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What is a Democrat or a Republican anyway?

evansorchid	Date: April 2, 2011 @ 7:02 AM Maybe Hilly can explain this one, because I'm at a complete lost for a reasonable explanation. The keyword being reasonable which has apparently fallen out of fashion with this latest batch of Republikan lawmakers. Anyway.... House Representative Republikan Louie Gohmert stated during remarks in the House chamber the other day that the reason U.S. troops are being sent to Libya was to create a diversion which would deplete the number of active military personnel and mobilize the reserve commissioned corps officers in such a manner as to activate the provision in the Health Care Law which would activate Obama's secret private army. For those of you unfamiliar with Obama's secret private army.....this is a provision in the Health Care Law that provides for a ready reserve of thousands of Health Care Professionals (nurses, doctors, emergency responders, etc.) that can be called up in the wake of an emergency like Hurricane Katrina or a 9/11 type terrorist attack......but the Republikans are convinced that this provision is a secret nefarious plot to subvert the ......I don't know....you name it......subvert the Constitution?.....undermine the will of the people?.....overthrow the government?....create a nanny state?.....I don't know.....name your Republican platitude and insert it here. So come on, Hilly.....please explain this to me.....and I might even getcha a new hat to replace that one that got a little charred.
evansorchid	Date: April 2, 2011 @ 7:45 AM ........and now, in our continuing story about executive bonuses and the hysterically manner that companies justify these payouts for non-performance or below....we bring you this story. Transocean Ltd., the company that brought us the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that left 11 people dead and created the worst accidental oil spill in world history........ Transocean filed papers with federal regulators on Friday informing them that they intend to pay top executives big bucks for their good safety year in 2010. The same year of the accident........so,..... this was their safe year? Don't you just love how these multibillion dollar companies operate? Gotta pay those executives top dollar bonuses to attract the best people, don't ya know......and if folks object, then they must be socialists.
zedsalt	Date: April 2, 2011 @ 8:25 AM On 2nd Apr 2012, evansorchid said: For those of you unfamiliar with Obama's secret private army... Technically, the way you described it, wouldn't it be a secret government army? No, wait, it'd be the secret army of a known branch of our known government. Well, in any case, it wouldn't be "secret", if very many of us knew about it, obviously. "Death panels", RFID chips, a secret army...just look at how far down the rabbit hole one has to go before finding anything terribly wrong with health care reform. It draws attention away from all the smaller REAL problems of the recent legislation, the overwhelming majority of which were authored/proposed by the same political party which is horrified by the possibility of substantial economic recovery during the Obama administration. On 2nd Apr 2012, evansorchid said: ]Transocean filed papers with federal regulators on Friday informing them that they intend to pay top executives big bucks for their good safety year in 2010. Just when I thought "unlimited greed" sufficiently described Big Oil, along comes something heart-rendering in how far beyond one negative trait it goes. Hell's Creatively Appropriate Punishments Department must be working round the clock in anticipation of these exec's arrival.
evansorchid	Date: April 2, 2011 @ 8:53 AM I'm so confused....what is happening to our GOP....our beloved Republikrats.....our neighborly Tea Party brethren? Why does it seem that everyone despises them......when all they're trying to do is balance our budgets and preserve the nation for our children and future generations.......such philanthropists they are......completely misunderstood fiscal saviors....right? Remember in 2010 when they all ran as Small-government, Leave-You-Alone, Fiscally Conservative, Anti-Obama candidates? How have they turned into these monsters? Why are they now treading down this destructive path of Authoritarian, Government-Knows-Best-What's-Good-For-You, Intrusive style of governance? What happened to Limited Government, Restrained Government, Small Government, Teeny, teeny, tiny, tiny Government? That's what the Republikans ran on back in 2010, isn't it? How can Florida Governor Scott Walker call himself a Republikan when he issued an executive order which calls for drug testing all public sector workers quarterly? I guess he never heard of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution which offers protection against illegal search and seizure and has been used in previous legal cases where States have attempted blanket invasive policies such as drug testing. That doesn't sound like the Small-Government, Leave-You-Alone kind of Republikan that ran back in 2010. Then there the new Republikan Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder. The dark force in strong in this one, Luke. This guy has created a Fiscal Emergency Panel that can go to any town in Michigan and pronounce a fiscal emergency, declare martial law and disintegrate and dissolve your town, null and void all contracts, terminate the positions of town leaders, and establish a czar to take control of the town government. Does this sound like the Small-Government, Leave-You-Alone kind of Republikan that we voted for in 2010? Then there's the various governors of the States of Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and probably a few more, who are stripping away the collective bargaining rights of public sector union workers. Did any of these folks when running as a candidate even mention this in their campaigns? I say that again......Did any of these gubernatorial candidates mention this when running in 2010? Could it be because it didn't jibe with the Small-Government, Leave-You-Alone, Nice-Guy-Neighbor image they were all trying to reflect in their campaigns? WTF is going on?......and where is the small government the American Electorate voted for?......and what's up with these Recall Petitions?
