Thumbs up on the Thursday OPEN thread
Shot by Dan on Campbell Avenue
“There’s a rule of thumb in politics. If you’re at a point where you’re complaining about the other guy being mean and unfair and uncivil, that’s probably a sign that you’re losing.”
Laura Ingraham
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, complains about President Obama.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, complains about Obama.
December 6, 2012 - 10:00 AM
Obama was reelected on the budget positions he ran on. Why wouldn’t he present them to the House? Boehner must have blocked the election and its results from his brain…it’s the only logical explanation.
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/12/05/rhode-islands-blue-civil-war/
Democrats won big and the changing demographics do not bode well for republicans and conservatives. But the pulic sector union battle will pit blue vs. blue. You see, the unionized public sector is siphoning money from the poor. Liberals, like David Bois, are going after the unions and their fat pensions in order to free up money for the poor.
This will be fun to watch.
The House was reelected in its position of fiscal conservatism. It’s time for them to act like it. It’s what the people want. 0bama did win the election legitimately. Far more people oppose his agenda than support it.
This is the best news I’ve heard in a long time. Halleluia!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/us/politics/jim-demint-to-leave-senate-to-run-heritage-foundation.html?hp
I doubt seriously if it will be “fun to watch” but I do not think unions should build monopolies and get rich and irresponsible off workers any more than corporations should. Corruption, graft, greed and avarice are no better when worn by labor leaders than they are when worn by CEO’s.
Proof of God one more time. Indisputable. No atheist can or has debunked it.
The miracle of the sun at Fatima on October 13, 1917 was predicted four months in advance. Right down to the day and the hour. 70,000 people saw it happen; believers and skeptics alike. Reporters, the media, the socialist atheist leaders, everybody.
Since only the government can print money when needed, pension plans should be funded and untouchable. This raiding of and gambling with pensions is just wrong. Why on earth does it take so long for people to wise up?
Congress forced the Post Office to fund pensioners health plans billions of dollars ahead of need and ignores how cities, towns and states have pension plans they raid, under-fund and over promise. Congress is turning out to be useless and counter-productive.
Terps,
When congress trims their own big fat pensions and retiree health benefits into line with public employees, we’ll talk.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/michael-forbes-top-scot-a_n_2233927.html?utm_hp_ref=small-business&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing6%7Cdl42%7Csec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D241582
Our feel-good story of the day. Michael Forbes is the man!
More bad news for republicans. They lost big in the election, and continue to drop like a rock in popularity and the trust factor…
December 6, 2012 QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY National Poll:
U.S. VOTERS TRUST OBAMA, DEMS TO AVOID FISCAL CLIFF;
TAX THE RICH, BUT DON’T TOUCH MEDICARE, VOTERS SAY
Voters see Republicans as more likely to be obstructionist, and have less confidence in their ability to come up with the right solution to the nation’s financial woes
American voters give President Barack Obama a 53 – 40 percent job approval rating – his best score in three years – and by a wider 53 – 36 percent they trust the president and Democrats more than Republicans to avoid the “Fiscal Cliff,” according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today
Voters 65 – 31 percent support higher taxes on households making more than $250,000 per year, with 84 – 14 percent support from Democrats and 66 – 31 percent support from independent voters. Republicans are opposed 53 – 41 percent.
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-centers/polling-institute/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=1821
Can republicans be any more wrong on the issues?
Some right wing mouth pieces are having second thoughts about equating Benghazi with the fall of western civilization;
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/12/ed-henry-some-at-fox-news-overdid-it-on-benghazi-151251.html
Our own crazy Frank, of course, was right on the money going “hook, line and sinker” obsessing about the only three syllable word he’s learned to spell consistently.
Does anyone think Frank will ever learn not to savor the delicious taste of shoe leather? Don’t bet on it.
Terps
This one is especially for you.
http://news.yahoo.com/nypd-credits-occupy-drop-crime-sandy-024332590.html
“Hello Republicans, I as your president am ready to sit and down work on dealing with this fiscal cliff. We need to generate revenue to work on our debt problem.”
