The year the world changed, and no one noticed

WEALTH ENVY!

Just thought I’d get that out early.

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Welcome to hell, folks.

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“I don’t think the Democrats have come to grips with that reality at all — not in their rhetoric, and not in their policy.”

There may be hope for you yet, Jay.

I agree that while Repubs talk a big game, they still have to deliver. But at least they are in the right ballpark.

Crying towels for Jay’s loyal left at a nominal charge.

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“Both parties are still stuck trying to convince voters that they have the secret to making things as they used to be”

And sadly, a lot of voters believe them.

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It’s all the fault of disco.

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Yeah, I’d really like to take 35+ year ride in the way-back machine. Back when things were good especially for a white male like me. We knew how to run the world.

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California will have to release 46,000 criminals as per a Supreme court decision. I hope they all go to Hollywood.

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“Unfortunately, I don’t think the Democrats have come to grips with that reality at all — not in their rhetoric, and not in their policy.”–Jay Bookman

Here is one brilliant solution to this problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLdA1ikkoEc

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USMC 3:42

That was a great incentive and still is.. Do what you can for your country!! Kennedy got that right.

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Unfortunately, I don’t think the Democrats have come to grips with that reality at all — not in their rhetoric, and not in their policy. I think the Republicans have done so only to the extent of blaming it all on government, when in fact much more powerful forces are at work.

All the more reason not to trust any of the bovine fecal matter coming from Dipshiiite City. Those are probably the most truthful words you’ve written, Jay.

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oh, save the fainting spells. We will soon have Medicare for All, thereby saving it. And that’s the way it should be. And we will look back and say, “it all started with this president.” He is The Man. The Future is coming. Be happy. Be there.

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I know the secret! Rapture!

I know I haven’t come to terms with it – and it p*$$e$ me off.

No more defined benefit plan – no, we have to “hope” the market performs for us over the next 20-30 years so we CAN retire. All the while our retirement is in the hands of some really greedy Wall Street types.

” Oh, sure it’s gonna be there….would you like to buy a bridge?”

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“Our government is strangling this nation with silly rules and regulations.” second that

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1956 is also infamous for a couple of other boneheaded moves. Albeit symbolic only.

The McCarthyites got their mythology officially added to the pledge and the traitors here in Georgia got their loser flag flying. (And yes, I know the history of it and what the original, innocuous red, white and blue one derived from.)

jt, way to miss the much bigger reason…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY

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Billy Joel probably put it best, “the good ole days weren’t all that good, and tomorrow’s not as dark as it seems…”

I’m not trying to say that we didn’t have a lot of the good life back then, but the world of Ozzie and Harriet, which looks so good in retrospect, was confined to a few choice areas among a few choice people. I grew up in the South with roots in the countryside and small towns…it was light years removed from that statistical hooplah, still mired in a semi-feudal economic system with all the attendant woes. Those seeking to escape this fled north and west where they were locked into ghetto conditions far removed from that economic golden era.

Once my Mama was asked why she had such a dislike for Yankees. Her answer was, “we didn’t know we were poor til they came down here to tell us. All that time we thought we were comfortable middle class.”

That chasm has yet to be bridged. There has been a revolution of rising expectations, true, but it has been stalled in its tracks. I’m not saying that life is not considerably better these days for many if not most of Uncle Sam’s oldest colonials be they still in the colonies or still segregated in unseen and unheard from urban enclaves, but I am saying that the slide backward is not too much of a slide and expectations are not so high.

If anyone will come through this readjustment without rancor and thirst for vegence, it will be they.

And me? Well, Yankee overlords, welcome to the real world…

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Anyone else read that TNR piece Jay linked? here’s the summary graf:

For Democrats, the defeat of the Ryan plan, like the failed Social Security privatization before it, will be regarded as a great victory, and an opportunity to get a fresh start with worried older voters. But they should not ignore the generational divide revealed by Ryan’s cutoff. If progressive politics has nothing to offer the late Boomers and the generations that follow except the same old programs, and nothing that responds to their distinctive experience of the economy, then eventually they’ll fall for one of these gimmicks from the right.

And maybe that’s true, but…we don’t really think so much about long term fixes. We think about the next election, and by 2014, there will be some other superduper issue screaming at us, one assumes. so you can’t let the Right have all the gimmicks, you gotta toss in some of your own.

(that’s the best I can do on what Jay pays me to post here.)

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Two things can help turn us around. Become a producer again (manufacturing sector) and reduce the size and scope of the Federal Government. The manufacturing will require Americans pay more for goods, but that is a small price to pay for the return of our economic sanity. We have the best form of government in the world, but it regulation is out of control. Yes, the government most definitely has a place just like rules and regulations have a place, but we have overstepped.

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“If there were no EPA …”

Unfrigginbelievable. And goes right to the very black heart of this neo-con myopia.

And smaller government does not equal better government. That statement says absolutely zero of value.

SoCo is right, the size argument is a canard. I could make an obvious reference(!), but let’s just say it’s like saying a bigger baseball pitcher is a better baseball pitcher.

Sloganesque and looks good on a bumpr sticker, but that’s all…

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Damn fine column Bookman.

Note the following:

Net Job Creation by Decade
1940’s 38%
1950’s 24%
1960’s 31%
1970’s 27%
1980’s 20%
1990’s 20%
2000’s 0%
2010’s ?
US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Note that by the 1980’s we have a disaster on our hands. And no one has a clue what to do about jobs gone, and gone forever.

Then this:

Percentage of Total Income Earned by Lowest 60% of Wage Earners

1970 32.30%
1980 31.20
1990 29.30
2000 27.30
2009 26.60
(US Census Bureau)

Can you spot trends? Do you hear anyone offer solutions. Do you hear anyone even address the problem?

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Jay, would you support lifetime benefit caps for Medicare?

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JAY
@ 4:03

“No, you’re not”

You have more faith than I do, then…in a New York minute…

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If there were no EPA we would have access to billions of barrels of oil right now, which would drive cost of commodities down making American products competitive world wide.

Two words for the benighted to ponder: Love Canal.

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Jay 4:03 –

A. Why is a 40 year old on Medicare? Do people with chronic conditions get early Medicare?
B. Yes, you should. If it costs $5 million to keep the woman alive, it would be sad, but it would be better to let her pass away and turn her kids over to good foster parents. Better for the kids ultimately, better for our prosperity.

And you can criticize my “B” response all you want, but this is the exact similar decision the virtual “death panel” (or whatever you want to call the Medicare board) will be doing (in a somewhat different manner).

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oh jesus. I didn’t know this.

Translation: The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

Same message every day, every thread.

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Well, I agree with that guy that said get rid of the EPA. We don’t need no stinking guvmint checking our food, water, air, drugs, etc. It’s a jungle out there and if you can’t look out for yourself, well, we’re better off without you. You can’t even pour used motor oil down a sewer without some guvmint bureaucrat acting like you murdered somebody. And stuff like making sure sewers don’t leak costs a bundle. Heck, you even got to pay a tire disposal fee when you buy a new set of tires. I’m sick of it.

I say let’s go back to the old ways. They won’t poison us much. And what with Medicare and SS in such a sorry fix, we don’t need people living longer.

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Southern Comfort

May 23rd, 2011
3:52 pm
smaller govt = better govt!

effective govt = better govt!!! That’s how Brosephus rolls..

For example: If there were no EPA we would have access to billions of barrels of oil right now, which would drive cost of commodities down making American products competitive world wide.

For example: When there was no EPA, you had instances like this…

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1642

I’d rather take my chances with the EPA instead of worrying about whether my water will catch fire.
Just sayin’

Good point. Not saying there aren’t a few things where the government can do a little good. Right now this government is out of control. The EPA has prevented oil drilling and refining for more than thirty years! We aren’t building dams, hydro electric power plants, nucleur power plants, coal powered electric plants, nothing but windmills. Just what in the H-ll do you think your and your childrens future is going to be with your primary source of energy coming from 14th century windmills!

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Jay 4:11 – yes, a panel of experts will decide what they think is cost effective. And given budget constraints, the formula will have to cut off access to things that work just fine, but are deemed “too expensive.” Same sh-t, different formula.

One empowers personal choice, the other empowers bureaucrats. That’s all.

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“We could put an oil rig every 20 feet across the width and breadth of this nation and we wouldn’t come close to meeting our demand for oil…”–Jay Bookman

Can you back this statement up with facts?
(”real” facts)

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Oh, might I add to my 4:15 in regards to lifetime benefit caps.

One process is political and will be rife with corruption. The other won’t. No points for guessing which does which.

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Bosch — a single pater?

Many on the right already see single dads as dead beat dads and a problem.

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People sense that things aren’t as they’ve been taught they should be; they just don’t know why.

…they’ve been taught?

Only thing I ever taught my daughter was the old addage…”A failure to plan is a plan to fail.”

My husband’s advice was a bit more descriptive. “Don’t look for the government to back you up ’cause you won’t like what they’re offering.”

Future generations will be okay. Unlike the baby boomers who bought the SS scam, they know better. They’ll be driven by ambition…motivated to look out for themselves.

