Monday, January 04, 2010

The righties own it

I've been saying this for two years. As far as writing it down goes, someone beat me to it:
"Don't forget the naughts, because this decade, no matter what anyone on the right might say, was conservatism on trial. You want less taxes? You got less taxes. You want less regulation? You got less regulation. Open markets? Wide open. An illusion of security in place of rights? Hey, presto. Think we should privatize war by handing unlimited power given to military contractors so they can kick butt and take names? Kiddo, we passed out boots and pencils by the thousands. Everything, everything, that ever showed up on a drooled-over right wing wish list got implemented -- with a side order of Freedom Fries.

They will try to disown it, and God knows if I was responsible for this mess I'd be disowning it, too. But the truth is that the conservatives got everything they wanted in the decade just past, everything that they've claimed for forty years would make America "great again". They didn't fart around with any "red dog Republicans." They rolled over their moderates and implemented a conservative dream."--Daily Kos

37 comments:

VideoDude said...

All to true. A complete failure!

Did you see where Sen. Grassley is now against the Healthcare Reform Bill because it doesn't cover enough people? What a lying two-faced SOB!

And everytime the Democrats and Pres. Obama try to do something to fix their mess, all they can say is: "NO"!

Joe said...

Yep, and right up until the Democrats took over Congress, things were doing pretty good.

Look it up.

VideoDude said...

You need to wake up! You need to look it up! Preferably somewhere else except Fox News.

Did we not have a budget surplus in 2000? Did we not have the worst terrorist attack under THEIR watch? When attacked by Al Qeada, who was hiding in Afganistan...we attacked Iraq with fake evidence of WMD and lies about connections to Osama Bin Laden!

I can understand having conservative ideas, I actually have some very conservative ideas but come on! To paraphrase a quote: "Those who forget the pass...are condemned to vote Republican, again and again!"

WTF!!!!

Mr. L said...

I'd say "you're right" but I wouldn't want you to think I was being insulting! LOL

Joe said...

I don't know Dude, but if you are basing your ideas on success based on budget deficits, then you must have serious issues with the current administration:

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/

If you study the quotes of the terrorists following 9/11, they said the "weakness" of the US under Clinton (Somalia -- watch Black Hawk down) led them to believe an attack could be successful.

We can agree Iraq was a bad idea, but Clinton and every other government in the Western world believed Iraq had WMDs -- right up until we attacked. Being a Monday Morning QB is easy. I do not recall Bush claiming that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11 beyond Hussein's support of terrorists. I might be wrong, though. I would appreciate a source (beyond a Democrat claiming he said it) an actual quote would be nice.

I think Bush was an awful President. He was not Conservative at all. Nether was his Congress.

Most of the economic woes we are facing can be traced to decisions made by Democrats -- in fact Bush tried to control Fannie/Freddie, but Dodd and Frank stopped it cold.

VideoDude said...

Thanks, LOL!!!!

Joe said...

BTW the US National debt was around 5 trillion in 2000. It has gone up about 1 trillion every year since, t oover 11 trillion as of 09/2009. Their is a difference between debt and budget deficits. That number is expected to increase by about three trillion by the end of fiscal 2010.

VideoDude said...

Hoosier,

So now Bush wasn't a conservative?

Okay! That changes everything!

????????????????????????????????????

Erin O'Brien said...

Hoose, first you said things were "doing pretty good" up until the Dems took over Congress (I'm assuming you mean 2006), then you say "I think Bush was an awful President. He was not Conservative at all. Nether was his Congress."

So what gives? Which is it? Doing good or awful?

And yeah, Fannie and Freddie were big trouble, but the problemus colossus wasn't just too many bad mortgages, it was leveraging those mothers 30 or 40 times over courtesy of the SEC 2004 Bear Stearns Rule change.

Don't you remember Bushie's speech, "Wall Street got drunk" ?

Then you tell us to look it up and give us a link to The Heritage Foundation which promotes "conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense."

