Bravo! Some McCain supporters with sense chased away some folks who were offering more “Obama is a Muslim” rhetoric at a McCain/Palin rally. I have been a very loud voice in bashing the bigots among us, but it makes me hopeful that there are those who support McCain who will not stand for this foolishness. It pleased me even more to see a representative of the McCain campaign flatly state that they do not want these bigots and their so called “support” in the upcoming election.
Greetings from a former Dittohead. Back in the early 90′s, I was an avid listener to your radio show. I thoroughly enjoyed your sense of humor and your willingness to lampoon and annoy politicians and public figures that took themselves and their causes a little too seriously. I embraced your brand of conservatism that held the idea that Americans could look out for themselves without the help of Big Government. I was 21 years old and in college. I didn’t need Government to help me get anywhere and I didn’t see how anyone else did.
Then I grew up.
When I was in college, I believed that the decisions and agreements that individuals made were the result of negotiations between two equal parties. I believed that people made decisions based on rational self interest. I believed that getting a job was just a matter of performing work for an employer to the best of my ability in exchange for a salary. I believed that it was in the company’s best interest to look out their employees because the employees looked out for the company’s best interests. I believed that buying a house or a car was simply a matter of determining how much you could reasonably afford, then negotiating in good faith with the seller to buy the house or car that you wanted. I believed that people were basically honest and fair, and that only a few bad apples were the kind of “bad guys” who made the evening news.
Then I grew up.
I lost a job that I had been in for years because someone else, who had no idea what I did, told the man in charge that he could save money by firing me. (“All he does is… I can do that!“) This very same person was on the phone a week later asking me how to do the very things that were my job responsibility. I had a house payment and credit cards to pay off, and unemployment insurance (there’s that Government thing again) was the difference between me staying in my house and having to foreclose or even declare bankruptcy. Government didn’t fix anything for me, but it sure as hell helped. My employer certainly wasn’t looking out for me.
I eventually picked myself up from that fiasco and became gainfully employed again. It was time for me to purchase a new car. I was smart enough to know that car salesmen aren’t the most trustworthy characters, but I had no idea… We had agreed on a financing package. The interest rate and terms were reasonable and we shook hands. When I double-checked the paperwork, the terms in the contract were completely different than what we had agreed on. If I had trusted the handshake deal, I would have been stuck paying an extra year’s worth of payments on a car, paying 5000-6000 dollars more than the car was worth. I would have had nobody to blame but myself, but it galled me that the person whose hand I had just shaken in agreement would try to rip me off so blatantly. These are the people who am I supposed to trust without needing the recourse of an effective government?
You see? When I was a dittohead, I didn’t understand what Government did well. I knew they funded roads and the military, and I knew that everything they touched turned into a monstrous bureaucracy. What good is Government when it comes to issues like health care, or employment law, or the environment?
Then I learned that rather than being “basically honest and fair”, most people are opportunistic jackals who will steal you blind then sell you a shopping cart to carry around the remainder of your worldly possessions. Doctors don’t prescribe drugs that are best for you, they push what the drug companies pay them to sell. Bankers don’t care that you’re out of a home. They just want to earn 400,000 dollars on a 30 year, 150,000 dollar loan. Employers don’t care that you have a wife and daughter that you are working to take care of, they just see you as a line on their payroll budget. If times get tough, they’ll cut (you) and run, taking the remainder of the company’s assets in the form of a golden parachute and leave you twisting in the wind.
Is Government any better? Not really. Government bureaucracy is a nightmare of byzantine rules that can result in paying 600 dollars for a toilet seat. But do you know what the biggest difference between government and the private sector is? If government does a bad job, I can vote the bastards out every few years. I can punt them to the street and give the other guy a chance to make things better. If I get screwed by the corporate conglomerate who tries to weasel their way out of a severance package, or who outsources my job to India in order to make his stock options worth a few more dollars I have no recourse. I have no leverage. I have no power.
With power comes responsibility. I am responsible for learning about the candidates and the issues that are important to them. I’ve said elsewhere that the only deciding factor for a voter in an election is the answer to the question “Are you better off now than you were…?” and that’s true to an extent. No candidate agrees with every voter on every issue. In a two party system, you have a choice to keep going in the same direction or change direction.