farfor44	Date: April 3, 2011 @ 12:55 PM The "secret" private army of enforcers exists not only to enforce the new health care/Insurance company reform LAWS,but an entity also exists to enact the new financial reform LAWS. The entity I allude to is SIGTARP,and they are Obama's "secret"police force armed with guns,and hand cuffs,and the power to enforce these new financial LAWS,and to make sure those(TBTF) banks who got Government bailouts pay back all of the TARP money w/interest;so these entities are not secretive at all,what is also not a secret is the Repulsivkans opposition to these taxpayer funded,consumer protection measures enacted by the Obama administration! What this demonstrates clearly is Republikan Un-Americanism..Since Republikans consider themselves above the LAW,and to big to fail I consider them anti-American!end of story!
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zedsalt	Date: April 4, 2011 @ 8:14 AM On 2nd Apr 2012, evansorchid said: This guy has created a Fiscal Emergency Panel that can go to any town in Michigan and pronounce a fiscal emergency, declare martial law and disintegrate and dissolve your town, null and void all contracts, terminate the positions of town leaders, and establish a czar to take control of the town government. Getting rid of local government is essential to converting a democracy into an oligarchy, but it isn't the first step. One important element of breaking down communities is beginning the process by breaking down the public schools. "Education reform", "helping failing schools", "giving equal access to quality education" have all become synonyms for packing Middle Class and Lower Class American students into large lecture halls, giving them nothing but memorization-and-regurgitation lessons, and letting the majority of them graduate having learned next to nothing, so long as they can mindlessly parrot the right answers on standardized tests. That creates the kind of populace that will happily swallow the idea that they aren't capable of banding together to protect their rights, the kind of populace who will happily except less for their tax dollars and pay more (so long as lip service is paid to lower taxes and the lack of return is constantly referred to as "savings"), the kind of populace who will look upon their representatives leaving the statehouse in order to avoid multiple disasters for the citizenry as something other than representation. People are simply smarter than that; you have to make them want to willfully ignore sociopolitical reality. You want them to settle for less where it regards education? You divert money from the public schools into the worst-performing charter programs. You want them to think they're their own worst enemy when they work together to ensure fair pay and safe working conditions? You have to demonize the unions. You want them to have no real access to their representatives in the most common responsibilities of government? Get rid of those levels of government which address the most common, day-to-day issues and are easiest to access. And if you want them to enthusiastically support all of this loss of their own personal liberties, keep pushing the message that it's your political opponents who are making the real power grab.
evansorchid	Date: April 5, 2011 @ 9:30 PM On 4th Apr 2012, zedsalt said: People are simply smarter than that Really? You give the electorate more alot more credit than I do....as I wholeheartedly agree with this quote from Winston Churchill (a conservative btw); "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." On 4th Apr 2012, zedsalt said: you have to make them want to willfully ignore sociopolitical reality. ....they already do......Conservatives are quite successful at this......time and time again facts are willfully disregarded and distortions are repeated often enough they are accepted by many as the truth because no one has the time or the resolve to research for themselves whether or not statements made by partisans on both sides have any validity....and because of the basic ignorance of your average voter, much of the baloney is swallows in a massive grotesque illustration of group-think. On 4th Apr 2012, zedsalt said: You want them to settle for less where it regards education? You divert money from the public schools into the worst-performing charter programs. There is a growing constituancy out there who basically think that Public Schools are the root of evil in our society. To avoid socializing their own children into these vile depraved wicked Public Schools, they are Home-Schooling their kids. They seriously believe that Public Schools are passing out condoms at the front door; indoctrinating kids into believing government is a force for good; preaching against the miasma of religious thought; are passive about drug use; and basically believe Public Schools invite catastrophe because we've taken God and/or prayer away from the kids substituting moral relativism, secularism and socialism. Therefore, this growing hostile constituancy doesn't give a rat's ass about teachers being laid off, about funding for public schools, or the need for public schools in general. As far as they are concerned, Public Schools should wither on a vine to eventually be replaced by....I don't know...privately funded theological seminaries?
