Debate – Open Thread Cont:

Cluster87 Comments

The previous thread has become discombobulated due to the necessity of deleting racist and anti religion remarks, which will not be tolerated. So we will pick it up from here, beginning with Mark’s final thoughts:

 

UPDATE II, by Mark Noonan: Final Thoughts

Clearly Romney was in control through the whole debate.  You might be thinking that Romney actually talked more than Obama but from what I’ve read, Obama actually talked about 4 minutes longer than Romney.  That just shows how good Romney was.

Will it change things?  Not actually – you see, in my view, Romney came in to the debate ahead in the race.  Even some of the (still badly skewed) polls are showing a shift to Romney, but the basic facts of the race have not changed.  We’ve got a lousy economy, a reduced position in the world and a President clearly out of his depth – and there is no real argument Obama can make to convince a majority to award him four more years based upon his record.  Obama had to come out swinging tonight with a clear, rational reason why no matter how bad he is, Romney is worse.  Obama didn’t make that case – and Romney did all that was ever required of him:  present a credible alternative to Obama.

Romney can still blow it in the final debates.  Obama can still land a heavy blow.  Events can still develope which help or hinder either candidate.  Both men can win on November 6th.  My view remains:  Romney is likely to win, and may end up winning by a substantial margin.  But it ain’t over until its over.

Debate – Open Thread

Cluster58 Comments

Really looking forward to the debate tonight. My hope is that Romney ties Obama’s policies to the current economic malaise, ie; the failed stimulus, the denial of the keystone pipeline, the lack of domestic energy exploration and development as they relate to the high gas prices which hurt the lower and middle classes, the rising insurance premiums due to Obamacare, the continued high unemployment due to any real effort spent on regulatory reform or negotiating trade agreements, the increased tensions in the Middle East and murder of our Libyan Ambassador due to misguided and weak foreign policy, etc. etc.

In addition to that, I want Romney to lay out his vision of opportunity and growth, where we tap into our domestic energy reserves, lower corporate tax rates, encourage expansion, create well paying jobs for everyone, broaden the tax base, lower personal tax rates so more people can keep more of their own money, and create an economy where everyone becomes a victor, and not victims. Should be a fun night.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan:  Excellent article about recent polling done in the “battleground” States.  Essentially it confirms what I already know:  it is Obama who is behind and has to land a knock-out punch tonight.

UPDATE II, by Mark Noonan: Final Thoughts

Clearly Romney was in control through the whole debate.  You might be thinking that Romney actually talked more than Obama but from what I’ve read, Obama actually talked about 4 minutes longer than Romney.  That just shows how good Romney was.

Will it change things?  Not actually – you see, in my view, Romney came in to the debate ahead in the race.  Even some of the (still badly skewed) polls are showing a shift to Romney, but the basic facts of the race have not changed.  We’ve got a lousy economy, a reduced position in the world and a President clearly out of his depth – and there is no real argument Obama can make to convince a majority to award him four more years based upon his record.  Obama had to come out swinging tonight with a clear, rational reason why no matter how bad he is, Romney is worse.  Obama didn’t make that case – and Romney did all that was ever required of him:  present a credible alternative to Obama.

Romney can still blow it in the final debates.  Obama can still land a heavy blow.  Events can still develope which help or hinder either candidate.  Both men can win on November 6th.  My view remains:  Romney is likely to win, and may end up winning by a substantial margin.  But it ain’t over until its over.

Will The REAL ‘post racial’ Barack Obama, Please Stand Up?

Leo Pusateri59 Comments

As the Daily Caller reports, a video of a 2007 speech from Barack Obama has surfaced.  An astonishing video, to be sure.

Gone is Obama’s measured midwestern, pedantic dialect.  Gone is Obama’s ‘post racial’ tone.  Gone is Obama’s supposed distance from Pastor Jeremiah Wright (you remember “G-d DAMN AMERICA!” Reverend Wright-you know, the guy that Obama sat in front of for over 20 years, that he supposedly never listened to).   In fact, in the video, Obama embraces Jeremiah Wright, naming him as his mentor and counselor.

