And WHAT was Santorum Thinking?
Apparently Rick Santorum needs to join Joel Stein for a little sit-down:
“And yet we have brave men and women who are willing to step forward because they know what’s at stake. They’re willing to sacrifice their lives for this great country.What I am asking all of you tonight, is not to put on a uniform. Put on a bumper sticker. Is it that much to ask? Is it that much to ask to step up and serve your country, to fight for what we believe in. To fight for the values that have made this the country the greatest count- we got her not because we were doing things really wrong, that our traditions and our morals were way out of whack, we got here because we were a good decent county. A country guided by divine Providence.
We will only stay that great country if we continue that fight. I’m asking ya to help me do that. God Bless you. Thank you.”
Rick Santorum, equating putting a Santorum bumper sticker on your car with giving your life for your country while in uniform.
I shit you not.
WHAT. A. JACKASS.
I am going to soooo love it when he gets his ass handed to him in November.
Brad R.
I bet you anything that after he leaves office, he gets hired as a regular columnist at WorldNetDaily. Just you watch.
Oliver Willis » Rick Santorum Defends Great Sacrifice
[...] The way to support the troops is to… put a Rick Santorum sticker on your car. No, really. [...]
Steven Donegal
there’s a WWE cage match in here somewhere. Tag team—Ward Churchill and Joel Stein v. Santorum and Jonah Goldberg, or maybe Malkin. Live blogged and podcast!
Louise
It’s more offensive than lives = bumper stickers; it’s lives = Rick Santorum’s job. He’s saying “if you want to support your country, you can show it two ways: you can put on a uniform and risk your life for it, or you can help me get elected.” Our Soldiers At Risk = Rick Santorum Keeping His Senate Seat.
Let’s not just hand him his ass. He can still procreate without an ass.
Ian
Question: The liberal reaction to this is calling him a “yellow elephant”, which is another term for “chickenhawk”.
Did they not support the war in Afghanistan?
srv
I am stupified. Is Jesus’ General writing his speeches now?
I’ll tell you what – it’s signs like these, they all point to Rapture.
demimondian
Umm…no. The liberal reaction to this is to call Santorum a monster who doesn’t care about the troops who will die because of his narcissism. That’s different from a yellow elephant.
Otto Man
Glad to see you’re on this, John. As I said in a post over at my place, this marks a new low in the conception of wartime sacrifice.
Putting a sticker on your car is quite literally the least you can do if you support the war. Hell, the damn things are magnetic, so you’re not even risking your car’s paint job, much less anything else.
Brad R.
Question: The liberal reaction to this is calling him a “yellow elephant”, which is another term for “chickenhawk”.
Did they not support the war in Afghanistan?
You’re missing the point. He’s stupidly exploiting patriotic sentiment to get his sorry ass re-elected. If some Democrat compared putting a bumper sticker on their car with fighting in Afghanistan, you’d be completely justified with calling them a “Yellow Donkey.”
Pooh
“In the Red Corner, the Keyboard Kommando, the Doughy Pantload himself, Jo-Nahhhhhh, GOLD-BERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!”
Nikki
Of course! Only a coward would equate his re-election campaign with the sacrifices a soldier makes.
Ancient Purple
I don’t even know what to say. I am just stunned.
What a disgusting, vile piece of crap Santorum is.
I said a few weeks ago that there are plenty of Americans that think they are truly supporting the troops because they put a $2.00 magnet on the back of their SUVs and vote Republican. Now we know why and where they get their marching orders from.
My God, how friggin’ pathetic does Santorum have to be before the citizens of Pennsylvania either run him out of the state on a rail or demand his head on a platter?
What a waste of human flesh.
The Other Steve
Well this is SOP for the Republican party.
The GOP loves him…
Ian
Sorry, I did mean to add he is an idiot.
But that is besides the point. Liberals are jumping on him, calling him a yellow elephants.
Hacks like Crooks and Liars—and more importantly, the “Yellow Elephant” blog are calling this an act of chickenhawk-ary(?).
Bruce in Alta California
I wonder if he gets his bumper stickers from the same Chinese company that makes all those groovy magnetic ribbons that show the bearer “supports our troops?”
ppGaz
It’s a surprise to find out that a Republican thinks you can save the world by the equivalent of putting a big foam finger on your hand and shouting “We’re Number One?”