zedsalt	Date: April 6, 2011 @ 7:54 AM I think the bulk of the damage being done by home-schooling does NOT regard traditional "book learning" (although the image of the average home-schooling parent in that regard is WAY overblown; most fall short in that arena). I think something much more important is suffering: the next generation's ability to comport themselves as a society. Many home-schooling parents are failing their children where it regards learning objective facts and figures, but that's NOTHING compared to an almost complete lack of socialization. There are parents ensuring their children interact daily in UNstructured ways with large groups of people their own age who do NOT necessarily share tastes, interests, etc., but I believe they're an awfully tiny subset. My niece sent me a link to an article, "Things I Would Tell my Fourteen-Year-Old Self", or words to that effect. It came from a humor magazine, but most of it was, seriously, true...especially the bit about how the most important things you'll ever learn in school, you learn on the playground and in the halls between classes.
zedsalt	Date: April 6, 2011 @ 7:57 AM I don't have a problem with the idea of a religion-based education being made available and affordable; it's the idea of taking funding AWAY from the public schools which strikes me as self-defeating, especially at a time in our history when effective, efficient public schools are so sorely needed.
evansorchid	Date: April 6, 2011 @ 4:52 PM I'm not suggesting that religion-based education doesn't have it's place or or shouldn't be an option or should be curtailed in any fashion. What I'm referring to is the overall overt hostility that Republikans and conservatives in general seem to display regarding public schools. This hostility toward anything considered governmental isn't limited to public schools, but it certainly rears its ugly head in the most blatant manner in the area of public education. I mean these are the same folks who arrive at Tea Party rallies with placards espousing such gems as "Keep government out of Public Schools" or "Keep the government out of MY Medicare"....seriously, how do you reason with people like this? And when these folks gain some bit of political power, whether they become members of School Boards, become Superintendents or what have you, it seems like they do everything in their power to de-fund, dismantle and destroy the systems that have been put into place simply because of this ideology that seems to presume that everything governmental is bad.
zedsalt	Date: April 7, 2011 @ 7:18 AM "The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."- P.J. O'Rourke It's more than a pithy observation; it's a rule proven by very few exceptions.
evansorchid	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 7:56 AM Whenever I hear a Republikan state something to the effect of..."Government should be run like a business".....I keep hearing it as a code for the creation of an oligarchy/plutocracy and the subversion of the mythical constitutional republic model that conservatives seem to idealize. Of course when I hear a Democrat state the same idea, I assume that they're talking about the creation of government policies that adopts innovation, rewards good ideas and seeks efficiencies......so.... ....It's kinda funny that the same sentence (Government should be run like a business.) evokes two totally different dichotomous reactions depending upon who is speaking it.
farfor44	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 8:09 PM I've been watching congressional proceedings,and it's like the circus has come to capitol hill since the Republican tea baggers took the majority; most of them winning by narrow margins like 100 or 200 votes,and if recounts were taken most would have lost,but recounts are expensive and many candidates just can't afford the cost of challenging a corporate financed Republikan.. Many elections have been stolen by Republicans,even presidential elections; 2000 being a prime example,and one Republican became vice President,and President without being elected to either position.. Anyone care to guess who that was?? The entire nation is watching the Wisconsin supreme court justice election,where the Democrat Joanne Kloppenburg declared victory,but at the last minute mysteriously 7,000 votes were found for the Republican incumbent David Prosser,because Scott Walker needs Prosser for the 5/4 Republican majority in the Wisconsin Supreme Court to push his radical agenda! Wisconsinites know what hangs in the balance with this election,and they are starting a movement to recall one of congresses biggest clowns Paul Ryan (R)Wisconsin... For those who've ever wondered what would happen if the patients were put in charge of the insane asylum,just watch one days proceedings of Congress,and see it for yourself!
Distilled1	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 8:20 PM stolen elections my ass not a one ... don't believe in the democratic system ? move to Cuba and start a pizza place and pay 80% tax on your profit! that is what makes those votes appear the system that is for us all! and if you feel so strongly , like the tea party get out and voice it because honestly it dont do crap in here not a whip ,, this is about what 50 of us ? no change .. stand up and get out and complain fight the power man .. if its fake votes find it and fight it !!! ..