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In the mid-70s American business mobilized to counter what they perceived as their diminished power after the debacle in Vietnam and broad dissatisfaction in the public with the direction of the country. These power elites (Business Roundtable, Chamber of Commerce, etc.) financed Ronald Reagan to be their genial spokesperson and the politics of “mass distraction” began with the goal of providing an on-going circus so ensure Americans would not see the long slide of the last 35 years. We have had decades of stagnating incomes as inequality has steadily increased. Business wants to blame government as a distraction from the private sector sucking wealth from the public.

Yes, the rest of the world has been catching up to the US economically but that’s not really such a bad thing unless you see our dominance as the key to happiness. Things have changed wrt America’s superiority in the world but that is not the prime driver of why our workers have not shared in steep increases in GDP. Trickle-down was never meant to work as advertised but was just a comforting story to keep the folks from getting all riled up.

Jay, I’ll play the optimist and challenge your overly pessimistic view of the economic future of Americans. Things will improve for working Americans when they stop voting for people that sell them down the river, primarily Republicans but not a few Democrats. How wealth is shared between the rich and workers is not primarily due to the impersonal functioning of the market, or foreign competition, but as the result of a political process that Americans only dimly understand. Knowledge is power. Even with the growing onslaught of corporate cash that Congress and the Supreme Court have engineered under corporate influence, I believe there is realistic hope that the blind will see. That’s as optimistic as I can get.

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37 years ago only looks good in the windshield because you were a little kid then and everything looks good to little kids. Time to grow up and accept the world as it is and not try to re-create what never really was.

As for jm being fixated on lifetime caps: how much tax is collected to pay for Medicare right now? You’ll see the solution when you understand how things are funded.

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Kamchak,

My bad….payer….

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I wish I could be around when jm has a loved one in a nursing home or in a critical medical state. I’d like to see how he reacts when he’s told that the loved one has reached the lifetime maximum and can no longer be cared for.

What kind of savages have been raised in this money-is-everything environment? God help us all.

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@Jay,

“If all that were true, how on earth do we Americans manage to consume twice as much energy per capita as most other industrialized nations?”

It’s simple, we produce more and feed more than any other nation on the planet.

Have you forgotten this little fact?

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I saw a great Bumper sticker the other day that relates to the topic on the 40 year old mother of 3:

IF YOU CAN’T FEED THEM…. DON’T BREED THEM!

Classic!

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Righty, jm — “Our government is strangling this nation with silly rules and regulations.”

http://images.politico.com/global/cartoon/110511_cartoon_600.jpg

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” has reached the lifetime maximum and can no longer be cared for.”

And he gets to care for them out of his own pocket.

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It started in late ‘71 when we went off the gold standard. Years of inflation made everthing more expensive and our savings worth less.

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observer

“What kind of savages have been raised in this money-is-everything environment? God help us all.”

Assuming G-d hasn’t decided that the homo sapiens has reached its lifetime cap set by the Alm-ghty…

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Kamchak,

Did I read that the Blue Lions were not in the UEFA Championship? Dude, that’s rough (if I read it right)…..

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jm,

“But you just haven’t thought through the repercussions of what you’re implying.”

Excuse me, Hyperbole Boy, and as one who is so disrespectful of our military men and women, I’ll decide what I have thought through logically or not. Not you.

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Jay 4:27 – fair enough. Just saw that. The insinuation that I’m just someone who doesn’t care about anyone is very insulting.

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Mighty Righty: Just what in the H-ll do you think your and your childrens future is going to be with your primary source of energy coming from 14th century windmills!

We’ll have a future, and that’s my primary concern. Unlike you and the other flavors of the month, I know what Americans are capable of. Instead of trying to sell out my country to the highest bidder for a cheap profit now, I’d rather invest in the future to put America back on top of the manufacturing and innovation lists. We live in a country that just sent astronauts into space in a vehicle powered by “Apple IIe” type computer systems. In this day and age, we should be eons above other countries in innovation instead of importing crap now. I’d rather push foward on innovation instead of backcrawling on 19th century technology.

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Oh hush preaching, BOSCH. Access? R U kidding? Emergency rooms do not turn away the sick.

If you want everybody to be dependent on the government for everything, just say so as you usually do. . But it has no basis in independence.

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But you just haven’t thought through the repercussions of what you’re implying.

Yeh! That’s right. I mean, can’t you imagine the cost associated with helping people when that money could be put to better use making more money.

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If you want everybody to be dependent on the government for everything, just say so as you usually do. . But it has no basis in independence.

. . . says one who makes her living from the profit-oriented medical industry. Pardon me if I put little credence in Dusty’s special pleading.

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Bosch
@ 4:42

“…still a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest…”

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CJ, I concur.

But not until a vast percentage of Americans realize that they cannot leave it up to somebody else any further. This Great Experiment of the bulk of the American people doing virtually nothing and expecting great results needs to end. Today.

When we get fully involved, and implement what Ralph Nader calls an empowered citizenry, the situation will improve.

And he has proposed concrete steps to attain this, but alas, it requires much work, and our work ethic has lost it’s mojo…

“Freedom is participation in power.” ~Marcus Cicero

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Bosch

We finished second in the EPL so we’re in as far as next season is concerned.

We’re not in the Championship game which is this coming Sat. with Barça facing the much hated Man. U.

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BOSCH

“…I have (not) squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises, all lies and jest…”

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Oh well, I guess it is true that Democrats really are the Party that lack Intelligent voters.

Care to explain the Nathan Deal victory in the GOP primary here in GA?

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Jay. I like Democrats to America’s heart, and Republicans to America’s head. We need both. But the heart has been running the show for almost 70 years now. The heart needs a rest and the head needs to do some work.

It will come about one way or the other. We all know what happens if the heart is made to work too hard…. but I hope it doesn’t come to that.

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“well put, Mark V”

Indeed.

Kamchak,

I’m so far behind on soccer news, I’m almost not a fan anymore….

I kid!!

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Yes, MarkV. Yes, you have it. You are welcome on the island.

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USMC

I don’t always agree with Bosch on any number of things, but he is quite intelligent and even when I disagree, it is at an intellectual level…he also has a moral compass…I like that in a man…

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9KlMWzKj4s&feature=player_embedded

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USMC

When are you going to learn the difference between a Bloshevik and a Menschevij? Ten points off and see me after class…

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“When are you going to learn the difference between a Bloshevik and a Menschevij? Ten points off and see me after class…”– THE Headmaster

Once again, only Josef…

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“It’s simple, we produce more and feed more than any other nation on the planet.”

He asked HOW, not WHY

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“Supreme Court orders California to release tens of thousands of prison inmates”

“The 5-4 decision represents one of the largest prison release orders in U.S. history. The court majority says overcrowding has caused ’suffering and death.’ In a sharp dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia warns ‘terrible things are sure to happen.”

Well, well, well …………… I heard our troops in Afghanistan were in “suffering and death” also. Has anyone else heard that?

By the way, I wish California had the guts to transport every prisoner (say 100 at a time) and deposit them en masse in front of the residence of each of those five justices. It’s a free country isn’t it?

By the way, we all know what the Sheriff in Arizona has posted in his jail don’t we?

“If you don’t like it here, don’t come back !”

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My God Jay, I knew there was a real journalist in there somewhere. Kudos. You have at last hit the nail on the perverbial head. We are truly the lost generation. And to a greater degree, unfortunately so are those that come after us. And we have only ourselves to blame. Promises by people posing as our “leaders” got us here and we bought it into it. Oh yea, we bought into it bigtime.

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jm: “the taxpayers and government cannot afford unlimited funds to take care of everyone. Blank checks make one broke.”

Then the only consistent thing to do is eliminate the law by which it’s illegal to leave a person to bleed to death on the street or to deny someone with life-threatening injuries care in an emergency room. It makes no sense to have such laws and not have universal coverage. And it’s peskily inefficient, too.

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“I have a question for both the libs and the cons. How does Congressman Ryan’s Medicare plan work? Is he trying to structure it so that the vouchers will go towards purchasing a private plan similar to the part D drug plan where private part D drug plans compete for the Medicare beneficiary’s business?”

Come on Thulsa, that was a DUMB question.
Everyone knows we have to PASS the bill before we know what’s IN IT; just like Nancy Pelosi said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-05TLiiLU

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Thulsa 5:08- in a word, yes.

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The liberal policies given to and pushed on america by the far left starting decades ago are being proven as failures for any and all to see bookman………… and the far left democrat party’s….chickens, are coming home, to roost!!
During this election cycle as you and the lib media focus on the negatives of all republicans, the republicans will be focusing on hussein and who he actually is and what his policies are actually doing to this country and they will cement a drastic difference and choice for the future of this country. Enjoy…..

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You have at last hit the nail on the perverbial head.

What’s a “perverbial head,” and does it involve someone named Fester the molester?

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Tim Pawlenty’s “truth” campaign for president not a winner for Minnesotans

That’s because the truth is a hard pill to swallow. Everybody wants someone else to experience the pain so they don’t have to.

Share the love? Share the pain!

It’s all in the collective.

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LWM 5:26 – I don’t think the “board” is going to be effective. The lobbying has already begun and will be very political. I wouldn’t be thrilled, but I’d be satisfied, if the bureaucrats did their job effectively. It just won’t happen…..

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Themistocles, 5:30

Get thee to the hospital. I think they treat “loose screws” also.

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left wing
@ 5:26

That wouldn’t be Senorito Satisfecho you’re talking about, would it?