Have we not been paying attention the last five years?
I cordially invite you all to watch the SOTU Address next week.
“We’re Number One.” Repeat. Repeat. Repeat …...
Sirkowski
There’s no law banning retards running for office? Seriously, that guy must have a sub-par IQ.
Joey
Ian, I see what you’re saying about liberals supporting the Afghan campaign, yet calling supporters of the Iraq war chickenhawks and yellow elephants, but it’s different. The Afghan campaign is almost universally regarded as a necessity. We HAD to do it. Iraq, not so much. And it was Republicans who were beating the war drums. That being said, Santorum is adouchebag of epic proportions, and very comparable to the liquid with which he shares his name.
ppGaz
Owww. Note to self: Do NOT piss Louise off.
Otto Man
Yeah, I think the chickenhawk label isn’t accurate here. Santorum is more of a chickenhawk enabler—he’s suggesting that those who support the war with bumper stickers are making just as much of a sacrifice as those risking their lives in Iraq.
Let’s call that a “stickerhawk.”
Pooh
PoTD.
rilkefan
I rise to Santorum’s defense, unpleasant as it is to do so. Far as I can tell he’s just saying if you can’t put your life on the line in defense of America and furtherance of my favored policy, at least support my policy publicly. This seems unexceptionable to me.
Pooh
rilke, that’s fine. If he was talking about a “support the troops” bumper sticker. Which he isn’t. It’s cheap, it’s distasteful, and it’s certainly question begging, though one would not expect more from him.
Otto Man
I made the same mistake as Rilke. He’s equating a “Santorum 2006” bumper sticker with serving the country? Jeez, that’s a level of douchebaggery that’s even worse.
rilkefan
Still don’t get it. How does one know which bumper sticker is in question? And anyway, I don’t see why I care. Bush said, let’s go to Iraq to defeat al Qaeda, that’s my policy. People signed up to serve and lined up to vote for him. Part of voting for Bush was voting for the idea that invading Iraq was a defense of our country. Ditto Santorum. If you think what the troops are doing is good, you should vote for him.
Kimmitt
But Michael Moore is fat!
Krista
Fighting for values and American freedom by way of bumper sticker. Oy.
Why are any of us surprised, though? This is the man who basically equated homosexual relationships with chicken-fucking. He has no shame, no common sense, no empathy, a terrible haircut, and a disturbing amount of intolerance and hatred in his heart. I can only hope that his 6 kids rebel against Daddy enough to actually develop a conscience.
Perry Como
At least Senator Santorum isn’t using a cynical ploy like the Democrats to exploit the deaths of our troops. I admire Senator Santorum’s courage and forthrightness.
Krista
Perry – not to mention his courage in wearing that deep side part to conceal his obviously receding hairline. Now that takes balls!
Lines
Big words, Ian. Did Crooks and Liars irritate you somehow? Maybe call your favorite little blog a sack of lying guano and have the proof to back them up?
The day you call a top 10 blog a “hack” without showing proof is also the day you get called a dumbshit.
DougJ
Putting a Rick Santorum bumper sticker on your car tells the troops “we will not cut and run”. That’s what matters, telling them that no matter what the medal whore Murtha wants, we will not cut and run. We will honor your sacrifice by staying the course until we have attained victory. Total victory no compromises.
These colors do not run. May God bless thes United States. Freedom is on the march.
Krista
Stay the course, motherfuckers!
ppGaz
ROTFL.
Happy birthday, Krista!!
Krista
Thanks, sweetie! I thought you’d like that…
DougJ
Happy birthday, Krista!!
Ditto.
Krista
I’ve turned the corner on 31…my youthful optimism is in its last throes.
jaime
Wow. Fritos Fighters sure hate being called chickenhawks. Did C&L touch a nerve with their unedited film footage and it’s inherent liberal bias?
Richard Bottoms
Certainly the Army needs more than plaitudes and a Santorum bumper sticker to fix what’s ailing it.
File this under see, I told you so:
Illustrating his level of concern about strain on the Army, Krepinevich titled one of his report’s chapters, “The Thin Green Line.”
He wrote that the Army is “in a race against time” to adjust to the demands of war “or risk `breaking’ the force in the form of a catastrophic decline” in recruitment and re-enlistment.