Distilled1	Date: April 10, 2011 @ 8:30 PM look I am a 100% socially liberal and 100% fiscal Conservative but the vote is the vote ..what are you saying? it was chads again? because that whole fiasco is if you can't do it right than you shouldn't do it at all
zedsalt	Date: April 11, 2011 @ 8:10 AM On 10th Apr 2012, evansorchid said: Whenever I hear a Republikan state something to the effect of..."Government should be run like a business"..... I have to admit that I haven't noticed a partisan split in this arena. I mean, "adopts innovation, rewards good ideas and seeks efficiencies" is a very Liberal-sounding business model, but "Government should be run like a business" has pretty much always translated into "Let us bow before our corporate overlords", regardless of political party, as far as I can tell. On 10th Apr 2012, farfor44 said: ...and one Republican became vice President,and President without being elected to either position.. Anyone care to guess who that was?? Ooh! Ooh! I know this one! Unfortunately, I'm sure I've said something about how I thought he ended up being a pretty good President for the times, so I can't, in good conscience, get real indignant about it in the same forum thread. On 10th Apr 2012, Distilled1 said: stolen elections my ass not a one That kind of depends upon whether you consider "stolen" losing the popular vote but becoming President (four occasions), failing to get a majority but becoming President (eighteen occasions), or you believe urban areas are unfairly over-represented in the popular vote. On 10th Apr 2012, Distilled1 said: move to Cuba and start a pizza place and pay 80% tax on your profit! Actually, comparing tax rates in Cuba and the US is a better indicator of simple vs. complex than it is Communist vs Capitalist. "Simplified tax code" means "you're going to pay more, unless you're filthy stinking rich", as in Cuba's simple 30% for any business, compared to the US's up to 47%, depending upon a myriad of factors. Funny you should pick the corporate world's pets in American politics as an example of speaking out for oneself. "Funny strange" and "funny ha-ha". On 10th Apr 2012, Distilled1 said: because that whole fiasco is if you can't do it right than you shouldn't do it at all Would Floridians' votes count again yet, or do you think they should've been penalized longer?
evansorchid	Date: April 11, 2011 @ 3:44 PM ...I'm starting to view American politics more and more as some kind of twisted version of existentialism that seems to take the notion of concrete existence and smashes it against the absurd confidence of passionate alienation.... ....nobody is willing to listen to one another.......insanity is the new normal... ....the more I care about it, the worse it becomes and the less I care about it, the better it seems.
sunshine	Date: April 12, 2011 @ 4:06 PM you use big words. why hasn't gene hilbert come in here and riled all your feathers up lately? must be busy. that or he got bored.
evansorchid	Date: April 12, 2011 @ 6:13 PM You haven't been following the conversion....uh... .....sorry to have to tell you this, but Zed blew him up.
Israfel	Date: April 12, 2011 @ 9:01 PM On 10th Apr 2012, Distilled1 said: look I am a 100% socially liberal and 100% fiscal Conservative but the vote is the vote ..what are you saying? it was chads again? because that whole fiasco is if you can't do it right than you shouldn't do it at all Exactly, Rich, that's exactly the point. A Republican suddenly remember that she "forgot to hit save" which results in 7000 MORE votes for Prosser after the election is over...not fishy? Even though this is the SECOND time in her career this has happened? I'm with ya, Rich, if you can't do it right then don't do it! She can't do it right. Politics in Wisconsin these days is as exciting as it is ridiculous at times. While Walker is tromping on the middle classes in the name of a balanced budget, eating away at MA for the poorest of the poor and now setting his sights on Medicare (look out granny here he comes!) - people are fed up and a movement is happening. THAT, my friends, is what Democracy is all about. People are pissed and not going to take it. Prosser may win because of a conveniently forgetful friend but there are recalls coming in droves on both sides. So stay tuned, peeps! This is gonna be a bumpy ride!
sunshine	Date: April 13, 2011 @ 4:49 AM on this bumpy ride, i hope the new reps in the midwest get booted out of the car. Kaish (sp) and Snyder being the first to go. there is no safe haven of democracy in the midwest right now...people should be ticked and not taking it.
evansorchid	Date: April 13, 2011 @ 7:38 AM On 13th Apr 2012, sunshine said: there is no safe haven of democracy in the midwest right now... You're right....I'm not sure where it's safe in the Midwest right now. Ohio has John "police officers are idiots" Kasich who is sitting at a 30 something approval rating because of his Union busting bill. Indiana has Mitch Daniels who tried and apparently failed at his union busting measures......besides he was Bush Jr's Office of Budget and Management Director....so I'm holding him at least partially responsible for the crash of 2008. Michigan has Rick Snyder who is trying to take over small townships across the state with his Fiscal Emergency Panel. Wisconsin has Scott Walker....need I say more about Wisconsin? Minnesota has Tim Pawlenty who is apparently running for the GOP nomination for President, so you can't really trust what comes out of his mouth. Actually Tim's not too bad for a Republikan. He's criticized a number of other Republikans like Palin and Romney, but Minnesota is just too damn cold.....so no. Illinois has the only Democrat in the Midwest, but Pat Quinn trying hard to be good after the Blagojevish disaster. Iowa, North and South Dakota have republicans, but they seem to be practical conservatives who don't want to stir up the masses. So, if you're looking to move away from the radical Republican agenda and stay in the Midwest, I'd go for Des Moines......simply because Iowa typically votes for the Democratic Presidential Candidate more often than not.