Class warfare rhetoric is rampant in this video, as is his allusion to the principles inherent in liberation theology.

It is said that the true character of a person can be seen by how that individual acts when he or she feels that they’re not being watched.

Ladies and gentleman, I give you Barack Obama,

unplugged and unhinged.

What? You Expect obAMATEUR to Obey the Law? Are You Kidding???????

tiredoflibbs30 Comments

The WARN Act – a FEDERAL law requiring businesses with more than 100 employees to notify workers at least 60 days in advance of a mass layoff or plant closing, due to cuts in their programs and contracts.   Huge cuts are coming to the defense department on Jan. 2nd.  This would require contractors to notify their affected employees that they will not have a job come Jan. 2nd, 60 days before.

This will mean that due to obAMATEUR’s cuts and by federal law, these people will get their notices just before the election.

The obAMATEUR administration has told the government contractors to HOLD OFF on the layoff notices.  AND THE GOVERNMENT SAID IT WOULD COVER LEGAL COSTS IF CONTRACTORS ARE FORCED TO SLASH THEIR PAYROLLS BECAUSE OF THE CUTS AND THE REQUIREMENTS BY THE WARN ACT!!!

So again, obAMATEUR has no respect for the law when it gets in HIS way.  His way being the poor timing just before the election.  Hundreds of thousands are expected to be affected by the cuts.  BUT HEY, IT IS AN ELECTION YEAR!  His reelection is more important than those of hundreds of thousands of Americans.  I thought he represents all the people – only those that serve his interests and these don’t.

This attempt bot “pay” these companies’ costs is nothing more than a tax payer funded BRIBE to ignore the WARN Act and help HIM achieve his desire to remain pResident.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/28/news/economy/spending-cuts-fiscal-cliff/index.html

http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/industry/259517-graham-says-hell-block-reimbursements-in-layoff-notice-fight

What Media Bias? Part 193

Mark Noonan9 Comments

Walter Russel Mead lays it out:

…The news from Afghanistan is grim. With the latest round of deaths, we pass a milestone: 2,000 US combatants have died in what is now the longest war in American history. The milestone has been reached just as the surge in troops has come to an end without achieving the goals of pacifying the country or even launching peace talks with the Taliban. Our Afghan “allies” remain as corrupt and ineffectual as ever, with the added wrinkle that the most dangerous place in Afghanistan for US troops these days seems to be the neighborhood of US-armed and trained Afghan forces, who are shooting and blowing up their nominal allies faster than the Taliban can do it.

This is all bad news and very disturbing, but there is a crumb of comfort to be had. Because these failures happened on President Obama’s watch, the mainstream press isn’t particularly interested in relentless, non-stop scrutiny of the unpleasant news. If George W. Bush were president now, and had ordered the surge and was responsible for the strategic decisions taken and not taken in Afghanistan over the last four years, the mainstream press would be rubbing our noses in his miserable failures and inexcusable blunders 24/7…

And every last one of you reading this – especially your liberals – knows this is true.  You can say all you want that the war started on Bush’s watch; you can say this, that and the other thing to excuse Obama – but you all know darn well that if a Republican were President right now, the stories about the collapse in Afghanistan would lead the news day after day after day.  Just think for a moment what it would be like if McCain had won in 2008 and Obama was just now taking his second shot at the Presidency.  The MSM would never let this pass, not for a second…and we’d have days of news reports marking the 2,000th American death in Afghanistan.

I really do think I have to retire the title of this post – as you can see, its been going on for a long time.  But a more correct title these days would be “What Venal and Corrupt Press?”.  Because this has gone beyond bias.  This is far more than just a willingness to soften the blows for liberals and turn up the heat on conservatives – this is a disgusting failure to do the very basics of journalism:  at least attempt to bring the truth to the people.

