COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Barack Hussein Obama feeding the Flames in Wisconsin



February 22, 2011
Obama Fights Taxpayer, Backs Union Allies
By Pat Buchanan

As a large and furious demonstration was under way outside and inside the Capitol in Madison last week, Barack Obama invited in a TV camera crew from Milwaukee and proceeded to fan the flames.
Dropping the mask of The Great Compromiser, Obama reverted to his role as South Chicago community organizer, charging Gov. Scott Walker and the Wisconsin legislature with an "assault on unions."
As the late Saul Alinsky admonished in his "Rules for Radicals," "the community organizer ... must first rub raw the resentments of the people; fan the latent hostilities to the point of overt expression."
After Obama goaded the demonstrators, the protests swelled. All 14 Democratic state senators fled to Illinois to paralyze the upper chamber by denying it a quorum. Teachers went on strike, left kids in the classroom and came to Madison. Schools shut down.
Jesse Jackson arrived. The White House political machine went into overdrive to sustain the crowds in Madison and other capitals and use street pressure to break governments seeking to peel back the pay, perks, privileges and power of public employee unions that are the taxpayer-subsidized armies of the Democratic Party.
Marin County millionairess Nancy Pelosi, doing a poor imitation of Emma Goldman, announced, "I stand in solidarity with the Wisconsin workers fighting for their rights, especially for all the students and young people leading the charge."
Is this not the same lady who called Tea Partiers "un-American" for "drowning out opposing views"? Is not drowning out opposing views exactly what those scores of thousands are doing in Madison, banging drums inside the state Capitol?
Some carried signs comparing Walker to Hitler, Mussolini and Mubarak. One had a placard with the face of Walker in the cross hairs of a rifle sight. Major media seemed uninterested. These signs didn't comport with their script.
In related street action, protesters, outraged over Congress' oversight of the D.C. budget, showed up at John Boehner's residence on Capitol Hill to abuse the speaker at his home.
And so the great battle of this generation is engaged.
Between now and 2013, the states are facing a total budget shortfall of $175 billion. To solve it, they are taking separate paths.
Illinois voted to raise taxes by two-thirds and borrow $12 billion more, $8.5 billion of it to pay overdue bills. The Republican minority fought this approach, but was outvoted and accepted defeat.
Wisconsin, however, where Republicans captured both houses and the governor's office in November, and which is facing a deficit of $3.6 billion over the next two years, has chosen to cut spending.
Walker and the legislature want to require state employees, except police, firemen and troopers, to contribute half of their future pension benefits and up to 12.6 percent of health care premiums.
Wisconsin state workers and teachers enjoy the most generous benefits of state employees anywhere in America. According to the MacIver Institute, the average teacher in the Milwaukee public schools earns $100,000 a year -- $56,000 in pay, $44,000 in benefits -- and enjoys job security.
More controversially, Walker would end collective bargaining for benefits while retaining it for salaries and wage hikes up to annual inflation. This would ease the burden on local governments and school districts faced with the same budget crisis but less able to stand up to large and powerful government unions.
Other new governors like John Kasich of Ohio are looking at the Wisconsin approach to save their states from bankruptcy. They, too, are now facing massive street protests instigated by Obama and orchestrated by his agents operating out of the DNC.
The Battle of Madison, where Obama, Pelosi, the AFL-CIO, Jackson, the teachers unions and the Alinskyite left are refusing to accept the results of the 2010 election and taking to the streets to break state governments, is shaping up as the first engagement in the Battle for America. What will be decided?
Can the states, with new governments elected by the people, roll back government to prevent a default? Or will the states be forced by street protests, work stoppages by legislators, and strikes by state employees and teachers to betray the people who elected them? Will they be forced to raise taxes ad infinitum to feed the government's insatiable appetite for tax dollars?
In short, does democracy work anymore in America?
What Obama has done will come back to haunt him. He has encouraged if not incited an angry and alienated left that lost the country in a free election to overturn the results of that election by street protests and invasions of state capitols.
As the huge antiwar demonstrations in the 1960s broke the presidency of Lyndon Johnson and sought to break the presidency of Richard Nixon, Obama and his cohorts are out to break Wisconsin.
One hopes the people of Wisconsin will stand up to this extortion being carried on with the blessing of their own president.