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Just reading up on Tim Pawlenty. He’s fine. No business experience though.

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Jay, in a way, you’d think Dems would be all in favor of lifetime spending caps. What could be more “democratic”? Everyone’s life is worth the same (under that model). The janitor gets the same cap as the middle office manager as does the rich guy (though the rich guy will probably use his own $ to supplement care, but that’s always the case).

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Jay,

So you’re saying that there is no inflation adjusted provision to adjust the voucher amount upwards as costs rise over the years? No offense but I find that rather difficult to believe.

The reason is that for every medicare beneficiary in Medicare advantage plans for example the federal govt pays a health plan roughly $1,000 a month to manage that senior’s health care in 2011- I don’t know the exact amount but its around 1k per month.

Obviously if seniors had to pay this cost themselves very few of them could afford it. Only the wealthy few would. And Ryan and Repubs as well as Dems know that in 2030 if the voucher amount does not rise in tandem with inflation and allow for colas in the voucher amount then very few of the senior population would be able to afford a health care policy in 2030.

So if for example we instituted Ryans voucher plan today and gave every senior a $1,000 voucher to buy their own policy and left it at 1k then obviously in 2030 that 1k would cover very little. Is this what you’re saying?

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Bookman 5:34

“Low income seniors will get additional help.” And soon the cost for medical care will not decrease because most seniors will soon be “low income” quite legally. Their funds will decrease in a very short time.i.e. transferred to family members & friends. That loophole is well known and already used in similar requirements. .

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Follow the money, you shouldn’t get rich off of medicare.

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Markv’s comments are not well-put Jay. They are an over-simplification and in many ways a down-right lie. The bottom line is there is no way to generate enough tax revenue, even you tax the evil rich in this country at 80%, to pay for the outlays of these programs in the future with the Baby-Boomers coming of retirement age. The other part of your piece should be that we as Americans must face the fact that our country cannot sustain what is being spent by our government. We simply do not have enough PRIVATE SECTOR generated revenue, which is the source of all dollars spent by the Government, to pay for what the PUBLIC SECTOR is consuming.

As I will be eligible for retirement in a couple of years I was going to put it off and continue to work and pay taxes but now I see that you are better off to retire, lower your taxable income and to draw from those programs such as Medicare and SSN as soon as possible because that seems to be what our government wants us to do. I know quite a few right now that take full advantage of these programs that are millionaires. Florida is full of people like this. I used to despise them for it but now I am starting to realize that they were really only taking advantage of what our government created and what they wanted them to do. Several told me that they were actually sent notices in the mail notifying them that they were now eligible! And if the government sends you notice saying you are eligible, then hey, what is one to do? Join up!

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Dusty: “Get thee to the hospital. I think they treat “loose screws” also.”

Believe me, I tried. But they wouldn’t treat me. Said something about ‘pre-existing conditions’.

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left wing…

I’m reading “Las meditaciones de don Quijote…” L-rd! The things I’m finding that I missed earlier!

Seinfeld? Did you see the last episodes? They’re brought to trial for their “standing by and doing nothing…”

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But but Themistocles,

I bet they put you in a pretty new straight jacket for free. That WAS your treatment.

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“Believe me, I tried. But they wouldn’t treat me. Said something about ‘pre-existing conditions’.”

Hey “Rocket Scientist”!
Just tell them “No Speaky Ingles” and it’s free!

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USMC

If you’re going to do it, do it right…

“No es-speek-o ingles,,,”

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USMC yes, Tim Pawlenty has plenty of advantages to Obama…. no doubt. Obama still has some forbidding strengths, but he’s beatable. The economy, etc.

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Whats all this talk about an unqualified President? Why in 2012 the Dems will be running a candidate who has 4 actual years of governing as President. And yet the silly talking point will be trotted out as somehow even more relevant than 4 years ago.

But then I dont expect much from someone who unqualifiedly believes that lowering taxes increases government revenue.

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jo nix: “I’m reading “Las meditaciones de don Quijote…” L-rd! The things I’m finding that I missed earlier!”

Ah yes. I hear you. I think I read that one once, but I need to re-read those books. His other texts are just as interesting as Revolt of Masses.

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“in 2012 the Dems will be running a candidate who has 4 actual years of governing as President”

debatable. most people don’t call “leading from behind” (aka following) as “governing”

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Jay 6:03 – Ryan has said he’s open to compromise (MTP). Where’s the democratic plan that saves just as much (or even 1/2 as much)?

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“Actually, pogo, MarkV is right. As others here have pointed out, other, less affluent nations manage to pay for it, but we can’t? An absence of will should not be confused with an absence of ability.”
–Jay Bookman

BUY YOUR OWN F’ING HEALTH INSURANCE, JAY

Why do you advocate for someone else to always pay your way. Unbelievable.

“If you can’t feed them, Don’t Breed Them!”

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Left wing…

Of course Revolt is the magnum opus, but I’ve always been much more intrigued by reading the other works of people like O y G to follow the line(s) of thought distilled…

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I don’t think I need to add anymore to this:

“We know the House of Representatives met [its] deadline” to produce a budget, Sessions said. “They passed an historic budget. But the United States Senate has not done so. All we’ve seen from Majority Leader Reid really are political games, cynical games… distractions and gimmicks to avoid confronting the fiscal nightmare we’re facing now. How else can you explain why, in the middle of a crisis, Democratic leaders have not even produced a budget, have not even allowed the committee to work on one?”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55532.html#ixzz1NDSiGplR

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So how many of those scooters are we going to deprive the elderly and overweight of if this trend continues? No more gym memberships? What about all those wonderful drugs continuously advertised on TV? No more?
Hey I am old enough to remeber what life was like without medicare- Doctors made house visits and did not drive big flashy cars not did they have fancy offices. You did not have big expensive heart surgeries if you were too old and could not afford it and the elderly lived with their children and were not shoved of into assisted living or a nursing home unless they had no relatives.
Yeah by 1974 the welfare state was in full bloom and we got our ass kicked in Vietnam and our President and Vice President were proven to be crooks and both resigned. – quite a time!

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“Why should he do that when Cox will do it for him?”–josef Nix

Thank You, Josef. The point is GET your own or BUY your own Health Insurance. Great Point!

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THULSA

Well, we were talking about Costa Rica the other day…one of the most outstanding medical systems in the world and free and universal,..now, question: how do they pay for it? Hint: don Pepe Figueres and common sense a la tica…

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I think we’re headed to a government shutdown of sorts and partial government default. The actions of Democrats such as Reid is going to make it next to impossible for Republicans to compromise. He’s acting in such bad faith, and playing so much politics, that they’re just going to say screw it.

Dems, government default, at your feet.

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If you can’t feed them, Don’t Breed Them

Life and politics are so much simplier when you can reduce it to the bumper sticker of moronality. It matters not the facts or the circumstances. Whether a family whose husband dies in a tragic mining accident caused because the greeedy rich owner decides to cut safety to the family who has both parents employed by the same man that demands the wife have sex with him and she fears for feeding them. Nuances and details just dont have the moronic impact of a bumper sticker.

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KUtGF,
So you think hussein running on his actual record (which increases the ‘unqualified’ factor) will be better than him doing that hope and change thing again? We agree for once. I do believe his 4 years will be a huge benefit for the next conservative president in 12′. Enjoy…….

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I was born in 1958 and have stage IV colon cancer. You’ve got to start somehere, to stop the TAX and SPEND of NObama……Herman Cain is the MAN! Sorry, can’t say I’m a racist.

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There’s a final problem with portraying Kennedy as the ideological kin of Reagan and Bush on tax policy. Kennedy, it turns out, initially wanted to use government spending, not tax cuts, as the means to put dollars in people’s hands. But that idea ran aground in 1962 because conservatives in Congress opposed it, while the president’s aides feared that the bond market might respond to additional spending with higher rates that could offset their gains. Still, even as Kennedy accepted tax reduction as the first step along the route to growth, he never gave up his spending idea. “First, we’ll have your tax cut,” he told Heller; “then we’ll have my expenditures program.”

Like scripture, it seems, John F. Kennedy can be quoted for many purposes

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Jay

Got an email from USinUK. Thanks.

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Kamchak:

I know what happened afterwards. Pawlenty had no way of knowing what Giefer would do, only what he’d done. He based his decision on that.

============================================

Many GOP officials are lukewarm about Romney. Still, he’s the best known of the party’s current candidates. According to the most recent AP-GfK poll, 66 percent of Republicans nationwide view him favorably, 22 percent unfavorably. and 11 percent have no opinion. His positive numbers are higher among self-described conservatives (75 percent favorable) and “strong” Republicans (81 percent favorable).

I don’t know how jay’s conservatives feel, but I’m fine with Romney. He’ll be looking for a second term…walking on eggshells. He’s learned from Obama’s mistakes.

There’s no perfect candidate.

I’ll go out on a limb and predict Huntsman will NOT run. Just like Daniels, his is a political tease.

It’ll be Romney and Pawlenty at the finish line.

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Jay, but you must admit, bringing up the Ryan plan alone is overtly political. Sessions isn’t saying don’t brink up the Ryan plan. He’s saying: bring up all the plans that aren’t going to pass.