zedsalt	Date: April 13, 2011 @ 8:09 AM On 12th Apr 2012, evansorchid said: You haven't been following the conversion....uh... .....sorry to have to tell you this, but Zed blew him up. I hope you meant “following the conversation”, because no one has converted Hilly (and, personally, I say thank God for that). I certainly didn’t blow him up; I just had a bit of fun with one of his pics and one of a volcanic vent. Hmm...let’s see...Pawlenty and Daniels’ names have both been bandied about as potential presidential candidates...Walker, Kasich, Snyder...dang, that’s three. Not the right number for two failed presidential campaigns and, with any luck, getting a handful of people who have no business in politics back to the world of big business, letting them get back to screwing up that world, rather than screwing up the world.
zedsalt	Date: April 13, 2011 @ 8:10 AM I got a look at the new proposed Indiana voting districts the night before last, and I have to admit that it looks much tidier on a map, much closer to boxes than “gerrymanders”. It turns out that’s what you get when you run the boundaries right down the middle of most of the communities involved. With the Republican majority in every branch of the state government, it looks like most Indiana cities and towns are going to split in half at the polls.
evansorchid	Date: April 17, 2011 @ 7:56 AM Conversion......HA! I wonder if that wasn't a bit Freudian. ....and yea, I did "mean" to say conversation. I can't exactly picture Hilly "converting".....He's become a bit of a caricature of the hostility that seem to be expressed by the conservatives......I mean, Christ, Republikan accuse the Democrats of forcing all these big government ideas down the throats of your average Joe......but the proposals and the actual actions that are being taken my Republikans across the country are truly some of the most arrogant, imperious, autocratic and utterly intimidating policy reversals that I've ever seen in my life time anyway.....and I have no doubt that the Republikans will be stripped of their newly garnered powers come November 2012.
zedsalt	Date: April 17, 2011 @ 8:15 AM I wish I shared your faith. I keep thinking about bizarre tragedies like the Reagan re-election landslide and the recent midterms, and it becomes difficult to expect folks to NOT accept things that people like Paul Ryan are saying at face value. That political rhetoric is a lot like the blobs of flavoring in those science-inspired mixed drinks: you penetrate the surface AT ALL, and it all falls apart. Still, people have to be willing to think for themselves, or we end up with people like Ryan making policy.
evansorchid	Date: April 17, 2011 @ 12:46 PM On 17th Apr 2012, zedsalt said: I wish I shared your faith. Yeah, your probably right. I wish I shared my faith too. If you scroll up a bit in this forum, you can see where I railed against the typical uninformed American voter with that damn Churchill quote......so who the hell knows what's going to happen? I guess I just believe that maybe the Dems have enough ammunition with the crap that the GOP has been pulling lately that the John Q. Public or Joe Sixpack will finally begin to see the light. I think we might finally have Sunshine convinced.....hehe. I'll wager that she's not voting for any Republikans in 2012.
sunshine	Date: April 17, 2011 @ 3:46 PM possibly. or i may just torture them with chicken feathers left in son of moams wake until they reveal all hidden agendas. i am absolutely sick of politics. or is it politicians. either or.
evansorchid	Date: April 25, 2011 @ 6:38 AM Is anyone paying attention to Michigan? Well it seems that Governor Rick Snyder's Fiscal Emergency Law has sunk it's fangs into its first victim. This is the Law that was enacted by Michigan last year that gives the governor the power to go into any city or town or municipality, declare the place a financial mess, and fire the mayor, the city council, the local authorities, annul any city contracts, and basically take over all local governance by appointing a financial overseer to make all decisions for the town. Benton Harbor, Michigan is now under the control of the new Fiscal Emergency Law....and already the Republican Foxes are chomping at the bit at their new powers. Already the new financial overseer has made the decision to close schools in the city....and despite protests from the local citizens, there is really nothing they can do because the Fiscal Emergency Representative isn't accountable to the local citizens....only to the State. And already....a certain beachfront park that was deeded to the city 100 years ago has been confiscated by corporate interests and they are turning this city park into a country club with an 18 hole golf course....all because the city council has been annulled....and there aren't folks on the city council with any say-so or local interest or concern to keep the beachfront park out of the hands of the real estate developers. Does this sound like the representative government that our country was founded upon? How can the State government dissolve local city governments like this? This is really really intrusive, authoritarian, sit-down-and-shut-up, your-local-elections-don't-matter, BIG Government.....brought to us by who? REPUBLIKAN Governor Rick Snyder.
