Traditional Euro-Imperialism Day Open Thread

Setting sail for truth!

Comments

[Sad anniversary coming up.]

Obama is a Lincoln Continental.
=============

[Minimalist Poster]

and he's luffing

[Clarice]

If this is a pirate mission, count me in...wait..let me get my Pirate Jenny costume before we shove off..

[Sue]

"16 year old pirate.."

What are you people thinking of ? This is a natural for Madonna? Have him bathed and sent to her tent.

Posted by: PeterUK April 12, 2009 at 08:03 PM

'Nuff said.

[Frau Haifisch]

This remora beached himself in Zucotti Park.

[Sue]

About the only thing I can say is NY deserves this. NY is so full of progressives, and especially in the district that WS sits in, that they really should reap what they have sown.

[Clarice]

Drudge has a header "EU safety rules prohibit kids from blowing up balloons."

So much for the feminizing of culture. Kids cannot blow up balloons but the same rule makers forbid deporting terrorists to their homelands because they might be badly treated rather than received with trumpets and song.

[daddy]

Here's an exciting idea!

Dem Senator Mark Begich is sponsoring a bill to Give Federal Grants to Promote Domestic Tourism.

Joined by Fellow Dem Co-sponsors Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York; Mark Pryor of Arkansas; and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, these geniuses think that with a 15 Trillion Dollar deficit burning a hole in our Economic system what this country needs now is a new Federal Program to dole out millions of Taxpayer dollars to promote Tourism.

Yep. That'll work.

[Jack is Back!]

OT: When do we celebrate "the other Italian's BD" - you know Giovanni Cabotia or John Cabot as we all know him. He discovered more of our continent in a single voyage than Columbus did in 3 or them. But hell, I'm still looking for the Welsh Indians of Madoc.

OT(squared): On Laura Ingraham a guy called in and recommended we now refer to the OWS crowd as "the Flea Party":) [Full disclosure, he was honest and admitted he read it somewhere in the comments at some blog.]

[Danube of Thought]

Latest Nobel Econ winner disses Krugman, stimulus:

So it is in the case of Thomas Sargent, the New York University professor who was announced Monday as a winner of the Nobel in economics. An interview of Professor Sargent by the Minneapolis Fed in August 2010 summed up some of his contributions succinctly: “policymakers can’t manipulate the economy by systematically ‘tricking’ people with policy surprises. Central banks, for example, can’t permanently lower unemployment by easing monetary policy, as Sargent demonstrated with Neil Wallace, because people will (rationally) anticipate higher future inflation and will (strategically) insist on higher wages for their labor and higher interest rates for their capital.”

That interview is also notable for Professor Sargent’s icy dismissal of another Nobel laureate in Economics, Paul Krugman of Princeton University and the New York Times opinion page:

Minneapolis Fed interviewer: What was Paul Krugman’s opinion about those Princeton macro seminar presentations that advocated modern macro?

Sargent: He did not attend the macro seminar at Princeton when I was there.

Interviewer: Oh.

[Ignatz]

Brian Dometrovich at Forbes has a story on Sargent's Nobel as well and his attempt to drive another stake through the heart of the zombie-like Phillips Curve, which refuses to die despite never having a brain attached to it.

[Frau Haifisch]

JiB - I saw the OWS clowns described as rebels without a cause and the close encounter with a police car fellow as a member of the bowel movement.

Kim - what brand of ale should we lift at the end of the month?

[Frau Haifisch]

Also at the NY Post: Clash at the UN - Rice vs Ros-Lehtinen

Ambassador Susan Rice is often called the U.N. ambassador to the United States. heh

[Ignatz]

Good short article on the Economic Cycle Research Institute [that Rick and others discussed recently] and its call that we are about to enter or have already entered a new recession. Its track record is impeccable on these matters.

[He knows everything.]

Elliott calls the shots, Frau.
===========

[daddy]

As the lights go out in Europe, Government Bureaucracy helps:

A church in England is refusing to change a light bulb because it says overzealous health and safety rules mean it would cost £500 to change the £2 fixture.

(In US Dollar terms, thats $740 to change a $3.13 lightbulb.)