“However, I would first like congress to give me complete power to raise the debt ceiling on my own…Thanks”
We just re-elected an idiot.
Well, I wonder what scandal is going to plague Jim DeMint. A powerful senator with 4 years left in his term doesn’t just suddenly resign to spend more time at the Heritage Foundation. Pass the popcorn!
“The House was reelected in its position of fiscal conservatism. It’s time for them to act like it. It’s what the people want. 0bama did win the election legitimately. Far more people oppose his agenda than support it.”
Maybe God is making her tell the truth, finally?
“0bama did win the election legitimately.”
Suzie, I’m glad you’ve regained your sanity.
#15 “Maybe God is making her tell the truth, finally?”
God may have had a small part in her recent come-to-Jesus moment but I think my repeatedly baptizing in her the river of divine truth was actually the most important factor: the big guy actually uses me to do a lot of the dirty work for him that he doesn’t want to leave any finger prints on. The whole “landslide” fiasco came to his attention, he asked me to handle it and I washed the sin right out of her lying mouth. Behold the mighty cleansing power of Steve C!
PP – You do understand that the House, which is blocking all attempts to get a deal made on the current spending, had already approved ALL the spending that created the debt? Congress has the power of the purse, NOT the President . The current Congress used that power [of the purse] to incur the debt presently owed, and now, it is their responsibility to ensure the debt is paid by raising the debt limit.
I appears you have the misconception that the President runs around spending tax payers’ money. He doesn’t – Congress decides how revenue is spent – and now, after the money has been spent, the bill must be paid. Refusing to raise the debt ceiling to ensure our obligations are met, is hypocrisy. Congress approved the spending, which is the debt we owe – now they must vote to raise the debt ceiling and protect the full faith and credit of the United States.
Dave
Below is an except from your OWS article:
“The group has also committed to sticking around for 24 months, so that they can help not just with the clean up effort but also rebuilding, including generating jobs for those that need them.’
Can you or anyone else tell me how OWS protestors are out “generating jobs for those that need them.”?
The only jobs they are generating are for industries making rape protection gear and pooperscoopers. If they really want to “generate jobs” they would form a company around a great idea, work hard and take risks. Thats how jobs are “generated” but it is way more effort than the OWS crowd can tolerate.
Obviously some of you never do any negotiating.
Art Hill @14. The carrot for DeMint I presume is the $1million salary he will earn.
#16 I wouldn’t go quite that far, Kristen. She’s back onto the goofy miracle business.
#19 Aww look, terps has returned to talking about feces.
#15: “0bama did win the election legitimately.”…Maybe God is making her tell the truth, finally?
But, rather than explore why God wanted Tim Tebow to get hurt and preferred Obama as president, let’s just address this very human error from the same OP:
“3.The House was reelected in its position of fiscal conservatism”
Auto-truth software installs this correction:
The House was reelected in its’ position as gerrymandered incumbents.
And for those who suffer from Unskewed Republican math skills, God’s math offers this primer:
A)Three Equal Branches of U.S. federal government
B)U.S. Congress = one third of U.S. federal government
C)House of Representatives = one half of U.S. Congress
D)Republicans in 2013 House = 234 out of 435 total
Thus, House Republicans = barely 55% of 1/6 of the U.S. Government
HOUSE REPUBLICANS HOLD LESS THAN 10% OF THE POWER IN THE THREE BRANCHES OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
Unlike posters who ignore the effects of gerrymandering, God’s math doesn’t lie.
Note that the previous example was based on the upcoming 113th Congress. The current (112th) composition adds an additional fractional share to House Republicans’ share of federal power.
23.#19 Aww look, terps has returned to talking about feces.
…and to keeping alive the grand old tradition of Republican men’s obsession with rape.
Far more people oppose his agenda than support it.
Comment by Suzie — December 6, 2012 @ 11:21 am
This of course is why Obama got 4 million more votes than Romney did “because far more people oppose his agenda than support it”
More right wing fuzzy math.
