A number of you have emailed me asking for an open tread where you could discuss Davos. In fact, Brick Oven Bill says he is there right now and is hoping to live-blog Stephen Harper’s keynote address on Thursday.
So have at it.
by DougJ| 163 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Good News For Conservatives
A number of you have emailed me asking for an open tread where you could discuss Davos. In fact, Brick Oven Bill says he is there right now and is hoping to live-blog Stephen Harper’s keynote address on Thursday.
So have at it.
Comments are closed.
General Winfield Stuck
What you smokin’ DougJ.
Keith G
I have a windows based software question.
I want a simple personal planner/calendar for my netbook. I would love to find one that meets a few requirements. 1) My information stays on my hard drive. 2) Besides basic calendar stuff, it has a journal/memo function and a daily expense/budget function. 3) It integrates with email providers to list recently received emails. And 4) If possible it has options for listing RSS feeds, etc. when on line.
Years ago, I used My Yahoo as a home page and it did many of the things I listed, but the calendar is clunky, no expense app, and anyway, I do not was my info stored by others. And in case another hurricane causes me to be w/o a signal for a while, I still want access to my shit. But, I did really like the way it aggregated info on the first screen I saw in the morning.
Am I asking too much? Any suggestions?
Comrade Mary
You’re actually making me feel sorry for BOB. Stop that.
danimal
Thank goodness, Davos needs a shale oil expert. Now if we can just work on rescinding his passport, or at least cut off internet access.
Mark S.
Cocaine’s a helluva drug.
Ty Lookwell
( 10 minutes left to get your ballots into to a drop box, Oregonians – you better run )
JK
Rich Starbursts Lowry is getting a thrill up his leg by seeing Obama’s teleprompter
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjUwNmUwMzBmNWQ0MmY1MWVkNzVmYmM1MDUwYzkyZWM=
DougJ
Rich Starbursts Lowry is getting a thrill up his leg by seeing Obama’s teleprompter
I can’t be the only guy in America who sat up a little straighter and thought “Hey, he’s winking at me.”
JK
WTF
Poll: Fox is most trusted name in news
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32039.html
AkaDad
Q. Are we better off now then we were when Obama took office a year ago?
A. Yes.
How about we give him some more time before we declare him the worst President ever? Please.
valdivia
DougJ I want some of what you are smoking cause if BOB is at Davos I am a fucking astronaut. :)
New Yorker
So I got a year-long free subscription to Napster with my new Dell laptop, and it’s nice to have it to hear music you don’t really want to buy but want to hear at least once.
I was listening to the 2008 Brendan O’Brien remix of Pearl Jam’s “Ten” that was released as part of the legacy edition re-release of that album. I think it might actually be better than the original. Certainly a lot of the arena-rock reverb is gone, and certain subtleties are more forward in the mix (the piano on “Black”, Eddie’s harmonies on “Jeremy”). It’s a good new take on a record I’ve been listening to ever since my parents got me a CD player for Christmas when I was 12.
Notorious P.A.T.
Haha DougJ )
“Ten” is a great album. Am I alone in not liking anything they’ve done since?
Phaedrus
Cannot wait for John to return so the douche’s running his blog can go back to part-time blogging.
jwb
@JK: I’m less surprised that Faux News is the most trusted than that 49% of our fellow citizens trust them. I rather thought that basically no one trusted any of our news sources any more, so the wingnuts alone would be enough to put Faux News on top. But 49%… If that’s not an outlier, then this country is truly fucked.
Notorious P.A.T.
Oh, come on. DougJ is doing fine.
DougJ
Cannot wait for John to return so the douche’s
I hate it when people use an apostrophe for the plural.
Martin
BOB is looking to wrap up negotiation on Bretton Woods II at Davos – a global economic standard based not on oil or gold, but on the two most critical economic commodities across nations – pizza toppings and tractors.
gnomedad
I hope Cole doesn’t see this — he’ll blame it on whatever drugs the docs are trying to give him.
Ash Can
OK, wait a minute. I thought John Cole was the one who was heavily sedated.
Martin
@DougJ:
http://www.apostropheabuse.com/
KCinDC
Davros? I always thought he was the inspiration for Dick Cheney.
Ash Can
@KCinDC: FTW
Incertus
Anyone else see that College Humor video titled “Stormtroopers’ 9/11”? (Notice the proper apostrophe usage.) I wrote a little something about it–it’s a lot more subversive than I thought at first glance.
AkaDad
@JK:
Mike Judge is a modern day Nostradomus.
danimal
Fox News isn’t as trusted as the conservatives like to pretend. For conservatives, claiming the network is fair and balanced is a way to poke liberals and the mainstream media. They know that Fox is on their side, but they also know that liberal heads spin at survey results like this one.