[jimmyk]

Latest Nobel Econ winner disses Krugman, stimulus

I have great regard for Sargent (and for Sims, too). You should not hold their Nobel Prizes against them. They are serious scholars with great intellectual integrity, and there is no risk that they will become what Krugman has devolved into.

[The globe is cooling, for how long even Elliott doesn't know.]

I'll never forget the day he fact-checked me three times in a row over a couple of hours.
=============

[Jibe ass Mithra crocker.]

heh, MinimPos, he didn't expect the boom when he jibed.
===================

[Jack is Back!]

Frau,

Knowing PUK was a Lancashire lad and a regular at The Nursery Inn (which reminds me, where is Elliot?) then I would suggest a Hyde's Cask Ale or a Manchester's Finest. Hard to find over here by the pull unless you are really fortunate in having a traditional English pub around.

But I think it is a great idea that we plan on having a PUK 2 year anniversary and share some laughs, some cheer and more importantly some Rock and Roll!

[Get Rikki Tikki Tavi on that coiled serpent.]

How many bulbs does it take to change a people?
=================

[Appalled]

Interesting thing about the Occupy Wall Street crowd. If anything, they are a result of Democratic Party failures, and have little/nothing to do with the Tea Party, and offer little support for the Obama worldview.

Why?

If there is an unexpected policy failure in this administration (as opposed to Healthcare, which, alas, was predictable), it is Dodd-Frank's failure to deal with Too Big To Fail. Smart legislation would have been keyed to the idea that something like TARP must never again be necessary, and enact broad reforms somehow associated with that.

But, no. The banking behemouths are still with us, along with their load of nonperforming mortgages, just waiting for Greece to implode, to be in big huge crisis again. Naturally, there continues to be a consistent level of anxiety

So the left, with some reason, figures that once again the lobbyists have bought off an administration, and only some (utterly counterproductive) direct action will give them something to feel good about.

[Minimalist Poster]

I've got a "discussion" going on Facebook about that Alan Grayson video concerning Occupy Wall Street. There are some who think that he actually made some meaningful points . . .

You've probably covered it already (if you wasted your time on it), but I haven't been around here in awhile. Any good references or resources? (just in case . . .)

Thanks!

[Minimalist Poster]

Obama just has the wrong kind of wind in his sheets.

Jibe-O!

[Appalled]

Meanwhile, y'all will be glad to hear this from Occupy Atlanta's facebook page:

Today Occupy Atlanta General Assembly unanimously agreed to invite Congressman John Lewis to come and speak.

Occupy groups are governed by procedural rules that allow them to function in chaotic circumstances and to exercise participatory democracy in a large group. These rules are based on the principle of absolute equality and each voice being heard.

Anyone may come and speak to or participate... in a General Assembly. There is a set order which includes a point where the floor is opened for comments. Anyone present may put their name on the “stack” as it is called and speak. It might seem a simple thing to break the order, but in a large crowd where everyone is supposed to get a chance to be heard, deviating from it quickly causes chaos. Each deviation encourages the next until no conversation can be maintained.

All of the speakers who have attended a General Assembly in New York have followed this process. Occupy Atlanta is unaware of any exceptions. Congressman Lewis, who attended Occupy Atlanta’s 5th General Assembly on October 7, is familiar with consensus from his days as a civil rights leader but was unable to stay long enough to allow the process to unfold due to prior commitments.

Statement:

We hope that explaining our process will go a long way towards preventing any future problems or misunderstandings so that we do not inadvertently give offense to those whose voices and knowledge we would very much like to hear. We are dismayed that anything we have done would seem to show disrespect for a man whom many of us revere, and apologize to everyone who was hurt or angered by our actions.

By the way, the facebook comments on this posting are priceless. I may paste a few...

[bgates]

Did someone ask for the Dems to lash themselves to the Obama's White Suckers movement?

Here you go.

GOAL: 100,000 Strong Standing with Occupy Wall Street, says the web page of the CCCP. Er, DCCC.

[Jane]

"the Flea Party"

Flea baggers it is!

[Rob Crawford]

bgates -- just compromise. Call it the DCCCP.