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Thula Doom . . . you are dead wrong about the medical care in other developed countries. It works. The citizens wouldn’t want any other type of medical coverage. All political parties support it. Life expectancy is higher and the infant mortality rate is lower than in the USA. And overall health care for all citizens costs much less than health care that covers only 70% of Americans. And people pay for their health care through their taxes, rather than being bombarded with claims and billing statements from insurance companies and medical providers.

Where do you find all that false stuff? Don’t you know that many Americans order affordable prescription drugs from Canada? Don’t you know that the Canadian police keep watch on Canadian clinics near the border, to prevent American citizens from seeking the health care they cannot get in the US?

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Keep up the fight@6:14
You know, one of our biggest problems in society today is people, like Keep up the fight, who take themselves too seriously and lack COMMON SENSE.

The reality is that they are very insecure and know that they are limited but pontificate as though everything is so “sophisticated” and they are “intelligent” when actually they lack most Common Sense.

The fact is Keep Up the Fight thinks he is on some type of higher intellectual level than everyone else to mask the reality that he is not. Little does he know we see right through the FLUFF

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Jay you don’t know your ass from a hole in the ground about the oil industry. America has enough oil and gas to run our great and blessed Nation for thousands of years. If the Jackass in Chief Obama would grant the American Oil Industry to do it’s job by drilling and getting the oil / gas out of the ground. Instead of giving Brazil two billion taxpayers dollars to drill in South and Central America. By the way Jay that’s because he’s paying off his Master George Soros for the campaign donations and media help. Ask your girl CT about that. Jay it would help you to do some homework about a topic before you try to write or paste something about a issue. That way you want look so stupid. trying to help you boy.

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Timmy my man. Speakin my language….

“Pawlenty’s first bit of honesty was for the Iowans: The federal government must phase out ethanol subsidies — key in this corn-heavy state — in order to drive more investment and innovation in the industry.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55502.html#ixzz1NDWh9S8I

No doubt Dems will try to crucify you on those words if you make it to the general election. But, hey, there’ll be that rapture thing at some point…..

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FYI………
mary elizabeth, new republic, and msbnc come together to bring you class warfare tenet through the eyes of marx…….sponsored by jay bookman and cynthia tucker…..

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Life and politics are so much simplier when you can reduce it to the bumper sticker of moronality. It matters not the facts or the circumstances. Whether a family whose husband dies in a tragic mining accident caused because the greeedy rich owner decides to cut safety to the family who has both parents employed by the same man that demands the wife have sex with him and she fears for feeding them. Nuances and details just dont have the moronic impact of a bumper sticker.

Keepup,

Let me help you out there. Have the husband go out and buy a half million dollar term life insurance policy at $20-$30 a month if he’s young. No reason others should take care of his family because the slacker was too stupid to buy life insurance. There. Problem solved.

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USMC — “BUY YOUR OWN F’ING HEALTH INSURANCE, JAY

Why do you advocate for someone else to always pay your way. Unbelievable.

“If you can’t feed them, Don’t Breed Them!”

One wonders where USMC stands on the issue of school vouchers.

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Ummmm…. Jay,

“your claim isn’t in the same neighborhood as reality. It’s not even in the neighborhood of the neighborhood.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzlG28B-R8Y

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Jay 6:33 – yes. Though I seem to recall you bemoaning the hyper-partisan atmosphere as much as everyone else….. so Reid’s just amping things up. How do you feel about that?

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Don’t you know that many Americans order affordable prescription drugs from Canada? Don’t you know that the Canadian police keep watch on Canadian clinics near the border,- Ayn Rant

Ayn Rant,

Clearly you have done absolutely zero reading on this particular subject. The reason the drugs are cheaper in Canada is because American drug purchasers are basically subsidizing the true cost of drugs for Canadians who also have the advantage of a single purchaser. Now before you get all excited about cheaper costs through a single purchaser keep in mind that we can always do that here but that the results are going to be predictable. We will get cheaper drugs and big pharma will see their profits slashed. The end result will be slashed production, research, and development of new and promising drugs. Drug research would simply grind to a halt. Do some more reading before popping off oh foolish one.

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Jay we have just found one of the worlds biggest oil / gas reserves in North Dakota. Jay that’s in the United States son. Please read some and put down the video games.

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jm

George W Bush IS a Yankee…no need to try to make him look like one…

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josef nix you owned by Soros too????

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Ayn Rant,

National health care at its best in Britain

By Fay Schlesinger, Andy Dolan and Tim Shipman
Last updated at 2:16 AM on 25th February 2010
• Comments (239)
• Videos
• Add to My Stories
• Up to 1,200 patients died unnecessarily because of appalling care
• Labour’s obsession with targets and box ticking blamed for scandal
• Patients were ‘routinely neglected’ at hospital
• Report calls for FOURTH investigation into scandal
Not a single official has been disciplined over the worst-ever NHS hospital scandal, it emerged last night.
Up to 1,200 people lost their lives needlessly because Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust put government targets and cost-cutting ahead of patient care.
But none of the doctors, nurses and managers who failed them has suffered any formal sanction.

Moat House hotel near Stafford, after Robert Francis QC delivered his report
Indeed, some have either retired on lucrative pensions or have swiftly found new jobs.
Former chief executive Martin Yeates, who has since left with a £1million pension pot, six months’ salary and a reported £400,000 payoff, did not even give evidence to the inquiry which detailed the scale of the scandal yesterday.
He was said to be medically unfit to do so, though he sent some information to chairman Robert Francis through his solicitor.
The devastating-report into the Stafford Hospital-shambles’ laid waste to Labour’s decade-long obsession with box-ticking and league tables.
The independent inquiry headed by Robert Francis QC found the safety of sick and dying patients was ‘routinely neglected’. Others were subjected to ‘ inhumane treatment’, ‘bullying’, ‘abuse’ and ‘rudeness’.

The shocking estimated death toll, three times the previous figure of 400, has prompted calls for a full public inquiry.
Bosses at the Trust – officially an ‘elite’ NHS institution – were condemned for their fixation with cutting waiting times to hit Labour targets and leaving neglected patients to die.
But after a probe that was controversially held in secret, not a single individual has been publicly blamed.
The inquiry found that:
• Patients were left unwashed in their own filth for up to a month as nurses ignored their requests to use the toilet or change their sheets;
• Four members of one family. including a new-born baby girl. died within 18 months after of blunders at the hospital;
• Medics discharged patients hastily out of fear they risked being sacked for delaying;
• Wards were left filthy with blood, discarded needles and used dressings while bullying managers made whistleblowers too frightened to come forward.

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Well, for a nice change of political venue, Bookman could give us the goodly facts on former Democratic politician Cynthia McKinney. Seems she is quite a hit with Hamas and Gaddafi and others. I bet she can see Africa from the back port of her Hamas supply ship. Maybe she will return and give Obama a run for his money in Demo elections.

Now that would be some fresh material without the daily repeats on Republicans. This socialist sad stuff has about reached its terminal turpitude!.

Now, off to feed those poor starving children in my kitchen. Where’s a socialist when you need one?

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We have got to get back to life like it was in the pre 74 era. List the things needed for life, then look at the things we pay the most money for. If the New York Yankees stop playing tomorrow would we all drop dead, don’t think so. But if the Atlanta police force didn’t show up some of us would drop dead for sure. Look what the Yanks were being paid in ‘74, look what police are being paid now. Do the same with farmers, nurses, then look at actors or Wall Street. The need for a product should dictate the price you pay for it. As gas and water raise in importance there will be no money to support the things we waste on now. The world will get back in balance and we will have pre ‘74 again, if not here where we seem to be a bit slow at creating to a non superficial world, then somewhere in this world for sure.

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TruthBe

Nope. But as Jay will vouch, I probably know a little more about him than those out there who for some unknown reasons have made him into an arch villain…

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Mr. Doom — “The end result will be slashed production, research, and development of new and promising drugs. Drug research would simply grind to a halt.”

Huh. I guess no pharmaceutical research ever happens outside the US.

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Jay

A fellow columnist who I’ve cited. From last Sunday. He takes if from an auto industry baseline, but the principles apply to the economy. Much of the same as what’s being discussed. He offers some reasons why, also.

“it wasn’t the labor cost that made building these goods so incredibly expensive; it was the cost of the engineering and components that went into producing them that inflated their introductory prices. Then as now, however, it was true that if you build a great product that fulfills the needs or desires of the masses, people will flood in to buy it.

It was our lack of ability to bring new and superior products to the market – and then see overseas manufacturers fill that gap – that hurt so many of America’s major manufacturers. That’s mainly what eroded our blue-collar middle class jobs into and across the ocean.”

“While the lower middle class was shrinking, of course, our upper middle class was expanding. One look at the luxury car market’s sales rate in this country and you’ll fully appreciate that”

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/05/20/3091685/foolish-predictions.html

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This following argument about the effect of a single purchaser on big pharma is such a crock:

“We will get cheaper drugs and big pharma will see their profits slashed. The end result will be slashed production, research, and development of new and promising drugs. Drug research would simply grind to a halt.”

In other words, it says that the reaction of big pharma will be: “If we are making less money we will slash production, research and development of new and promising drugs, to make even less money.”

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This item about untapped reserves in the Bakken formation (which lies within portions of North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana) appears to be taken from a tout sheet intended to sell subscription to an investment newsletter.