Sorry. Try again, Hoose.

Jack Cluth said...

One person's dream is another's nightmare, eh?

NOW they're trying to convince the country that it's all the fault of Barack Obama and us clueless Libruls? As if the eight years they ruled the roost was nothing if not unbridled peace, prosperity, and good government.

Good Lord, y'all...someone really ought to clue the Teabaggers in...or kick them in the ass. I'm not sure which.

Bill said...

still don't see anything wrong with teabagging!!! oh yeah. we do need lower taxes, less regulation, better security, open markets. things will swing back that way. americans are generally pretty conservative. i didn't say anything about religion. i'm not religious. i'm conservative but realistic. 99% of the politicians, these days, are cowardly pussies. adios mis amigos.

Unknown said...

First of all, no one can say exactly how well Obama is doing in the White house yet since he hasn't been in office long enough to do anything but screw up the health care system.

Also I get sick and tired of all these liberal dumb asses trying to say the republicans are the ones screwing everything up when if you look at the facts the terrorist attacks were coming in while Clinton was in the White house and he chose to ignore them in order to keep us under that false sense of security. It wasn't a minute after Bush was put into office before the terrorists attacked us.

And I'd like one democrat liberal to tell me exactly what it is we were supposed to do other than go to war, let them attack us again and again? None of us would even be here still if it weren't for Bush's decision to fight back.

Look up the facts people and you'll realize that Clinton had Osama Bin Lauden in his clutches...and let him go! Why? Thats what I want to know.

Its also Clinton that decided to lower the regulations on mortgage lending thinking it would boost the economy and what do you know it all came crashing down.

I'm sick of republicans getting blamed for the democrats mistakes, when all they're doing is trying to clean up the mess the liberal dumbies created.

You think things were bad under Bush's watch. Just wait and see Obama will undoubtedly take us to new lows.

Bill said...

April. you make me horny.

Anonymous said...

Being an independent takes all the fun out of it sometimes...



Word verification: stankym (I kid you not.)

Political banter in a blog stinks more than a stankym.

ahclem said...

@April: Look up the facts? Where? The Bizarro World Atlas?

"It wasn't a minute after Bush was put into office before the terrorists attacked us."

A minute? Even metaphorically that's preposterous. It was 8 months. And let's not forget that on August 6, 2001, Bush received the President's daily security brief entitled, "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US." After hearing it, he told the CIA briefer, "All right. You've covered your ass, now," and then went fishing.

"And I'd like one democrat liberal to tell me exactly what it is we were supposed to do other than go to war, let them attack us again and again?"

Right. Because after a terrorist attack carried out by predominantly Saudi nationals, trained in Afghanistan, the obvious response is to go to war with Iraq (a prospect that Cheney, Rove and the other Republican neocons had been having wet dreams about for some time, just looking for the appropriate excuse).

"None of us would even be here still if it weren't for Bush's decision to fight back."

Really? If we hadn't gone to war in Iraq, the Muslim hoards would have come over here and killed all 300 million of us with their box cutters and faulty underwear bombs?

"Clinton had Osama Bin Lauden in his clutches...and let him go! Why? Thats what I want to know."

In December 2001, Allied forces had Bin Laden trapped in Tora Bora. They let him get away. Peter Bergen, an expert on al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, called Tommy Franks failure to assault the complex of caves where Osama was supposedly hiding "one of the greatest military blunders in recent US history." Why? Thats what I want to know.

To quote Al Franken, “We are entitled to our own opinions; we are not entitled to our own facts."

Vince said...

If you print money with a speed that the presses are giving off smoke to pay for a War, then you are asking for trouble. If you create the conditions for the prosecution of the wars where the best example was those mine company towns in WV, then you will have an Army fed and equipped with shit.
What was that poor Noncom that was photographed in Iraq holding a man on a leash, hung out to dry for her so called betters.
After 9/11, the rest of the World was more scared of the good ol' US of A, that it is of the entire sweep of Islamic Cultures.
Now there is the good that the Republicans did for the rest of the World for never again will the US have the actual or moral power to do so much damage.