Col. Lewis Boone, spokesman for Army Forces Command, which is responsible for providing troops to war commanders, said it would be “a very extreme characterization” to call the Army broken. He said his organization has been able to fulfill every request for troops that it has received from field commanders.
The Krepinevich assessment is the latest in the debate over whether the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have worn out the Army, how the strains can be eased and whether the U.S. military is too burdened to defeat other threats.
Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), the Pennsylvania Democrat and Vietnam veteran, created a political storm last fall when he called for an early exit from Iraq, arguing that the Army was “broken, worn out” and fueling the insurgency by its mere presence. Administration officials have hotly contested that view.
George Joulwan, a retired four-star Army general and former
NATO commander, agrees the Army is stretched thin.
“Whether they’re broken or not, I think I would say if we don’t change the way we’re doing business, they’re in danger of being fractured and broken, and I would agree with that,” Joulwan told CNN last month.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....king_point
Of course it is only my utter lack of patriotism that allows me to point out thse troubling facts.
Stormy70
Please ride that Chickenhawk meme through one more election cycle. I need permanent tax cuts.
demimondian
I expect that the Democrats will be able to deliver tax cuts for working Americans after we win in November 2006 and 2008. I’m afraid that only the well off will be getting tax cuts before that, though, so you’ll have to wait until then.
Stormy70
I’m enjoying my tax cut and I am definitely middle class. Please run on that platform again, it’s working so well.
Stormy70
Happy Birthday, Krista!
Ian
Nice one, you know a liberal when ..
.. they can’t get their “point” across without using a curse word. If only you all could put one ounce of your hate towards something useful.
All I am saying is it is hacks who are calling the Senator a chickenhawk. He is an idiot, but not a chickenhawk.
DougJ
You’re going to have to do better than that. You’ve already blown your cover. Choose another name and try again.
I always like to help out an aspiring spoofer, and in this case you need some tough love.
Richard Bottoms
I see.
So was that Captain Santorum or Sergeant Santorum?
I do so love these war cheerleaders.
Gimme an F.
Kimmitt
Heh, you’re really going to enjoy double-digit inflation, then.
Stormy70
But still Casey has to run to the right of the National Democratic Party. Telling.
demimondian
Yeah—the Democratic Party was the original big tent. Astounding, isn’t it, allowing for real ideological diversity in your party while enforcing ethical discipline. Really, it works so much better than the Republican Party’s version of the big tent, in which ideological discipline is enforced, but ethical “diversity” is…encouraged.
Mac Buckets
B-b-b-b-b-b-but, Bush only gives tax cuts to the rich. Ergo, if you got a tax cut, then you must be eating caviar thrice daily, washed down with Piper from a pimp chalice. John Kerry and Howard Dean told me so, and they would never lie!
demimondian
I’ve always thought I had a good nose for id-ing sock puppets, DougJ, but I can’t think of any of the BJ regulars whose style resembles him (or her). Who’s Ian?
Stormy70
Let me know when it is going to show up, because all I see are prices dropping on most items.
ppGaz
Oh God, my sides are splitting. Whee-oo, that was funny.
So, in dollars, how much do you figure your tax cut is actually worth to you on the bottom line?
In my case, with a family income in the high five figures, I figure that the increased cost of health insurance has cost me about five times what my tax cut got me.
You?
Pooh
That sounds like me on the first tee.
ppGaz
You are famous for your jaw-droppers, but uh, Bush took office in January 2001.
I shop at Safeway. My grocery bill has gone up about 30% since then. Gasoline, I figure about 56%. My utilities might cost me $300-500 more this year. Health insurance, my portion of the premiums, up considerably. Co-pays? Double. Car insurance, on two cars, about $100 more per month and I have not had an accident or ticket in 15 years. Knock on wood. I think the stock market is either flat, or down, in the five year period of Spud’s reign.
Milk, up. Bread, up. Beef, up. Chicken, up. Seafood, up. Produce, relatively flat, but where I live, produce doesn’t have to be shipped far. Coffee, up. Tea, up. Baby formula, up. Eggs, up. Soup, up. Cereal, up. Cat food, up. Cat litter, up. Dish soap, up. Garbage bags, up. Plumber, up. Air conditioning repair, up. Breakfast at Denny’s, up.
