The Republican Thread

[lostfan]

The best thing about this story is the agency saying they had to meet a strict mid-June deadline to mail out all checks, and that didn't leave them much time to clean up all their records......THE WOMAN DIED 40 YEARS AGO

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Another couple of weeks would've helped you clean that up?

[southsideirish71]

Joe Biden and more of his theories of the stupid.

 

Unions are the way to rebuild the middle class.

 

If you want to see how unions rebuild the middle class just check out Detroit. Start this card check crap and you will have more companies investing in India, China, Russia and other countries who want businesses.

 

 

[Balta1701]

The dismantling of unions over the past 30 years or so has done wonders for the expansion of the middle class.

[kapkomet]

The dismantling of unions over the past 30 years or so has done wonders for the expansion of the middle class.

Because they are so dismantled and everything.

 

[Balta1701]

Because they are so dismantled and everything.

Link.

[kapkomet]

Percentages don't mean anything.

What are the counts?

 

 

[Balta1701]

Percentages don't mean anything.

What are the counts?

Its dropoff is actually steeper in recent years, probably because of all the work the statisticians have done to exclude people from the labor pool.

 

data through here, done by the BLS originally.

[kapkomet]

Its dropoff is actually steeper in recent years, probably because of all the work the statisticians have done to exclude people from the labor pool.

 

data through here, done by the BLS originally.

I would agree - and the labor pool is different then it was in 1950. IMO, unions have just as much influence as they used to (by numbers)... I think it's pretty inaccurate to say that unions have been "dismantled".

 

[mr_genius]

A couple weeks ago, I read a WSJ article from 1982 about what a jerk Reagan was for not being enough of a free trader. They were appauled that he dared demand that Japan produce cars in the US and hire US workers if they were goign to sell here. A lot of talk of him being a 'protectionist'. Low and behold his ways were correct.

 

was a very interesting read.

Edited May 12, 2009 by mr_genius

[southsider2k5]

The dismantling of unions over the past 30 years or so has done wonders for the expansion of the middle class.

 

The unions are destroying the middle class instead of helping it over the last two generations at least. They just about did it in the 80's, but somehow hung on.

[DrunkBomber]

Unions are great. Everyday when Im driving on lower whacker I get to see someone holding a sign for $40 an hour. Good to see they protect a job a bucket of cement could do.

[BearSox]

lol

 

http://www.wbaltv.com/money/19435100/detail.html

 

She probably voted as well.

[Cknolls]

Unions are great. Everyday when Im driving on lower whacker I get to see someone holding a sign for $40 an hour. Good to see they protect a job a bucket of cement could do.

 

 

You anti-middle class union basher!!!

[southsider2k5]

So the big story of the day is that Obama completely did a 180 and is now NOT going to release all of the torture pics to the public. Interesting.

[BearSox]

So the big story of the day is that Obama completely did a 180 and is now NOT going to release all of the torture pics to the public. Interesting.

The dude has been flip-flopping a ton in his short time as president.

[Rex Kickass]

So the big story of the day is that Obama completely did a 180 and is now NOT going to release all of the torture pics to the public. Interesting.

 

FWIW, it's a pretty stupid decision on his part. I understand the reasoning behind it, but its wrong.

[dasox24]

So the big story of the day is that Obama completely did a 180 and is now NOT going to release all of the torture pics to the public. Interesting.

I'm glad he decided to do that. There's really no point in releasing those photos. What's done is done. It's not going to help anything to release the torture pictures.

Edited May 14, 2009 by dasox24

[BearSox]

Since he already allowed the release of the documents, might as well release everything. Releasing the stuff in the first place was the stupid decision.

[lostfan]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/ab2p31qr...mVwdWJsaWNhbnNh

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Republicans are getting inspiration on how to rebuild their party in the U.S. Congress from an unlikely source: White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

 

California Representative Kevin McCarthy, the chief recruiter for House Republicans, said he wants his party to select candidates based less on ideology and more on their chances of winning. The goal, he said, is to seek out prospects who are ethnically diverse, female, less partisan and even supportive of abortion rights. So far, these efforts are more concept than reality.

 

Emanuel, a former U.S. representative from Illinois, put the template into practice in 2006 when he was leading the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Candidates he recruited won in Republican districts by holding positions uncommon for Democrats such as opposition to abortion and support for gun rights.

 

“Have you read ‘The Thumpin’?” McCarthy, 44, asked, citing a book about Emanuel’s brass-knuckles approach to winning control of the House for Democrats in 2006. “This isn’t original thought.”

