The Republican Thread

[StrangeSox]

The Democrats use it for "good purposes" and the Republicans use it for "bad purposes". We get it, Rex.

"It" in each section of that sentence refers to different things.

 

Stop equivocating.

 

[kapkomet]

"It" in each section of that sentence refers to different things.

 

Stop equivocating.

 

 

BS. You all always justify things when it's "your party". And at the end, it's just partisan hackery defending bulls***.

[StrangeSox]

They are, by definition, two distinct processes. That's not justification, that's how words work.

 

edit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconciliatio...tates_Congress)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option

 

They are two different processes, Kap. No amount of "OMG everything is always equal!" will actually make them the same thing.

Edited February 26, 2010 by StrangeSox

[kapkomet]

They are, by definition, two distinct processes. That's not justification, that's how words work.

 

edit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconciliatio...tates_Congress)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option

 

They are two different processes, Kap. No amount of "OMG everything is always equal!" will actually make them the same thing.

I know they are two different things. In fact, I would argue that the Democrat version of the "nuclear option" is blatently more against the constitution (article II section II). The rules of the senate are set to pass legislature, and no where in the Constitution does it say they have to pass laws.

 

But whatever... Dems are always the theoretical saints in these arguements, and the GOP is always bad. It grows stupid, and the arguements are weak sauce at this point.

[StrangeSox]

What are you going on about?

 

They are different procedures and you tried to conflate them into the same thing. I didn't make an argument for or against the use of either, just against trying to say that they're the same thing.

 

edit: AIISII is about the executive's power over the military, treaties and appointments.

Edited February 26, 2010 by StrangeSox

[Cknolls]

I love Obama's response to Paul Ryan talking about the obsurdity of the CBO score of this bill,.... "I don't want to get bogged down by numbers." Yeah what's an extra trillion dollars . Brilliant.

[southsider2k5]

I love Obama's response to Paul Ryan talking about the obsurdity of the CBO score of this bill,.... "I don't want to get bogged down by numbers." Yeah what's an extra trillion dollars . Brilliant.

 

Not to mention, what was the last major program that came in under budget for the federal government? If they say one trillion, it will probably be three.

[Rex Kickass]

The Democrats use it for "good purposes" and the Republicans use it for "bad purposes". We get it, Rex.

 

I'm glad you finally understand, then.

[kapkomet]

What are you going on about?

 

They are different procedures and you tried to conflate them into the same thing. I didn't make an argument for or against the use of either, just against trying to say that they're the same thing.

 

edit: AIISII is about the executive's power over the military, treaties and appointments.

 

 

No I didn't, other then to say when one party "fillibusters", it is "good" and when the other does it, it is "bad". That's just the way it is through those political colored glasses people like to wear.

[mr_genius]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/finance...rgan-chief.html

 

Jamie Dimon, chairman of JP Morgan Chase, has warned American investors should be more worried about the risk of default of the state of California than of Greece's current debt woes. ...

 

 

Earlier this week, the state's legislature passed bills that will cut the deficit by $2.8bn through budget cuts and other measures. However the former Hollywood film star turned politician is looking for $8.9bn of cuts over the next 16 months, and is also hoping for as much as $7bn of handouts from the federal government.

 

of course

[juddling]

 

In yet another curious appointment by the President.....Really????

 

how can a guy whose only goal is to make government more costly, union contracts more enriched, and spending ever greater be qualified to sit on a deficit reduction commission?

[southsider2k5]

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=362567

 

Marine's death came at hands of U.S.-paid security forces

By Chuck Goudie | Daily Herald Columnist

Contact writer

 

 

Lance Cpl. Joshua Birchfield, 24, left, was killed while on patrol in Afghanistan on Feb. 19. Lance Cpl. Christopher "Doc" Marsh, right, said "Josh was truly one of a kind. He was the glue that held his squad together."