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Good job, Bookman, you’ve identified Hopey/Changey’s 2012 campaign slogan: “We suck, get used to it!”

What a winner.

The USA is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It’s a beacon of freedom and hope to everyone on the planet. Hopey/Changey wants to turn this world wonder into a socialist basket case.

Yep, Jay, libs have a winner in “Our Best Days Are Behind Us!”

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PAUL

And that upper middle class and luxury cars…those upstart yahoos actually pur BUMPER STICKERS on them…how gauche!

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josef nix

Some things are just inherently…. wrong -

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Billybob @ 6:30

Billybob

“mary elizabeth, new republic, and msbnc come together to bring you class warfare tenet through the eyes of marx…….sponsored by jay bookman and cynthia tucker…..”

——————————————————–

Billybob, you simply give your opinion and your thoughts have no bearing on the facts, as they stand, and you do not address my point of view relative to those facts.

Go back to the original source – the Matt Schmitt article in New Republic, which you can click onto in Jay’s article above, and then click onto the words in red “inequality,” in Schmitt’s article. There you can see for yourself the graph which presents the great rise in income since 1974 for those in the 95th percentile – as opposed to those whose incomes have not risen significantly in the medium and lower groups. Also, listen to the full video I presented, especially the part AFTER the Latino commercial, to understand the stealthy political forces in our nation that have contributed to these disparity of wealth since the mid 1970s. This is not accidental; this does not depend on who presents the information. The information stands as fact for itself.

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TruthBe
This is hardly the forum for that…but, what would you like to know about?

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Joe Mama,

Drug production won’t grind to a halt as I embellished but there’s no question new drug innovation would be stifled. I think most reasonable people would agree on that.

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Investor’s Business Daily?

Is that the same Investor’s Business Daily that said Stephen Hawking, “wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless”?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

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Mr. Doom — “Of course there is pharmaceutical research elsewhere and a couple of German and English drug companies come up with some pretty good drugs.”

A *lot* of household name drugs weren’t developed by (and aren’t made by) American pharma corporations. I encourage other posters to look into where their over-the-counter drugs get made. Heck, even Bayer aspirin isn’t an American product.

“But whose drug companies come out with the most new drugs?

Given that *other* high-tech jobs get farmed out to other nations, who’s to say that Pfizer or Eli Lilly won’t start doing their R&D in Ecuador or Vietnam or Jordan or some d**n where at any time? The moment they think they can squeeze out another buck in profit by doing their R&D elsewhere, it’s goodbye purple mountains majesty and hello overseas production associates.

If corporations gave a d**n about keeping Americans at work, then I’d have more sympathy for them. You and I have had this conversation before, Mr. Doom.

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So I said to myself, self, why don’t you peruse the comments before jumping in, but once I saw the Grim Reaper was already in the house on page 1 I figured I’d skip ahead. Did I miss any good bannings or anything?

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“radical Muslim atheists”

I think he actually said “secular” not atheist, didn’t he?

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Billybob:

Le Monde?

Allow me to clarify. “The love” ($$$) has only created more need.

I’m in agreement with Dennis Miller when he says “I’m for helping the helpless, not the clueless.” They’re long overdue in picking up some of the tab. It’s easy to remain clueless when someone else is paying for it.

I’m tired of the class warfare. Either we ALL pay more in taxes or NONE OF US pay more in taxes.

Government takes a political hit or a revenue hit. Works for me.

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Anybody know where we can find a good socialist source for Kammy to read? I hear pravda went out of business in 1991. What’s a tired old commie to do when sources like surveys from the United Nation’s international health organization aren’t good enough.

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RW
Mostly the same stuff as every day, some good one-liners, a cogent point or two, but mostly our usual tin drum concerto…typical day at Jay’s place…only one threat of fatwah…

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Helping the helpless not the clueless.

Well let see. The “helpless” would mean that they cannot be helped. But I am all for helping those in need and for trying to provide a way for them to become self-sustaining and a contributing member of society.

The “clueless” — there are many seemingly educated people who are clueless. Especially when their simple answers to complicated issues are capsulized by bumper stickers, pundits and comedians.

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Uh Oh, Jay done dropped the radical Muslim athiest card.

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Kamchak,

I can’t help it. I’m alarmingly distressed that there’s no Pravda for you to read. Hey. I just figured it out! You can watch MSNBC for your lib news. If you’re anything like Chris Matthews you’ll get a tingle up your leg when Obama speaks. Obama as Newsweek stated is sorta like a God you know- above it all, just looking down on it all- sorta like a God.

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I’m out. I’ve had way too much fun today toying with the zombies today. Kammy I just saw Obama on the news. Go get that tingle up your leg Kammy!

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A simple return to being responsible for our actions, not blaming others for the bad choices you make and taking responsibility for the children you bring into this world would go a long way toward making this country whole again. It’s always someone else’s fault, society is against me, I cannot cope….. the list goes on. We have way too many people sucking off of the government teat. We need responsible citizens who pay their own bills, pay taxes, support the children that they bring into this world and stay off the bad stuff. I’m tired of paying their bills.

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Add alcoholics to the list of clueless.

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Thulsa Doom @7:37 pm: Keep your advice to yourself, sir. You certainly need it.

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in other news, Mark V is taking out title insurance on Thus a Maroon.

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There is a simple answer—-A balanced budget amendment !

As a republican/conservative I will be more than willing to meet libs on oil subsidies, green energy and some medical care issues if you guys will accept that a government by and for the people should not be allowed to take up to 50% of our paychecks in taxes and fees (federal, state, local,sales,ad valorum,permits etc…..)

We need to control what we pay for products/services provided TO the government and stop allowing private businesses to inflate the price charged to government just becasue they can. HAVE GOVERNMENT JUSTIFY SPENDING !

therre are enough savings in subsides alone to pay for 50% of what libs want—-cut those and you can still cut taxes and have medical care (at a lesser cost then Obama can come up with).

Jay, you and others like you have the ball. We can get fired up by your words just as well as your supporters like what you say. But WE will never reach compromise as long as we yell at each other the press likes to say they have a responsibility to report the truth. With Fox and MSNBC the truth is blurred as the press panders to it’s followers point of view.

MOST OF US\ ARE MODERATE. LIBS AND CONSERVATIVES

We can compromise on everything;

No gay marraige (religious ceromony) but civil unions

No abortions (accept in the case of incest, rape and medical emergency) but mandatory adoptions WITHIN the US prior to appoval of OUTSIDE US. Adoptions are open to ALL gay and straight.

Taxes no higher than 20% on business—-but no legal loopholes–it’s a flat no exceptions 20%

no double taxation—if I buy a house and pay 30 years on it it’s mine my son should not have to pay taxes on it again when I die.

War—–absolutely no presidential privledge. Sending troops at a presidents whelm should be a crime–unless it’s an emergency narrowly defined .

Green energy should be THE LAW it makes no difference to me if there is global warming—-don’t pour junk in the air and water–common sence says it’s not healthy.

Term limits on house and senate

no ear marks AT ALL

CAN WE AGREE ON THESE ?

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The right are never right about anything.

The feds are arresting the so called “mafia” of twelve people in Philly as white collar crime spree is raging rampant in the world.

Keep yelling at them world and rise up.

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RE: Thulsa Doom @May 7:37 pm
“MarkV, Showing your ignorance again? Ever do any reading about medical tourism? There’s a growing movement by Americans to go to places like India for surgeries. I would much rather have a surgery done in India than say Staffordshire hospital in England.”

Facts: Healthcare in India features a universal health care system Government hospitals, some of which are among the best hospitals in India, provide treatment at taxpayer expense. Most essential drugs are offered free of charge in these hospitals. Government hospitals provide treatment either free or at minimal charges

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Oh if I had a nickel every time…

1) 57 states
2) Austrian/German gaffe
3) Teleprompter
4) Waivers as favors
5) XX% don’t pay income tax
6) Community Organizer
7) police “acted stupidly”
No Credit for CiC – IF it’s Obama
9) Waterboarding being successful
10) liberals fear who they attack
11) personal insults and attacks in general

Any of these disqualifies you from rational discussion. These are talking points, either lies or truth that is essentially useless and doesn’t make your case. Most have to do with ObamaHate, which only works for the base. Good luck convincing Independents with this nonsense.

Also please note, JOBS are not in the list. You know, the thing that gave you a supposed mandate?

I’m sure there’s more to put on this list. This is just the obvious stuff from TODAY.

You guys have NOTHING.

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I have no idea how the California constitution is amended however we can demand that it is treated like the U.S. constitution. Meaning 2/3 rd’s of the counties would have to agree to put up an amendment on ANY change—-I can’t see California having that law if it has been amended that many times

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Geez Adam, You just posted 11 squares of my blog BINGO game.

You missed –

ACORN
Fannie/Freddie
Kenyan
Socialist
Long form
# of “I”s in an Obama speech

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“And with that…gotta run and get stuff together for the little ones’ last day tomorrow…” from jonix.

An obvious prevarication, since anyone with any “common sense” knows that anyone of the leftier political persuasion in a welfare suckin’ parasite. (Insert one of the cute smiley-thingies here.)