[Ignatz]

--If there is an unexpected policy failure in this administration (as opposed to Healthcare, which, alas, was predictable), it is Dodd-Frank's failure to deal with Too Big To Fail.--

Appalled,
What is unexpected about legislation carrying the names of two of the biggest blowhard, corrupt, ideologically blinkered, statist buffoons in recent history and signed by the most left wing pres we've ever had not only being bad legislation but also continuing the corrupt nexus of state and powerful corporations?
Unexpected? I'd say inevitable was more like it.

[Ignatz]

--"the Flea Party"

Flea baggers it is!--

I'm still kind of partial to the Teat Party.

[Jack is Back!]

bgates,

Only 13 months to go and desperation of the last/lost resort has kicked in already. It will be interesting to watch the FEC reports on fund-raising and where the bucks will be coming from in the near months. I don't think this will deter the Wall St. types at all from fueling JEF's campaign but not the level of before.

Still too much to be made in shorting America under JEF's watch.

[Rob Crawford]

It will be interesting to watch the FEC reports on fund-raising and where the bucks will be coming from in the near months.

How accurate do you think they'll be?

[daddy]

Even the gods are angry about the debacle of the Euro:

4.5 billion year-old meteorite crashes into the Paris home of a French Finance Auditor:

"A météorite landing in your garden is magical and more unlikely than winning the Lottery," said Mrs Commette.

And in other exciting Euro-News, The Yeti has been discovered in Russia!:

"We found his footprints, his supposed bed, and various markers with which the yeti marks his territory," the statement said. The collected "artifacts" will be analysed in a special laboratory."

"Unfortunately," said Kemerovo officials, "the place smelled Abominable."

[Danube of Thought]

More re Sargent:

"Toward the end of the Phillips Lecture, Professor Sargent also cites Walter Bagehot, who “said that what he called a ‘natural’ competitive banking system without a ‘central’ bank would be better…. ‘nothing can be more surely established by a larger experience than that a Government which interferes with any trade injures that trade. The best thing undeniably that a Government can do with the Money Market is to let it take care of itself.’"

"The best thing undeniably that a government can do with many things is to let them take care of themselves. Now there’s a phrase that it’d be nice to see etched into some granite above the entryways of some buildings in Washington."

Funny. Last night I watched the intro to 60 Minutes (haven't warcged the whole thing), and there was prospective "jobs czar" Jeffrey Immelt pondering "what have Republicans done about jobs, what have Democrats done about jobs, what has the Whit House done about jobs?"

My first thought was to wonder whether, when these worthies undertake to "do something" about jobs, it ever occurs to them to "undo" a number of things they have done in the past. I have serious doubts.

[DebinNC]

I bet those Atlanta OWSers had no idea who John Lewis was. Elsewhere, OccupyChicago seems to be courting violence. I hope conservatives will stand aside and not try to influence things like the AmSpec's editor Howley did at the Air and Space Museum. He should be fired imo. Early today, someone here suggested infiltrating the OWS crowds with offensive signs, a horrible idea imo. The Golden Rule should be the order of the day. Nothing would help us more than leaving them free to be themselves.

[Appalled]

And one of the Occupy Atlanta commenters recognizes the threat bgates has just illustrated.:

Lewis is the first step in the Dems plan to coopt this movement, theyre hoping somewhere along the line one of them will infiltrate and be able to run to the head of the band...I expected you all to be able to see through this......I didnt sign on to be the Tea Party democrat style...Lewis and the rest of the Civil rights hangers ons had their 15 mins and have been impotent, vote sucking do nothings for the past 30 years...

[Clarice]

Do you think my post at Occupy Atlanta will work, appalled. %^)

[derwill]

"The banking behemouths are still with us, along with their load of nonperforming mortgages, just waiting for Greece to implode, to be in big huge crisis again. "

I've been wondering about that myself, Appalled. In the Fall of 2008 we were told that TARP was needed or there would be a worldwide financial collapse. But now we seem to be facing the same crisis all over again--a credit freeze looming on the horizon and TBTF banks that are on the verge of failing. So will we need a TARP II to save us all? And even if that is true, how could it ever happen in today's political climate?

Which means either we were lied to the first time about the nature and depth of the crisis, and the remedy we were forced to swallow. Or we'll get that collapse this time around, because our government and financial institutions have so squandered their credibility, that even if a TARP II really was our only hope of surviving this mess, there isn't anyone left in the country who would believe it, or accept it. Especially not after Obama and the Dems have spent the last three years demonizing those eeeeevil bankers.