I’ll bet Fox News didn’t see too much of a ratings bump during the Haiti earthquake versus CNN, because there isn’t an obvious liberal/conservative divide to exploit. But if Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi conceived a love child, the Fox ratings would go through the roof. When conservatives need talking points for the water cooler, Fox thrives. When actual news and information is needed, Americans go to more traditional, unbiased sources of information.
Incertus
@KCinDC: Oh, I love a Doctor Who reference. Burnishes my nerdcore cred.
MikeJ
In Switzerland, you can buy nicely budded flowers, if you tell them you want decorative flowers. If you tell the shop owner perhaps that you wish to *smoke* the flowers, they can’t, in theory, sell them to you.
I like going to Davos.
New Yorker
@Notorious P.A.T.:
Probably. The only albums they’ve released that I really don’t like are “Yield” and “Binaural”. While they released other good stuff, none of it matches “Ten”. It’s the record that got the 12-year-old version of me into rock music.
SpotWeld
I thought he was the creator of the Daleks…
MattR
@Incertus: Have not seen that, but did see the story about the College Humor inspired prank that went wrong.
JD Rhoades
@General Winfield Stuck:
I’ve been asking this a lot lately.
Dennis G.
I must say I am growing to understand the saying FYWP.
I’ve been trying to post a video clip of Alex Gibney talking about his new movie “CASINO JACK and the United States of Money”. I just can not get it to work at at.
Here is the link
Cheers
dengre
JGabriel
DougJ @ Top:
People, think for a minute. You’re all mocking the the idea that BOB would be at Davos, yet everyone lets this slide?
How many people here are really going to request an open thread to discuss Davos?
Kudos on the fake-out, Doug.
.
DougJ
How many people here are really going to request an open thread to discuss Davos?
I was wondering if anyone would wonder about that.
JGabriel
@JK:
Alternate reading: Fox News audience least skeptical.
.
Ash Can
@JGabriel: Hey, I thought the whole thing stunk. That’s why I b-quoted both sentences.
And BTW, I guess this means that DougJ really is BOB.
Comrade Kevin
@Phaedrus:
At least the “douche’s” usually know how to use an apostrophe.
MikeJ
@DougJ: I would guess a fair number of us have been, even during banker’s season. We’re not all schmucks, you know.
eco2geek
@DougJ:
Says the man who’s too sloshed to spell “open tread” correctly. Heh.
@Ty Lookwell:
The Oregonian‘s calling it a win for both measures.
Alex S.
Well, there was a suicide in Davos today. Some say it was a … “suicide” …
Task Force Ripper
Your girlfriend dump you recently DougJ?
You just haven’t been too sharp lately. Kind of weak actually.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Ty Lookwell:
Done, done & done (wife, daughter & self), and dropped off in the box at City Hall just before 5pm via our trusty steed (Mustang). :)
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, We Vote! ;)
DougJ
We’re not all schmucks, you know.
I think of you more as schmuck’s.
JK
@JGabriel:
The Fox News audience is an epic fail, but they’re going to drag the rest of the country down with them.
Wile E. Quixote
@jgabriel
Seconded! Between this and the punking and pwnage of Ben Pershing this afternoon DougJ’s at the top of his game.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@JK:
Idiocracy, we is hear! Bring On The Brawndo, it’s got what plants (both fruits and vegetables) crave!!
Nuts.
burnspbesq
@ General Winfield Stuck:
South Carolina 68, Kentucky 62.
South Carolina???
Svensker
@DougJ:
Hey, I’m so hip, I wondered if you’d wonder, but it seemed too obvious, so I stopped. The BOB part, tho…
MikeJ
@DougJ: No matter how much I’ve ever wanted to, I’ve not complained about your use of apostrophes. But the idea of being a bankster who hangs out in yurp is not in itself despicable.
Task Force Ripper
@Wile E. Quixote:
Personally I would disagree. He’s become a little over the top obvious recently. A little Jon Stewart-mugging-for-the-camera-obvious in my opinion.
burnspbesq
@Task Force Ripper:
This is the Rucker Park of blogs, and you simply aren’t good enough to play here. Go off into the outer boroughs of blodgom, and don’t come back until you have some game.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@JGabriel:
Fix’t.
Task Force Ripper
@burnspbesq: How about you fuck off and die?
General Winfield Stuck
@burnspbesq: Well, it was bound to end sometime. I am just glad I forgot to watch the game tonight. It’s the SEC, and anything can happen on a given night.
JK
The last word on the apostrophe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkVVtB2vLBo
DougJ
How about you fuck off and die?
Come on.
You need to express such sentiments more elegantly. Try reading any of Thyme Zone’s posts and you’ll see him telling someone (usually me or John) to fuck off and die but he doesn’t just come right out and say it, he implies it.
MikeJ
Has anyone seen this show that;s going to be on the green channel, “Blood, Sweat, and T-Shirts”? BBC show about where and how clothing is made. Looks good.