 

 

 

 

A photograph of Lance Cpl. Joshua H. Birchfield, 24, of Westville, Ind., is placed on an easel by fellow Marines preparing for Birchfield's memorial service this month in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

 

 

 

 

Members of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division surround the helmet, boots and gun used by their fellow soldier, Lance Cpl. Joshua Birchfield, who was killed on Feb. 19 in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

 

No American soldier should die the way Josh Birchfield did.

 

There was much more to his "supporting combat operations" death than what the military put out.

 

It was the standard Pentagon release.

 

A soldier is killed. A clerk types in their name. "____________ died while supporting combat operations."

 

There is no Pentagon form titled "What Really Happened."

 

If there was, in the case of the metro Chicago Marine, this is how it would read:

 

"Lance Cpl. Joshua H. Birchfield, 24, of Westville, Ind., died Feb. 19 after being shot in the head by a doped-up private security contractor hired by the U.S. government. We're sorry we hired the guy, obviously didn't check him out very well and we are devastated that we didn't do a better job protecting our own."

 

This disturbing information came to me after last week's column, in which I reported how Lance Cpl. Birchfield deserved more attention in dying for his country than Tiger Woods, who at the same hour had commandeered the nation's airwaves to apologize for cheating on his wife.

 

"Although I respect the fact that you wrote about Josh to let the world know that he died a hero, and he did, your facts are not even close to the truth," wrote one of Lance Cpl. Birchfield's friends and fellow Marines in an e-mail from Afghanistan.

 

Because the military hadn't yet reported the death, I surmised that Birchfield was in the Marjan province, where Marines had been in regular firefights with the Taliban.

 

Actually, he was on a routine patrol in the Helmand province.

 

"He was killed by American Hired Local National Contractors that were high on opium the morning of the 19th."

 

The author of the e-mail was part of a Marine quick-response team that tried "to bring him back from the fatal gunshot to the head. There has never been a more charismatic and honorable man I have ever met than Joshua Birchfield."

 

Birchfield was on his first combat tour for the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

 

His wake last week in La Porte County, Ind., drew several thousand people. To accommodate the mourners, his funeral on Saturday was held in the high school where he had graduated just few years ago.

 

But none of them knew the real story of what happened.

 

He was on a security patrol about a half-mile from a Marine forward operating base. About 7 a.m., as day broke, shots were fired at Birchfield's patrol team, according to members of his unit. The ambush was by U.S.-hired security guards who were supposed to be protecting a highway paving project from Taliban-installed roadside bombs.

 

"The contractors were able to have such proximity to a U.S. patrol because we pay them to work on our FOB (forward operating base), pave the 515 (highway), and provide security from Taliban IED (roadside bomb) implacers in the area," I was told.

 

Because the U.S.-backed contractors "are ordinary Afghanis, they are subject to corruption and play both sides of the fence between the U.S. military and the local Taliban," reported one of Birchfield's fellow Marines. "These men are armed to the teeth and supposedly here for our protection."

 

He said the shooter and six other guards were arrested after the killing and are in the custody of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

 

"They are also drug abusers. The shooter was found to have copious amounts of wet opium on him shortly after the shooting ... we found a bag of wet opium in the compound that the contractors were using to get high."

 

The Pentagon had no comment on the incident on Sunday.

 

But the Marine said that Josh Birchfield died for two reasons. "A mix of drugs and gray areas of loyalty between U.S. forces and Taliban seems to be the motivation behind the shooting."

 

Although Birchfield was the first U.S. service member he recalls being killed by a U.S.-paid Afghan guard, "we have been shot at by the contractors on several cases before this incident. We have been told to refrain from returning fire and attempt to identify ourselves as Marines so they stop shooting."

 

His fellow Marines held a small memorial service for him last Friday in Afghanistan. They huddled around the boots and helmet he once wore. And the gun he never had a chance to fire at an enemy bought and paid for by his own government.

 

• Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] and followed at twitter.com/ChuckGoudie.