61 comments:

  1. Why Elections Matter

    Judge Gladys Kessler of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia became the third appointee of President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, to reject a constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Two other federal district judges, both appointed by Republican presidents, have struck down the law’s keystone provision, which requires most Americans to obtain health insurance starting in 2014.
    ________________________

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  2. According to Paul Krugman, Gov. Walker is hell-bent on turning America into a “third world oligarchy” under the pretense of fiscal retrenchment:

    What’s happening in Wisconsin isn’t about the state budget, despite Mr. Walker’s pretense that he’s just trying to be fiscally responsible. It is, instead, about power. What Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to do is to make Wisconsin — and eventually, America — less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy. And that’s why anyone who believes that we need some counterweight to the political power of big money should be on the demonstrators’ side… On paper, we’re a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we’re more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate.

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  3. mmm, mmm, mmm. >>>>>>They sure do.

    Obama has been busy worrying about screwing American taxpayers over in favor of his union thugs and goons that spent hundred of millions of taxpayer dollars to get him "elected." The man is a frigging vile disaster. How can ANYONE support this scumbag? He can't get out soon enough. He makes me sick.
    >>>>>mmm, mmm, mmm.

    On Krudman:

    He is an arrogant, entitled intellectual who thinks that people like him should be in charge of things and should be allowed to tell everyone else how to live. The wealth and power of companies is contingent on them giving people what they need, thus allowing the population to determine the course of society. Krudman's position is therefore dogmatic and illiberal, while that of his opponents is fair and liberal (in the true sense of the word).

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  4. As I say, Mr. Jones’ work history is a leftist dream of acronyms, unconnected nouns, “campaigns” and “networks”. In his mere and short 42 years upon this mortal coil, Mr. Jones has started, worked for, been involved with, or directed the following programs, movements, NGO’s, or car-wash-’n-cookie-drives:

    Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), Bay Area PoliceWatch, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Books Not Bars Campaign, Color Of Change, Green For All, The Dream Reborn, 1Sky, We Campaign, Green Jobs Now, Clean Energy Corps Working Group, Green Collar Cities Program, Green For All Capital Access Program, Apollo Alliance, Social Venture Network, Rainforest Action Network, Bioneers, PowerShift, One Nation Working Together, and the Julia Butterfly Hill Circle of Life Campaign.

    ...

    Worse still, the man has never rubbed elbows with anyone that’s every hung a sheet of drywall, poured concrete over rebar in a footing trench, wire-welded a boat frame, ground a set of rotors, or done a grocery-store re-set. And America senses this, and that’s why they are FURIOUS with the Madison Mob that he hopes to appropriate and infect the rest of America with.


    Mr. Jones

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  5. ‘‘Today’s situation is reminiscent of the 1970s,’’ said Anthony Michael Sabino, a professor at St John’s University’s college of business. ‘‘The price of oil will now jump in direct relation to one of its oldest barometers - political tension in the Middle East.’’

    ‘‘Expect nothing but a roller coaster ride for a few weeks, if not months.’’

    In other Nymex trading in March contracts, heating oil rose 0.4 cent to $US2.80 a gallon and gasoline gained 2.5 cents to $US2.63 a gallon. Natural gas futures were up 2.5 cents at $US3.89 per 1000 cubic feet.


    Teetering On Edge

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  6. Was it not just a thread or three back that "Taking it to the Streets" was encouraged?

    So, when the politically active do, "Take it to the Streets", it is called "Feeding the Flames", by those that had just recently encouraged such political behavior.

    What a difference perspective makes, one fella "democratic action" is the others' “third world oligarchy”.

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  7. Was it not just a thread or three back that "Taking it to the Streets" was encouraged?

    So, when the politically active do, "Take it to the Streets", it is called "Feeding the Flames", by those that had just recently encouraged such political behavior.

    ________________

    You can't tell the difference bewteen a Greek style government union thug-fest against taxpayers and street demonstrations by taxpayers with real jobs that have had enough of government stealing their property?

    The air must really be different on the trails in Arizona from the paths of Pennsylvania.

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  8. I can certainly tell the difference between a freedom loving democrat and a membership drive by the Muslim Brotherhood.

    The people that "Took it to the Streets" in Egypt were not democrats, they were not "taxpayers", they were looters.

    Wanting greater benefits and subsidies from their government, not less.

    Like senior citizens in the US that decry Federals taking control of the private health care system but will not abide their own Medicare Program benefits being cut.

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  9. I can see the socialism of the Federal Government in the management of the Federal lands of the Western United States.

