"In 1994, riding their previous tsunami, Republicans literally danced in the Washington streets and partied for 48 hours. In 2008, Democrats wept and sang. There was none of this last night, even though the GOP victory might have been larger and more decisive than either of those."
November 3, 2010
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«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 251 of 251I think the bill for his trip directly results from the incredible cost of Tandori Chicken!
Hoosier "Al Sleet" Daddy - the "hippie-dippie weatherman"—"Tonight's forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely scattered light towards morning."
You gonna get data from Europe? Open up your checkbook. From Canada? Where do you think they get data over the USA?
How about we stop getting this information from Governments?
"The only weather data I trust are thermometers outside Rush Limbaugh's house, and Sarah Palin's house."
It doesn't take a weatherman to tell you which way the wind blows.
Who said that?
Yes - I am sure the majority of the expenses of Obama's visit has to do with staying at the Taj. And I am sure the majority of the costs of the war in Afghanistan is associated with staying in tents.
I was kidding dude, lighten up.
"Who said that?"
George W. Bush?
Vindaloo, Trooper York, vindaloo. The tandori is pretty cheap since I believe the Obama family will be bringing their own chicken. Free range is not available in mumbai.
Hoosier "Al Sleet" Daddy - the "hippie-dippie weatherman"—"Tonight's forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely scattered light towards morning."
And the best part is I didn't even have to use some fancy shamcy quadrupal doppler radar either.
Vindaloo, Shimdaloo. I could never eat Indian food because their restaurants smell like Lindsey Lohan’s cootch after a night at the club. Just sayn’
Please don't tell us how you know that olfactory fact, Troop.
Not that there's anything wrong... well, no, there actually would be something wrong with that.
How about we stop getting this information from Governments?
Who do you think should issue hurricane warnings? Or tornado warnings?
Let's say Accu-Weather predicts that a hurricane is going to come onshore in Galveston. And The Weather Channel predicts it's going to come onshore in Lake Charles. Which part of the shoreline should be evacuated? Weather Central here in Madison owns all the Satellite Data -- not sure where they got the Capital to launch a satellite, but go with me here, and you could look at that, but they're on strike and the data are unavailable. Similarly, the radar data are being sold exclusively to Hughes, and you -- a county Executive in northeast Texas -- don't have the $$$$$ to pay for it. What's your decision?
In addition, the government cannot be sued for a bad forecast. You can try, of course, but you will not be successful. The one time I recall that a lawsuit was decided against the Government was with a deadly nor'easter and a malfunctioning buoy in the Gulf of Maine. The argument was that the Govt did not advertise the non-operating nature of the buoy. Because of that, the forecasts were not as accurate, but the fishermen did not know this. (I'm not sure how this decision initially against the Government was resolved...the presiding judge was Judge Tauro. In any event, this was in the 1980s and forecasts have improved dramatically since then). That long digression aside, you certainly can sue a Private Company if they do not provide the accurate forecast they advertise and you pay for.
And the best part is I didn't even have to use some fancy shamcy quadrupal doppler radar either.
Good luck forecasting that tornado outbreak.
So what you're saying, MM, is that it's good that the weather reports come from the government, because they're under no pressure to get it right.
I see that.
Hey what can I tell you. The wife and I were standing outside of Tao in Vegas during the Magic Show a couple of years ago and she blew past us out of the club.
The wife goes "What the hell was that?"
I said "Well it is either exhaust from a Taste of Bombay or Lindsey Lohan."
It was sort of like a bucket of bad clams with some rancid raw rump roast mixed in.
If you don't believe me just smell Sam Ronson's finger.
So what you're saying, MM, is that it's good that the weather reports come from the government, because they're under no pressure to get it right.
That's actually not what I'm saying.
I'm saying that when you have a high-impact event, information coming from a centralized source streamlines decision-making, and that's good for business and government both.
My understanding is that raises and promotions are related to forecast accuracy. Dreadful forecasters go nowhere, or maybe they go to Cheyenne, which is just as bad.
Who do you think should issue hurricane warnings? Or tornado warnings?
None of that would stop if the government shut down, because all those people would still have to work.
Good luck forecasting that tornado outbreak.
That’s easy. Is it raining? Does it look like it might? Tornado watch! At least, that's what happens here in arkansas. But then, I think we're #3 in the country for them.
Besides, local news gives out most of the information on tornado’s anyway, using some government info but also a lot of on the ground reporting and calls from all over the state. So, I think we'd manage on the tornado front without the government. (not that I am ready to kick them out of the weather business).
Once we save money by eliminating the standing army (as our wise Founders mandated we do), let's try outsourcing the navy. And I would like to turn Homeland Security over to the State of Israel, because they do a great job maintaining border security and airline safety in the face of enormous challenges.