Tell me about it, Stormy.
demimondian
Stormy:
I see that the rumors about the dropping prices of “alcohol-enhanced fermented processed grape beverages” are true…
Stormy70
Well. I’m self-employed. I pay for a high deductible plan, and contribute to an HSA. I have supplemental plans to help meet my deductible if something major happens. Of course, I am healthy right now, and have not spent over $100 on health related issues in 3 years. I am building up my HSA account for the future. I won’t be getting Social Security, since I am in my thirties.
Stormy70
I know next year I’ll be able to buy a flat screen TV. I am paying much less for my clothes, my home decor, my books, my DVDs, my shoes, my housewares.
Stormy70
Most importantly, I live in Texas. No state income tax. Sweet.
ppGaz
Most importantly, everything your family needs in order to live, like food, and health care … as opposed to flat screen tvs … is considerably more expensive.
You know, things that actually affect the middle class in this country. But it’s you … the kind of person who could spend $5000 a year more on essentials, but thinks that a tv that costs a couple hundred less puts you ahead for the year.
“Less for home decor.” Uh, what is that, exactly? Furniture? Rugs? Bathroom fixtures? Paint? I just spent 5 years fixing up an old house …. I can assure you that NOTHING needed in that endeavor is getting cheaper with the possible exception of power hand drills, but how many of those do you think I need?
Jesus.
Ancient Purple
Along with ppGaz, here are the increase in my expenditures:
Health care co-pays: $10 increase over last year
Health care premium: $8 more per pay period over last year
Dental coverage: $5.86 more per pay period over last year
Prescription drug benefit: Was two tier $10/$20. Now, three tier $10/$20/$40 with a formulary.
Gasoline: Tank of gas ~$5.00 more per week (1 tank per week).
This past Thanksgiving, John talked about the cost of fixing Thanksgiving dinner and I did a side-by-side comparison of 2004 Thanksgiving cost versus 2005. 2005 was significantly more expensive.
Glad those prices are dropping through the floor or I don’t know what I would do.
Stormy70
I am alot better off than I was in 2000. I am not going to feel bad about it. I earned it.
demimondian
Actually, Stormy, I live in Washington State, which also has no state income tax. That doesn’t mean we have no state taxes and fees, although we’re about 39th among the states, well below the median. (Unlike Texas, which was up in the top 10 until quite recently. I gather that by putting helpless cancer patients to death against their wills, though, you guys hope to reduce your total tax burden.)
ppGaz
In other words, your earlier post was just you being full of shit, as usual?
Because you are not better off thanks to any government policy, are you?
If so, what would that be, and how much?
Pb
The economy’s doing great for ConocoPhillips at least—and I bet they’ll be fine for years to come. So what’s the problem?
Stormy70
Some of you might consider looking into individual plans over your employer’s plans. How many EEs are getting things like gastric bypass, which is a 40,000 procedure that insurance is picking up most of the cost on? Why subsidize other people’s health costs, when it is driving your premiums up each year.
Stormy70
Well, the tax cuts worked. Again. (mmmmm…Reagan)
Stormy70
Good night, peeps. Don’t let the tax cuts bite.
demimondian
Well, Stormy, you’d be hard-pressed to make me care: I work for Microsoft, the health plans for which are justifiably famous. When our third child was born, we had all the tests you could think of (FDDD was over forty), and payed nothing. And, yes, the cost of our insurance is completely invisible to us.
But, you say, why don’t the shareholders riot over that? Well, one of our major competitors tried to hire me away a couple of years ago. They couldn’t match the benefits package…so I stayed a ‘Softie. (And I’m confident that Microsoft thinks that was the better outcome.)
ppGaz
No income tax—sweet, says Stormy. Money must grow on trees in your state? Hmm….