    Management that almost every poster here at the EB has endorsed, as a "good" thing.

    Denying the benefits of private property to the citizens of the country, through collective ownership of vast swaths of the land.

    If collective ownership of the land in the American West is reasonable and right, then so is Federal management of other aspects of the economy, in PA and WI.

    Fair is fair.

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  10. The air, here, is clean and pure.

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  11. Allowing us to see things, with clarity.

    The views of the forests, not obscured by the trees.

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  12. I had to look at the post to make sure it was still about Wisconsin. It still is.

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  13. Political actioneers, "Taking it to the Streets".

    That is the underlying theme, of the threads, over the past month.

    We saw it in Egypt, Libya and, now, Wisconsin.

    That our host endorsed this type of activity, for US, endearing.

    That when it arrived, he finds it objectionable that US politicians are "taking sides", amusing.

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  14. The question for the future to answer:
    How will the voters of WI reward the desertion of the Democratic Legislators, in the next election?

    Will the Republicans win enough seats to operate the WI legislature without the Democrats there, to create a quorum?

    Or will the People Power in the Streets prevail, allowing the Democrats to continue the gridlock?

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  15. My take, at the moment, is that gridlock prevails in the realm of Swedish migrants in the US.

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  16. I'm currently snowboarding in Utah so I haven't had much time to keep up with this stuff but this whole talk of ending their right to collectively bargain sounds, ummm, pretty darn UNDEMOCRATIC.

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  17. Collective bargaining is for anyone who cannot think for themselves, or negotiate on their own behalf.

    I find it ironic that we have teachers TEACHERS! in this country who think they need a union to do their collective bargaining for them.

    Pelosi and Jackson taking sides on this means I am automatically on the other side.

    Unions are a cancer. The Wisc. governor is trying to find a cure. Bravo to him.

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  18. .

    Once again rat you draw broad conclusions painted in black and white. If you believe what you write you display a painful lack of nuance.

    Every situation is different whether it is Egypt, Libya, or Wisconsin. Public service unions haven't been around since the 'battle of the overpass'. They are relatively new. In the 70's, Democratic majorities in the Midwest started giving them bargaining 'rights'. But what state governments can give they can also take away.

    It's a matter of money and power. Right or wrong? Well, we can get into issues of critical services, lack of competition, etc. But your view on the subject will come down to whether it is you or the other guy whose ox is being gored.

    .

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  19. Collectively bargaining with whom? The same people that make massive political donations to and get their members to vote for?

    Let the govt unions bargain with the taxpayers. The politicians have a complete conflict of interest.

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  20. .

    At a time when Nevada is suffering huge deficits and unemployment, Harry Reid suggests that prostitution needs to be outlawed there.

    Priorities.
    Priorities.
    Priorities.

    .

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  21. Quirk said...

    " Once again rat you draw broad conclusions painted in black and white. If you believe what you write you display a painful lack of nuance.

    Every situation is different whether it is Egypt, Libya, or Wisconsin.
    "

    ---

    Wrong.

    Every situation is the same in the clean pure air of moral equivalence, where

    BHO = Ron Reagan

    ...as long as that "fact" serves the argument of the enlightened
    vs
    the Armies of the Strawmen.

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  22. I'm going to leave this one up to the Voters of Wisconsin.

    I live, vote, and pay taxes in Ms.

    I'm busy watching the train wreck called "the mideast."

    Buy a flexfuel.

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  23. Harry Reid has set up
    FOUR DAYS
    to take care of all the business that has not been addressed in the last year.

    To "prove" that the GOP just wants to
    "shut down the government."

    In the "minds" of those who sell their wares in black and white World.

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  24. Not the moral equivalent, doug, but a governmental equivalent.

    Growth in government, during Mr Reagan's tenure, 22%.
    Mr Obama, he'll be there, too.

    The trends continue, regardless of the "Face of the Day".

    Revolution in Egypt brings about a return to military rule, soon to given a new "democratic" face lift.

    But the Egyptian military still will rule that country. As they have for Mr Mubarak's entire tenure.

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  25. No living human being can possibly know what will happen in the mideast. But, I will say this: Pray that Algeria, or, God help us all, Saudi Arabia doesn't start burning.

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  26. I guess Saudi Arabia is going to bring all that "Spare Capacity" online any day now, huh?