Is anyone surprised that the unemployment rate has, again, risen above obama’s promise of less than 8%? Good that we spent all our grandchildren’s money…
How “convenient” that it dropped below that number during the “prime” election period. Thank you dear leader for the early Christmas present…
Here are just a few reasons why I’m glad Jim Demint is leaving the U.S. Senate.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/12/06/1293171/jim-demint-resign/
Warren,
Try this math on legislation:
If the house refuses to pass 0% success.
If the senate refuses to pass 0% success.
If the president refuses to sign 0% of success.
Sometimes it’s a lousy system we have, but better than anyplace else…
“The carrot for DeMint I presume is the $1million salary he will earn.”
Nobody just “quits” the Senate with 4 years left in their term, especially an egomaniac like DeMint. Places like Heritage are where old Neocons go to await their next incarnation. I’ll be quite surprised if there isn’t a backstory to this.
Study: Health reform saved consumers $1.5 billion in 2011
President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) saved American consumers $1.5 billion on out-of-pocket health insurance premium costs in 2011, a study published Wednesday (PDF) claimed. Despite this, benefits of the law were not applied equally across all health insurance markets, leading the study’s authors to propose that stronger rules are needed.
The study discovered that the MLR [medical loss ratios] regulation forced insurers to pay $1.1 billion in rebates to their customers in 2011, while reducing their administrative costs by about $350 million to get profits within the approved range.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/05/study-health-reform-saved-consumers-1-5-billion-in-2011/
Papa John’s isn’t alone in backtracking on Obamacare.
http://eater.com/archives/2012/12/06/olive-garden-wont-cut-fulltime-employees-after-all.php
I found this to be an interesting article about the Koch brothers and what they have in mind for the future. It’s 5 pages, but a good read.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2012/12/05/inside-the-koch-empire-how-the-brothers-plan-to-reshape-america/
pistol pete, it is important for us never to turn the debt ceiling into a hostage situation. Even smart conservatives know this.
“…that battle also rattled financial markets and resulted in a Standard & Poor’s credit downgrade. The Bipartisan Policy Center released a report last month that estimated the debt ceiling battle also cost the U.S. economy $18.9 billion due to higher interest rates related to the fight.
Allowing the debt ceiling to become a perpetual political battle could wreak havoc on the U.S. economy, Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi told the Joint Economic Committee Thursday.
“In terms of the debt ceiling, that at minimum needs to be increased until the other side of the election, and it would be nice to extend it past the next presidential election, and it’d be even nicer than that to get rid of it altogether,” Zandi said.
The United States should not “default on the debt under any circumstance,” testified Kevin Hassett, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. But, he added, “there’s a long history of especially parties out of power using that debt limit as a moment to extract concessions from the party in power.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/12/06/fiscal-cliff-debt-ceiling/1751337/
Playing politics with the “full faith and credit” of the United States of America is treason.
mikeo – is there anything you won’t blame on President Obama?
Small minds – small ideas.
Oops for the faux pas in my earlier post. . 0bama DIDN’T win the election legitimately. It was stolen, of course.
This of course is why Obama got 4 million more votes than Romney did “because far more people oppose his agenda than support it”
More right wing fuzzy math.
The majority of 0bama voters don’t wouldn’t know 0bama’s agenda from the Easter Bunny. It’s all about the freebies for them. It’s hard to tell how many millions of other votes were stolen. It’s a certainly wherever Democrats control the process.
Somebody asked me today why I don’t argue the issues of the day like I used to. I told them it was pointless. An airtight case was made the past four years why 0bama is a disaster. Most people agreed. Yet he election still went the other way for the reasons I’ve mentioned.
The Communists run the show now, folks. Issues are irrelevant. The CPUSA/MSM will slant every single event the Democrats way. The Cloward and Piven model of collapsing the system by dominating it with takers has taken firm root. Not only has 0bama spent more than all the previous presidents combined, we now have Republicans accepting the notion that legitimate tax shelters are bad. They’ve accepted the twisted vernacular that tax hikes can be called “revenue”.
All we have now is to trust in the higher power. God will defeat the Communists in the end.; we know that. I I just worry about the hard times that have to happen first. Much of America has turned its back on God. We’re going to have to go through a lot of suffering before things get better.