Joe said...

I am sorry if facts bother you Erin. The Heritage Foundation is a well respected Washington Think Tank. You may not agree with their analysis or policy porposals, but the basic facts they present graphically are accurate. The numbers come from the CBO and White House Budget Office.

No matter that you want to poke your fingers in your ears and scream lalalalala while stamping your feet -- the facts will not change.

To only accept facts from a "liberal" source is asinine at best. I'll play along and cater to your bias. Here are the same numbers from a liberal source, Donna Brazile, a true liberal Democrat:

http://www.unitedfeatures.com/?title=Bio:Donna%20Brazile

It is the same deficit picture as described ny the Heritage Foundation. Maybe you can accept reality now.

Erin O'Brien said...

Congratulations, Hoose, you just discovered that cutting taxes to shit while engaging in expensive wars all over the globe result in massive deficits.

That's the point of this post.

The righties left us with a staggering war bill, no way to pay it, and a recession that mandated even more spending in order to avoid a global economic collapse.

Joe said...

The stimulus that did not stimulate cost more than the war in Iraq.

50 years of proof that cutting taxes stimulates the economy (going back to JFK) cannot be denied. The proof is in the numbers. See how much Federal Revenue increases after tax cuts. It ios the tax and spend Congress that mucks everything up.

I won't bother quoting actual numbers. If they do not fit your particular mind set you will not believe them anyway.

Cosmic Navel Lint said...

It never ceases to amaze me the partisan lengths to which Republicans will go to achieve their preferred state of selective amnesia: of course the previous 8 years of president GW Gump had no effect on today's events or circumstances; and all the bad things are purely down to Obama...

Is this just a vindictive side-effect of having lost the White House to Obama?

Tragic.

PS: Hoosierboy wrote: "The Heritage Foundation is a well respected Washington Think Tank..."

Perhaps if you're a US conservative with a residual paranoia of the Cold War and an irretrievable devotion to Ronald Regan - however, to the thinking world, it's just another bunch of suspect Neo-Cons.

Bill said...

losing the white house to a socialist and the congress to milk toast appologists is a sure sign (if not corrected in the next several elections) that the US in decline and no longer that wonderful beacon of light for the world. much to the delight of certain, jealous, other countries and societies.

Cosmic Navel Lint said...

Ah, ya see now, Bill, you've gone and used a word [Socialism] the accurate definition and application of which is unbeknownst to 99% of Americans - including yourself: they just know, because Faux News tells them, that they have to run for the hills whenever it looks like being used - the fact that it's rarely, if ever, used appropriately or in the right context by the US media notwithstanding. It's used as a throwback Cold War bogeyman to frighten the womenfolk and horses, nothing more (and that's when it's not being used a synonym for 'Marxism' and/or 'Communism').

As to your other assertion: the US is a "beacon of light"? Is it, indeed? To whom, precisely?

Regrettably, in truth, compared to where I and 590 million Europeans live, you enjoy a third world health system which is primarily a business, not a societal service, and where profits are designed to come before people's medical needs; and where, up until the recent attempts at healthcare reform, nigh-on 50 million people in the US are routinely denied healthcare; add to that a public education system (i.e outside the Ivy League universities) which has never really matched Europe or Australasia - and I know, as I've sampled it first-hand - and I can't see a lot in the US about which other Western nations might be "jealous", as you claim? So I'd be interested in hearing precisely to whom in the West the US is supposed to be this paragon of virtue and desirous residence?

Whilst there's no guarantee, and this is only a suggestion, but you might find your view is less impaired [and reality restored] if you were to remove the sepia-tinted spectacles through which you choose to view the US; and if/when you do, you'll hopefully see that being "jealous" is not an adjective which is readily applicable to other Western nations looking in at the US - indeed, after eight years of president GW Gump, and the global havoc and ill-will he wrought, a more accurate term would be 'pity', although perhaps now tinged with 'hope', seeing that he's mercifully no longer in office.