Continue reading →

The Audacity Of Corruption

Cluster86 Comments

Pat Caddell is spot on!  –

“I think we’re at the most dangerous time in our political history in terms of the balance of power in the role that the media plays in whether or not we maintain a free democracy or not.”

This is a must read, and Pat is 100% correct. In my opinion the North Korean News Agency is more objective than our media, and without an objective, unbiased, hard hitting media – we have no democracy, or more accurately, a representative republic.

Two Different Worlds – Open Thread

Cluster156 Comments

Never before in my lifetime have I seen such a disconnect in this country between conservatives and liberals, and it’s important to point out that 95% of this current disconnect is driven by the media, ie; the liberal white media, and their purely agenda driven mission. There are some very important, and serious issues to have adult conversations on in this country, including but not limited to the recent embassy attacks in the ME, and the death of our Ambassador that coincided with September 11 and of which our President lied about. The ever growing and unsustainable debt, the soon to be bankrupt Medicare and Social Security programs, the $1 trillion dollar deficits that have established new unsustainable baseline government spending, the dramatically increasing food stamp rolls, the persistent high unemployment, the persistent high gas prices which financially hurt everyone, the reluctance by this administration to do anything serious about becoming energy independent, the labor force which is at an all time low, tax reforms, regulatory reforms, and the list goes on and on. But if you listen to much of the mainstream media, the top story of the day is the latest “game changing” gaffe by Mitt Romney of which the completely biased, and liberal pundits spend the next hour on,  coupled with more adoring coverage of what Obama did that day. The liberal media has abdicated all responsibility and I believe this fact needs to be seriously addressed at some other time, hopefully after the adults take over and start resolving the other more serious challenges to this country.

The first Presidential debate is just a few days away, and I for one am looking forward to it. Feel free to discuss whatever is on your mind and please keep it civil.

Two Great Americans Are Dead

Cluster25 Comments

Unfortunately, the Obama regime is more interested in protecting their own hide, than they are in telling the truth, and letting the American know exactly what unfortunate events led to Border Guard Brian Terry’s and Ambassadors Chris Steven’s untimely deaths. Thanks to the journalists at Univision, who continue to pursue this issue unlike our own “journalists”, it is now being learned that the size and scope of Fast & Furious gun walking scandal is growing, and resulting in more Mexican National deaths than previously known. In fact, we are now learning that guns purchased in Phoenix found their way into hands of drug traffickers in Honduras, Puerto Rico and Columbia. Of course, when the Congressional investigation of this issue became uncomfortable for the regime, Obama invoked Executive Privilege in an effort to protect himself and his close friend Attorney General Eric Holder, with little to no regard to the Terry family. Disgusting, doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Now let’s look at the most recent death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, which we are learning could have been prevented had the administration heeded warnings in advance of potential unrest, Steven’s own warnings in his journal of which I have to think he let someone know, and the fact that the Obama regime didn’t see fit to provide any additional security on the anniversary of September 11, despite the fact that Gaddafi was recently deposed and the country is still in turmoil. Obama chose instead to ignore common sense, in favor of fund raising, campaigning, and schmoozing with Jay Z and the ladies on the View, and then rushed out UN Ambassador Susan Rice to lie, and say that the attacks were spontaneous and unexpected. Disgusting again, doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Folks, we need to do better, and Romney deserves your vote in November.

Citizens Pay Taxes

Mark Noonan77 Comments

And if you don’t pay taxes then you are honestly not fully a citizen.  This Fox News poll indicates that a massive majority of people instinctively grasp this fact:

A large majority of likely voters believes all Americans should pay some federal income tax — even if it is as little as one percent of what they make.

Seventy-nine percent say everyone should pay something, according to a Fox News poll released Thursday.  That includes 85 percent of Republicans, 83 percent of independents and 71 percent of Democrats.

