The Real Mitt Romney

[infinite monkey]

Originally Posted by SamIAm

PS. And you think the Republicans tromping around in your bedroom is LESS intrusive government?

Sam wins. Game over.

(that wah wah wah pacman game over sound.)

[Adak]

@SamIam: Knock off the names, or the conversation is just bull shit name calling.

This is crap, of course. This was earlier in the campaign, when all the newspapers were solidly Obama fans.

Of course they hated Romney's take on it, because it hurt the Unions, who now are the owners of GM, along with the Feds. What a surprise, eh?

A guy like Romney will want the business to go through bankruptcy, and get restructured, and come out a stronger company. I have not however, heard Romney say what his own preferences would have been for GM. Romney couldn't have any impact on it, anyway. It was Obama's decision to make.

Rescuing GM was the EASIEST political decision, ever made. That's usually the problem with these kinds of decisions. No one wants to see the anguish of doing something RIGHT, so they do the EASY, and then it winds up being a short cut - you know, like the one the Donner party took, over the Sierra Mtns.

I'm quite a fan and proud owner of GM trucks over the years, but I doubt I'll buy another one.

You want a sharp contrast? Contrast the oil and gas drilling going on in Ohio, on private land, with the oil and gas drilling in Ohio that Obama will allow, on Federal land. The US would be a bigger producer of oil and gas, than Saudi Arabia, IF Obama would quit blocking it.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by Adak

@SamIam: Knock off the names, or the conversation is just bull shit name calling.

What names? Jar Heads? Bastards? Grasshopper?

Gang of Four? Crooked?

Wow! I'm really, really sorry to have used such language. The mods should have banned me by now.

Hey, wait till you read a post by Urbane Guerilla! You'll adore HIS vocabulary!

[Adak]

This is VERY cynical stuff. Of course human life matters to me. What a question to ask!

You can tax the rich until they're absolutely broke and destitute, and it won't allow our politicians to spend all the money they want to spend. They buy votes, by spending our money, you see. "You want a bridge to nowhere? Sure, the Feds will buy you one - but be sure to vote for me come November!"

Is that what you want? You want a monetary crisis on the US dollar? You want to see inflation (which will be coming around eventually), ripping apart everybody on fixed incomes?

Because that's where we're headed.

I don't know where you got the idea that Conservatives would have this kind of calamity for the poor and disabled, but you have it quite twisted around.

Because after the liberals spend us into oblivion, they'll be the first one's to jump freely over your lifeless corpse, as they scramble for some crust of bread to eat.

Liberals care a lot about helping the poor. Conservatives care a lot about helping people, NOT become or stay, poor.

So, what is your value system? Does human life matter to you, or would you rather stride through America’s cities as you might those of Brasil – stepping over the sick and dying? Or do you want to look for alternative solutions? Raise taxes on the wealthy even just by 5%
Better than nothing. Get rid of wasteful defense spending. Did you know that almost every military installation both here and abroad had a well manicured golf course? Do we really need frills like that? And Halliburton was the ONLY firm chosen to bid on US defense contracts at the time of the Iraq War. Why not throw the bidding open to all? Isn’t competition what America is supposed to be all about? Might just save some money while we’re at it.

Halliburton had a hard job, and they could NOT fail. As a former CEO, Cheney could make Halliburton jump through the air and do a double back flip, at the same time. He knows all the officers and the guys and gals to go to, to get things expedited RIGHT NOW.

I'm not sure any other company could have done what Halliburton did, in that same time frame, in Iraq. I don't blame Halliburton - they performed well, under trying conditions. And i don't blame Cheney, since OF COURSE, he knew exactly how to get things done with them. It was expensive, but we knew it would be. Heaven knows, you can't work in Iraq, on the cheap. We saw lots of contractors who were killed even though they had bodyguards, didn't we?

Normally, I'd say yes, it certainly should have been bid out, but in the time frame we had for Iraq, I believe it might have been necessary.

However, I am not even aware of all the services that Halliburton supplied for the military and contractor personnel in Iraq. And is there some reference point for comparing the cost of supplying those services, in a war zone like Iraq?

I don't have that info. Without it, how can anyone make a comparison? So I choose to reserve judgment on Halliburton in Iraq.