Quite a little box Obama & Co. might have painted themselves into. Either enrage the voting public, both left and right, by proposing a TARP II, or face reelection astride the economic ruins of the Greatest Depression.

[Frau Haifisch]

"How accurate do you think they'll be?"

As a candidate, Barry-O said the system was broken and he would fix it. Is the fix in?

[Frau Haifisch]

Iggie, the Teat Party is good. The logo will be PG13. I think of them as remoras.

[Clarice]

Taranto (here discussing that zombie gathering in Atlanta):

"Watching the video, we got the sense that Krugman's Army could easily experience a shattering of its discipline. If these people were stripped of the order imposed by the society they are rebelling against--if they were on a deserted island rather than in a public park in an affluent city with a strong police presence--surely it would not take long degenerate into "Lord of the Flies." Krugman would be Piggy.

London's Daily Mail has a photo of something else no one has ever seen at a Tea Party: a man in New York defecating on a police car. Krugman's Army marches on its stomach too. And if the general's own paper is to be believed, the Mail photo isn't an isolated incident: "Mike Keane, who owns O'Hara's Restaurant and Pub, said that the theft of soap and toilet paper had soared and that one protester had used the bathroom but had failed to properly use the toilet," the New York Times reports.

Remember when Krugman was making up lies about conservatives employing "eliminationist rhetoric"? He now commands an army that is engaged in a campaign of actual elimination."

[Rob Crawford]

had failed to properly use the toilet

Real rocket surgeon there...

[Cecil Turner]

"The banking behemouths are still with us, along with their load of nonperforming mortgages, just waiting for Greece to implode, to be in big huge crisis again. "

More concerning, so are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and they're still costing the taxpayer billions. And Democrats in Congress, who still won't admit their role in the financial collapse, haven't taken effective action. Which is [not exactly] a shocker.

[Sail-powered.]

Obama is a Lincoln Continental styled by Fiat and built by General Motors.
============

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vnjagvet]

Kim - what brand of ale should we lift at the end of the month?

May I suggest Heavy Seas "Loose Cannon" IPA?

[Clarice]

Don Surber calls out Ben & Jerry's phony press release supporting OWS:

"marketing strategy aimed at rich hippies and rich hippie wannabes. Maybe in honor of the occasion, Ben & Jerry’s can come out with a new flavor — Pepper Sprayed Praline? Barackolate Shake? Crap on Cop Car Caramel?"

At NRO Geraghty notes a poll which has Cain beating Obama and picking up 25% of the black vote.

[Pain powered.]

He should go in the Hall of Fame in his own category: Best Guitarist Evah!
=============

[Ignatz]

--More concerning, so are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and they're still costing the taxpayer billions.--

Not only are they still with us, they dominate the mortgage market even more than before.
Government truly is magical in its abilities.
It intervenes in higher ed and causes the cost of something of questionable value in the first place to skyrocket and intervenes in one of the three essentials of life, shelter, and manages to first artificially spike and then destroy the value of it.

[Rob Crawford]

More concerning, so are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and they're still costing the taxpayer billions.

Don't forget the student loan take over. There's another financial gem Obama has saddled the working people with.

[daddy]

Imagine what the NSF (National Science Foundation) will discover tomorrow about Global Climate Science that Archimedes knew 2000 years ago.

[Jack is Back!]

I figure outside of daddy, only a handful of people will appreciate this story but it does have a happy ending - he quit smoking.

[I howl, you howl, we all howl, for another rowl.]

Barackochocote Snakeseyes.
===============

[Appalled]

Cecil:

Fannie and Freddie are a problem, but that's one that is on the government blance sheet rather than one that belongs to Monsterhugeepicfailbank.

[Jack is Back!]

Did you know that Ben & Jerry's has a Chief Euphoria Officer? Look it up.

[MarkO]

"Ben & Jerry's has a Chief Euphoria Officer?"

Dude. Can we score on-line?

[Cecil Turner]

Fannie and Freddie are a problem, but that's one that is on the government blance sheet rather than one that belongs to Monsterhugeepicfailbank.

