patrick.net

"The two-party system has become nothing but a scripted beauty contest between two sides of the same coin."

egads101 says

Obama may not be a great leader, fine. there is a big difference between leading poorly, having flaws, but still trying to go the right direction on 9 out of 10 issues.

Like so many ... you picked someone far far different than prior GOP or DEM to hold the office of the President...
(1) no experience
(2) unwilling to make deals
(3) creates distractions rather than deal with issues
(4) completely ignores the poor job/economy performance

You elected the First Black person to hold the title of US President..
you elected a Trophy.. a Token.. You never elected a real leader...

Congrats !

egads101 says

The GOP is quite honestly wrong and dangerous for America at every turn.

LOL.. what do you call Mondale, Kerry, Gore.. or even a Clinton.. all mistakes !

I can't stand Obama or the dems. But the repubs are batshit crazy and very, very dangerous to this country. Our credit rating is already lowered , we are still swimming in massive deficits , our job participation rate is at 4 decade lows, our median wage has practically stayed the same for decades while housing, college, medical, gas costs have soared- but these bozos want to shut down the gubmnt and risk default and collapse our dollar for OBamacare?????????

I mean if you are doing it to fight against outsourcing, fight for a solution to better Americans and Obama is not listening-fine. It would still be risky, but this is just stupid and extremely dangerous. Like trying to jump off a cliff and dragging everyone of us down there, just becuase you don't like the color of someone's bandage in the car. Obozocare is nothing but Romneycare cooked up by the Heritage institution. So Republicans want us to jump off the cliff because Obama implemented their plan??

Dumb idiots. Honestly our choice of parties are-dumb and dumberer.

Coin, or Con.
mell says

"The two-party system has become nothing but a scripted beauty contest between two sides of the same coin."

Terrorist and victim, both are to blame? Got it. Nothing new here for GOP which hates everyone including themselves.

egads101 says

while there are plenty of things wrong with Obama and the Dems, you keep telling yourself the two are equal. NOT BY A LONG SHOT.

Obama may not be a great leader, fine. there is a big difference between leading poorly, having flaws, but still trying to go the right direction on 9 out of 10 issues.

The GOP is quite honestly wrong and dangerous for America at every turn.

Switch out the names and parties and this is the EXACT SAME THING that the other 1/2 of America tells themselves about the democrats, with equal conviction.
True reform will never come from this degraded, corrupted, purchased-and-paid-for, two party system.
I will grant that it will be the lunatic religious right that will take us to Hell, as the articulate truth speaker Chris Hedges explains here:
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/chris_hedges_and_robert_scheer_discuss_american_fascism_20131011

It's not the Reps/Dems in office. It's the Rep/Dem voters that put them there.
ASSHOLES!

I'm joining the "Pile of Shit Party". All their candidates & voters are more qualified than Rep/Dem Stupids.

I don't know which is worse.

1. Miley Cyrus could easily win the 2016 presidential race with one campaign promise, full frontal nudity.

2. She'd be better than almost anyone in D.C.

And she'd not be afraid to get a little dirty with her politics!

I think "both parties are the SAME!" is a cop out. For many, this is as close as they will ever come to holding their own party responsible for wrongdoing, even in an obviously 100% responsibility case.

Democrats want everyone to have everything but want others, like employers or tax payers ( via tax subsidity ) to pay for it !

Miley Cyrus? Far better than last winking candidate. Word yo!

https://www.facebook.com/mcforpresident

EInvestor says

Democrats want everyone to have everything

Dimbulbs think having a minimum safety net with such things as foodstamps is allowing undesirable and hated immigrants and black people to "have everything."

Fun fact: White trash rednecks in red states are some of the biggest recipients of foodstamps, welfare, extended unemployment , and SS disability fraud.

MEanwhile the ones who really get to have everything are the big argo busineses, oil companies, defense contractors and companies like haliburton, getting massive gravy train contracts from the government, and other corporate subsidies.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Comptroller says

Running with the campaign slogan SNIFF THE GLOVE!

Running with the campaign slogan SNIFF THE WRECKING BALL!

Obviously.

The Republicans want a big, powerful government run for corporations' benefit with its growth paid for by inflation.

The Democrats want a big, powerful government run for corporations' benefit with its growth paid for by higher taxes.