[Cknolls]

"What has happened in the last year, in the past year, in the United States Senate is a total obstruction by the Republican senators," Pelosi said.

 

What does that say about the content of the legislation if it cannot pass with 60 votes?

 

Don't let the botox go to your brain.

 

Just keep working on that most ethical Congress thing...seems its a work in progress.

[Balta1701]

"What has happened in the last year, in the past year, in the United States Senate is a total obstruction by the Republican senators," Pelosi said.

 

What does that say about the content of the legislation if it cannot pass with 60 votes?

 

Don't let the botox go to your brain.

 

Just keep working on that most ethical Congress thing...seems its a work in progress.

This is an impressively disjointed rant.

[whitesoxfan101]

Bill Brady is the official GOP nominee for governor in Illinois. I firmly expect another term of Democratic control in Executive Mansion with that in mind. Not sure how you get an absolute extremist right winder elected as Governor in a dark blue state, no matter how messed up the government has been in it. I really have no use for either candidate, but this is Illinois, so having 2 crappy choices for a political vote isn't a surprise.

Edited March 7, 2010 by whitesoxfan101

[mr_genius]

Bill Brady is the official GOP nominee for governor in Illinois. I firmly expect another term of Democratic control in Executive Mansion with that in mind. Not sure how you get an absolute extremist right winder elected as Governor in a dark blue state, no matter how messed up the government has been in it. I really have no use for either candidate, but this is Illinois, so having 2 crappy choices for a political vote isn't a surprise.

 

who is the Dem? i haven't been paying attention to politics lately.

[lostfan]

who is the Dem? i haven't been paying attention to politics lately.

Quinn kept the nomination, no?

[mr_genius]

Quinn kept the nomination, no?

 

oh yea

[southsider2k5]

The sound you hear is Illinois circling the drain for four more years...

[Cknolls]

We deserve it! Hopefully Illinois, California, New York and some others go bankrupt. That will be the only way we can affect the change needed to become fiscally sane.

[Balta1701]

We deserve it! Hopefully Illinois, California, New York and some others go bankrupt. That will be the only way we can affect the change needed to become fiscally sane.

Really, you think that'll change anything? All that will do is make it apparent to other states that they have another out if they cut taxes further.

[CanOfCorn]

Anyone here see Karl Rove on the Today Show this morning? In terms of full disclosure, I'm not a Karl Rove fan and I didn't see the whole interview. He said he didn't run a smear campaign, nor was it dirty, and had too much respect for the American voters to do that. Also, he stated the media didn't respect the voters because he thought the media made it seem as though the voters were swayed by those types of campaigns.

 

I'm not going to say right or wrong, although I have my opinion on the subject. Anyone else see the whole thing and would like to relate/paraphrase?

[southsider2k5]

Really, you think that'll change anything? All that will do is make it apparent to other states that they have another out if they cut taxes further.

 

Or they could make it clear that you can't keep spending like... well... governmental bodies.

[mr_genius]

Not sure how you get an absolute extremist right winder elected as Governor in a dark blue state, no matter how messed up the government has been in it.

 

What has he done/said that is extremist? I did a quick search and all I can find is basically that he is form downstate and he wants to cut spending 10% across the board.

[Cknolls]

Really, you think that'll change anything? All that will do is make it apparent to other states that they have another out if they cut taxes further.

 

 

Yes. If the judge had any balls he would destroy the sweetheart pensions and move us along..

 

 

 

 

Or we could just keep giving cost of living raises at a 3% clip. That will make us fiscally sound.

 

 

 

 

Do you really think these pensions are sustainable?

 

 

Another thing, anyone who runs a state pension and is GUARANTEEING anything over 3% should be hanged and quartered. These are unrealistic return assumptions. Just an excuse not to make pension payments.

 

 

Lower the return assumptions, cut the benefits, increase the retirement age, and yes RAISE taxes. See where that takes us.