Which brings us back to you, Rush. I can understand why you would not support Barack Obama on one level. He’s not conservative in any sense of the term. He is going to expand the power and scope of government, and I understand why that isn’t always a good thing. On the other hand, how in the world can you support John McCain? The Bush administration has been one of the worst examples of Big Government run amok in history. McCain has toed the party line 90% of the time and represents a logical continuation of the last 8 years. Is this the “get government out of our way” type of government you were looking for when I was young?
I might understand if it were a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils, but your demonization of Obama’s supporters is out of line. This weekend, I watched a respected former member of the current administration, General Colin Powell, detail his reasons for supporting Barack Obama. I watched him articulately state the reasons that Obama was a better choice than John McCain.
Then I watched you say “Powell is only supporting Obama because he’s black.”
Then I went back in time a little bit and remembered this bit from your brief stint on ESPN.
Then I went back and found some clips like this one…
Seriously? Really?
Rush, you have become a caricature of the very worst traits of the Conservative movement. Instead of acting as a leader for your audience and elevating the debate, you shamelessly pander to the most ignorant and uninformed among us. You march in front of a mob claiming to lead a great movement, but you spend your time looking over your shoulder to make sure that the crowd is still behind you. You are the most feckless, callow, and weak talk show host in a crowd of cowards. The only reason this upsets me at all is that I remember a time when I thought otherwise.
It seems that the good folks at In Jesus (Mexican Gay Porn?) have solved the mystery of why a formerly respected Republican “Maverick” has turned into a doddering fool in only 8 short years.
I especially like how they refer to Senator Obama as “B. Hussein Obama”. Nice touch, as if we didn’t quite get the hint that Obama was a “Scary black Muslim who practices witchcraft and is going to kill us all once Satan makes him President of the United God Fearing States of Holy Jesusland.”
Among the more ludicrous claims…
Obama is 75% Arab and a Muslim. (so which one of Obama’s grandparents is the non-arab? Would it be the ones from Kenya? or the two who lived in Kansas all their lives?)
Obama’s cousin, Odinga, wakes up at 3:00 AM every morning to lay a new curse on John McCain and Sarah Palin. (“Hear me mighty mum-fu-fu, spirit of politics! May Sarah Palin be forced to appear on a weekly comedy show!“)
Obama’s family are simultaneously Muslim, Satanist, and “Tribal” (Does that mean that Obama finances his campaign from Casino revenues or something?)
Oprah and her “200 million followers” all support Obama (This one might be close to truth, although I am not sure the number is as low as 200 million.)
“Dick Morris of Fox News” was sent to Kenya to help Obama’s cousin run for president of the country! (OH THE HU-HANNITY!!!)
I think the most interesting bit of information from these lunatics is that even the rabid Krispy Kristian Koalition thinks that McCain “looks confused and like an idiot”.
There’s a campaign slogan for you. “John McCain, even the religious nutbags think he’s lost it.”
This should come as no surprise because there is one former Bush cabinet secretary who still has his personal integrity intact. There is one former Bush cabinet secretary who saw what was going on 4 years ago and said “No, I will not be a part of this.” I’m talking, of course, about General Colin Powell.
In case you need a refresher on the circumstances behind Powell’s departure as Secretary of State, the Bush administration forced Powell out because he was frequently at odds with cabinet members such as Donald Rumsfeld. Powell never went public or spoke negatively about his time in the administration and has consistently taken the high road in all discussions on the matter. As a result, he has maintained favorable opinion with most of the American public, and his endorsement of Obama is a severe blow to the McCain campaign.
Predictably, McCain has moved to counter the blow by mentioning that every other living Republican former Secretary of State has endorsed Senator McCain. To paraphrase Chris Farley… La-deee-Fricking-dah. Republicans endorsing one of their own is no surprise, and frankly, not much of an endorsement. Is there anyone out there who thinks “Well, Nixon’s Secretary of State endorses McCain. That’s good enough for me!”
Having a former member of the current administration endorse the candidate from the other party, on the other hand, speaks volumes about the ineptitude of Bush and, by extension, a presumptive McCain administration.
Government costs money. The protections that society provides, as agreed upon by “We the People” aren’t free. The Army isn’t free, public roads aren’t free, emergency services aren’t free, schools aren’t free. To pay for these things, government has been given the authority (once again, by “We the people”) to levy taxes.