zedsalt	Date: April 25, 2011 @ 8:00 AM That was part of Snyder's platform in his successful gubernatorial campaign. Representative government was presented as an unacceptable expense, and a majority of Michiganders expressed their agreement at the polls. Doing away with all municipal AND county government...save for 92 powerful, inaccessible county czars...is one of the "austerity measures" proposed by Snyder's peer (in so many ways) to the south, Indiana governor, Mitch Daniels. It's all over the mass media: promoting giving the public NOTHING for our tax dollars makes a politician "sound very presidential".
evansorchid	Date: April 25, 2011 @ 1:44 PM While I certainly don't follow Michigan State politics...(hell, the politics down here in Texas is depressing enough with everyone complaining about all sorts of stupid stuff, but they still vote the same rascally Republicans into office year after year....Dallas and Austin have become nice little Democratic enclaves, but I digress)....I just find it hard to believe that Snyder's platform specifically mentioned the means as to how his austerity measures were to be implemented. Seriously....Snyder specifically stated during his campaign that he would.....what?....press the State Legislature for the power to implement this Emergency Financial legislation, then...... what?....go down the list of Michigan municipalities....city by city.....and if there were financial budgetary problems that popped out...........then he would appoint some Financial Emergency guru to make the hard fiscal decisions like closing schools and firing teachers, stripping the mayors and city councils of their powers, and dismantling city contracts, et al......and then what?.....put in their place sound and responsible fiscal advisers to fix everything? Is it just me or doesn't this sound just a bit fascist? A system set up like this is just screaming to be abused. I mean, seriously........Is this where the country is headed?
zedsalt	Date: April 26, 2011 @ 7:51 AM Oh, I think a system like that is abuse, don't you? It's certainly closer to the dictionary definition than Snyder's campaign rhetoric was to the eventualities it presented, the predictable consequences of those political acts. But, yeah, Spike, it's obvious that you speak the language. For some time now, though, simple equations like: when he says "improving education", he means "closing schools and firing teachers"...simple logical conclusions like that have, by all appearances, been beyond roughly 60% of the population. "Beyond" really isn't the best way I could have put that, because I honestly believe it's not that we're somehow not as intelligent as we used to be, collectively, but because intelligence itself has been effectively demonized to the point where simple ideals which were formed empirically (the notion that 15:1 is an ideal student to teacher ratio, for example) are openly mocked. Forcing schools with fewer than five-hundred students to consolidate because "our state just can't afford them right now" is a lot like saying that getting to one's place of employment is an unacceptable household expense. Consolidation for the sake of consolidation is every bit as ridiculous, but there isn't an army of politicians and mass media pounding us with the idea that those among us with jobs should stop showing up to work. And I don't expect to see "Megacorporations rule; resistance is futile!" signs at a teabagger rally, or "What's best for foreign business consortiums is what's best for the U.S." used as a campaign slogan, should Mitch Daniels run for President. Not while obfuscation and other forms of deception are winning the day.
ShadowMom	Date: April 26, 2011 @ 8:20 AM The Tea Party is dying. Reports of crowd sizes on tax day were minimal, a huge rally in Tampa only drew a couple of hundred. Lovely empty banquet halls! The only report of a fair sized group was because Trump showed up, and I suspect that's because they really wanted to see his hair close up. Too bad they managed to elect so many tools to Congress first. Just another case of being careful what you wish for. "Don't touch my social security!" morphed into "Whoa! Hey! What's this voucher thing all about?" Since one of the assholes runs MY state now, he's getting booed on a regular basis, I believe eventually the state legislators will have to go into hiding in a bunker somewhere; and one day, people will understand that bumper-sticker politics leave a LOT of room for abuse. Snyder is a real piece of work, let's hope the good people of the midwest are watching the polls and the recalls in Wisconsin.
zedsalt	Date: April 27, 2011 @ 8:05 AM In Indiana, they're using a couple different tactics to dismantle public education, and both involve misdirecting funds. Schools with a reasonable student-to-teacher ratio stand to have a third of their state funding poured into the lecture-hall style elementaries and high schools, and a substantial portion of the general education funds, under a new proposal, would be taken out in order to pay for private school vouchers. I would agree that the charter schools in our state need help; in the most recent figures I’ve seen regarding school performance in Indiana, the bottom eight were all charters.