Yutsano
@DougJ:
If I have learned one thing about this blog, it is to NEVER assume what folks are going to talk about here. The fact is it didn’t even make me take a second glance. Now BoB being in Schweiz on the other hand…
Task Force Ripper
@DougJ: If you want to bite on me that’s cool. I’ll have a good time with a little back and forth. But I don’t feel like wasting my time busting on your little Yankee loving prison bitch burnspbesq.
No reason for her to step into this.
Mark S.
I found this post about independents by Drum to be interesting:
This has certainly been my experience. I have known more than a few people who claim to be independents even though they agree with one party or the other on about 90% of the issues. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Instapundit still claims he’s an independent.
Wile E. Quixote
@burnspbesq:
Ripper old bean, while you’re in the outer boroughs of blogdom you might want to fix the PHP on your site.
fraught
@burnspbesq:
“blodgom,” was there for two weeks one night.
Task Force Ripper
And from what I’ve seen of TZ lately on the oldtimers thread and a couple others, he is not tracking too well lately.
JGabriel
Task Force Ripper, Home Page Fail:
Hmm. People who can’t format their homepage properly but link to it anyway, probably shouldn’t be telling others to FOAD.
Except, maybe, their web page designer.
.
Task Force Ripper
@Wile E. Quixote: Damn. Did that go batty again? Thanks.
JGabriel
@Wile E. Quixote: Sigh, you got there first, old bean. Two minds, single thought.
.
burnspbesq
@Task Force Ripper:
Thank you for making my point for me. That all you got?
Task Force Ripper
@JGabriel: Damn. Did that go batty again? Thanks.
Zam
@Mark S.: Actually I came across some data last semester saying it was less than that, I’ll try to go back and find that soon.
Task Force Ripper
@burnspbesq: If you want to be Shawn Wayans to DougJ’s Damon Wayans I guess that’s a valid choice.
J. Michael Neal
@MikeJ: This is either a dead on impersonation, or the person who’s hand is inside the BoB sock puppet just accidentally outed himself.
DougJ
If you want to be Shawn Wayans to DougJ’s Damon Wayans I guess that’s a valid choice.
Honestly, I like to think of myself as Keenen Ivory.
Mark S.
James Dobson, on how to keep your son from turn to teh ghey:
If I have ever read anything creepier, I must have blocked it out. Thank you, Unconsciousness!
Admiral_Komack
Posted on Tue, Jan. 26, 2010
Stimulus funds to rebuild infamous Dillon school
J.V. Martin Junior High School, which President Obama used in campaign speeches as an example of gross educational neglect, will get federal stimulus money to build a new school. The federal Department of Agriculture confirmed Tuesday J.V. Martin, which is in disrepair and has parts of his campus that date back to the 1800s, would qualify for a federal loan program targeting rural areas. The county is eligible for nearly $40 million in loans and grants. Dillon voters had agreed to borrow money to build a new J.V. Martin and finance other construction projects. But financing disappeared when the financial markets sank in 2008 and lending tightened. Obama last year held up J.V. Martin as an example of some 1,200 crumbling schools he wants to replace using billions of dollars in his economic-stimulus bill.
But dealmaking to get the $789 billion stimulus package passed severely diminished the amount of money dedicated to school construction and had dimmed the chances the package would deliver a new school in Dillon County as many had hoped. This despite the president making a compelling case for building a new J.V. Martin during a national TV appearance. Obama invited Ty’Sheoma Bethea, then a J.V. Martin 8th grader, to sit in first lady Michelle Obama’s mezzanine box in the House of Representatives during his first State of the Union address a year ago. Bethea had written Obama a letter imploring the president to improve her crumbling school. Bethea became a minor celebrity afterward, and the now-Georgia high schooler is still an advocate for rebuilding J.V. Martin.
Obama campaigned at the school – profiled in the award-winning documentary “Corridor of Shame” – and several other poor South Carolina schools on his way to winning the state’s decisive presidential primary in January 2008. According to the Agriculture Department the “Dillon County School Facilities Corporation in eastern South Carolina has been selected to receive a $35.8 million loan and a $4 million grant to improve education services in three school districts in Dillon County.” The stimulus money will be used to construct two new schools and renovate two existing schools.
— James Rosen
© 2010 TheState.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thestate.com
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/1128685.html
-I guess this is Obama’s fault, darn him!/snark
Oh, and then there’s this:
Historic victory: USC beats Kentucky
Downey scores 30 to take down No. 1 Wildcats
Most of the national television audience might have tuned in to see the new No. 1 team in college basketball.
It ended up seeing the best No. 2: Devan Downey. In an incredible performance, Downey led South Carolina to its first victory against the nation’s top-ranked team.
South Carolina stunned Kentucky 68-62 before a frenzied crowd and behind 30 points from its diminutive star.