[SamIam]

@ Adak -

First of all I apologize for my rather bealated reply. I have been checking out winter survival gear, deciding on the purchase of a mummy sleeping bag good down to zero degrees F. - or so the label claims.

Now where was I? Oh!

Originally Posted by Adak

This is VERY cynical stuff. Of course human life matters to me. What a question to ask!

Look here. If you are going to affiliate yourself with an organization - epecially a political one - you need to understand the values and goals espoused by groups that make up significant numbers of the members in the movement with which you have decided to support.

This would allow you to spare us your act of outraged innocence when you are questioned regarding some of the more outrageous actions carried out by your fellows.

In addition,you want to tell me to believe what you say and ignore what you do ("You" being conservatives). How can you expect that I or anyone else will be able to respond with anything EXCEPT cynicism?

I don't know where you got the idea that Conservatives would have this kind of calamity for the poor and disabled, but you have it quite twisted around.

There are endless sources which set forth the Tea Party dominated Republican Party's attitudes and plans for those programs which make up the (larely inadequate) social safety net currently in place in this country. Go read Ryan's proposed budget. Take a look at the explanations of Republican idealogy widely published all over the Internet, discussed constantly by reporters for every major news outlet, and gushing forth from Fox every time you are unfortunate enought to land your TV clicker on it channel. I'm not going to fill up this entire thread with the thousands of links to this information.

Instead, I will just mention a single incident that occurred a little over a year ago and which you would have had to be lying brain dead in a hospital bed to avoid knowing about. I refer of course to a moment from the Republican debates sponsored by the Tea Party in Septemper of 2011:

There were a zillion stories that came out about just what makes a human life valuable in the eyes of the Right wing, as well as the fate the unworthy among us should be subjected to.

Yahoo News had as good as coverage as any:

If you're uninsured and on the brink of death, that's apparently a laughing matter to some audience members at last night's tea party Republican presidential debate.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a doctor, was asked a hypothetical question by CNN host Wolf Blitzer about how society should respond if a healthy 30-year-old man who decided against buying health insurance suddenly goes into a coma and requires intensive care for six months. Paul--a fierce limited-government advocate-- said it shouldn't be the government's responsibility.

"That's what freedom is all about, taking your own risks," Paul said and was drowned out by audience applause as he added, "this whole idea that you have to prepare to take care of everybody …"

"Are you saying that society should just let him die?" Blitzer pressed Paul. And that's when the audience got involved.

Several loud cheers of "yeah!" followed by laughter could be heard in the Expo Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds in response to Blitzer's question.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/a...163216817.html



Hug and kiss Halliburten if you want. While I feel pretty disgusted by their antics, right now I am more concerned about whether I and every other low income disabled person will have our housing taken by Romney, so that the 4% of the National Budget that goes to housing vouchers can be re-directed to an already bloated defense fund which currently devours 20% of all government spending. Sounds logical to me.

[Adak]

Ron Paul is a nut extremist. He is a doctor, and he has some excellent comments about our Federal Reserve Banking system, BUT when it comes to anything else - He's a whack job.

And will never be elected Pres or VP, for that reason. Yes, he has his followers - in his own way he's a charismatic guy - but he's whacked. We had to put him into the primary debate, because he had enough support, in those first few states. He REALLY concentrated on them, because he knew he'd be toast afterward.

Don't even think about judging the Tea Party or Republicans, or Conservatives, by looking at guys like Ron Paul. You ignore Ron Paul, and I'll ignore your Maxine Waters, OK?

This is what we commonly see with the social welfare programs run by the gov't:

The authors also argue that because the definition of disability adopted in 1984 is quite broad, the DI program often functions in practice as an insurance program for unemployable workers. For example, when 130,000 DI beneficiaries whose primary impairment was drug or alcohol addiction were removed from the DI rolls in 1996, two-thirds of the terminated claimants managed to re-qualify for DI under a different impairment.

http://www.nber.org/bah/fall06/w12436.html

It's not that helping the needy is something we don't want to do, but this kind of half-assed approach that the politicians come up with, just gets played by lots of perfectly healthy people. I know two who qualified for this one, myself - nothing wrong with them. They just learned how to play the system, and the first guy, taught the second one, how to do it.