I can’t imagine why you people would want what you’ve wrought. You need to actually visit a communist country to see what it’s like. They’re horrible.
I was talking today to a young McDonald’s employee. She’s 27 and has been full time for quite awhile, but she says the manager informed them that everybody would be going part time soon because of 0bamacare. It hadn’t happened until now because McDonald’s and hundreds of other companies had asked for an exemption. 0bama gave it to them, of course. He couldn’t have even more of a cratering job market before the election. Now, he doesn’t care.
So the single mothers who fill a large chunk of these full time jobs won’t have them anymore, thanks to leftwing policies. As always, it’s the lower end that tgets screwed by those who claim to be so compassionate.
And I’ll ask again. If a president were purposely trying to take down our economy, HOW would he do it any differently than what 0bama is doing?
Suzie:
“Somebody asked me today why I don’t argue the issues of the day like I used to. I told them it was pointless…..All we have now is to trust in the higher power. God will defeat the Communists in the end.”
Faith now has value to me. It shut Suzie down!
Happy 147th birthday to freedom for many of our citizens.
On December 6, 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted by the requisite majority of states, thus abolishing slavery in the United States.
DaveH, have you seen Lincoln yet?
hey limburger stevie c,
peeeuuu! your essence preceeds your posts. you are advised to not go snorkeling in the NEW, ’cause those big ol’ catfish will go after you in a frenzy. you know the drill…they would go for you “hook, line, and sinker!”
better watch it around the farm, too, ’cause the hogs will do the same thing. hmmm, so, there’s not much left for you to do other than sit around and fume a bit, while stinking.
#40 JW,
“Faith now has value to me. It shut Suzie down!”
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
From a a conservative journalist / columnist / commentator:
http://tinyurl.com/brrkucu
**
Good riddance, Mr. DeMint
Posted by Jennifer Rubin on December 6, 2012 at 11:52 am
Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is leaving the Senate to take over the Heritage Foundation. He will replace Ed Feulner as the conservative think tank’s president. He expressed no qualms about leaving the Senate before his term is up, nor did he reflect on his legislative achievements, of which none come to mind.
Let me first explain why this is very bad indeed for Heritage. Even DeMint would not claim to be a serious scholar. He is a pol. He’s a pol whose entire style of conservatism – all or nothing, no compromise, no accounting for changes in public habits and opinions — is not true to the tradition of Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk and others. By embracing him, Heritage, to a greater extent than ever before, becomes a political instrument in service of extremism, not a well-respected think tank and source of scholarship. Every individual who works there should take pause and consider whether the reputation of that institution is elevated or diminished by this move. And I would say the same, frankly, if any other non-scholarly pol took that spot.
SNIP
Now for the U.S. Senate, I am sure many senators on both sides are clicking their heels. DeMint has been a destructive force, threatening to primary colleagues, resisting all deals and offering very little in the way of attainable legislation. He has contributed more than any current senator to the dysfunction of that body. He has worsened relations between the House and Senate, as he did in the budget fights in recent years, by meddling and pressuring his home state representative. His departure leaves other senators who seemed impressed with his brand of politics free to find their way to a more constructive position in the body.
SNIP
**
Sorry about my last not closing the bold font following the title. Typo, I suspect.
Another article on a finding that I posted earlier and was surprised to discover raised little concern here on the blog: http://tinyurl.com/aqcqmzb
**
Climate Science Predictions Prove Too Conservative
Checking 20 years worth of projections shows that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has consistently underestimated the pace and impacts of global warming
By Glenn Scherer and DailyClimate.org
Across two decades and thousands of pages of reports, the world’s most authoritative voice on climate science has consistently understated the rate and intensity of climate change and the danger those impacts represent, say a growing number of studies on the topic.
SNIP
As the latest round of United Nations climate talks in Doha wrap up this week, climate experts warn that the IPCC’s failure to adequately project the threats that rising global carbon emissions represent has serious consequences: The IPCC’s overly conservative reading of the science, they say, means governments and the public could be blindsided by the rapid onset of the flooding, extreme storms, drought, and other impacts associated with catastrophic global warming.
