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clyons

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    It's Time To Shuffle

    in SLaM

    Posted

    Can't Stand Me Now -- The Libertines

     

    Musta Got Lost -- J. Geils Band

     

    Achin' to Be -- The 'Mats

     

    All Summer Long -- Kid Rock

     

    Fall Down -- Toad the Wet Sprocket

     

    Basket Case -- Green Day

     

    Crawlin Back to You -- Tom Petty

     

    Miss Murder -- AFI

     

    Rock and Roll Heart -- Lou Reed

     

    Ooh La -- The Kooks

    The Republican Thread

    in The Filibuster

    Posted

    QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 12, 2008 -> 06:00 PM)
    First, 'elite' was a racist code word for 'black'. Then 'community organizer' became code for 'black'. Now, the new code word of the day for black is 'disrespectful'.

     

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/216121.php

    That's certainly far-fetched. But FWIW, what is the strategic utility of an ad labelling your opponent "disrespectful?" That he lacks the politeness to be president? Pretty lame.

    Who do you think will win the November election?

    in The Filibuster

    Posted · Edited by PlaySumFnJurny

    QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 12, 2008 -> 11:30 AM)
    I'm thinking McCain is going to carry this momentum through to a close victory. The campaigns are getting nasty, and nobody does nasty politics better than the GOP.

     

    I think so too. Besides, I think at their core, the American people are fundamentally conservative. Not necessarily in the Rush Limbaugh "neo-con" sense of the term, but more in the sense that tried and true (I hate to say "old and reliable" but it does seem apt here) usually beats new and different. People may say they want change, but only within reason. McCain will prevail by convincing the undecideds that a change to Obama will be an unsteady shift too far to the fringe. Obama is vulnerable there, and that part of the GOP playbook has proven solid in the past.

    Balanced Budget Amendment

    in The Filibuster

    Posted

    This is something I've always been against. I'm no economist, but I think I learned in Econ 101 that occasional deficit spending can be good for an economy, as happened with the New Deal programs after the Great Depression and the defense build up prior to World War II.

     

    In addition, I'm uncomfortable with the notion of us allowing our politicians to essentially claim, "We can't manage to balance the budget right now, but if we were required to do so by law, we could and we would." Simple accountablity to the people should be enough, but we, the voters, continue to give them a pass. If they can't do it just because its right, throw the bums out and get new ones.

     

    Third, I don't see how this could ever be effectively enforced. Who provides oversight? I'm all for open government and accountability, but some aspects of government spending and programs (e.g., national security) need to be "secret," even in peacetime.

     

    Finally, I strongly believe that the constitution is something not be trifled with. There is good reason that it has only been amended 27 times (and on just 18 occassions). Creative accountants can play all kinds of tricks to make uneven books looked balanced on paper, and as people have pointed out in commenting on a "war" exception, necessary exceptions to an amendment like this could, imo, easily swallow the whole. If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, I don't want to risk watering down the overall Constitution by enacting an amendment that could possibly be circumvented with accounting tricks or whatever. I'd rather amend through term limits than with something subject to potential loopholes. I don't want to open the door to similar end-runs around the Bill of Rights.

     

    In sum, my point is that "we the people" already have the power to insist that our government balance the budget if we decide that is what we want. We just need to exercise the power we already have. A balanced budget amendment has always seemed like sort of a gimmicky cop-out to me.

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