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@@ — Believe what you want. I am well aware of who the Salvation Army is. You want real information you may want to attend the Emergency Mgmt Association of Georgia conference in Savannah this week to learn how all the pieces of the puzzle fit in and how they support each other. Then tell me how the Salvation Army can do it all alone with volunteers and no support.

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Mama Says:

It’s not my intention to diminish your contribution, however, I have a question.

Who and how many get the blame for failing to balance the budget? What are the consequences?

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Let us balance the budget. Here are some good starting points.

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they all get the blame. the last 10 years have been dominated by two presidents and both parties–the debt has done nothing but increase due to continued spending and lack of balance.

I promise government of either party, will increase as long as me let them. Republicans would agrue for a 80% while the libs would want 90% and both would spend as if they got 100%

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I will ask you this what are the remifications of opreating your household with an unbalanced budget.

If I or you spend $500 a month on a car when I make $ 450 a month I go in the hole $ 50 each month.

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Sooth

mr_b’s 8:24 was sarcasm.

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Sorry I split my post——If I am 50 down each month I cannot buy the other things I need so I go without. By the time I pay my car off–5 years later I have created a $ 3000 debt on my earnings. I will spend the next 5 tears limiting what I buy b/c I have to pay my accumulated debt down. Add interest and that debt burden increases thereby extending the time it takes me to pay it off. This in turn limits my buying power throughout the timeline===my entire family loses to my debt

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Mama says: how much have you had to drink tonight?

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See sooth it’s people like you—stay focused please.

I will give it a try though.

I am taxed at 15 % of my earnings after deductions

I paid 7$ of it to the state that’s 22%

I paid $ 4000 in taxes on my home–i’ll put that at about 5% that = 27%

I paid for tags on 2 cars, I will give that 1 % = 28%–I paid taxes on the purchase of one of them

I paid 15 % on my investments= 43%

I had to get a permit to up a garage $ 300

I had to get a permit to empty my septic tank $ 400

—-I have to admit the math may be a little off but the point is that it IS WAY TO MUCH to the government. and oh yeah

I paid approx. 30 cents on each dollar of gas I bought in taxes

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Mama Says:

they all get the blame.

And the consequences? We shut ‘em down? Fire ‘em? Dock their pay? Send ‘em to prison?

Heck! The dems promised “PayGo”. Their commitment to that didn’t last long.

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They both need to be waterboarded. Just for sport…

You might have the makings of a new compassionate conservative reality teevee show.

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Mama says: please pull out your 2010 income tax returns and divide your tax by your adjusted gross income and tell what you arrive at. The top GA tax rate is 6%. You are making shyte up! Tell us what your effective tax rate is. If $4,000.00 is 5% of your earnings that means you make $80,000.00 a year. I do not believe that your paid 50% of your $80,000.00 earnings in taxes. Remember that Social Security and Medicare are trust payments that benefit you when you get older (Ryan notwithstanding), Please share with us all what your effective tax rate is.

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They both need to be waterboarded.

NO!

Nobody needs to be water boarded.

We are better than that.

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‘74 was the year the bills for Viet Nam (Veet Nam as LBJ referred to it) started coming due. It was in fact a tipping point.

Jay little sissy lefties of your ilk deserve nothing so stop whining. Get a real job and contribute something worthwhile to society.

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Kamchak

Talk to a real war vet about what they were willing to do to save the lives of their buddies. Push the first two out of the door of the helicopter and then interrogate the third. He is usually much more willing to talk.

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“‘74 was the year the bills for Viet Nam (Veet Nam as LBJ referred to it) started coming due. It was in fact a tipping point.

Jay little sissy lefties of your ilk deserve nothing so stop whining. Get a real job and contribute something worthwhile to society.”

1971 was the year that the U.S. went off the gold standard and began to print money with gusto. Hence, the inflation that was to follow. And, of course, Jimmy Carter was the convenient whipping boy.

What is it with “conservatives.” You think no one else in the entire country works and makes a living but you? Get real.

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@@ –thats what I am saying.
L
WE Libs and Conservatives have to demand compromise as moderates. We have to throw out the extremes on both sides

but in order to do that WE ALL have to get involved AND I MEAN ALL.

Think about this we saw what 63% of the voters turn out when Obama was elected. The media went crazy about the turnout but keep in mind that was 63% OF THE REGISTERED VOTERS. If there are 300,000 citizens in this country, if approx. 114,000 voted what did the other 200,000 do ?

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watch for the results from NY-26 tomorrow. It will foretell your chances in the House in 2012!

And probably the exact same foretelling that NY-23 was in 2009 when all the lefties were telling us that one spelled GOP doom for 2010. Yawn

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Mama Says

Great point, but your numbers were missing three zeros. We have 300,000,000 people.

Turnout for this one is going to be pretty dismal. Blacks have been hit hardest by the Obama economy. Hispanics have watched Obama kick the immigration can down the road, Young people coming out of college are facing unemployment and hyper-inflation. Jews are looking at his recent speeches throwing Israel under the bus. His base has been decimated.

I’m not saying that they are going to be voting for the Republicans, but the spark that made them turn out in record numbers is definitely glowing much less than it was in 2008.

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AmVet

I guess most of you would have rather that bin Laden would still be alive.

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Kamchak

Talk to a real war vet about…

You mean like former Master Instructor and Chief of Training at the US Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE), Malcolm Nance?

Sure, why not?

The carnival-like he-said, she-said of the legality of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques has become a form of doublespeak worthy of Catch-22. Having been subjected to them all, I know these techniques, if in fact they are actually being used, are not dangerous when applied in training for short periods. However, when performed with even moderate intensity over an extended time on an unsuspecting prisoner – it is torture, without doubt. Couple that with waterboarding and the entire medley not only “shock the conscience” as the statute forbids -it would terrify you. Most people can not stand to watch a high intensity kinetic interrogation. One has to overcome basic human decency to endure watching or causing the effects. The brutality would force you into a personal moral dilemma between humanity and hatred. It would leave you to question the meaning of what it is to be an American.

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Good fight–you have to be kidding right ?

You may wish to see my house and the building defects that the county passed. You may wish to check with the others in your area and see if they feel confident that their inspector did his or her job.— Permit money well spent !

Sooth — I will not dig through my file cabinet to answer your questions. As I sit here I am estimating–LIKE I TOLD YOU I WAS DOING.

You faill at your assumptions however. You did not figure in the various jobs that people hold and how they are paid. You assume, for the sake of your argument, that I will get social security before I am 70 if at all and you assume that medicare and medicaid will be properly funded or accepted when I get into my twilight. With your assumptions you ignore facts.

As I said I was estimating . You are stating facts as they exsist in your head/world

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Sooth do you sit at home wishing you could pay more taxes ?

by the way if you paid any attention to my post you saw that I proposed lower taxes and the elimination of loopholes—deductions are loopholes

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Mama Says:

What were the others doing? I’d say anywhere from 17 to 20% were goofin’ off. They’re kids…it’s what they do.

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RW-you haven’t seen today’s results with Hochul and 42% to Corwin’s 38%.

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Taxxie,

it’s as if they live in Bizarro World.

Sooth – Lawrence O’Donnell did a report on that race. The Tea Party guy is losing votes, but they are all going to the Dem.

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Hey Keep — how’s the healing process goin’?

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A friend of mine over in Fayetteville just had to have her septic system redone to the tune of $12,000. Four others in her subdivision to follow. Why?

Because the original inspectors screwed up.

What would we do without the gift of government inspectors?

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@@–don’t know if you were being sarcastic or not but according to the census 61 million were 14 or younger in 2008–approx 244 million were older then 15—so the math would say that about 70 million people of the 300 million could not vote.

I say agin what did the 120 million do ?

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A friend of mine over in Fayetteville just had to have her septic system redone to the tune of $12,000. Four others in her subdivision to follow. Why?

Shoddy construction.

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“I guess most of you would have rather that bin Laden would still be alive.”

Most of who?

Most of me?

At any rate, don’t be an idiot.

Or do…

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Keep — facial surgery?

As in reconstructive?

Damn.

Your commitment to animal rescue is to be commended.

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And remember in GA, if the contractor thinks the county inspectors are too slow, the contractor can use a private inspector….now that is real protection! Especially when the inspector misses a load bearing wall in a home and then later represents the contractor when the homeowner files a warranty claim because her floors are sinking.

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Mama Says…no i proved you got the minimum govt service you paid for which did not include inspection only but you failed to comprehend what you paid for….and yet you seem to think that you somehow could have monitored and had construction done better. Good luck with that.

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…let me just keep my money, build my house and take care of myself

Geez….

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Kamchak:

It had nothing to do with the construction. The inspector (health, I think) signed off on the septic tank. Something about the soil, a nearby pond, insufficient lines. The house itself is well constructed.

Building inspectors are a joke.

My neighbor was allowed to build in a flood plain. The inspector said his property passed the perk test. I could make pots out of what’s under his lawn. It’s dense, gray clay

Although we had to pay for the permit, our inspector told us we could do our own perk test. Said he’d be back to check it later. Never showed up…signed off on it anyway.

Government inspectors getting paid for mistakes or no work at all.

It’s amazing!

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Kam it just kills you to think about life w/o the government dosen’t it ?

The constitution says nothing about permits and building inspectors does it ? If I build it I am paying the insurance on it—not you, when it fails I will rebuild it–not you right ?