SNIP
**
Dave Hicks, in honor of the 147th anniversary of the 13th Amendment, a quote from one of my heroes:
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”. Martin Luther King Jr.
Thank goodness that President Lincoln understood the long term benefits of his efforts to abolish slavery.
From Raw Story; McConnell filibusters himself.
““Faith now has value to me. It shut Suzie down!””
Braise cheeses!!
Faith now has value to me. It shut Suzie down!
Congrats, John W. You got what you wanted. Your godless people now run things. Tell us how you’re going to like living in the USSR.
#43 “DaveH, have you seen Lincoln yet?”
Obviously I’m not Dave H, Kristen, but my wife and I saw it last night without realizing we had gone on the anniversary of the 13th’s adoption. Karma! Fantastic movie, IMO.
#40 Wow, a fifth-hand confirmation from a McD’s employee that the world, according to suzie, is ending. I’m going home to crawl under the bed.
This is an interesting article. Perhaps the corporate leaders have come to realize that we can’t afford 4 more years of stalemate.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/suddenly-americas-top-corporate-leaders-are-shunning-tea-party-extremism/
Does anyone else find it interesting that Sen. Jim DeMint, a key opponent of the Affordable Care Act, resigned from the Senate to lead the Heritage Foundation. You may recall that it was the Heritage Foundation that came up with the idea that is today the Affordable Care Act. Curious…..
gdad, we really liked it. We saw it in one of the upstairs theatres at the Grandin and every seat in the place was full. They had 3 big movies at the same time, and I think the big theatre was given to Skyfall, which I want to see this weekend.
Just in case you doubt my contention about the Heritage Foundation’s early involvement in obtaining affordable health care for everyone.
“The mandate made its political début in a 1989 Heritage Foundation brief titled “Assuring Affordable Health Care for All Americans,” as a counterpoint to the single-payer system and the employer mandate, which were favored in Democratic circles. In the brief, Stuart Butler, the foundation’s health-care expert, argued, “Many states now require passengers in automobiles to wear seat-belts for their own protection. Many others require anybody driving a car to have liability insurance. But neither the federal government nor any state requires all households to protect themselves from the potentially catastrophic costs of a serious accident or illness. Under the Heritage plan, there would be such a requirement.” The mandate made its first legislative appearance in 1993, in the Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act—the Republicans’ alternative to President Clinton’s health-reform bill—which was sponsored by John Chafee, of Rhode Island, and co-sponsored by eighteen Republicans, including Bob Dole, who was then the Senate Minority Leader.”
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/06/25/120625fa_fact_klein#ixzz2ENVC79Kx
gdad, regarding that movie…we were in Richmond last fall out at dinner downtown in a small French place, and I looked up to see an old man coming through the door with a cane. He sat at a table near us in the back corner. It wasn’t until I got up for a second and came back that I realized…it was Tommy Lee Jones. When I told my son it was “Agent K” he immediately started texting all his friends like crazy. Anyway, he was met by a friend and they had a nice dinner, and at the time we couldn’t figure out what he was doing in Richmond and how the heck he’d aged so badly that he was leaning on that cane for dear life.
Of course, once we saw the movie with the cane and the leaning posture, it was clear. Either Jones is really in that bad of shape, or he was just staying in character in the restaurant.
For the most ill informed poster Suzie/St Maria Goretti @40 – some information about part timers and wages…
Big box stores like Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot etc pay so little that their employees, making $9 – 10 an hour wind up, “disproportionately reliant on safety net programs like food stamps and Medicaid”. The federal poverty level for a family of three is $19,090 – which translates into working at a big box store or a McDonalds, 40 hours a week 52 weeks a year, no days off. These fast food chains and big box retail stores in fact, continue a “cycle of impoverishment” in their quest for more profits at the expense of their workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the actual median wage among all retail workers is $10.09 per hour [McDonalds is well below that figure].
