Rex Kickass

Also not mentioned was 88 million to make a bronze statue of Obama on a horse and $450k to provide every elected official in the US with a copy of the Koran.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 15, 2009 -> 05:01 PM) Just think of the money the federal government is spending on paper towels anyway. They probably spend 20 million a month on em anyway! Are ya with me camera guy?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 15, 2009 -> 04:11 PM) Again, Republicans are stupid, Democrats are so smart! This is getting ridiculous. Ummm, I just find it hilarious that someone tried to get people to believe that there was 2 million dollars in the stimulus for shamwows.

Except much of the hike in defense spending that took place beginning in 2001 came from a Bill Clinton initiative from 1999 that started getting funding in 2001. http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/s...entagon.budget/

I found this kinda great. Juicy bits below. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/26/16540/0928

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 15, 2009 -> 01:01 PM) It comes from Clinton scaling back military spending from Reagan/ Bush, too, right? Actually almost all of the military budget cuts were done by the Bush administration following the end of the Cold War.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 15, 2009 -> 03:19 PM) So if I go back and find the Republican quotes about how we need to depart from Somalia while those brave Democrats wanted to stay the course, does that make them equally weak on defense? Of course not, that doesn't fit the existing narrative.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 15, 2009 -> 01:52 AM) Yeah, this is stuff I realized belatedly, but not at the time, I was so pissed off. I still wonder what would have happened had Dean been the Dem nominee in '04 though. It wouldn't have been close. Bush would have won with 350+ electoral votes.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 13, 2009 -> 11:36 AM) Yeah, you're right about this. At the time I was a registered Democrat. After Kerry's horses*** campaign and seeing there were no real leaders in the Democratic party, I got disgusted with them and registed independent and didn't pay attention to politics for a while. I started leaning libertarian and thought about registering Republican until I started paying attention and realizing that it was about conflicting ideologies and that they took their principles for granted (they still do although they claim to "get it" now, as a result the party is a disaster right now). As of now, I'm only concerned with basic competence. Actually there was good Democratic leadership after the 2004 disaster election. It came from Democracy for America and Howard Dean. They pioneered the 50 state strategy for the Dems. And they realized and started to talk about a few things. In many, many cases - people support the liberal point of view on policy in this country. They were just afraid of the label - so they worked on taking it back. I'm not a fan of Dean as an elected official. But as a party leader and party builder? Amazing.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 14, 2009 -> 05:01 PM) I'll throw something out there... North Korea is not run amok with religious extremists or anything like that, and I think they'd recover relatively quickly under decent leadership. So I'll say it. I think they are a good candidate for a CIA-assisted coup d'etat. Thoughts? Absolutely not. The truth is, that since North Korea is a defacto nuclear state - although regime change may be a desired goal, an attempted coup runs too great a risk of serious destabilization which would put the arsenal at risk. Also, if the coup fails, North Korea may feel no degree of protection and that would bring real risk of an invasion to the South. For all the horrible things that the North has done to its people, in international relations purpose, it has acted very much like a rational actor. It takes aggressive and provocative stands when it fears the current situation. But none of these stands seems to seriously threaten the current order. They tend to be defensive in nature. So what will happen? North Korea will make the motions of putting out UN inspectors, they may even actually leave the country for a few weeks. They will make a deal for some very small token amount of aid, and the six party talks will start again. Because the US seems to be more interested in playing the role of honest broker right now, the chances are these tasks could go very well.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 14, 2009 -> 04:17 PM) Stop supporting the regime that is killing their own people at an alarming rate? We keep negotiating with them and they still keep going forward doing whatever the hell they want to anyway, and getting more out of it. How is what we have been doing for decades working by any stretch of the imagination. The returns have been greatly diminished each time they play this game. Last time, I think they just got a couple tankers of heavy oil. This has much more to do with internal appearances rather than external. Kim Jong Il needed a successful launch, and he didn't get it. He needs to look strong internationally to cement his spot at the top - which from what I've recently read his power seems to be crumbling a bit.