ShadowMom	Date: April 29, 2011 @ 10:24 AM The attack on public education, to my way of thinking, is the single worst thing the right has undertaken so far. It's our future, and to put it into private hands begs for abuse of the worst sort. Education has always been the great equalizer. Now it will be the great divider. The Sunshine State-- last I heard, we still had 11% unemployment. So what does the state legislature argue about? CRY about? Bills making abortion more restrictive. One Democrat who voted with Republicans caused quite a stir. From the Miami Herald: Rep. Scott Randolph, a Democrat from Orlando who has been one of the most vocal opponents of the GOP abortion bills, was so upset with Campbell for siding with Republicans that he told her he’d get an opponent to unseat her in two years. Campbell’s retort: “You have no right. God put me here.” Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/27/2189049/abortion-limits-stir-conflict.html#ixzz1KvxS2UZX I expect to see her stand up against war and the death penalty ANY MINUTE NOW....
zedsalt	Date: April 30, 2011 @ 8:12 AM There can be no question- widening the divide between educated and uneducated doesn't just widen the divide between haves and have-nots. It widens the divide between long, happy lives and short, tragic ones. It widens the divide between security and insecurity, not just for those scrabbling to survive, but for the well-off who invariably get violated, hurt, even killed when the community around them gets desperate enough. People who want to prevent their wealth from serving the society they live in would do well to study times and places of serfdom and indentured servitude throughout history. Very few such systems were ever brought down by invasion; their destruction came, with VERY few notable exceptions, from the exploited people within them.
zedsalt	Date: April 30, 2011 @ 8:12 AM Indiana, my home state, is said to be "leading the way" in a couple key areas of NeoConservative concern: keeping people sick and keeping people ignorant. There's an abortion bill on the Governor's desk with some very practical provisions no one is really disputing. But efforts to separate those provisions from defunding Planned Parenthood have failed. Estimates of how many tax dollars Indiana saves for every dollar it invest in Planned Parenthood vary, but no one puts the figure at less than $3.00 saved for every dollar spent. And IRONCLAD LEGAL PROHIBITIONS OF A SINGLE PENNY OF TAXPAYER MONEY EVER GOING TO A SINGLE ABORTION THROUGH PLANNED PARENTHOOD are being wholly ignored, not by the organization, but by the press and the politicians spreading the lie that public funding of Planned Parenthood pays for abortions. People keep talking about the 3% of their budget Planned Parenthood uses for abortions and abortion counseling (ironically, counseling of the sort the bill seeks to make mandatory), while glossing over the fact that Planned Parenthood has always operated under uncircumventable guidelines for proving beyond all doubt that that 3% comes from private contributions and co-pays. And token amounts of money are being added to the education budget, while a substantial amount is being ripped from it to fund a voucher system to get young people into poorly-performing slave wage machine schools, the kind of education factories which educate students jjjjjuuuuussssstttt enough to make them capable of working in literal factories. The NeoCons would do well to remember that there is no such thing as a serf society too stupid to realize they're being mistreated, nor too sickly to do something about it. There IS such a thing as getting so far away from our nation's founding principles that the People feel compelled to TAKE our liberties BACK. The teabagger's sick parody of those principles has failed to change that.
evansorchid	Date: April 30, 2011 @ 2:41 PM Wasn't Mitch Daniels the one Republikan who stated something about how the Tea Party should stick to fiscal issues and not get caught up in divisive social issues like abortion, gays, guns, etc......? It'll be interesting to see if he signs that.
zedsalt	Date: May 1, 2011 @ 7:47 AM I don't think public funding of abortion is a particularly contentious issue. Stick with me, here- legal abortion is fraught with controversy, no question, but even among the people who think a woman should not be forced to carry an unwanted child to term, you won't find very many who think that people who oppose it should be forced to pay for it. Anyone with half a brain understands the practical implications, namely, that a lack of public funding makes not being forced to carry an unwanted child to term a privilege of wealth, but even so, "pro choice" means...well...pro choice, personal liberty, not allowing the government to force the citizenry to do anything, and that includes not forcing some to pay for others' abortions. When it comes to more general economic policy, though, Daniels has a much harder row to hoe. "The Great Recession- brought to you by Mitch Daniels!" doesn't make for much of a campaign slogan. Every time he speaks about healthcare, how can he avoid people thinking of his infamous claim that human life can, indeed, be assigned a dollar value ("We have the figures on that!")? When it comes to the welfare of the People, how can he avoid people recalling the catastrophic results of handing Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration over to IBM? Daniels’ party are touting economic policy as his greatest strength, while his record shows him to be to fiscal policy what Douglas Corrigan is to navigation.