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Mam Says…. you got concrete footings. Nothing says you had to get best practices. Remember code is minimum. If you accept minimum, you are a poor consumer in a free market. So why did you not protect yourself and get the contractor to complete the work properly in a good and workmanlike manner as required by your contract? You did a great job of protecting yourself.

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QE2 Has Created a Massive New Bubble
It turns out the program has created maybe 700,000 full-time jobs — at a cost of around $850,000 each.

http://www.smartmoney.com/invest/markets/qe2-has-created-a-massive-new-bubble-1306181465050/?link=SM_hp_ls4e

Oh goody. Thanks Ben.

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Currently playing on jm’s computer. Awesome……………..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXlAHli0jAQ

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In each case private contractors did shoddy construction and yet the inspectors get the blame but not the support to do proper inspections. Blame government but never blame the contractors. Until 7.1.2008 there was not even state licensing of residential contractors

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They crawled under the house to have a look, and all the phone lines were hanging loose, not connected to anything. While they were under there, they also noticed that the main electrical entrance cable had been spliced and taped together. That house passed inspection.

When my wife and I bought our new house—which duly passed inspection—we wondered why the external dryer vent never passed any steam.

Then came the time to take out a section of the ceiling in the laundry room to undertake some other work. The section of the dryer vent pipe leading from the dryer lay on the rafters, separated from the rest of the vent pipe by about three feet. Buckets of lint had collected on the overhead dry wall in the years we owned the house.

So much for inspections.

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josef
@7:39PM

Bingo!

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Mama Says, that is what “free market” provides. Smart government regulation would provide for real inspection and ramifications. So do tell me why the “free market” did not protect you from shoddy construction?

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Good fight I blame the inspectors b/c it is their job to stop the shoddy contractor–we paty them via our taxesto do just that. The fact that I need to take care of myself proves the point my/our taxes are wasted by the government.

If they did the job I would not have this argument.

and just imagine in a liberal union state they would be locked into high pay and awsome retirement

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OMG!!!! Someone please shoot me!!!! An article by Jay where I can actually find something I can agree with him about!!! Not the whole article, of course, but at least some of it.
I can’t stand the shame!!!

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The fall of America is at hand. Not the end of the world, just the end of the world as we know it. Wow, I’m also a master lyricist.

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CO, code in Alpharetta for dryer vents is 25 feet but you lose 5 feet for each bend. Ever try to inspect a home once the walls are closed in? Buy a quality name like Wieland you get a quality home right? Try again.

Fortunately when Wieland told me, “well it had to be okay because we got a CO” I reminded them of their contract requirements and then got the city inspector to tell them to fix it at their cost. They did.

There was however a change of inspector and a disagreement with the prior inspector about interpretation of the code… sometimes you have to know the buttons to push.

The reality is that the government has not been given all of the tools to protect consumers and free market does not protect consumers. Neither is perfect other than in the minds of those who repeat the mantra. Most consumers will never have the tools to protect themselves fully.

Mama Says, are you a contractor? Know how to read code? You know how to install all products and how they work together with installation guidelines. You know how oftern code is updated? Ever deal with situations where code contradicts new products. You can protect yourself? Now that is funny.

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Free market provides me the oppurtunity to study the various contractors and pick the best provider.

There’s your sign.

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are telling me that if my house is built on a flat medow I need regulation that governs my soil stability ?

was it flat when the development was created? Buried trees and waste? Anybody upstream?

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Bottom line the monetary potential to tax revenue drives government–in all aspects of it’s functions.

Police,Fire, Inpectors, all services are now being used to produce revenue for the government—-it is not doing what it was designed to do. That is the bottom line.

In my world if the bait don’t catch the fish I change the bait. I don’t put 5 more poles out

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Don’t get me started on buried trash please the county failed on that one too—and I have a sink hole to show it

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are telling me that if my house is built on a flat medow I need regulation that governs my soil stability ?

I’m now in the process of paying somebody to fill in a sinkhole near my patio deck. Turns out the builder was too cheap to pay a landfill disposal fee, so he used a bulldozer to dig a deep hole and he then threw all the scrap lumber into it and filled the hole in. In the eyes of the inspector and the buyer, it all looked like level land. It took 25 years for that lumber to decompose and the sinkhole to develop. I’m just grateful it’s not under the house or the patio. I know I wouldn’t trust somebody else’s word that it was a “flat meadow” without having the assurance of the soil’s stability before I built a house on it.

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The doom is back. Watch the cockroaches scurry for cover.

Kam and Adam,

Don’t forget to add parasites, welfare recipients, leeches, to your little list. I’ll think of a few others later.

Keep up,

Bumper sticker mentality? Really? How about that sloganeering mentality of Hope and change! Change you can believe in! Yes! We can! Lotta good that did us.

Face it keep up- you’ve got not one but several posters that came on here and wrote about the shoddy inspection work from those gubment inspectors. Why do we even pay taxes if they don’t do their damn job to begin with? At least the contractors who did the shoddy work can be sued and will be put out of business via complaints and poor business reputation.

Speaking of gubment inspectors where were all the gubment inspectors on the BP horizon spill? Where dey were keep up? Didn’t the Obama administration give BP a waiver and let them do their own safety inspections? If so then what the hell good are these bureaucrats?

Back to shooting down the liberal wall of lies with more conservative missiles of truth.

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Just stay out of the way so the free market can get us to space and open up the solar system. Then it will be 1955-1974 forever.

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Of note. Dumbest project renaming EVER. “Streets of Buckhead” becomes “Buckhead Atlanta”. WTF?

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The tea party, mostly made up of elderly folks who have benefited most from the Great Society from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, raided town halls screaming and sneering cries of Socialism! when Obama and the Democrats passed legislation to allow all Americans to obtain health care regardless of pre-existing conditions. But now that the Republicans have come for their benefits, suddenly, it’s, “hands off our Medicare!” It’s pretty disgusting. Even more disgusting when the wealthier elderly people side with Ryan and the Republicans, telling poorer people, “The Government can’t take care of you! You’ve got to provide for your own medical costs!” Selfishness, all selfishness. I thought wisdom was supposed to come with age, but with this generation, it’s all for them and nothing for anyone else.

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Ok, Now back to the original article;
Point 1:
The US feasted on the aftermat of WW2 ….
WW2 left all other industrialized nations in ruins Germany, all central europe including England, Japan.
We were the sole provider in the world of consumer goods.
We got fat on electronic, auto etc. Anything we made we could sell because noone else made them. It was the 1970s before Germany, Japan, Europe began to fully recover. Then third world countries began to concentrate on heavy industries, iron, steel etc. Others took our high labor manufactoring jobs (clothing manufactoring for example) try to find any clothing made in the USA!!!
China will make anything we want much cheaper than we can.
Bottom line, the days of made in the USA are over; and with it many of the middie class jobs.

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“Selfishness, all selfishness.”

Why is it that those that cry selfishness never see it on the other end??

Since we choose everything we do, some of those “poor people” have chosen to be so………..currently, 1/3 of folks choose to drop out of the gov’t assistance program known as education………….yet remarkably, they are never selfish……………………

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Tree roots will eventually find septic tank lines. Usually it takes years but that’s pretty hard to prevent, unless you cut down every tree in sight.

Back when I was working for the power company, I saw a 4/0 cable with a pine tree root right through the middle of it. 4/0 was the normal sized cable used to run from transformer to transformer, within a subdivision. It’s a good sized cable.

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TaxPayer

May 23rd, 2011
9:37 pm

The secret to a Republican win (keep this a secret whatever you do) is for the Republicans to push that Ryan roadmap and to make sure that they emphasize its key points:

1. Medicare will be replaced by a voucher system so the old geezers can fend for themselves,

Translation- seniors are too stupid to make decisions for themselves- we need the nanny state to do this for them.

2. Medicaid will be eliminated and those folks can learn how to ask for charity,

Medicaid rolls have grown considerably and constitute on average 22% of state budgets. Perhaps if the parasites got jobs they wouldn’t need charity- or medicaid.

3. Food stamps will be replaced with a poster covering the proper techniques for beggars,

1 in 6 Americans are now on food stamps- hence the food stamp president Obama. What kind of an idiot really believes that one out of every 6 of us really needs food stamps?

4. All the money saved will be given to the wealthiest as another vote-buying tax cut,

Too predictable. The ole we’re giving everything away to make the rich even richer. Do they ever tire of the wealth envy card? Nope. Perhaps the top 1% should pay all the taxes instead of only nearly 40% As if there are enough wealthy voters votes to buy to keep them elected. How dumb can someone be to think that 1 or 5 % of the population’s votes can win the election. What a tired old moronic point.

5. More money will be borrowed so more tax cuts can be given to the wealthiest,

Good grief. More wealth envy.

6. The national debt will increase by trillions more but it can be blamed on lazy people choosing not to work and bring the unemployment rate down to the required 2.8% so the tax cuts would pay for themselves. It’s all the fault of the poor, lazy bums out there.

WOW. He’s getting a lot of mileage on this tax the rich mantra.

Anyway, those are the key points and they’re bound to generate the desired votes for the Republicans.

But of course. The Republicans expect to win 51% of the vote by catering only to the top 1-5% of wage earners. Such a moronic point that is unfathomable that people actually believe this stupidity.