Besides, local news gives out most of the information on tornado’s anyway, using some government info but also a lot of on the ground reporting and calls from all over the state.
Yes, chasers do relay a lot of information back to the National Weather Service, which then disseminates it out. And some people also call TV stations, too.
This works during the day, on the Plains. What do you propose for people in regions where tornadoes typically occur at night, or where the local geography precludes getting good pictures of them? As an example: Barneveld, WI was leveled by a tornado shortly after midnight. No one was chasing it (Chasing after dark is ridiculously foolish: you can't see anything!). It's very hard to get a good view of anything in that part of WI, so even during the day, it would have been difficult to get reports.
I do hear that Sarah Palin only uses an anal thermoneter.
That's why Loafing Oaf had those numbers tattooed on his dick.
"Once we save money by eliminating the standing army (as our wise Founders mandated we do), let's try outsourcing the navy. And I would like to turn Homeland Security over to the State of Israel, because they do a great job maintaining border security and airline safety in the face of enormous challenges."
Let's start small.
Zero out:
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The National Endowment for the Arts,
The National Endowment for the Humanities.
Indulgences for the rich that a nation with 10% unemployment can live without.
"..Once we save money by eliminating the standing army (as our wise Founders mandated we do),.."
Where is that 'mandate'?
"One thing -- John Boehner sure as hell can't take a "private jet" back to Ohio. He'll have to fly commercially lest the GOP appear hypocritical."
No. All he really needs to do to not appear hypocritical (unless he *said* that the Air Force ought not transport the Speaker) is fly some double digit percent less often than Nancy did, not fly everyone under the sun with him and not serve alcohol at Air Force expense.
Use a smaller plane, don't take the press and feed and water them, don't take extra trips.
Lars -- those amounts are mousenuts, lost in the noise. Note that FDR put artists and writers to work -- more got federal paychecks rather than fewer.
"Lars -- those amounts are mousenuts, lost in the noise..."
Of course in the era of trillion dollar deficits they almost look like rounding errors but the symbolism would warm the cockles of my heart and get a load of lefties off the Federal teat.
Lars -- those amounts are mousenuts, lost in the noise.
I'd like to know how much money we'd be talking if we collected all the mousenuts.
US Constitution Article I, Section 8
The Congress shall have power...
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
Note that the Navy shall be provided and maintained, in contrast to Armies, which will be raised only when needed, not longer than a couple of years.
An article on LewRockwell.com* provides a good explanation why the Founders were opposed to standing armies, as the strongest threat to our liberty.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance110.html
The "Federal Farmer" stated in his thirteenth letter that "we all agree, that a large standing army has a strong tendency to depress and inslave the people."
[I]n the course of explaining how rulers can violate the rights of conscience, "Old Whig" stated that "the unlimited power of taxation will give them the command of all the treasures of the continent; a standing army will be wholly at their devotion."
"Cato" complained of the proposed new government that "standing armies may be established, and appropriation of money made for their support, for two years."
Pennsylvania delegates argued that "a standing army in the hands of a government placed so independent of the people, may be made a fatal instrument to overturn the public liberties; it may be employed to enforce the collection of the most oppressive taxes, and to carry into execution the most arbitrary measures. An ambitious man who may have the army at his devotion, may step up into the throne, and seize upon absolute power."
"A Farmer" wrote that "both political and civil liberty have long since ceased to exist in almost all the countries that now employ standing troops, and that their slavery has in every instance been effected and maintained by the instrumentality and invariable obedience of these living machines to their chief."
*There are many others, this one popped to the top of the search.
vw: purereb
The "Federal Farmer" stated in his thirteenth letter that "we all agree, that a large standing army has a strong tendency to depress and inslave the people."
This was certainly true of most of the European states with large standing armies that the founders were familiar with - France, Prussia, etc. The army in those countries was a means of asserting internal control first and a defense against external threats second.
England, by contrast, had a tradition of small, volunteer armies. They fought with their (conscripted) navy and by subsidizing continental allies to fight on their behalf in Europe. So the antipathy to standing armies is mostly a result of our English heritage.
"Note that FDR put artists and writers to work -- more got federal paychecks rather than fewer. "
It's been well argued by Thomas Sowell and others that FDR's Keynesian economics prolonged the Depression.
Argued. But not very well.
I'm saying that when you have a high-impact event, information coming from a centralized source streamlines decision-making, and that's good for business and government both.
So again, why does the "centralized source" have to be government?
Further, why does there have to be a centralized source?
This is a 1.5 billion dollar year business (weather forcasting) and yet we somehow need the govnerment?
You're delusional.
Argued. But not very well.
Laugh out loud funny.
You can't produce a single bit of data showing that government spending reduced the impact of the great depression.