While there are some positives, asking people to identify them is a bit like asking Mrs. Lincoln how the play was apart from her husband's assassination.

drew_eckhardt says

The Democrats want a big, powerful government run for corporations' benefit with its growth paid for by higher taxes.

have you ever known or seen growth occur due to higher taxes rates.. yet both in 1961 with the Kennedy Tax Cut and later with 1981 Reagan Tax Cut we saw economic expansion occur with higher employment and higher tax revenues. Higher Taxes rates have not resulted in higher tax revenues.

The current Federal Government shut down is the best news ever in America for the pathetic past 20 years. This one should last forever, unless you want the SOS for the future.

The Democrats and their big government fanboys who populate this site should be very worried that more and more Americans are getting fed up with the Federal government.

We've seen these past few years that our Federal government is not only incompetent (can't manage a budget) but also filled with vindictive corrupt hacks who want us plebes to feel pain if we don't share their political views or dare to criticize their incompetent stewardship of the Federal bureaucracy.

So I am really struggling to see how any of this is good for the longterm prospects of Liberalism where every day people are losing our trust in bigger and more intrusive government in our lives.

socal2 says

The Democrats and their big government fanboys who populate this site should be very worried that more and more Americans are getting fed up with the Federal government.

How can I be a member of the "fanboys"? I'm not sure what you're looking at, but more and more Americans are getting fed up with the tea party politicians.

socal2 says

So I am really struggling to see how any of this is good for the longterm prospects of Liberalism where every day people are losing our trust in bigger and more intrusive government in our lives.

See--that's where you're wrong. I think I'm what you would call a liberal (I think I'm moderate, but whatever), and I want a smaller government. Shrink the military industrial complex by at least 75%. It's the Republican's that want large government--they just want to grow it in different areas.

Yeah.... people blame both parties. Its just that they happen to be blaming the GOP more for this shenanigan.

tatupu70 says

See--that's where you're wrong. I think I'm what you would call a liberal (I
think I'm moderate, but whatever), and I want a smaller government. Shrink the
military industrial complex by at least 75%. It's the Republican's that want
large government--they just want to grow it in different areas.

If you really want a smaller government, then you logically need to support massive entitlement reform - right? Our entitlements are the largest and fastest growing segment of our expenditures.

The sequester "draconian cuts" hit the military the most by design. And Obama and some of his fanboys are even taking credit for reduced deficits without citing the sequester as the reason. So isn't it now time to address our entitlement ponzi schemes? Or will Obama and his supporters go 8 years in power without even trying to touch them? Worse - even adding to our ponzi schemes with Obamacare?

Unlike military spending which as a percentage of the US budget has been shrinking for the last 50 years, history has clearly shown that entitlement spending never goes away and has exploded exponentially taking up the majority of our outflows.

egads101 says

Obama may not be a great leader, fine. there is a big difference between
leading poorly, having flaws, but still trying to go the right direction on 9
out of 10 issues.

He may be trying to go the right direction on 9 of out 10 things but he keeps choosing the WRONG direction on 8 of those 9. Only the worst president EVER.

socal2 says

Unlike military spending which as a percentage of the US budget has been shrinking

Que?

yes...as percentage of GDP.. its been shrinking...

Vincente - I specifically said military spending as a percent of total US government spending. Even looking at our military spending as percent of GDP or comparison to other countries and you will see all the trends are going down.
http://www.cfr.org/defense-budget/trends-us-military-spending/p28855

Military spending is currently about 20% of the US Federal budget, down from 50% in the 1960's. Pretty big change - no?

Whereas entitlement spending has grown to over 50% of the US budget (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps......)

You could divert every last dollar of military spending to entitlements tomorrow, and our entitlement programs would still be Ponzi schemes.

I am all for reforming our military spending too. But it is a sideshow to point to our military budgets while people ignore the much larger (AND GROWING) entitlement spending.

Tim Aurora says

Yes after Clinton increaded taxes in 1995.

And on the contrary economy did not pick up after Bush Tax cuts. Instead Bush left us at the doorstep of depression.