In the final seconds, Downey beckoned to the Garnet Army student section to storm the court, which it did.
This has been a difficult sea-son for Downey, who passed on the NBA to see two teammates — Mike Holmes and Dominique Archie — lost for the season. But Tuesday’s events might have rejuvenated the Gamecocks’ season.
http://www.thestate.com/gogamecocks/story/1127653.html
Task Force Ripper
@DougJ: You fucking wish.
I can see you pulling off The Last Boyscout but there is no way in hell you’re pulling off the lead for I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.
Yutsano
@DougJ: ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! I DECLARE A FLAME WAR!!
Martin
@Mark S.: My take on independents is that they’re more likely to be result-driven than ideology-driven. I don’t meant that in the ‘deliver the result I want’ sense, but in the ‘for fuck’s sake – just DO something useful already’ sense.
I don’t think most independents care if jobs come as a result of liberal or conservative theories on job creation, just so long as someone is honestly doing something about it. Sure, they’ll have specific concerns – abortion, or free trade, or security, or whatever, but by and large, I think most of them figure that either both theories have merit, or neither does, but the folks in power will be graded on effort and outcomes.
Dems are seriously failing that test right now, though. PTFB. And FTFY, since they got a passing mention somewhere around here.
Mark S.
Moderation? I was just quoting Daddy Dobson!
Oh, that’s why.
Comrade Luke
Link:
At least we know his priorities.
Notorious P.A.T.
Movie Trailer (NSFW)
Martin
@J. Michael Neal: Nah, BOB would have worked in a mention of the hairy armpits of attractive central European women. It’s one of his fetishes.
General Winfield Stuck
@Admiral_Komack: Was this comment really necessary, at least the B-ball part. Oh the humanity of it all!!
JGabriel
Task Force Ripper:
I don’t care what anyone says about anyone else: I could definitely pull off the lead in Pootie Tang. Yeah, it’s a challenging role, but I think I’m up to it.
.
Wile E. Quixote
My only problem with DougJ lately, well aside from disagreeing with him about Jon Stewart, is the compassion he’s shown for douche’s like James O’Keefe and the remorse he expressed over pwning Ben Pershing in the WaPo chat. Knock that shit the fuck off and man up Doug! Remember the famous words of Barry Goldwater who said “extremism on dogpiling on complete dickheads is no vice, moderation in pwning complete dickheads, no virtue.”
Martin
@Wile E. Quixote: Wow, I’m impressed you got that Goldwater quote word for word.
General Winfield Stuck
@Wile E. Quixote: Yea, but he doesn’t take his boot ofin Broder’s pencil neck. Don’t worry dougJ, I got yer back against the haters.
Task Force Ripper
@JGabriel:
I’m sorry. JGabriel, I served with Pootie Tang, I knew Pootie Tang, Pootie Tang was a friend of mine. JGabriel, you’re no Pootie Tang.
Maybe Chris Rock’s role in Lethal Weapon 4? I could buy that.
jnfr
@Keith G:
Pick up the Palm desktop app, even if you don’t use a Palm. It does all that, and very cleanly. I’ve used it for years.
JGabriel
Task Force Ripper:
It’s tragic, but no one will ever call you a “shit brickhouse”. That’s just a sad fact you’re gonna have to learn to live with — while I’m raking in the big bucks from my turn as Pootie Tang in the film, Pootie Tang: The Remake.
I guess reality was never a friend of yours.
.
Wile E. Quixote
@General Winfield Stuck:
You have to keep your foot on Broder’s neck. As Winston Churchill said about the Germans, “The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet” and if you don’t keep pounding on David Broder and the rest of the complete dickheads at the WaPo they’ll always end up at the feet of the powerful and the throats of the weak.
Stabetha
Davos? The Onion knight?
…
I can’t be the only GRRM fan on BJ, can I?
Task Force Ripper
@JGabriel: You’re close.
Zam
@Stabetha: I thought of that too.
Admiral_Komack
@General Winfield Stuck
“Was this comment really necessary, at least the B-ball part. Oh the humanity of it all!!”
-Sorry, dude.
Had to do something positive (so to speak) to put SC in a positive light: we DO have Mark “Hiking The Appalachin Trail” Sanford and Andre “If You Feed Them, They Will Breed” Bauer, don’tcha know.
Also.
Wile E. Quixote
@Notorious P.A.T.:
I will pay to see that in a theater.
Anne Laurie
@Task Force Ripper:
TOO self-referential, DougJ!
Task Force Ripper
@Anne Laurie: He will deny his love for me but now that his girlfriend is out of the picture we can finally be together.
JGabriel
@Task Force Ripper: You’re still here? Go fix your fucking web page, dude!
.
Task Force Ripper
@JGabriel: Damn. Did that go batty again? Thanks.