Looking at Obamacare, I see one great problem with it:

1) they allowed companies to opt out or not require it at all. So after supporting it to the skies when it was a bill, all the largest employer's have opted out of it, already, now that it's a law.

That reduces our economy of quantity considerably, and shifts the costs (including the fixed costs of starting it), onto far fewer patients.

If we're going to have a nationalized health care system (and I hope we do), we need a smarter one. Why not study the good and bad points of the other countries who have it, and use that as a template for our own?

A tax hike for that, I would support - but not for something where people are not included - that's just nuts. Everybody means everybody, and if it's not for everybody, then it should be for nobody.










[/quote]

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Adak

Looking at Obamacare, I see one great problem with it:

1) they allowed companies to opt out or not require it at all. So after supporting it to the skies when it was a bill, all the largest employer's have opted out of it, already, now that it's a law.

That's only one problem, there are many others from my perspective. But with the power of the Drug/Medical Appliance companies, Health Care conglomerates, AMA, and Insurance Company's, sway on K Street, great compromises had to be made or it would never happen... ever.
Hopefully, with enough push from the public, it will be improved until it's what we should have.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by SamIam

@ Adak -

First of all I apologize for my rather bealated reply. I have been checking out winter survival gear, deciding on the purchase of a mummy sleeping bag good down to zero degrees F. - or so the label claims.

I've got a mummy bag that's rated to 20 or something like that, but it starts getting uncomfortably cold when it's in the high 30s. Enough so you have trouble sleeping. So I bring a lightweight fleece blanket that I use as an extra layer inside the mummy bag. It helps considerably. Also, when it's that cold, you really need a foam pad to sleep on. An inflatable air mattress is too cold. You can always put the foam pad on top of an air mattress.

[Adak]

Oh, people can use all the foul language they want, but they'll just get mostly the same from me.

So what good can come of that, really?

[tw]

Originally Posted by Adak

Oh, people can use all the foul language they want, but they'll just get mostly the same from me.

Well I don't use foul language. I simply ask why Romney once called himself more liberal that Ted Kennedy. And got a completely irrelevant relpy from you that made no sense. And that completely ignored the question. Why is Romney more liberal that Kennedy when you seem to think he is conservative? Or does Romney routinely lie?

Do you think you might stop avoiding the question? Or does the Tea Party not have an answer?

[Adak]

Originally Posted by tw

Well I don't use foul language. I simply ask why Romney once called himself more liberal that Ted Kennedy. And got a completely irrelevant relpy from you that made no sense. And that completely ignored the question. Why is Romney more liberal that Kennedy when you seem to think he is conservative? Or does Romney routinely lie?

Do you think you might stop avoiding the question? Or does the Tea Party not have an answer?

Ask Mitt, when he's in the White House.

Here's a question for you:

Why did Obama ignore Ambassador Stevens request for help, and leave our Ambassador, and two CIA agents, to be killed by Al Qaeda affiliates?

This is the President you want to put your faith into for health care? He abandons an Ambassador and three decorated soldiers working for the CIA, under attack in a foreign country, and you believe he's going to give a shit about YOU?

Not after election day, he won't.

[infinite monkey]

Originally Posted by Adak

Oh, people can use all the foul language they want, but they'll just get mostly the same from me.

So what good can come of that, really?

But but but before you edited your post you said it was 'honey' that you considered name calling.



Come on schmoopy lovie-kins sweetie-pie...give me the same back. I'm starved for affection. Starved, I tell you.

I need some affection handouts.

[Adak]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

I need some affection handouts.

And a good psychiatrist.

[infinite monkey]

Originally Posted by Adak

And a good psychiatrist.

Thank gawd you're here! Politician! Physician! Psychiatrist! You're the EveryProfessional!

But right now I'd really like some advice on my haircolor. I like the current color, but I'm thinking of adding some highlights. The problem is my hair grows so fast that I would have to pay all that money every 3 weeks, instead of doing it myself for ten bucks. (I mean, it's L'Oreal, and I AM worth it...)

Later, I have some etiquette issues to pick your brain about. I'm attending a Regatta Gala and I'm not sure of the appropriate attire.

[infinite monkey]

Oh honey baby, it'll be OK.