in my studio, plus consultants who are architects, engineers, and landscape architects, as well as lighting designers. A very large portion goes into fabrication, which is funding workers at a steel factory." Echelman currently has a commission from Phoenix to build a centerpiece for a new downtown park that may face funding shortfalls. There are "shovel-ready" arts projects like hers throughout the country.

...

 

A well-designed public space can boost real estate values and create opportunities for small local business to thrive. Public art in urban environments can also help physically and socially knit together communities. In Houston, Echelman hung a bright orange sculpture from the bottom of a highway on-ramp that flew over a public park. That area, once desolate, has become a popular destination. Judy Baca, an artist in Los Angeles has hired inner-city youth to help her paint public murals, partly to help improve relations between rival gangs. "It has the additional benefit of crime prevention and enhancing the opportunities of under-privileged kids," explains Robert Lynch, CEO of Americans for the Arts. "The process is as important as the product."

 

Local and national arts organizations are already beginning to appeal to state governments to invest stimulus infrastructure dollars in art. In Massachusetts local organizations have asked Governor Deval Patrick to direct his administration to spend 1 percent of the federal infrastructure dollars on design excellence and public art, and the governor's office has been receptive. "People like living in well designed, carefully thought out urban environments," says Ricardo D. Barreto, director of the UrbanArts Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. "Public art is about more than putting a statue in a corner. It is linked to urban design."

Link to full article from the Atlantic.

[bmags]

OK. I don't disagree with the general point, but, please show me how this is a "stimulus" item, and how it will generate positive returns.

 

I don't understand how it isn't. There is a lack of demand right now. The gov't is fueling money into the demand market. They allocate funds to build a theatre, that contract goes to a contractor, that contractor pays his employees, those employees have money to purchase things, adding to the demand market. Let alone, the theatre then employing actors who are now not unemployed and so then purchase other items...and so on. But TAX CUTS.

[longshot7]

You think Washington is bad, you really ought to check out the state with the worst credit rating in the country.

 

California?

[Balta1701]

California?

Yeah. It's sort of like Washington, except you need a 2/3 majority to pass any budget/spending bill. So the smallest minority, in particular here the far right, anti-any-tax folks are on the verge of completely shutting the state down, and the governor is too busy doing photo ops to actually care about coming up with a workable budget.

[BigSqwert]

No wonder he was so corrupt. The headline says it all.

[bmags]

ugh, I'm pretty proud in saying I've never seen people dine and dash. Such an asshole thing to do.

[BigSqwert]

ugh, I'm pretty proud in saying I've never seen people dine and dash. Such an asshole thing to do.

For real.

[ChiSox_Sonix]

ugh, I'm pretty proud in saying I've never seen people dine and dash. Such an asshole thing to do.

 

Senior year in HS our soccer team went out for breakfast before school the day of our homecoming game at Dennys. We were kinda loud and rowdy but there were hardly any people in there and we were polite to the waitress. However, one of the waitresses kept giving attitude to one of the tables and so when the food came the three people at that table just left. I was one of the last people to leave and initially we refused to pay for it since we werent the ones to do it but in the end myself and a few others picked up their bill. Apparently Dennys called our school because our coach found and those three got suspended for the game. And then we all had to run extra sprints in practice the next day so that was fun

[bmags]

Senior year in HS our soccer team went out for breakfast before school the day of our homecoming game at Dennys. We were kinda loud and rowdy but there were hardly any people in there and we were polite to the waitress. However, one of the waitresses kept giving attitude to one of the tables and so when the food came the three people at that table just left. I was one of the last people to leave and initially we refused to pay for it since we werent the ones to do it but in the end myself and a few others picked up their bill. Apparently Dennys called our school because our coach found and those three got suspended for the game. And then we all had to run extra sprints in practice the next day so that was fun

 

Holy s***, you just jogged my memory. I went to my friends birthday dinner and some assholes left the check and I had to pay it for my friend. I think that's f***ing over the other tables, more though, I think they knew that. Bastards.

[Balta1701]

I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years.

Link. That's a response to a pajamas media stimulus bashing session involving Joe The Plumber, Michelle Malkin, and Glenn Reynolds.

[lostfan]

Link. That's a response to a pajamas media stimulus bashing session involving Joe The Plumber, Michelle Malkin, and Glenn Reynolds.

I just laughed out loud at work.

 

edit: and I totally plagiarized this for my Facebook status.

Edited February 6, 2009 by lostfan

[bmags]

Seriously. That is absolutely hilarious.

[BigSqwert]

[Balta1701]

Link.

Organizers reported Sunday that the 44th White House Carnival was a rousing success, raising a record $800,000,066,845 for the federal government—$800 billion of which came from a dunk tank featuring former vice president Dick Cheney.

 

According to Secretary of the Treasury and carnival volunteer Timothy Geithner, the 5-foot-deep tank has provided a much-needed boost to the nation's flagging economy.