According to the IRS, last year approximately 41 percent of tax filers did not pay federal income tax.  The Tax Policy Center estimates that will increase to 46 percent this year…

It is just being part of a self-governing nation – every adult who is physically capable of contributing should contribute, even if its only in a tiny, symbolic manner.  The fact that tens of millions of people pay no federal income tax is a scandal – unless you starved to death last year, you had some sort of income and you should have paid some part of it in to the common fund.  Citizenship is only secondarily about the exercise of rights – it is primarily about the exercise of responsibilities.  And this, indeed, is what scares people about it – especially liberals:  that every man shall be a king (and every woman a queen).  It is frightening to think that you are personally responsible for yourself and even more frightening to think if yourself as responsible for everyone else.  And so it has always been easy for frightened people to prefer a tyrant who will take responsibility for the group and the individual.

I’m heartened by this poll – I had thought that only about 60% of Americans still got what it means to be a citizen.  This poll indicates that nearly 80% still do.

UPDATE:  Off topic here but since you liberals are considering polls to be holy writ:

Rasmussen polled voters to find out which candidate is trusted more to handle the US economy. Mitt Romney leads Obama by seven points, 51-44.

Bloomberg polled the question of which candidate do Americans trust more on terrorism. The Obama administration is rapidly becoming engulfed in charges that it has attempted a cover-up after the terrorist attacks in Libya and Egypt left four Americans dead. President Obama had expected, prior to the attacks, that authorizing the mission that ultimately killed Osama bin Laden would allow him a cushion on foreign policy and especially on terrorism. Bloomberg found that there is no such cushion. In fact, Mitt Romney leads Obama on trust on terrorism by six points, 48-42.

Obama Lies And Liberals Are Stupid

Cluster82 Comments

This is a continuation of the “Why Romeny Will Win Thread” and I admittedly am violating my new rule of only speaking positively of Romeny and trying to stay away from posting Obama bashing threads, but as I previously mentioned, there is a lot of material to bash Obama over, so once again I succumb to the target rich environment.

Obama is not even trying to conceal his lies anymore as he continue to get away with it, so like any criminal, he is becoming more brazen. Add to that, his minions don’t seem to care, or worse, don’t know the difference, and of course, most of the Obama loving media will gloss right over it. Let’s start with his most recent lie on the embassy attacks in Benghazi, of which for days, his regime continued to define the attacks as “spontaneous”, and continued to blame the attacks on the Internet video, of which everyone knew from the onset that neither of those statements were true. Yet he even continues to parrot that line at his most recent UN speech just the other day, and again, not much mention in the media, or from his completely stupid base. Let’s continue with his lie about Romney’s taxes, of which he is still lying about Romney’s tax rate being lower than the middle class, which in reality, it is not. The net effective tax rate for those making $50,000 to $75,000 is approximately 7% -8%, and those making $75,000 – $100,000, pay approximately 10%- 12% effective rate. Romney paid approximately 14%, which was his effective  cap rate tax, and is obviously higher than the other effective tax rates, so once again, Obama lies and his base is stupid.

Now let’s move on to the Affordable Care Act, which contained the personal mandate that was questionably constitutional, and was sold to the American people as a mandate and not a tax. This also dovetails into Obama’s pledge not to raise any taxes on those making $250,000 or less. Enter the Supreme Court, which passed the mandate by turning it into a “tax”, following the arguments put forth by the Obama regime. So, Obama lied twice on this issue – once by selling it as a mandate, not a tax, and secondly, by breaking his promise not to raise taxes on those making $250,000 or less. Finally, let’s revisit Obama’s 2008 campaign promise to cut the deficit in half, of which he hasn’t even tried, by submitting budgets that contain $1 trillion plus deficits, and raising the debt by more than $5 trillion dollars in one four year term. So once again, Obama lied and his base is stupid.

These are just four blatant examples of Obama’s dishonesty, and his loyal bases ignorance. I invite everyone to add more. Have fun.