    Overlooking, of course, that they were claiming 3 Million barrels/day Spare Capacity in July, 2008 when $147.00 bbl oil drove the world into the deepest recession since the 30's.

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  27. .

    I guess Saudi Arabia is going to bring all that "Spare Capacity" online any day now, huh?

    The test will be if there are oil shutdowns in say Libya or Algeria.

    The Saudis have said they will bring the reserves on line to offset prodction shutdowns in other countries, not to relieve speculative pressure.

    .

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  28. 600,000 bbl/day are Offline in Libya as we speak, Q.

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  29. Be careful of the "Experts." CNBC just had Muhamed El-Erian (Pimco) on. He said he's buying Indonesia because it's an "oil exporter" that's not affected by the problems in the Middleeast.

    One teensy-weensy problem, El Erio:

    Indonesia has NOT been an oil "Exporter" for several years.


    Dumb fucking asshole.

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  30. If I'm Ahmadinejad I'm working like hell trying to figure out how to get the Shia in Saudi Arabia (30% of the population, and they're sitting right on top of the Big oil fields) to start demonstrating.

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  31. .

    600,000 bbl/day are Offline in Libya as we speak, Q..

    What is that? Like 0.5% of daily worldwide usage? Todays's price rises are tied to speculation.

    If I understand it correctly, the problems with Libya is that theirs is light crude (a nice problem to have). It would be a little more complicated than just having Saudi release an equivalent amount of their quality crude.

    With regard to Iran pushing for an uprising in Saudi, it would be interesting. If I had to bet, I would bet on the Saudis. The royal have been co-opting (bribing if you prefer) most of the key power players there for generations. They are currently allocating $400 billion for programs for the people. They have proved they can be ruthless as with their handling of Al Queda.

    Plus if they need help in equipment or intelligence all they have to do is ask and the US will find a way get it to them.

    .

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  32. The thing is, Q, supplies were looking tight Before all this happened.

    Nothing is written in stone here, Q, but this Could be some serious shit.

    The "facebookers" are targeting Mar 20th for Saudi Arabia.

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  33. Correction:
    I didn't notice the guy in front of the gal taking all the punches!

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  34. Just another Sunny Day in CHICOPEE MASS

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  35. Obama has taken a poll and is going to have an announcement on Libya

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  36. he reminds us what he said last week……all things are unacceptable. violence must stop. support right to assembly, yada yada. What a trite asshole this guy is.

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  37. While hiking along the border this morning, I saw a Muslim extremist fall into the Rio Grande River and struggle to stay afloat because of all the guns and bombs he carried. With him was a Mexican who also struggled to stay afloat because of the large backpack of drugs strapped to his back. If they didn't get help, they would surely drown. I informed the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and Homeland Security. It is now 4pm, both have drowned, and neither authority has responded. I'm starting to think I wasted two stamps.

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  38. In Seattle SNOWMAGGEDDON IS COMING!

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  39. deuce wrote"

    "Let the govt unions bargain with the taxpayers. The politicians have a complete conflict of interest."


    Well, you've certainly got a problem then and maybe you better get geared up to march in the streets if you think the system is that corrupt.






    Gag Reflex said...

    "Collective bargaining is for anyone who cannot think for themselves, or negotiate on their own behalf"


    really? Take firefighters for example, you don't think those guys have issues in common like, i dunno, health risks from smoke inhalation, that warrant bargaining with their employer on health benefits?

    They have a right to bargain as a group. That doesn't mean they have a right to a closed shop nor that their employers have to give them what they ask for but it is entirely reasonable to negotiate stuff collectively as opposed to each guy trying to cut his own deal.

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  40. Soldiers in the east have thrown their lot in with the uprising, according to residents, even as the regime insisted on Wednesday that it was still in control via a text message circulated on Libya's mobile network.

    ...

    Driving west from Tobruk in the afternoon, journalists repeatedly saw the red, black and green flag of the Libyan monarchy which Gaddafi overthrew in a 1969 bloodless coup.

    The Libyan leader's opponents have embraced the 1951 independence flag as the standard of their movement, abandoning the plain, Islamic green national flag of Gaddafi's regime.


    Fall Soon

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  41. Dem Rep to unions: Time to get 'bloody'... http://bit.ly/hefIlZ (except the Tea Party has all the guns)

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  42. Obama's Libya statement is a real profile in courage.

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  43. President Barack Obama raised the threat of sanctions against Libya, saying that action could be taken by the United States unilaterally, in concert with major allies or through international institutions.