Anne Laurie
@Martin:
Unfortunately, for some reason, the Independents flapping their gums loudest seem to be divided between the weasels who don’t want to be associated with the stench of their political cohorts (i.e., Senator Brown Number Two, who never once used the word ‘Republican’ in his campaign ads but talked incessantly about ‘Democrats & Independents’), and the people who just want to identify with whoever’s winning this season (I know a bunch of self-labelled “Independents” who loved Commander Codpiece in 2004, but are now pretending that they never trusted that well-known liberal Dubya).
Which is a pity, because goddess knows America could use more actual independent thinkers, but the whole politics-as-sports trope may have corrupted our thinking permanently.
Brick Oven Bill
I was having a great day at The Facility, thinking about, no kidding, Balloon Juice, and Rachel, and lines for Rachel. These things make me smile. My performance at work was excellent.
Eric Clapton teaches us:
“Nobody’s weak, till somebody’s strong.”
So what does a man do when a friend tries and fails to hang himself? The girlfriend comes to you after lunch panicked. The whole town knows. This is a very good question.
After much reflection my conclusion is a short phone call saying ‘don’t let the bastards get you down, my friend’. This call I am waiting to make. I am trying to put it off as I am now quite sad.
darryl
@Notorious P.A.T.: Somehow, one of the greatest albums of all time has been followed up by numerous mediocre ones. Don’t know how that happened, but it did.
darryl
@JGabriel: I actually saw Pootie Tang in the theater. I felt like I had been mauled by that gorilla at the steel mill. For only the third time that month.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Task Force Ripper:
Must be a Republican. ;)
Martin
@Anne Laurie:
Most independents aren’t loud, however. They quietly mumble about the ineptness of elected officials and the corrupting effects of politics and they turn out in varying numbers at election time. They usually just don’t care enough about politics to be ideological about most of the usual things, but they’ll notice when things are going to shit and nobody is doing anything meaningful. That’s when independents are most influential, IMO.
Chuck Butcher
Funny thing, I was kinda wondering if anybody had an opinion on this spending freeze on all non-security budget items? Would it be amiss of me to wonder about right wing framing … or something other than John Stewart’s comedy?
Yutsano
@Anne Laurie: Independents think by not affiliating they are always on the winning side and therefore right. In other words they voted for Obama because at the time he was leading so they jumped on the bandwagon. Then when governing showed he might lose a few battles, they jumped ship for some shysters with an R behind their name just to associate with winners later. It’s the ultimate wishy-washyness, and independent to me is another word for spineless.
Robertdsc-iphone
I am as well. To illustrate, I did some fun things for the Playstation 2 game Metal Gear Online as follows:
-made a character named Gregor Clegane , then studied the ranking requirements and played exactly enough matches in various gametypes to end up with the Doberman rank which had as it’s icon a dog’s head.
-I then did the same for a character named Sandor Clegane with the rank of Hound. Its icon was a running dog.
Good times.
Martin
And on an unrelated note, I’m getting curious about what Apple is planning for tomorrow, particularly all the bits coming out publishers. I might like this.
Matt Mangels
I just came in here to say that if John Cole lived in California, and he had a medical marijuana card, he grow ALL THE WEED HE WANTED to alleviate his shoulder pain.
(From sure-to-punished-by-god-via-rising-sea-levels San Francisco)
t jasper parnel
@Chuck Butcher: Yes, they do; no, to the extent I understand it, and Canada is in trouble.
Martin
@Chuck Butcher:
I’m going to wait for the details to come out. These things rarely seem to look the same up close as they do after they come through the mediablog stupidification.
On first blush, it doesn’t look possible to do what they say he’s proposing in the categories they’re outlining. Somebody is being overly simplistic in their thinking here, I think, and the collective left-wing freakout again isn’t helping. You’d think there was no government waste to hear the reactions, or places where liberals would like to see less money going.
JGabriel
@Brick Oven Bill:
Play him a song, BOB! Keep On Doing …
(Dammit! I can’t find a video or audio of The Roches “Keep On Doing What You Do/Jerks On The Loose” anywhere on the web. Must go with tasteles second choice … )
The Replacements – The Ledge!
(Fuuuck! Can’t find that either. Where are all the good suicide songs? What about Richard & Linda Thompson’s “It’s Just The Motion”? Nope, not there either. Maybe, ah, yes, finally, nope, I guess it’s just my …)
… mind playing tricks on me.
.
Brick Oven Bill
Thanks in very large part to Balloon Juice, that phone call was just made.
JGabriel
@Chuck Butcher:
I think we’re all just too pissed and depressed about it to say much yet. I know I am. That, plus we’re waiting to see how it actually plays out in the SOTU.
.
KDP
Our calls seem to be working, but continued pressure on the Senate may now be the priority.