I'm not sure there's any rational world view that would prioritize a [negative] government balance sheet below a [negative] private concern. The whole point of "too big to fail" being a bad thing was that it left the taxpayer holding the bag on bailout. Moreover, the FNMA/FHLMC debacle was a large driver for the "epicfail" part of the equation (I'd say the largest, but YMMV).

[jimmyk]

Fannie and Freddie are a problem, but that's one that is on the government balance sheet

I don't think that's true in any meaningful sense.

Even if it were, In a sane world that might be an important distinction, but the way our government does (or does not) do its accounting, I'm not sure it really matters.

[JM Hanes]

Favorite Occupy Something-or-other sign so far:

"Nationalize the Fed!"

LOL!

[Dave (in MA)]

Occupy Atlanta General Assembly statement:

We hope We hope that explaining our process that explaining our process will go a long way will go a long way towards preventing towards preventing any future problems or misunderstandings any future problems or misunderstandings so that we do not inadvertently give offense so that we do not inadvertently give offense to those whose voices and knowledge to those whose voices and knowledge we would very much like to hear we would very much like to hear. We are dismayed We are dismayed that anything we have done that anything we have done would seem to show disrespect would seem to show disrespect for a man whom many of us revere for a man whom many of us revere, and apologize to everyone who was hurt or angered and apologize to everyone who was hurt or angered by our actions by our actions.

[pagar]

The PJ Tatler has the best again.

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/10/10/issa-to-holder-on-fast-and-furious-you-own-it/

I don't see how you can say it any better!

[daddy]

3-2 Detroit in the 3rd.

Good game offensively. Pitching?---Not so much.

[Appalled]

Cecil:

Let's put it this way -- the immediate problem is that TARP II might become necessary to avoid a collapse that the FDIC can't handle. The government, despite it's magical mystery powers, is not going to be called upon to bail out itself in the near term.

[Danube of Thought]

I think someone may have posted this thought earlier, but watching those dopes inventing their new form of "democracy" in Atlanta somehow reminded me of the scene in Doctor Zhivago where the vanguard of the New Order start movijg into the aristocrats' homes and announcing where everyone will sleep.

[Porchlight]

Traditional Euro-Imperialism Day Open Thread

Incidentally, I like Columbus Day. Not going to flagellate myself over the discovery of the New World (and yes I know he wasn't the first to discover it).

So there.

[daddy]

Dennis Miller has on William Shatner, intro'd via tape of Shatner's new album wherein he is singing David Bowie's "Ground Control to Major Tom."

Hilarious. Earlier was Dennis and Mark Steyn, who while discussing OWS sidetracked into discussing the genius of selecting yvette mimieux as the quintessential eloi:)

Much fun ensued. Miller starts off Shatner's interview by saying he just had on Leonard Nimoy a couple days back, selling a new thermometer that you stick in your ear.

Immediately Shatner responds "Do you know where a Vulcan takes a crap?"

More hilarity.

I swear to goodness, if Obama selected Dennis Miller to be his new White House Press Spokesman I'd probably vote for the Marxist b@#$tard.

[Sue]

How crazy would it be if this score holds up and they beat us 3-2? Holland had playoff jitters, I guess.

[narciso]

Our three weapons are surprise, ruthlessness, and the comfy chair:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/al-qaeda-joins-those-questioning-legality-of-awlaki-killing/2011/10/

[Ignatz]

--I don't think that's true in any meaningful sense.--

Jimmyk,
Help me to understand why that's not true.
Did not the government guarantee the debt of the GSEs?
Are not both of them in receivership with the government?
And haven't they already required massive injections of capital in the form of taxpayer funds that appear unlikely to be recouped?
Seems to me these formerly government sponsored entities are now in practical terms government owned. I'm assuming there's more to it but what?

[matt]

another name for the OWS protesters:

"Confederacy of Dunces"

[Danube of Thought]

And as the night follows the day:

"The downtown protest group Occupy Boston threw its proverbial doors open yesterday, and played host to supporters of accused terrorist Terak Mehanna, who are looking to raise awareness of the Sudbury man’s upcoming trial.

"The Tarek Mehanna Support Committee came to Occupy Boston’s ever-evolving tent city on the Rose Kennedy Greenway to say Mehanna, a Muslim American pharmacist, is a victim of anti-Muslim sentiment.