“Since about 42 percent of low-wage retail employees at large companies only work part time, according to a recent study by Demos, it’s not a surprise that about a quarter of them live in or near full poverty.”
“…fast food and retail workers as part of the service sector, their most prominent characteristic is that they’re vulnerable workers, with low wages, few or no benefits, not enough hours, and little dignity on the job.”
“The median hourly wage for food service and prep workers is a mere $8.90 an hour in New York City, according to the New York Department of Labor. But [others] still makes the federal minimum wage — $7.25 — after five months on the job, and struggle[s] to get even 35 hours a week.”
“Fast food weathered the recession, and the biggest names are seeing big profits. [...] profits up 45 percent over the last four fiscal years, and McDonald’s saw them up 130 percent. (After Walmart, Yum! Brands and McDonald’s are the second and third-largest low-wage employers in the nation.) ”
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/11/mcjobs-should-pay-too-inside-fast-food-workers-historic-protest-for-living-wages/265714/
So as you can see, non-living wages, part time employment, and no benefits have NOTHING to do with ObamaCares/ACA – it is all about the lack of concern these corporation have toward employees and their “greed” factor. Part-time employees can be paid minimum wages and have no benefits, including health benefits, something that has been going on long before President Obama came into office – and it will continue because unlike the philosophy of Henry Ford – pay employees enough to buy the cars he was manufacturing – big box and fast food chains prefer to keep their employees below the poverty level – wages low enough to not afford the meals they serve nor the merchandise they ring up for others.
You really need to read more and post less…
Ron May, I can’t believe there’s no more to this story than we’ve heard so far. Why would Demint just up and leave? The Heritage Foundation isn’t going anywhere.
gdad, Lincoln is an awesome movie. How neat that you saw it yesterday! And how interesting that politics has notnchanged all that much.
Ron, I for one remain shocked that DeMint would leave his seat of power for a seat dispersing propaganda but whatever floats your boat. If he were an enlightened man, I would say he saw the writing on the wall.
The days of the Heritage Foundation being helpful to any debate or issue are over. They do not claim their own heritage, oddly.
Sandi,
My reading about his departure from the Senate is that he saw his ability to influence policy via the Senate as diminished. He believes, I think, that at the Heritage Foundation he will have a bully pulpit from which to espouse the right wing political agenda. Depending on whether the Republican Party comes to its senses between now and 2016, I would be surprised to see DeMint run for President. Also, his salary as head of the Heritage Foundation is reported to be upwards of a million per year. Money does talk sometimes.
#50 Astounding, Ron, Repubs drop to yet another new low.
“My reading about his departure from the Senate is that he saw his ability to influence policy via the Senate as diminished. ”
He took his ball home?
RE: DeMint leaving the Senate:
Good Riddance.
I have no doubt that the 1 million plus salary made this an easy decision to make for Mr. Obstruction.
Senator Graham must be breathing a bit easier today, the tea party will be focusing on replacing DeMint and maybe leave the more moderate Graham alone.
Today’s news on the job front
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-economy-adds-146k-jobs-133151784.html
From Mikeo ye3sterday :
Is anyone surprised that the unemployment rate has, again, risen above obama’s promise of less than 8%? Good that we spent all our grandchildren’s money…
How “convenient” that it dropped below that number during the “prime” election period. Thank you dear leader for the early Christmas present…
Comment by mike o — December 6, 2012 @ 5:06 pm
That must be some pretty good stuff you’re smoking there mikeo. Or was that just yesterday’s assumption and talking points from the fairyland of faux news/entertainment?
Sandi and Ron
What Jim Demint sees is twofold IMO. One, he can make lots of bucks. Two, he intends to remold the Heritage Foundation. Instead of a think tank, it will now become another arm for political fundraising which is already tapped in to a lot of people with big bucks. Next election cycle you will begin to see outside ads paid for by the Heritage Foundation or whatever superpac that he will use its funds to create.
“Ron May, I can’t believe there’s no more to this story than we’ve heard so far. Why would Demint just up and leave? The Heritage Foundation isn’t going anywhere.”