How so many have forgotten...
.
.
.
The Dangerous Myth About The Bill Clinton Tax Increase

http://www.forbes.com/sites/charleskadlec/2012/07/16/the-dangerous-myth-about-the-bill-clinton-tax-increase/

Speaking at a fund raiser in 1995, President Clinton said: ”Probably there are people in this room still mad at me at that budget because you think I raised your taxes too much. It might surprise you to know that I think I raised them too much, too.”

During the first four years of his Presidency, real GDP growth average 3.2%, respectable relative to today’s economy, but disappointing coming as it did following just one year of recovery from the 1991 recession, the end of the Cold War and the reduction in consumer price inflation below 3% for the first time (with the single exception of 1986) since 1965.

socal2 says

Vincente - I specifically said military spending as a percent of total US government spending. Even looking at our military spending as percent of GDP or comparison to other countries and you will see all the trends are going down.

you will have to excuse the uber pacifistics in the room.. facts dont mess with them well.

Vicente says

Unlike military spending which as a percentage of the US budget has been shrinking

Que?

It's an accurate statement.

The overseas contingency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are mostly funded through supplementary spending bills which are part of the military's spending but not its budget.

Similarly, the $51B a year (up from $12B in 2001) we spend on Homeland Security which doesn't run through the Department of Defense is on the budget but isn't military spending and doesn't count in that category. Nuclear weapons are handled by the Department of Energy and their $20B in related spending not the military with its separate budget. Veterans Affairs are a separate $70B item and military pensions another $55B. Interest on debt incurred by previous military actions is at least $100B of that budget line-item. A few billion of the budget for spy satellites comes from NASA.

Adding it all can get you to between $1T and $1.4T annually which is 50-100% more than the "military budget."

thomaswong.1986 says

you will have to excuse the uber pacifistics in the room.. facts dont mess with them well.

No pacifists here, just patriots who don't believe the American Military sucks so horribly that we need to spend that much to defend ourselves.

drew_eckhardt says

No pacifists here, just patriots who don't believe the American Military sucks so horribly that we need to spend that much to defend ourselves.

we did not ask to be attacked.. and no it was not in the budget we go to war. Unforeseeable.

for some people.. a single bullet is too much spending...

thomaswong.1986 says

we did not ask to be attacked.. and no it was not in the budget we go to war. Unforeseeable.

for some people.. a single bullet is too much spending

Did I miss the Iraq invasion of the US?

tatupu70 says

thomaswong.1986 says

we did not ask to be attacked.. and no it was not in the budget we go to war. Unforeseeable.

for some people.. a single bullet is too much spending

Did I miss the Iraq invasion of the US?

Yeah, I was watching TV the other day and these paratroopers were landing in some backwards Colorado town that looked like it was still in 1980. The military was no where to be seen and these kids had to defend our country using their hunting weapons. The enemies were all foreign dudes obviously from the Middle East because that's where they hate America for sending our traveling women through naked making machines instead of hiding their bodies with personal tents.

Wolverines!

tatupu70 says

Did I miss the Iraq invasion of the US?

Like I said... Uber pacifists will never be satisfied...

drew_eckhardt says

Yeah, I was watching TV the other day and these paratroopers were landing in some backwards Colorado town that looked like it was still in 1980.

Tell that to Obama.. regarding Putins recent comments.. and he called out to Romney

that the 80s were calling and wanted their Cold War back....

Laughable.. the more things change the more they stay the same.

It's best to just tune out Tom Wong's noise with the "ignore" feature.

drew_eckhardt says

Adding it all can get you to between $1T and $1.4T annually which is 50-100% more than the "military budget."

Thus the claim is disengenuous playing with words.

That so many expenses on the MIC are squirreled away in other categories now, doesn't mean real spending on the war machine has gone down. If your original claim were correct, the national debt would be quite a lot smaller.

thomas wrong.1986 says

we did not ask to be attacked.. and no it was not in the budget we go to war.

Attacked!
Go to War!
The raw hysteria inherent in this kind of dialog about a couple of buildings getting knocked down a decade and a half ago makes me cringe.
You are more likely to be killed by your toaster you simpering pantywaist.

socal2 says

Whereas entitlement spending has grown to over 50% of the US budget (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps......)

Where your Federal income taxes go:

freak80 says

It's best to just tune out Tom Wong's noise with the "ignore" feature.

cause your comments hold no water and sinking fast..