Percent Percent
Amount of Total Change
Tax Collections By Major Tax
Sales Tax $ 16,312,811,054 24.8 5.8
Motor Vehicle Sales/Rental,
Mfg Housing Sale 2,847,653,057 4.3 3.9
Motor Fuels Taxes 2,934,580,537 4.5 0.6
Franchise Tax 2,170,081,376 3.3 18.3
Insurance Occupation Taxes 1,208,866,496 1.8 2.0
Natural Gas Production Tax 1,657,086,299 2.5 19.0
Cigarette and Tobacco Taxes 599,368,199 0.9 12.1
Alcoholic Beverages Taxes 626,277,831 1.0 4.1
Oil Production Tax 681,890,801 1.0 37.4
Inheritance Tax 101,674,348 0.2 -32.7
Utility Taxes 380,006,470 0.6 6.7
Hotel and Motel Tax 262,092,112 0.4 9.7
Other Taxes 55,889,034 0.1 19.6
________________________________
TOTAL TAXES 29,838,277,614 45.3 6.9
Other Major Revenue Sources
Federal Income 22,809,751,233 34.7 4.0
Licenses,Fees,Permits,Fines
and Penalties 6,155,019,368 9.4 11.0
Interest and investment Inc 1,529,435,034 2.3 8.8
Net Lottery Proceeds 1,584,492,536 2.4 -0.8
Sales of Goods and Services 344,136,037 0.5 4.5
Settlements of Claims 551,878,735 0.8 8.2
Land Income 654,168,802 1.0 31.3
Contributions to Employee
Benefits 197,310,883 0.3 10.7
Other revenue sources 2,145,697,190 3.3 -0.6
________________________________
TOTAL OTHER SOURCES 35,971,889,817 54.7 5.3
________________________________
TOTAL NET REVENUE $ 65,810,167,431 100.0 6.0
A generous sales tax, and something called “federal income”, the largest chunks of revenue.
BC
Thank you, China, for the tax cuts. Can we get some more please?
We can send you a Santorum in exchange.
Richard Bottoms
BTW, it’s not being for the war and not having served that makes you a chickenhawk.
It the relentless cheerleading for the war and kick them towelheads asses attitude (that others have to actually carry out) that makes him one.
To sum up, because I’m sure you;ve already forgotten my qualifers:
(enthusiatically for the war) + (haven’t served) + (tough talk) + (meaningless patriotic gestures) – (actually doing something about it like picking up a rifle) = chickenhawk
Pooh
Just for clarity’s sake, is Santorum old enough to have not served in Vietnam?
The Other Steve
What tax cut? Seriously. I make six figures, largely because of the work of demimondian.(I’m a .NET developer in a corporate world) I drive a BMW. I own a nice townhouse.
I didn’t get any tax cut of signifigance. Well, ok, like maybe an extra $15 per paycheck.
But as others have noted, my costs have skyrocketed.
Am I better off now than I was in 2000? Barely. It’s nowhere near the change that occured from ‘95 to 2000. My 401k certainly ain’t feeling any better.
Honestly, I think Stormy is living in a fantasy world, or is too young to remember how good things were before Bush.
Pb
Heh. Reagan was at least smart enough to raise taxes when the nation needed it.
Pooh
Just out of curiosity, aren’t most professionals better off at 30 than at 25 (or at 35 than at 30, etc…)? I mean, I make more money now than I did in 2000 (barely), but I also have an additional degree…
BadTux
Tax cuts? BWHWHAHHAHA! I’m in the top 25% of taxpayers in the country (let us say that I am in the area of $100K/year and leave it at that), and I don’t see no friggin’ tax cuts. Local sales taxes: up 1.5%. Local property taxes: Up 5%. State income taxes: Up 3%. And what did I get from Bush? A lousy $100 tax cut, when I’m paying hundreds more in taxes because of all the unfunded mandates (e.g. Every Child Left Behind) and cuts in funding (e.g. elimination of funding for neighborhood policing) that have come down the pike during Republican rule in Washington D.C… Gosh, I feel so… underwhelmed. And don’t even get me started on the AMT. Everybody out here in the Silicon Valley will curse you if you even BREATH mention of the AMT and the very latest IRS rules for expensing stock options. WTF is the IRS doing calling stock options that I can’t sell “income”? If I can’t get money for them or otherwise translate them into something that I can eat, drink, or physically carry, how the $#%@# can they be income?
?!
Not to mention I haven’t had a payraise in two years and indeed in real terms am making less money than I was making four years ago, but hey, at least I have a job, which is more than a lot of folks do. Last time I bothered to go to the BLS site and add up the real unemployment rate (all the data is available there, it just isn’t presented to the public via news releases), the real unemployment rate (including all the former engineers working part-time delivering pizzas, people who’ve disappeared out of the labor force to live on the streets, etc.) was around 12%.