Kristen,
Regarding Demint, this is what I suspect:
1. Demint had hoped the Senate would go to the GOP for two reasons. First, he wanted to be relevant. Second, he hoped to do an end run around McConnell and be elected majority leader. Neither happened.
2. The guy he’s replacing at Heritage was making more than $1 million/year. That’s almost 6 times what he was earning as a senator. I would jump for a pay increase like that.
dave, the sense that I get from mikeO is that even good news must be turned into something that reflects badly on Obama. Thus, if unemployment dipped to 4 percent, mikeO would be on this blog, calculating the number of workers who make up 4 percent of the workforce, and he’d be posting comments like, “16 million workers STILL unemployed under Obama!”
Re: Kristen @ 10:25 am
You don’t think a $1,000,000 salary is enough? Check out:
http://tinyurl.com/cklzh8t
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The Heritage Foundation and Jim DeMint
Jacob Heilbrunn
December 7, 2012
With his decision to retire from the Senate and join the Heritage Foundation as its new president, Jim DeMint has created a minor furor in Washington. Is he simply cashing in for the $1 million salary? Is he going to launch a new crusade from the precincts of Heritage to protect America’s free market heritage? Does he believe that more influence can be waged upon the Republican party from without than within? Is his decision another sign that the conservative movement in turmoil?
Why not all of the above? The GOP didn’t just lose the election but also its bearings. It has no coherent program for opposing President Obama—no concept for taxes or debt or immigration or even foreign affairs, other than to say that Obama is a bungler. At a moment when the unemployment rate has fallen to 7.7 percent and Obama’s hand has again been strengthened in negotiating with the GOP, it’s not a message that will appeal to any but the already-converted. The GOP is a party that’s in search of a renewed political program, or at least it should be. The process of an agonizing reappraisal is in its infancy.
DeMint’s decision is part of that process. He has drawn the logical conclusion from his tenure in the Senate, which is to say that he has never really been much interested in governing but, rather, in going on the barricades. The Senate may be moving in the opposite direction under the pressure to reach a deal on taxes and the budget deficit. DeMint’s resignation points to the difficulty that the Tea Party has faced, and continues to face, in championing small government. It has no real substantive program to effect change and many of the candidates that DeMint backed, such as the loopy Sharron Angle, turned out to be unelectable.
SNIP
**
BTW re: that mil check out what the workers get: http://tinyurl.com/bcwy3q8
Re: gdad @ 9:33 am
Nope. Haven’t been, yet. Expect that I will.
I’d be surprised if his services as Senator weren’t worth at least $1 million/year. But maybe he envisions the GOP becoming more and more marginalized, and with it, the power he can wield.
“Is anyone surprised that the unemployment rate has, again, risen above obama’s promise of less than 8%?…How “convenient” that it dropped below that number during the “prime” election period.”
Comment by mike o
“…was that just yesterday’s assumption and talking points from the fairyland of faux news/entertainment?”
Comment by dave
It’s one of the primary tactics that the entire Ailes/Fox strategy is premised on: the idea that the first information received is very hard to dislodge in the mind of the recipient, regardless of its’ veracity. In this example, Fox knows the schedule for releasing the employment figures like everyone else, and knows that a pre-emptory claim made a day before to those who are its’ more gullible viewers will linger in their minds despite whatever actual truth subsequently emerges.
There have been numerous examples of this, many of them available for review on Youtube. One classic case was the infamous labeling of former Republican congressman Mark Foley as a Democrat in Fox graphics on the day his dubious relationships with teenage boys came to light.
Right now, one can safely bet that mike o’s unwillingness to accept the truth of the employment figures has been shaped by longstanding exposure to Fox News’ use of this “first strike” information poisoning of the well, which would feed into an existing confirmation bias. Note that while there are examples in other media outlets, Ailes premised the entire Fox News operation on this phenomenon.
Rumor has it that DeMint was hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Dave, re: 12:19
Actually I was citing from the following:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/159104/unadjusted-unemployment-shoots-back.aspx
I admit my mistake and have beaten myself severely about the head and shoulders…
And Gallup now gives us the official unemployment numbers?