zedsalt	Date: May 1, 2011 @ 7:47 AM Here in Happy Hoosierland, Daniels is getting another shot at making privatization work. Leasing out the Indiana Toll Road to a foreign consortium for seventy-five years was opposed by eighty-some percent of the population, and the damage to the state’s economy was predictably horrifying and immediate. If he hasn’t already, Daniels is about to sign a law that gives him the absolute power and discretion in creating new toll roads. His plan? Privatization in its purest form has proven tragic, so we’re about to get a “hybrid” public/private system. The odds of it being good for anyone but the corporations involved are infinitesimally slim, but, hey, people re-elected him after the condition of our thoroughfares got rapidly worse under “Major Moves” (the improvements which were supposedly going to be made, paid for by the toll road lease one-time payment). It shouldn’t take long at all before the only navigable roads in our state are toll roads.
ShadowMom	Date: May 1, 2011 @ 9:41 AM I have to admit, the Republicans are definitely laser-focused... regardless of polls, townhall meetings, and public condemnation they DO stick to their guns. I think it's kind of funny how quickly they're trying to get all this stuff passed-- the theory seems to be that it's harder to undo the damage once it's done.
zedsalt	Date: May 2, 2011 @ 7:35 AM If I may add, they appear unaware that obviously good policy is much more difficult to reverse than obviously bad.
ShadowMom	Date: May 3, 2011 @ 10:23 AM Just a little OT... have you seen this? First pic Amazing!
zedsalt	Date: May 3, 2011 @ 9:22 PM I can't blame you; I did use the phrase, "obviously bad (policy)". Yeah, I saw that one in Time magazine. Pretty good casting!
farfor44	Date: May 10, 2011 @ 8:39 PM
TameasDust	Date: May 15, 2011 @ 5:40 AM Gee I might have to learn to read
evansorchid	Date: May 15, 2011 @ 6:43 AM That's not enough. You have to learn to think as well.
hantu	Date: May 15, 2011 @ 7:07 AM I often think about reading :/
TameasDust	Date: May 18, 2011 @ 3:18 PM Think? Im Canadian we elect people so we dont have to think
ShadowMom	Date: May 26, 2011 @ 9:52 PM Rick Scott's approval rating is down to 29% today... I want to know who that 29% percent are, but I'm betting on CEOs and businesspeople who are drooling over the cuts in education, public service employees, and the funding to save Florida land from developers. We are so screwed..... old people, young people, disadvantage youth, paralysis projects, and vets-- you are all expendable now. Even Walker has a higher approval rating.
ShadowMom	Date: May 26, 2011 @ 9:55 PM This is what happens... all the people who have put years into jobs are scrambling to get out. From police officers to water and wastewater treatment employees, to teachers and on and on. There is a massive rush to get out before Scott and his Republican stooges cut more, demand more, gut more programs. Excellent! What happens here happens to Jeb Bush, too. One small silver lining.
evansorchid	Date: May 27, 2011 @ 4:27 AM Hmmmm.....I'm planning on visiting Florida next week. Are you saying that I might run into issues flushing the toilet and flagging down a police officer when I'm mugged by a Medicare recipient? I'm sticking to the bottled water.....I might be able to use the container to beat off grandma.
sunshine	Date: May 27, 2011 @ 7:21 AM the midwest has never seen such shenanigans as now. it is terrible! snyder and kaish are evil i tell you. evil.
evansorchid	Date: May 28, 2011 @ 11:19 AM Snyder and Kasich aren't evil. They're Republikans. It's just like the classic parable about the frog who gives a scorpion a ride on its back to cross the lake. The scorpion stings the frog and they both die.....only in this case the scorpion is insisting that we trust his instinct to kill the "free ride" that everyone is getting on the government dole, because if we only our society would just have a stronger faith in God....then why would we even need government in the first place. Don't place your faith in Medicare.....trust God. Snyder and Kasich aren't evil. They are Republikans.
TameasDust	Date: September 23, 2011 @ 4:15 AM so now it is the TEA party and the NON Tea Party ..
evansorchid	Date: September 24, 2011 @ 1:18 PM

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