As for Reagan, I wasn’t old enough to vote for him the first time, I did vote for him the second time, as well as for George H.W. Bush (twice). But Baby Bush and the current crop of Republican legislators just ain’t the Republican Party of my youth. Borrow-and-spend unfunded-mandate Big Government cronies, the lot of them. I trace the decline in the quality of Republican governance back to Newt Gingrich, actually, who did his Jesus in the Temple act and threw out decades of decorum and collegial government in Washington D.C. in favor of strident radical partisanship and a total disregard of ethics when it comes to winning (“winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”). Richard Nixon (another man who cared not for ethics, only for winning) might have been Newtie’s inspiration, but it took Newtie to bring Nixon’s lessons of slime and criminality to the Congress. Newtie opened the gates, and slime like Santorum have been oozing through them ever since.
-BT
Sirkowski
Santorum is also gay. I mean, c’mon, look how nice he dress. That’s not normal for a straight man.
rilkefan
Richard Bottoms, unless “tough talk” implies “questioning the motives/characters of war opponents”, I’m not sure I agree with your def.
Slide
Krista its your birthday? Mine too, although I’m a tad older than 51.
I love that there are some in here steadfastly rising to the defense of Santorum. If Lucifer himself was a Bush Supporting Republican these same limited capacity apologists would be finding some reason to support their demon. Its pretty pathetic the type of blind loyalty the GOP seems to inculcate in their cerebrallly challenged lemming like supporters.
Richard Bottoms
Tough talk as in let’s go kill us some terrrists.
Well not actually go kill them so much as hoot and holler about how I would go kill me some of them Taliban. But I have this job and a wife and I make too much money.
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/index.php?id=P1773
Richard Bottoms
P.S. I served 13 1/2 years in the US Army. Did my time thank you very much.
Slide
oops that was supposed to be 31. Sorry Krista
chopper
so am i. doesn’t mean that stuff is cheaper now than it was then. i just happened to get a bunch of promotions (government job).
most everything that people need is more expensive these days, like gas, food and health care.
the only stuff that’s gotten cheaper have been things that are now being made en masse in china and similar places.
Krista
I was gonna say….jeez. :)
TheOtherSteve – you drive a fancy-pants car? So where’s my birthday gift, moneybags? :) LOL.
Stormy70
I’m not defending Santorum, he is a dim bulb. I think Casey will probably win it, but he is to the right of most democrats.
Pablo
I don’t know about yours, but my 401k went in the toilet in 2000. So did my industry, and my company. All three look much, much better now than they did then.
Richard Bottoms
The things that are cheaper are… surpirse government subsidized, like milk.
And not too expensive often translates into a smaller portion for the same price. Like say, Hershey bars.
Pablo
Santorum has a longstanding habit of saying incredibly stupid things. He gives off a vibe not unlike Greg Stillson in The Dead Zone.
This should be an entertaining race.
DougJ
The jig is up, Stormy. No way you’re being serious.
Stormy70
Where is the double digit inflation? When is it expected? I am not seeing it. Isn’t inflation around 2% now?
Stormy70
This I like.
Have a good day, gotta work.
tzs
Stormy, there is no way that inflation is just 2%. The government agencies do a lot of accounting fiddles to keep the numbers as low as possible because certain gov’t payments (and I think SS) are indexed to it. Take with large grain of salt.
KCinDC
How about equating getting a scratch in a brush-clearing accident with losing a limb in combat?
charliedontsurf10
Pablo Says:
Am I better off now than I was in 2000? Barely. It’s nowhere near the change that occured from ‘95 to 2000. My 401k certainly ain’t feeling any better.
January 25th, 2006 at 8:16
What’s your line, shmendrik, illegal wire taps?
The Dow’s at 10712 and change as we speak. It was 10587 and change the day this illegitimate, rich white trash schmuck took office 5 years ago. Less than 150 points in 5 years is flat at best, putz, and that’s with Congress and Greenspan givin’ ‘em everything he wants whenever the fook he wants it.
This administration is lyin’ scum on a good day. They’re not havin’ a good day, pal.
Dismissed.
rachel
Santorum is also gay. I mean, c’mon, look how nice he dress. That’s not normal for a straight man.