 

"We expected a big turn out, but this is unbelievable," said Geithner, adding that it's tradition for the outgoing vice president to work the dunk tank. "More than half the country has already gone, and there's still about 20 million people stretching all the way to Maryland waiting for their chance to sink Cheney. We'll be leaving this booth open for as long as it takes for everyone to get a turn."

 

According to carnival sources, a visibly irritated Cheney, clad in sandals and a white cotton robe, arrived at the one-day event shortly before 10 a.m. After removing his robe to reveal a black, 1940s-style bathing suit, the vice president reportedly touched his hand to the water, muttered something to himself, and was then helped up the tank's ladder by several members of his Secret Service detail.

 

...

Established in 1797, the White House Carnival was the brainchild of President George Washington, who wanted to raise funds for the burgeoning new republic. That year, citizens paid two cents apiece to watch Vice President John Adams jump into a nearby pond, an act that ultimately led to the dunk tank tradition.

 

Although past carnivals have raised anywhere from $50,000 to $60,000—just enough to pay for the carnival itself—tallies indicate that, thanks to Cheney, this year's record-setting proceeds could help steer the nation out of a deepening recession.

 

"The water's great," Cheney said moments after being dunked by third-grader Sean Biller, who traveled all the way from Denver for his chance to meet the former vice president. "Hopefully your unemployed dad can afford to give you money for another turn."

 

Unlike Biller, who carefully threw the ball at the bull's-eye, many citzens opted instead to aim directly at the head and chest of the 67-year-old politician.

 

One contestant who struggled to hit the target was Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). After nearly 20 unsuccessful tries, several of which involved Kerry standing well ahead of the thrower's line, carnival officials finally allowed Kerry to just walk up and press the button with his hand.

I like that last excerpted bit.

[Balta1701]

The President will be making a stop in Elkhart, IN, and a stop in Fort Meyers, FL, on a stimulus plan selling tour next week.

[Balta1701]

The response to the stuff 2k5 is posting in the other thread about how the CBO says the increased deficits will hurt growth in the long run is pretty easy. Just grabbing one of the several people who did the slightly more in-depth investigation.

As Clark suspects, something is amiss. Tim Fernholz had a nice post on this yesterday, and here's the basic deal: The CBO says two things in their latest report. The first is that the stimulus bill will work. "CBO estimates that the Senate legislation would raise output by between 1.4 percent and 4.1 percent by the fourth quarter of 2009; by between 1.2 percent and 3.6 percent by the fourth quarter of 2010; and by between 0.4 percent and 1.2 percent by the fourth quarter of 2011." They also project employment gains in the millions.

 

The second point is the argument that The Washington Times is so rudely and gleefully groping. "In contrast to its positive near-term macroeconomic effects," writes the CBO, "the Senate legislation would reduce output slightly in the long run...The principal channel for this effect is that the legislation would result in an increase in government debt." In other words: The stimulus bill will run up the government's debt. If that happens, and we do nothing about the government's debt, it will become more expensive for private businesses to borrow money, which could reduce GDP by .1 percent to .3 percent by 2019.

 

But that's not really a function of stimulus policy. Rather, it's a function of "not paying back our massive debt" policy. And "not paying back our massive debt" policy would primarily require two separate policy decisions: That we refuse to reform health care -- thus refusing to reform Medicare -- and that we refuse to eventually increase taxes in order to pay for our increased spending. It will be interesting to watch The Washington Times editorial page in the coming years and see if they are for or against policies that would reduce our long-term output.

Source.

[BigSqwert]

Pathological liar?

 

I've given up counting, but I should note that none of her defenders on the right have really dealt with the documented fact of her repeated self-refutations and delusional assertions of "facts" that are indisiputably non-facts. Her unstable grip on reality, taken for granted in Alaska, is the reason many of us simply do not believe a word she says unless we have actual evidence for it. Anyway, the latest trivial evidence that she just makes s*** up as she goes along comes from Esquire:

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And Levi Johnston is not a high school drop-out. And she opposed the Bridge To Nowhere. And she asked her kids' permission to run. And on and on ... She's totally nuts, I tell you. Bonkers. And John McCain put her one dark cynic's heartbeat away from the presidency.

 

 

[DukeNukeEm]

Her political capital is kaput. 50+% of the country wont vote for her at this point, rendering her unelectable outside of Alaska. Let's stop paying attention to her.

[Balta1701]

Her political capital is kaput. 50+% of the country wont vote for her at this point, rendering her unelectable outside of Alaska. Let's stop paying attention to her.

She doesn't need 50%. First of all, the current President had the 2nd largest total share of the total population vote for him in history, and he only got something like 23% of the population included.

 

The real fun though...is that for the nomination, she probably will need what, 1-2% of the total population to vote for her unless the Republican race in 2012 drags out past early Feb.