Not one.
What do you propose for people in regions where tornadoes typically occur at night, or where the local geography precludes getting good pictures of them?
I don’t propose anything. I already said I don’t actually think the government needs to be out of the weather business. The sirens are useful. But we would probably figure out an alternative, if the government wasn't involved.
In addition, the government cannot be sued for a bad forecast.
Ok, great.
So we put accuweather in charge and give them immunity.
And then we close the billion dollar a year agency (along with the Commerce & Labor department) and that is that.
Further, why does there have to be a centralized source?
Do you even read what I write?
Do you even read what I write?
Huh?
You didn't answer the question.
FLS @ 2:34 is on a roll. He suggested that we let the Army sit down part of the time; and then we find out that FLS doesn't know that Old Navy is a private store; and finally he wants Israelis to manage some burglar alarm provider in DC. What we have here is failure to communicate. But FLS does need to delete that part about Israel having any value before C-4 starts calling FLS another worshiper of The Goddess Palin.
Further, why does there have to be a centralized source?
1:57 PM
HTH.
That's actually not what I'm saying.
I know. I'm just pulling your chain.
It's been well argued by Thomas Sowell and others that FDR's Keynesian economics prolonged the Depression.
Right, the Depression didn't end till FDR dragged us into the biggest makework government deficit running project of them all -- World War II. It sopped up all the idle men, and put even housewives to work, building things destined only to be destroyed. At the end of the war, Uncle Sam rained down benefits on the vets: free higher education, dirt cheap no money down mortgages, shiny new highways on which vets could drive their shiny new cars to the shiny new suburbs. All with an upper marginal tax rate of 91%
Maguro is quite on target re standing armies--I submit that the antipathy of the founders toward standing armies is rooted in their experience with Cromwell's new model army. The English Civil War shaped both Hobbes, Locke, Sydney, Harrington, and a host of other political writers. And that legacy was what our founders focused on. Cromwell's protectorate had a profound effect on our framers. And the aversion to standing armies is rooted in that aversion.
WV: WOOPAS--what was in the can that the republicans opened on the democrats.
TARP was welfare for Wall Street.
No. TARP was a loan for Wall Street. An unweildy, ugly, loophole-ridden loan but a loan nonetheless.
Some, at least, has been paid back.
Big difference from, say, a 'stimulus package' in which $700Billion goes...somewhere?...to do...something?...for...someone?
Big difference from, say, a 'stimulus package' in which $700Billion goes...somewhere?...to do...something?...for...someone?
Arterial road a quarter mile from my house was rebuilt under ARRA. I haven't seen any benefit from TARP I can point to.
Unlike 1994, the GOP has no plan. Other than "whatever Obama wants, we're against it."
I pride myself on being a centrist (one of the "C"s)and you know what, that plan doesn't sound half bad.
-----And that's another thing. While we were lining up at the voting booth, Wisconsin was getting railroaded.
Our government has descended into pure scum. -----
This is liberal speak.
In Tea Party speak this means that Ali was too busy partying and doping it up to read about the polls showing independents abandoning the Democrats. When he was surfing the liberal websites, he and his progressive friends were calling the Tea Party racist and ignorant. He was relying on John Stewart and Steven Colbert to stop the Tea Party and bring back Sanity.
Railroaded has a more coded meaning. It means that the massive voter fraud that has been documented in Milwaukee was not enough to overcome the votes of his fellow citizens in the state.
And scum. What Ali means by this is that every deranged liberal or criminal (oops I repeated myself) in the state tried to find something bad to tie to Feingold's opponent and couldn't.
Thanks for the quick liberal summary, Ali.
Just remember, the men in power, Boehner and McConnell say that their focus is on removing OBama from office in 2012. I guess they really don't care about the American people like they said. The right and the Tea Partiers are only interested in forwarding their agenda, the people be damned. Just like the left. When are you all going to realize that the political types don't care about people.
No purity there,no good will come of it.
Hilary in 2012!!!
Getting rid of O**** by 2012 will do the nation a lot of good. I support them in their endeavors. If they can impeach and convict him prior to the election, more power to them.
WV: miscukes - a vegetable mistake.
Hilary in 2012!!!
So Victoria you agree with the Republican leadership.
Not a bad analysis, George. You got everything about right, except the affiliation. Because the "Ali" you speak of is either a figment of your considerable imagination, or a devious plot hatched by Russ Feingold in cahoots with the still brain-dead John McCain.
Meet me in another thread sometime, we'll have another go at it.
"The right and the Tea Partiers are only interested in forwarding their agenda, the people be damned."
Really? It can't be that they believe their agenda is best for "the people"? Exactly how did you determine this?
If political types like you aren't for the people why do you bother making the same criticism of others?
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