I think you have to be human before you can be gay. I mean, don’t you think there’s something kind of… off about his hair?
charliedontsurf10
An entertaining race, eh, senor escobar? Ya gotta lay off your inventory, shmendrik.
Faux News
I have been to Providence. It is anything BUT divine! Hartford is no better either.
charliedontsurf10
Electronics are cheaper. Anything that’s gotta be shipped ain’t cheaper. Anything oil-based ain’t cheaper. Reptiles really oughta drop in for a visit on reality some time.
Pb
Yeah, as I mentioned before, the economy is doing great these days…
The department’s consumer price index, a widely followed inflation gauge, rose 3.4 percent last year, the fastest rate since 2000, largely reflecting climbing prices for fuel oil, gasoline, natural gas and electricity, the department said.
However workers’ average pay rose more slowly. Average hourly wages fell 0.5 percent and average weekly earnings declined 0.4 percent, after adjusting for inflation, in the 12 months that ended in December, the department said in a separate report.
Krista
Could not agree more. He’s neocon-bot, isn’t he?
demimondian
Isn’t he the one with the “advisor” named Susan Calvin?
The Other Steve
Krista –
You didn’t like my birthday gift? I got you a new conservative government in Canada. :-)
Kirk Spencer
Double-digit inflation? That’s your standard of when things are bad?
For what it’s worth, the Fed (Federal Reserve) thinks inflation is scary when it’s approaching 4%. The current 3.4% is “worth a close eye”, which is why you will see them raise the rates again next meeting.
However, for most people it’s the “real” inflation that bothers them. See, during the late 1980s and all the 1990s, wages tended to keep up with inflation – certainly catching up within a year. For median wage earners (that’s nominally folk earning around $42,000 per year) since 2000, however, everything hasn’t kept up. Basically, the CPI (including food and energy) vs wage shows a functional inflation of about 5% for the median group since this president took office. For a lot of people that’s meant either getting further in debt (that number’s scary level high) or changing their buying habits.
Sure, Stormy, you’re better off. That’s one data point—an anecdote. You’re not everyone. You’re not even the majority. And we’re not going to believe you instead of our lying eyes.
chef
“afix his bumer sticker”
Why stop there? I want to strap him across the hood—of John’s Murcielago.
The Other Steve
Referring to new tax breaks for medical expenses.
So essentially we’re moving to government funding medical care. We’re just going to do it by way of tax credits.
I’m not opposed to that, if I thought it would work. The HMO system has been a freaking disaster, as it’s overly complex.
But the HSA thing they just rolled out at my company is similarly fucked up. Overly complex rules, extra paperwork for the patient to fill out. It’s not going to make anybody happy.
I think the idea has some merit, but not the way it’s being implemented.
Krista
Um…you didn’t happen to keep the receipt for that, did you?
Perry Como
It’s called negative savings and record consumer debt. President Bush has shown us the way. Spend, spend, spend. It’s the American way!
Pooh
You do realise that this represents, at best a slowdown in the increase of the amount you pay for health care? As opposed to, I dunno, stopping the (post-inflation) increase in the cost of health care…
Ben
Let’s not forget for most HSAs if you don’t use it you lose it. Which baffles the mind…. where is that money going? It’s a pre-tax savings account that disappears… I’d rather stick my money in a 4% savings account and hope for the best.
You want to talk about inflation… take a look at the increased cost of higher education… couple that in with the decrease in aid. You end up with higher state taxes and higher premiums at most colleges.
Not to mention thanks to this wonderful stock market my retirement accounts have been completely flat… so my income has actually decreased considerably.. even with a couple of raises and a move to a higher paying job.
Also a republican county commissioner raised my property taxes 70% last year. I’m SOOO glad that there are all these tax cuts for me.
but I’m so glad Stormy70 saved a few bucks when she finally sold all those shares of News Corp.
Pablo
Which beats the hell out of the 7500 or so it went down to, doesn’t it?
Kathy K
You just noticed that Santorum is an idiotarian? He’s been one since he got in office (and probably before – but we didn’t hear about it then).
(Note to those on the left who hate that term – it was coined in reaction to the statements of Falwell and Robertson after the attack on Sept 11 – it is equally applicable to idots on both sides of the fence.)