Just saw this on TPM: http://tinyurl.com/ybb8fxj
I agree with the assessment of Stewart, but he brings the very impressive Elizabeth Warren on to his show with regularity. She’s been on several times now and I feel hopeful that some positive oversight is happening on her watch. She was on Jon Stewart again tonight discussing the back room deals that keep the financial sector running to its benefit first, and suggesting calls to Congress to demand the passage of comprehensive financial regulation that will protect consumers might be useful.
Just saying.
Chuck Butcher
@Martin:
Kinda how I figured that would go, far be it from me to point out whose kind of idea a spending freeze is. Waste? You have to be fucking kidding me, in non-security.
Here’s an idea. A new tax bracket, 100 X median income is at 75%. No, let’s freeze – ah fucking Republicanism wearing a donkey hat…
JGabriel
Brick Oven Bill:
I never quite know how seriously to take you, BOB. My sympathies to your friend’s situation, just in case.
BTW, aren’t you supposed to be in Davos?
.
JGabriel
@Chuck Butcher:
Make it 50X and 95%, and I’m with you!
.
General Winfield Stuck
usually, using the term spending “freeze” refers to scaling back inflationary increases from year to year. And since inflation has been fairly flat, (see no annual cost of living increases for SS this year and likely next) then we aren’t really talking about much. If he were to use terms like program cuts, or reduction, that would be something different.
AkaDad
@Chuck Butcher:
Since we’re in a recession, most Americans have had to freeze or cut back on their spending, why shouldn’t the government do the same?
As long as it doesn’t effect job creation, I don’t think the average person would have a problem with it.
DougJ
Since we’re in a recession, most Americans have had to freeze or cut back on their spending, why shouldn’t the government do the same?
This should answer your question.
Chuck Butcher
Ah hell, my wife and I voted Yes on M66 & M67 here in OR, so we don’t have to cut spending, but land of hippies and all
Martin
@Chuck Butcher:
So, how do you see that it’s possible to make those cuts while simultaneously increasing funding for education and the like? The reports suggested that both would happen. I don’t see that it’s possible in the manner that people are suggesting, therefore the conventional wisdom on what Obama is proposing here has to be wrong.
I’m not arguing about framing or any other shit like that – the math just isn’t there to support what people seem to think is going to happen.
mcd410x
DougJ, as someone whose goal is to get people not to act like walking, talking stereotypes and to get people to think outside the lines, I both love and hate the thin line between your snark/not snark. But — is it good?
Gotta go do some 7-minute abs.
General Winfield Stuck
@DougJ: LOL. Obama has gotten passed the largest single discretionary spending bill in our history (stimulus bill). He has also spent a trillion or so on bailing out failing big industries. Any comparison to Hoover in light of these facts is just insane,. Unless he does a lot of, and I mean a hell of a lot of actual spending cuts in existing programs. In fact, he will be introducing additional programs in the SOTU to help needy Americans, not massive programs, but smaller and targeted ones for the worst off. Doesn’t much sound like Hooverism to me.
With supporters like he has in the netroots, who needs enemies?
CaseyL
Today I attended not one, but two job fairs.
The representatives at both basically kept repeating “Check out the job listings on our website,” as if most of us haven’t been doing exactly that for the past 12 months.
At the first one, billed as a Diversity Recruiting Fair, I would ask what I needed, what my resume needed to say, in order to make it past the first set of filters. They would say “when you talk about your qualifications, use the same terminology as we have in the advert,” which I already knew. It’s a bit disconcerting, if not outright scary, that I know more about the recruiting process than the recruiters do.
The second job fair was aimed mostly at tech and finance people, which excludes me, but I went anyway and left resumes in a bunch of recruiter bins. I was hoping actual recruiters from those companies would attend, but there were hardly any, so the event was mostly unemployed people schmoozing with one another. Which is kind of funny when you think about it, since a lot of them could wind up competing for the same job.
I cannot express how much – how widely, deeply and vastly – being unemployed for 8+ months sucks.
Martin
@DougJ: Ok, I don’t understand that response.
There’s spending that helps the economy and there’s spending that doesn’t. If Obama is proposing cutting the former, I’m right there with y’all, but I’m not certain that jives with some of the other things that has been reported:
So, in addition to the freeze that’s supposed to cripple the economy, he’s also proposing increased spending to low- middle-income. Will that too cripple the economy?
That’s what I’m getting at – everyone is drawing conclusions on two words that don’t seem to align with everything else being said.
JGabriel
@General Winfield Stuck:
Actually, the bulk of that was committed under Bush.
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WaterGirl
@Chuck Butcher: At first I thought you might be joking, then I realized you must have missed the 400+ comment thread from yesterday.
https://balloon-juice.com/?p=33341#comments
DougJ
I cannot express how much – how widely, deeply and vastly – being unemployed for 8+ months sucks.
Very sorry to hear of this. Good luck.