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  44. Spent $50 on E-bay for a penis enlarger.


    Bastards sent me a magnifying glass

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  45. Foreigners fleeing Libya say Tripoli has descended into war-like scenes as leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces crack down on protesters with heavy weapons and jets.

    ...

    "I've never been so scared in all my life. I didn't know if I was shivering from cold or from fear," said Jane Macefield, an expatriate teacher arriving at London Gatwick Airport on a commercial flight.

    ...

    The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said 47 Australians registered in Libya were still there. Thirty-six of them have requested assistance to leave the country, while consular staff were still trying to reach another 10 Australians, a spokeswoman said.


    Scenes In Libya

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  46. .

    Nothing is written in stone here, Q, but this Could be some serious shit.

    I'm not downplaying it Ruf. All there has to be is a rumble of protests starting in Saudi Arabia and the speculators will drive the price of oil to the moon.

    Whether it's justified or not.

    .

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  47. Following are details of countries and companies evacuating nationals and employees from Libya or closing operations due to the political turmoil in the country.

    COUNTRIES:

    * CHINA: Chinese embassies were arranging evacuation efforts by air, sea and land on Thursday. Xinhua reported the first charted flight was expected to return to China on Thursday.

    ...

    SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi television said on Tuesday the kingdom was sending a plane to Libya to bring home Saudis.

    ...

    UNITED STATES: Two catamarans belonging to Maltese company Virtu Ferries have landed in Tripoli for the evacuation of American citizens. The ferries were chartered by the State Department after American aircraft were not allowed to land in Tripoli.

    COMPANIES:

    REPSOL: Oil major Repsol said the company was evacuating its people and an airplane was due to land in Madrid shortly with 131 passengers comprising 88 Repsol employees.

    ...

    SHELL: Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell evacuated more than 50 employees from Libya to the Netherlands on Tuesday night, a Shell spokesperson said. About a third of the group had Dutch nationality.

    ...

    SUNCOR: Canadian Suncor Energy Inc said on Tuesday it had evacuated most of its expatriate staff from Libya.


    Evacuation Plans

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  48. .

    They have a right to bargain as a group. That doesn't mean they have a right to a closed shop nor that their employers have to give them what they ask for but it is entirely reasonable to negotiate stuff collectively as opposed to each guy trying to cut his own deal.

    There is no doubt that the Governor is out to break the public service unions. The unions agreed to all the cuts he asked for in order to achieve a balanced budget. Agreed to everything he asked for with the exception of the wording that cut our their ability for collective bargaining on benefits. Walker like the other GOP governors are out to break the public service unions.

    That being a given, it comes down to whether you think there should be restrictions put on public unions. I happen to agree with putting restrictions on them. Based on what I think are some very good reasons.

    That being said, The GOP governors are still a bunch of dicks just as Obama and his boys are a bunch of dicks.

    And I'll argue that point with anyone who wants to.

    .

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  49. The economy was already in a recession in the summer of 2008. But consumers had not yet cut their spending much.

    ...

    Ken Perkins of RetailMetrics, a retail research firm, thinks higher gas prices at the tank are already affecting low-income shoppers who are also paying higher grocery prices. He says gas prices would have to reach $4 a gallon or more to affect middle-income consumers.

    Perkins said more people will shop at neighborhood dollar chains or drugstores to pick up milk or bread and save on gas, further hurting Wal-Mart, whose sales have already been hit by stepped-up competition. He expects middle-income shoppers to cut back on discretionary items like clothing or eating out.


    $100/barrel

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  50. .

    Not only is Walker a dick, he's evidently kind of stupid too.

    MADISON, Wis. — On a prank call that quickly spread across the Internet, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was duped into discussing his strategy to cripple public employee unions, promising never to give in and joking that he would use a baseball bat in his office to go after political opponents.

    Walker believed the caller was a conservative billionaire named David Koch, but it was actually the editor of a liberal online newspaper. The two talked for at least 20 minutes — a conversation in which the governor described several potential ways to pressure Democrats to return to the Statehouse and revealed that his supporters had considered secretly planting people in pro-union protest crowds to stir up trouble...


    So I'm Talking to Who?

    .

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  51. Republicans really are too stupid to govern.

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  52. Probably they are.

    What worries me is those who are smart enough to.

    In the kind of way that makes you feel like you need a shower or a good bath.

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