 

In the 2006 election, Emanuel, 49, recruited anti- abortion, pro-gun candidates such as Brad Ellsworth, 50, a sheriff in Indiana, and Heath Shuler, 37, a former NFL quarterback, in North Carolina. The premise: identify candidates whose views best mirror those of their districts’ constituents rather than Democratic Party orthodoxy.

 

Connecticut Race

 

As an example of his efforts to emulate Emanuel, McCarthy said he is trying to recruit John McKinney, a Republican state senator from Connecticut. On his Web site, McKinney describes himself as a fiscally conservative, socially moderate centrist. He has said he is considering a run for the U.S. House, though he hasn’t made a formal announcement. His spokesman, Brett Cody, said McKinney supports abortion rights.

 

McCarthy said such openness is necessary to rebuild the party, which lost control of Congress and the White House in the past two election cycles. “We’re at 178” seats in the House out of 435, he said. “You get beyond the majority and people can worry about what they want to purify.”

 

That argument is rankling some Republicans, who said the party must continue to distinguish itself from the Democrats.

 

“Standing for something is better than standing for nothing,” said consultant Eddie Mahe. “There’s that age-old saying, ‘The reason moderates don’t accomplish much is they don’t believe in anything enough to fight for.”

 

Primary Challenges

 

Moderates would also likely face strong primary challenges from more traditional Republicans, who believe in “more government versus less government,” Mahe said.

 

Democrats are skeptical about McCarthy’s plan. “The jabber-jaw talk of acceptance is unfortunately not backed up,” said John Lapp, who was director of the DCCC under Emanuel. “They just want power back.”

 

Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat and the current DCCC chairman, said Republicans can’t point to any recruits who fundamentally differ with the party platform.

 

“It’s still early, but clearly they’ve had some difficulty recruiting candidates,” he said.

 

McCarthy points to potential candidates who would diversify the face of the party. In California, he said he’s courting Van Tran, a state assemblyman who was born in Vietnam, and he wants to find more women like Martha Roby, a city councilwoman in Montgomery, Alabama.

 

Nonpartisan Appeal

 

Mayors can also be appealing because they run in nonpartisan races in some cities, including Sid Leiken, 47, the mayor of Springfield, Oregon. McCarthy said there are other candidates in the same mold, citing the mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire, Frank Guinta, 38, who this week announced he would run for the U.S. House seat of incumbent Democrat Carol Shea-Porter.

 

Republicans are following the right strategy, and history is on their side, said Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report in Washington. Since 1945, the party that controls the White House loses an average of 16 House seats in its first midterm election, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

 

At the same time, Gonzales said he doubts Republicans can reclaim a majority after losing a combined 54 seats in 2006 and 2008. “They have to convince candidates to run now when it doesn’t look like their chances are very good,” he said.

 

Dwindling Support

 

The party has contracted in the past few election cycles, and today, less than a quarter of all voters call themselves Republicans, according to the Pew Research Center. That’s down from 30 percent four years ago. By comparison, 35 percent of voters describe themselves as Democrats, up two points from 2004.

 

Other Republican leaders said they recognize the party needs to move away from its focus on social issues that have driven away independent voters.

 

Last month, Texas Senator John Cornyn, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, also suggested he would seek candidates who deviate from the party platform.

 

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, an anti-abortion rights conservative from Virginia, didn’t appear to rule it out when asked if he would back pro-choice candidates.

 

“The essence of being a Republican is the belief in free markets, the belief in individual responsibility, the belief in the faith of the individual,” he said. “This is what our party is about.”

Edited May 14, 2009 by lostfan

[BearSox]

Gives me more reason not to join the republican party.

[lostfan]

The above is actually a great idea politically, it's more of what they did during the Reagan era, etc. The Republicans are not going to get anywhere by just doubling down and being "more conservative" or whatever that means. It's just not mathematically possible.

Edited May 14, 2009 by lostfan

[Cknolls]

So the big story of the day is that Obama completely did a 180 and is now NOT going to release all of the torture pics to the public. Interesting.

 

 

As one blogger says, "all of his promises come with an expiration date, all of them."

[southsider2k5]

FWIW, it's a pretty stupid decision on his part. I understand the reasoning behind it, but its wrong.

 

The surprising part was that he pretty much took the GOP reasoning as his own for not doing it.

[Cknolls]

http://michaelsavage.wnd.com/index.php?fa=...amp;pageId=5938

 

 

Five minutes with the fathers of these children would save tax-payers a hell of a lot of money.

[ChiSox_Sonix]

http://michaelsavage.wnd.com/index.php?fa=...amp;pageId=5938

 

 

Five minutes with the fathers of these children would save tax-payers a hell of a lot of money.

 

Just curious, but why is this in the Republican thread?