Chuck Butcher
Fuck, I give up
Honestly
A comedian is worth a couple hundred comment and this is dismissed as…nada? Oh I need details. How about squalling in advance rather than after you’ve been fucked? Nah, that’s lefty shit. ok
General Winfield Stuck
@Martin: Stop it now. Yer harshing a good libtard poutrage.
AkaDad
@DougJ:
I don’t think Obama’s plan is to go all Hoover on the economy, but I could be wrong.
Do you think the average American knows about Hoover or would they most likely agree with the way I framed it?
General Winfield Stuck
@Chuck Butcher: It hasn’t been dismissed, we been pounding it in several previous threads.
DougJ
So, in addition to the freeze that’s supposed to cripple the economy, he’s also proposing increased spending to low- middle-income.
I’m not accusing Obama of being Hoover, I’m saying that this (from a AKA) is Hooverist:
I don’t mean “Hooverist” as a pejorative here. That is exactly what Herbert Hoover’s philosophy was. And it didn’t work out well.
General Winfield Stuck
@JGabriel: 350 million was out of 700 million TARP, plus all the big auto bailout money. And the 800 bil Stimulus. My point is comparing a proposed spending freeze that likely relates to tiny inflationary adjustments that we don’t have details on yet is stunning to me, and from his alleged supporters no less. And what does it matter if Bush spent the first 350 bill of TARP, it is spending nonetheless, and recent.
DougJ
Do you think the average American knows about Hoover or would they most likely agree with the way I framed it?
They would agree with the way you framed it, you’re right. They would also agree with the way Hoover framed it, though.
The idea that the government should cut back during a recession is Hooverist. It’s not something many economists believe in a post-Keynes world. That’s just a fact.
Maybe it’s great that Obama is framing things this way and it will help in midterms. And I get that it’s an artificial freeze in that money will be cut some places and increased in others.
But I don’t like Hooverist rhetoric from Democrats any more than I like creationist rhetoric from neocons. Maybe it’s politically effective, but it’s disingenuous and I don’t like it.
WaterGirl
@CaseyL:
Duh! That is scary. If that’s the best they can do, the companies they represent are in big trouble.
I wish there was something I could say that would help. As it is, all I can say is that I’m really sorry you’re in this situation. It really does suck.
Martin
@Chuck Butcher:
I’m not dismissing, it Chuck. I’m waiting. What I’m hearing from the ‘sources’ is contradictory, that’s all I’m saying. Obama’s plan could indeed suck, but I can wait 24 hours to find out something that hasn’t gone from an unsourced individual through the DC media meatgrinder that we so proudly make fun of.
It strikes me odd that we’d spend so much time beating up the villagers and then as soon as they whisper something we don’t like, we treat it like it was written in Leviticus or something. Maybe if we didn’t know when or if we’d get real details of something, I could understand it better, but on every channel but Fox tomorrow, we’ll know something more substantial, and we’ll have shit in writing on Thursday.
And I agree on the tax increases. Those are coming for free next year. And it sounds like Obama might actually be listening to the right people on financial reform and maybe we’ll see those pigfuckers on Wall Street start putting into the kitty as well. I’m hoping we’ll hear more about that tomorrow.
General Winfield Stuck
They are so like the same thing. Sorry to see the purity pods have got you tonight.
Chuck Butcher
Yes. oooops I was AWOL yesterday. I anticipate going very AWOL from all of it.
AkaDad
Fair enough.
Edit: Wait, I think I was supposed call you a douche or something. Maybe next time.
Chuck Butcher
The BushCo tax cuts were horseshit of the first water, but only an extension of previous horseshit. Everybody gets it about punitive taxes on cigarette smokers but somehow it misses them where wealth is concerned.
I don’t like stupid shit from pols, I especially don’t like right wing framing from Democrats. But … fuck it.
General Winfield Stuck
Maybe it’s my Obotness blocking the light, but of all the freakouts lately from our side about our sides president, this one over using the “freeze” word and the accusations of wingnut framing without bothering to check out what Obama has in mind, pretty much takes the cake for me.
I feel like Dudley Do-Right, facing a thousand trains coming down the track from every direction and the Damsel in Distress is stuck to the tracks with Crazy Glue.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@DougJ:
I am waiting for specific details before passing judgment, like I hope any other intelligent being would. I agree that a freeze or cut during a downturn/depression can be stupid but that depends what the depth of the is freeze or cut and the item/project being frozen or cut. Anyone who thinks that government already runs lean and mean has lead for brains, I have no doubt that there are worthy targets for temporary (or permanent) cuts or freezes, just as there are unworthy, thus stupid, cuts or freezes.
If we are going to be spending on jobs and rebuilding the economy then we also need to focus on questionable spending, projects and unnecessary waste. Believe me, people are willing to be more tolerant of government spending if it is being channeled their way and not into their buddies pockets (with the appropriate graft going where deserved!) via pet projects that we also call “pork projects”.