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Usually it takes years but that’s pretty hard to prevent, unless you cut down every tree in sight.

One of the reasons that new home construction has engaged in that very practice. That and it’s easier to put out sod with a blank slate.

They’ll strip every tree off of every lot, then plant a couple of Bradford pear trees.

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keep up,

Nice dodge on the main point keep up. Still haven’t heard your explanation of why we even pay taxes for the gubment bureaucrats who are supposed to keep the contractors in check. What was that about gubment checks on private enterprise? Perhaps what we really need is a whole new bureaucracy to do the checks. Keep up’s solution- more big gubment that doesn’t work to begin with.

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Thulsa,

You do realize that the Ryan roadmap takes six trillion out of Medicare, Medicaid, foodstamps, etc. and still ends up adding trillions to the national debt. But you go ahead and sell the line that those folks need to buck up and make sacrifices so the debt is not paid down but is instead increased and the wealthiest are allowed to keep more of their hard earned Wall Street billions. Good luck with that.

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Taxpayer,

Sorry that the facts bother you. Under this president medicaid rolls have risen steeply. Just an inconvenient fact. Oh those pesky facts.

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Don’t you think that the inspector could see the big gaint hole in the ground with con

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oldguy at 10:47,

You’re talking common economic history- something the libs have difficulty understanding. Any way you can really dumb it down for them so that maybe, just maybe they’ll understand?

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I’d offer one piece of advice to anybody who hires somebody to build a house. You need to visit the site, at least once a day during construction. It doesn’t necessarily have to be during working hours, although that’s better, but a lot can get done in a day or two, that you’ll never know about, if you don’t keep a close eye on things.

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Don’t you think that the inspector could see the big gaint hole in the ground with con

You mean a big giant hole that a front-end loader could dig, fill and cover over in an hour and a half?

Then, no.

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You can dig a hole and fill it full of stumps, trash, or whatever and cover it, in 2-3 hours, no problem.

Shore nuf and it is a lot cheaper than hauling them off or grinding them up or burning them. I had the luxury of 17 acres so I’ve got a pile of stumps off in a little ravine just rotting away, cheaply, above ground. No sink holes allowed.

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md

May 23rd, 2011
10:47 pm

I see the IT department at the ajc is still being farmed out to India……maybe their flight to the States has been delayed longer than anticipated…………….oh well……

Too funnyl Reminds me of when that liberal bastion the Huffington post was sold off, Ariana made millions, they laid off a lot of people, and all the other professional bloggers who had helped contribute to the rise of the site got nada. Liberal hypocrisy and greed never ceases to amaze.

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Fellas, the time is right to topple these corporate dictators. This is to me, the greatest challenge of our time. FAR exceeding that misnamed War on Terror.

It is part and parcel of reclaiming our sacred and blood soaked sovereignty from the highest bidders.

CJ spoke about it clearly and wonderfully earlier today.

To be sure, the fake conservatives, to their own needless sacrifice, will stand in the way. But the writing is on the wall and they cannot stop it. No more than they could stop the civil rights movements and other grass roots endeavors committed to progress. Because that is the way BIG change always happens in this country. From the bottom up.

And the heretofore imperious, untouchable boys at the top have need to be very concerned.

Unless we reign in these traitors that hide behind that giant American flag on Wall Street, until they are forced to pay for their own irresponsible excesses and legalized thievery, until they are truly held accountable to the rule of law – as in doing time for their crimes – their limitless greed for wealth and power is destined to be the downfall of our system.

Capitalism is the freest economic way, if only we can control it.

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Keep

Yeah, you need to know something about construction but it helps just for them to know that you’re watching. I built my own house but if I were buying one, I’d never buy a spec house. That’s just asking for trouble, in my opinion.

Taxpayer

I just dumped my stumps in the holler. We can’t burn here from May to October on account of the burn ban. I did burn most all my brush but that was in the winter time. I always burn when it’s raining anyway, it’s safer.

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HD…well if it is a spec home, contractors will not let you visit always…they have a PITA clause.

I wish!

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Unless we reign in these traitors that hide behind that giant American flag on Wall Street,

I’m with ya AmVet. Lets start with Obama’s largest campaign contributor Goldman Sachs.

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And what is the root of the unemployment? How many more would be unemployed without the deficit spending? Bush cut our throats when he cut the tax rates, with the help of the Dems, I might add, who insisted on reducing the rates for everyone.

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Kam, its in most new spec home contracts but not used when market is tight. Remodels are not able to use it. And of course, no help for a sub against the general.

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Buffonery keep up? You referencing your own posts again? Or looking in the mirror?

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The problem with Medicare and Medicaid is the lack of integrity of the American people and the medical care providers.

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Thulsa,

Why would anyone support a plan that takes six trillion from medicare, medicaid and foodstamp recipients and gives it to billionaires as tax cuts while not even decreasing the national debt one penny but increasing it by trillions instead. Why would anyone support a plan that gives out tax cuts on the premise that they’ll begin to pay for themselves once unemployment reaches and maintains a 2.8% rate…

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ATL driving too much?

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/america%E2%80%99s-biggest–and-least–gas-guzzling-cities.html

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Kam, could be the size of builder? Here’s a sample….

Visit to Property. Purchase agrees to limit inspections of the Property to reasonalbe lenght of time during business hours. Buyer further agrees to avoid conversations with workmen or in any way to hinder their work, unless it has been requested that Buyer be there to assist in some phase of the construction (ie to check colors). …

Incompatibiltu. In the event Buyer disrupts or interferes with Seller’s construction process or Seller’s normal course of business or Seller deems incompatible, Seller shall have sole discretion of declaring this contract null & void….

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Excuse my rudeness. Finally feel like getting up and about today. Night all!

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TnGelding

May 23rd, 2011
11:25 pm

The problem with Medicare and Medicaid is the lack of integrity of the American people and the medical care providers.

TnGelding,

That is a very true statement that would get you in a heep a trouble if you were a politician. Good thing you’re not a politician.

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I’m out. Ya’ll have a good night.

Taxpayer,

As much as I disagree with you I’ve no problem with rescinding the Bush tax cuts and raising the capital gains tax. I believe the CG tax rate is 15% and I think it should be raised to 18% because that is the optimal point where we maximize tax revenues to the federal govt. I just don’t believe that we can balance the budget or even come close by raising taxes. We need to dramatically slash spending also, reform medicare and medicaid, pull out of all 3 wars, start closing some military bases in Europe and reduce our military overall by 10% minimally.

We differ dramatically in philosophy- that much is a given. But in real life practical terms I have no problem with several of the lib ideas such as raising taxes, cutting military expenditures, etc.

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True, 1974 was the year that the regular growth in wages and standards of living Americans had come to expect ended. During the ’70s that was mostly because energy prices were exploding while the costs of environmental regulation and the War on Poverty were working their way though the economy. Though I’m sure energy and environmental issues (as well as water) will continue to threaten our standard of living on and off, in the ’80s and ’90s none of those factors (with the exception of Medicare and Medicaid) were of great significance, yet wages still appeared to stagnate. The truth is that in terms of most of the mundane things in life (food, appliances, cars, even houses if you don’t count the land), wages kept growing during most of those years. It’s a few “budget busters” (housing (land included), tuition and medical care that were eating away at what would otherwise have been continuing prosperity. Housing prices have slid and will likely be declining on and off for foreseeable future. Tuition has continued to increase, but will likely soon succumb to pressure from automated and on line learning as well as the declining ability of families to pay. Medical costs, however, continue to cut deeper and deeper into the incomes of Americans, both through private insurance and government programs. Yet we have a president who has eliminated all lifetime caps for private insurance and promises that we will “never pull the plug on grandma”. Meanwhile, his tea party opponents have been promising to save America from “Obama’s death panels” and “keep government health care out of my Medicare”. Paul Ryan has at least had courage to question this blank check mentality, though his plan doesn’t force patients to choose their coverage far enough in advance to make its privatized insurance model work sustainably. It will soon be forgotten anyway, since both parties still cling to the “can’t put a price on a human life” philosophy, which has never applied to any other endeavors (like automotive safety, building codes, etc.). Eventually (probably sooner than most people expect), the escalating cost of putting off death will force a limit on this spending, though they might bankrupt much of the Western world before that happens. Before any of this is addressed directly, it will probably be controlled through all manner of cowardly and haphazard cost containment devices like waiting lists and stingy reimbursements.

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Don’t worry, we’ll be OK. I just heard an ad on the radio that even if I own my house and my car I can still qualify for food stamps. Got that goin’ for me.

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Does anyone with an IQ above room temperature take Jay seriously?

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PCL

May 24th, 2011
3:27 am

Death with dignity!

Jay is a credit to the intelligentsia.

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Jay, 2 things: Where on the income scale any individual lands is constantly changing. Have you had variations in your income between years and series’ of years? Some of us that assume much risk and start small businesses have our income fluctuate widely from rich to poor whatever the parameters. And 2: Liberals like you always chop up people in groups in order to pit them against one another to the detriment of reasonable discussion. Whatever you think about all the entitlement programs being started and implemented up to now, the fact is they are not going to be able to be sustained. Do you believe that? Or like many liberals who do not let reality influence their views, do you want them to stay the same so thats what you think can happen?

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