And finally, would you care to explain where you've acquired this impression that other nations might prefer to see the "US in decline"? Got any sources or stats for that claim, or is it, as I suspect, merely bullshit?

Being frank with you, Bill, on this evidence, you really do have a tangibly limited, indeed downright parochial, view and understanding of A) the US's position in the world and B) what and who lies beyond its borders - or do you think that beyond its borders 'there be dragons'?

Good luck with that.

G. B. Miller said...

Wow.

A truly slanted political discussion, first started by the...eecch...Daily Kos.

Can anyone say, One Termer?

Bill said...

cosmic; beacon of light as in immigrants flocking to our shores. the rest of what i said is probably just bull shit but since i only watch fox news, i really don't know any better. i guess they really did hate W. they do seem to love O. not sure how that'll work out. wish he could do something about those pesky islamic terrorists.

Anonymous said...

Dearest hoosierboy,

When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion."

— Robert M. Pirsig

Forget the "oughties" review the 20th century. After every prolonged period of laissez faire economic policy the US economy turned to shit. The data is unequivical.

RJ

Anonymous said...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/GDP_growth_1923-2009.jpg

GDP growth 1923-2009

Mrs. C said...

*sigh* There's nothin' finer and more stimulatin' than some good ol' fashioned political debate...This girl is near swoonin' at the dialectic 'round these here parts today!

Unknown said...

I take back what I said earlier about O not having done anything yet besides muck up our health care system,(the mucking up hasn't even begun yet). He also managed to turn our recession into an even bigger and more devastating recession!

We won't pretend Bush and the other right winger's didn't make any mistakes, after all they are only human, but lets not hold Obama up to unrealistic "god-like" status either. Obama is, at best, clueless and in way over his head here.

Its interesting ahclem, that you'd choose to believe that the alchieda terrorists had no ties to Iraq. Where do you get all your so called facts from? Liberal fantasy network? And I don't know anyone,except perhaps yourself that would have a "wet dream" about starting a war. I think you need to get laid!

I don't buy into the right wingers being war-mongers. I think they're realists and realists know that sometimes war is inevitable.

Cosmic Navel Lint said...

April wrote: "I don't buy into the right wingers being war-mongers. I think they're realists and realists know that sometimes war is inevitable."

And as object lessons in selective amnesia and self-delusion go, that'll take some beating...

The fact that neither the Iraq nor Afghanistan invasions needed to happen, especially Iraq, notwithstanding.

Bill said...

i like it when april talks dirty.

Anonymous said...

Dearest April,

Please post the evidence that Saddan Hussein was linked to al Queda in Iraq pre 9/11.

Thank You,

RJ

Cosmic Navel Lint said...

RJ wrote: "Dearest April,

Please post the evidence that Saddan Hussein was linked to al Queda in Iraq pre 9/11.

Thank You,

RJ"


Why limit her options? Ask her to post the evidence that there were any any ties between Saddam and al-Q after 9/11.

This I gotta see.

VideoDude said...

Dick Cheney said it was true! That should be enough for anyone. The big DICK knows everything! Doesn't he?

Cosmic Navel Lint said...

VideoDude said...

"Dick Cheney said it was true! That should be enough for anyone. The big DICK knows everything! Doesn't he?

He certainly knows how to be a dick.

VideoDude said...

Yes! LOL!

Bill said...

cheney definitely knows how to get a reaction. you just know he loves the hell out of it too. it's sort of like everytime chris pronger gets the puck, everybody boos. he's the best and knows it. besides, what would some of the cable channels do without dick or rush or glenn? dead air!

Charlie said...

Republicans, Democrats -- same shit, different piles! Until Congress has the balls to tighten the purse strings and exercise some fiscal discipline, we're going to get many more verses of the same tired song.