I will have no problem calling Obama out if I think parts of it (or even all of it) are stupid. There is this saying about bridges and not crossing them until you get to them. What are we getting into here, preemptive attacks of worry that do absolutely nothing but feed the malcontents? There’s that and the thought that no matter what I say or worry about this right now, his announcing it is preordained, written out, ready to read and there is nothing I can say or do that will change anything.
Patience Grasshopper. ;)
Wile E. Quixote
@General Winfield Stuck:
Well as long as you’re not the cow on the tracks…
General Winfield Stuck
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
When Clinton used to do things like this, it was called “triangulation” and considered cool. Obama does it and it’s “right wing framing”
Martin
@General Winfield Stuck: Gorilla Glue is awesome stuff.
I think my problem is that I’m just not a freakout kind of person. It’s not that I don’t care – but I really see things in an inertial kind of way. I don’t expect that Obama is suddenly going to go all Grover Norquist on us. Though maybe he’s just trying to make Jane happy…
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@General Winfield Stuck:
What I find funny is that we give the right wing ownership of words that describe certain things that we identify as wingnut and then get pissed when these words are used by the left to describe something…lol!
Word purity!
Martin
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
Not to mention that the left 3 days ago would have been happy to demand cuts to corporate subsidies, spending for abstinence programs (which I realize has already been ended) and all manner of other things that they don’t like. But as soon as he says we won’t spend more (that’s what a freeze is, folks) on unspecified programs, he’s turned into Newt Fucking Gringrich, trying to wreck the economy.
General Winfield Stuck
@Martin: I think it likely is a political ploy with little real substance behind it. Prolly to defuse charges of tax and spend liberal memes wingers always pound dems on. Imagine that, Obama, an actual politician doing politician stuff to thwart the other side, shocker. Must be a wingnut in disguise.
But this sort of thing also has a psychological effect in the business community, who for right or wrong reasons loosen up some if they hear signs from DC about curtailing government spending.
Martin
@General Winfield Stuck: Right. I just don’t see that this is going to be a big deal, and I just don’t see that Obama is going to go out of his way to piss off the left heading into an election that he knows Dems will need a momentum boost to win. It just makes no sense that he’d do it, and say what you will, Obama just doesn’t do overtly stupid things like that – particularly when it gets the magnitude of attention that the SOTU receives from the policy folks.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Martin:
What I’m curious about, and surprised nobody else here has mentioned, is exactly which states, districts and congresscritters are going to be affected by this. Could this be a hit at something near and dear to the opposition? A way for the prez to say ‘Ok, you want to talk about being responsible and not wasting money? Let’s dance.’ since they are giving him so much grief about doing anything and decrying everything he is doing as burying our government in tons of debt?
The items/projects that are going to be listed were implemented by someone and that same someone is going to be howling at the moon about any cut or freeze. This is going to piss off some congresscritters and I am waiting for the congressional howling to commence so I can spot the wolves among the sheep.
Note: I know that not all howling will be that of the wolves if any bad cuts or freezes are offered. That will be our sheep bleating for us. ;)
Martin
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): Congress doesn’t really worry about any of that, though. First, they have earmarks to solve that problem. Second, if Obama cuts money from Arizona (for example), he can trust McCain will hit the campaign trail blaming Obama for punishing hard working Arizonans.
They’ll find a way to turn it into a positive.
Chuck Butcher
I’d say the word that tells you what horseshit this talk is would be “Non-security”. With this disfunctional Congress I’d say any real harm being done pro-actively is unlikely. Maybe I ought to be pleased the idjits are paralysed.
ominira
Anyone planning to liveblog TED2010? Seriously, that would be great.
JGabriel
@General Winfield Stuck: I was strictly addressing the bailout, most of which was committed to various recipients under Bush, no matter when it was spent. It’s a pet peeve of mine: conflating the bailout with the stimulus, and then blaming the whole mess on Obama, tends to be a right-wing frame.
I’m not saying you were blaming it all on Obama (you weren’t!), but there was some definite conflating there — which is why I felt compelled to jump in with the reminder about the bailout, and the crash that made it necessary, occurring under Bush.
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JGabriel
@General Winfield Stuck:
Actually, Hooverist rhetoric (most people forget, or never learned, that it was Hoover, not Reagan, who first popularized trickle-down theory) and creationism are quite similar, to the extent that they both remain popular despite being widely discredited in their respective fields of economics and biology.
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Keith G
@jnfr: Thanks for the tip. It looks like a good match.
RedKitten
Sigh…why is Stephen Harper giving the keynote address? I suppose Canada weathered the financial crisis better than most, but still.
polyorchnid octopunch
Well, imho if they’re having Harper do it because of how well our banking system weathered the crisis, they really should get Paul Martin to give the keynote, ’cause it’s really his fault.