"The U.S. government says Mehanna, 28, provided “material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization,” and acted as a “media wing” for al-Qaeda."

[MarkO]

Herewith the Authorized History of The Landing of Columbus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjNKzsWa5A8&feature=related

Stan Freberg.

[Clarice]

AJC:
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official was arrested Sunday and charged with two counts of child molestation and bestiality for sexual acts involving a 6-year-old boy.

DeKalb County Jail Kimberly Quinlan Lindsey, 44, faces charges of child molestation and bestiality.

DeKalb County Jail Thomas Westerman, 42, faces child molestation charges.
More DeKalb County news »

CDC exec arrested for child molestation
Vehicle that hit man on I-85 ID'd
DeKalb hires new economic development director
Doraville vision for GM plant wins award
DeKalb OK’s design plan for PDK hangars
Kimberly Quinlan Lindsey's boyfriend, Thomas Westerman, a night watchman for the CDC, was also arrested on two counts of child molestation, according to a DeKalb County criminal warrant. The pair surrendered to authorities Sunday afternoon, said DeKalb police spokeswoman Pamela Kunz.

Lindsey, 44, serves as the deputy director for the Laboratory Science Policy and Practice Program Office at the CDC, according to her biography on the agency's website. The Emory University graduate, who's been with the CDC since 1999, was formerly a senior health scientist responsible for overseeing a $1.5 billion fiscal allocation process for terrorism preparedness.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Obama is a Lincoln Continental.

More like an Edsel if you ask me.

I wish you guys would stop knocking GM. It is bad enough for some of us to have to listen to what parasites we are for taking Social Security, but now, my other source of retirement income (salaried employee not Union) is also assaulted. Buy American, buy GM and help get them back to black and off the gov't books. And please put the blame where it belongs, the UAW, who has destroyed not just GM. GM makes a good product and there are good people, with great families, who work there and they don't deserve the scorn. And as a company, they have much to be lauded for, not the least of which, is their support for our military and military families.

[Danube of Thought]

Just like the Tea Party. Boston Herald:

"Thousands of Occupy Boston protesters and city police are in a standoff this afternoon at the Charlestown Bridge where thousands are chanting to police in riot gear. Special operations officers are now at the bridge behind a barricade. Boston police are also calling all prisoner-transport wagons to the scene. Developing ..."

[Extraneus]

I bet those Atlanta OWSers had no idea who John Lewis was.

You mean about being a race hustling liar? Yeah, you're probably right.

[Ignatz]

I bet a Gallup poll would reveal in excess of 80% of likely voters feel the identical urge to smack Pelosi on top of the head with that mallet every time they see that pic.

[daddy]

While waiting for the release of the new Save The Whales movie starring Drew Barrymore, (a fictionalized account of the failed rescue attempt of 3 Bowhead Whales trapped in ice near Barrow Alaska), citizens of Barrow yesterday went out and killed 3 Bowhead Whales.

[Extraneus]

Buy American, buy GM and help get them back to black and off the gov't books.

Isn't it possible that, if allowed to go bankrupt when they should have been, they could have been resurrected as a non-union company who'd be competing with Honda America and Toyota America by now?

[MarkO]

I don't want to harp on the obvious, but a mandate to buy GM would be good for America.

[Extraneus]

This is the one to poll, Ig. (It's pretty hard to find anymore, for some reason, even in Google Pics.)

[Frau Haifisch]

The occupiers are playing hide the zucchini in Zuccotti Park. I hope the free condoms are being used; we don't need more dupes and dopes.

[Ignatz]

Yeah, I like that second one way better, Ex.
Not only are Steny and Johnny still sitting in a tree, it looks like Steny's toting a purse.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vnjagvet]

That last picture put up by ext must have been taken at the exact time that spit rained down on the happy quartet.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Isn't it possible that, if allowed to go bankrupt when they should have been, they could have been resurrected as a non-union company who'd be competing with Honda America and Toyota America by now?

Yes, but that isn't what happened. We have to deal with the now, not what should have or could have been.

MarkO: A mandate would probably help in the short term, but I wouldn't want a car/truck/bus I was told I had to buy. America is based on freedom of choice.