Did he cast his magic missile for heaven?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 10, 2009 -> 05:54 PM) Wasn't Rachel Maddow pretty "out there" on Air America with some of her views? I like Maddow and I think she's pretty sharp, but just saying. I never thought Beck was that bad FWIW. I used to read his commentaries when he was on CNN and he made a lot of sense. Every now and then he'd go way over the top though but you kind of knew it was coming when he did. I listened to Maddow on a semi-regular basis when she was on AAR. I never really found her to be anything close to "out there." She was one of the milder, saner voices on that net actually.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 10, 2009 -> 04:59 PM) how long until before mentioned college student is accused of inciting hatred and violence. how dare you question a Democrat!!! Barney Frank is the Bill O'Reilly of the left.

Playing to their base worked for the Democrats. But because the Dem base has some pretty clear ideals. The GOP has two sets of bases. They can play to fiscal conservatives, or they can play to social conservatives. However, it's very difficult to play to both. Especially because the social conservative base lately has had the heart of the party for so long and is so polarizing, its loathe to give it up.

I think 2013 is a little soon for Utah, but I could see 2020. With continued immigration into that region, coupled with younger voters who overwhelmingly support same sex marriage rights becoming a greater portion of the electorate - I see it as totally possible.

I like prayer, even in school. I also like gay marriage. Even in Iowa. Up next? New Jersey probably. (and not through a court battle)

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 25, 2009 -> 04:48 PM) Yeah, kinda similar to whenever a black politician goes off on a rant about how such-and-such is racist - even if what they say is true, it just doesn't help anything to be bringing it up like that. His comment isn't going to do anything besides provoke random arguments. Did we really need him to tell us that anyway? Actually, I think Barney Frank is wholly appropriate for calling Scalia a homophobe. It's a fully accurate term in my opinion. However, I just intensely dislike Barney Frank for reasons having to do with my car.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Mar 24, 2009 -> 03:22 PM) According the Americans for Tax Reform: Senator Specter has confirmed to ATR that he will vote against both cloture and passage on the Employee Free Choice Act (also known as “card check” or the employee NO choice act). His vote is critical and this a major victory for freedom, as well as a stunning defeat for the other side. Just killed his chances for reelection.

ugh Barney Frank...

I got a red light violation for getting caught in an intersection during a light change in New York City. There are no points to the ticket, no proof that I was the driver was necessary to get the ticket... and in New York City, there is no appeal process for the red light ticket.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Mar 21, 2009 -> 01:53 PM) 9.3 trillion deficit spending over 10 years http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/20/...bama-Budget.php probably a bit conservative of a number, I would suspect if trends continue 15 trillion is probably more accurate. a complete meltdown could be looming. Dumb question: don't CBO estimates assume tax revenue to stay the same?

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 02:36 PM) Some Senator: "would these bonuses have been paid without the bailout?" New AIG guy: "No, we would have gone into bankrupcy and restructured those contracts" but why restructure, you have hundreds of billions in free money. bravo AIG, lets toss in a couple trillion more. More bonuses! It's like that dude is reading my own suggestions here.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 10:22 AM) Im kind of surprised that North didnt try and go the Sirius/XM route as opposed to this. At least then you know that people can tune you in while driving. But this internet "webio"(which is such a lame name) is nothing more than background noise for me. When I have my computer playing music or internet radio, its because I am cleaning the house and want something on in the background. When I am driving and listening to sports talk, I am really listening and focusing on the conversation and happenings I guaran-damn-tee you that there business plan involves getting a channel to Siri/XM which may be loving the idea of free programming that they could get three mins of avails on... after all, with a stock price hovering between 5 and 40 cents a share these days, its just a matter of time before satellite radio disappears. Also look for them to offer shows from this station in some form of syndication too if they are serious about this.

I'm liking the idea of the 90% tax on TARP retention bonuses after the first 100k. If we are legally bound to pay the retention bonuses to people who aren't even worth retaining, we ought to find a way to retain those earnings.