I drive a mid-size SUV that gets 30 mpg. I could do better with another vehicle. However, I drive what I do because it is higher and easier to get in and out of than a regular car or smaller vehicle that sits closer to the ground. With my back, I find it very hard to extract myself from a low sitting car. And when my Mother was still alive or after my own surgeries, I needed a vehicle with a cargo area big enough to hold walker, wheelchair and other assistance devices.

[centralcal]

According to the NY Daily News:

The Occupy Wall Street protesters are planning to get in the face of some of New York's richest tycoons on Tuesday.

A "Millionaires March" will visit the homes - or, more realistically, the gleaming marble lobbies - of five of the city's wealthiest residents.

On the target list: NewsCorp CEO Rupert Murdoch, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, conservative billionaire David Koch, financier Howard Milstein and hedge fund mogul John Paulson.

Between 400 and 800 marchers plan to go to their homes to present them with oversize checks to dramatize how much less they will pay when New York State's 2% tax on millionaires expires at the end of the year.

Hope it doesn't get really ugly.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Frau: That picture at 2:23 sure looks like there is a lotta stuff. Stuff someone had to buy at some time from some corporate entity. Why do they need so much stuff junk?

[Threadkiller]

Daddy, you better buy a keg.

http://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/multiple-instances-of-historical-scholarship-conclusively-establish-the-supreme-courts-holding-in-minor-v-happersett-as-standing-precedent-on-citizenship-obama-not-eligible/

The dictum is settled.

[Threadkiller]

Ooops, I should have put that on the other thread. Sorry.

[Frau Haifisch]

Sara, it's an urban campground and most have seen "Woodstock" and know the greater the trash and lawlessness, the greater the fun empowerment.

Did you see Remy's OWS protest song? It's up there with all the classics. LUN

[Danube of Thought]

"A mandate would probably help in the short term, but I wouldn't want a car/truck/bus I was told I had to buy. America is based on freedom of choice."

Sara, your leg is being pulled. Opponents of the Obamacare mandate argue that, if it is held to be within congress's commerce power, then some future congress could mandate that everyone purchase a GM car.

[Benjamin Franklin]

Some have grown to think of politicians as prostitutes, but this old gem caught my eye...

"P.J. O'Rourke's 1992 book, "Parliament of Whores," is rightly hailed as a brilliant and hilarious expose of the essence of modern Washington. Filled with lines like "Giving power and money to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys," the book entertains as it instructs.

But its title is not quite accurate. Real whores, after all, personally supply the services their customers seek. Prostitutes do not steal; their customers pay them voluntarily. And their customers pay only with money belonging to these customers.

In contrast, members of Congress routinely truck and barter with other people's property.

A better title for O'Rourke's book would have been "Parliament of Pimps.""

Read more: Prostitutes, pimps & pols - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_608903.html#ixzz1aQKDPOHX

[Hey, Alfa's may come back.]

What's good for General Motors, is good for the USA.
===================

[Jane]

I'm still kind of partial to the Teat Party.

You win hands down!

[jimmyk]

Help me to understand why that's not true.
Did not the government guarantee the debt of the GSEs?

With conventional accounting, if assets and liabilities are on the balance sheet, they are "marked," and there are also loan loss provisions, which should be a budget item.. When the assets deteriorate that should be reflected as a loss. I'd like to see where in the government budget that is. As far as I'm aware FM & FM are just yet another unfunded liability. But I'd be happy to be surprised and shown otherwise.

[Killer line there, Thread.]

For the purposes of this case it is not necessary to resolve these doubts.
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[Vanish Or Leave Town.]

A revolting thought, Dan.
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[Frau Haifisch]

Sorry, no Heavy Seas Loose Cannon out west!
But in MD:
"Come Join Heavy Seas as they invade Elliott’s Pour House for a late night Pirate giveaway. Local MD beers will be on draft and keep the first glass with your beer. Friends of all MD breweries are welcome. Life’s too short to drink bad beer. "

[Veered Off Lane Tipsy.]

Van Of Leftist Trolls.
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[Last chance to recharge.]

There's a long, long trail a winding.
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[What a gas chamber.]

UAW merges with SElU.
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