Under this structure, the question is not whether or not we pay taxes, but how much, and for what services.
The United States, given the size of it’s population and economy has one of the lowest individual tax rates in the industrialized world.
Of course, that doesn’t stop us from spending more money than all of these countries. Perhaps you’ve heard, but the national debt is up to 10 TRILLION dollars. In the last 8 years, our administration has done two things (among others)
Lowered the highest marginal income tax rate to 35%
Gone from a budget surplus to nearly a 1 trillion dollar per year deficit.
Do I need to draw you a freakin’ map?
To the argument of “It’s our money! We deserve to keep it!”
Yes, you earned the money. Of course, we paid for the roads that you take to work, the infrastructure that allows your to enjoy electricity and clean water without having to produce it yourself, and the police that keep you safe at night. We also chipped in 700 BILLION dollars recently to keep your investments from going in the tank.
If you think you can do it all on your own, you’re wrong.
If you don’t like the things that government spends it’s money on, you get a say-so. You get to vote on the folks who are going to spend those tax dollars. You get to help decide where the money goes. Stop acting like “Government is THEM”. Government is YOU, it’s all of us.
But if that won’t persuade you, then how about this?
Tell me again about “redistribution”? In fact, the bailout was more than any individual budgetary category in the Federal budget including Social Security and National Defense. You could even throw in the budgets for the Justice Department (43 billion), Environmental activities (EPA, etc… 33 billion), Foreign Affairs (32 Billion), Agriculture (27 Billion), Science and Technology (25 Billion), Energy (20 Billion) and General Government Activities (20 Billion) and STILL not add up to the size of the Wall Street bailout.
Government is not “Robin Hood”. Government exists to perform functions in a scale that is typically more efficient and effective than if that function was performed in the private sector. We may disagree on what those functions are, but it is indisputable that we must pay for the functions that government performs whether or not we agree with how they perform them. As long as there is government, there will be taxes. A 10 trillion dollar debt means that we have not paid our collective tab.
A Marianna middle-school teacher has been suspended for 10 days without pay after he wrote a racially charged interpretation of a commonly used phrase in the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.
While some parents and community activists were outraged by the actions of Greg Howard, Jackson County NAACP officials want to gather more facts before the group considers taking action. But some parents feel Howard should be fired.
Larry Moore, deputy superintendent for the Jackson County School District, said school officials determined Howard wrote an acronym with an explanation on a dry-erase board in his class Sept. 26 at Marianna Middle School.
It said, “C.H.A.N.G.E. — Come Help A (N-word) Get Elected.”
I would like to take a moment and applaud Mr. Howard and salute his courage. Sure, it would be easy to join in the chorus of folks demanding his head for being a racist prick. Sure, it would be easy to point out that this redneck has no business being near children, much less teaching them. Sure, it would be easy to dismiss him as just another member of the inbred-slack jawed-hillbilly-terra cotta toothed-sister fucking-redneck morons in this country who still think that the color of a person’s skin matters when it comes to holding the office of President.
No. I think more Americans who think this way should make themselves heard. I think every racist imbecile in America should speak up loud and proud and declare their feelings for all the world to see.
That way, I know where they are and can avoid contact. That kind of stupidity might be contagious.
Years ago, back when he was still funny, Dennis Miller had a line about racism in the public discourse. He had words for all of those who were galled that groups like the KKK could hide behind First Amendment protections while parading their idiocy in front of the entire world.
(loosely paraphrased)
“Having the First Amendment in this country results in politicians like David Duke. No First Amendment results in politicians like Adolf Hitler.”
While it might frighten you that hicks like this have a vote that counts just as much as yours does, take heart that there are a lot more of “us” out there than there are of “them”. Making them part of the public discourse will further marginalize their viewpoints and make it much for difficult for a political party to cater to that base. It’s not like those ideas are going to survive very long in the glare of the public spotlight. Racism is a mushroom. It thrives when in the dark and surrounded by bullshit.
Sure, you might see the Al Jazeera logo at the bottom of this screen, but those are Americans that are making us look bad, not the announcer who just happens to be speaking the truth.
Let’s address these comments one by one… They are all ludicrous to the point of hilarity, but for the sake of argument, I’m going to tackle them anyway. I need the laugh this morning.
“I’m afraid that if he wins, the black will take over”
Yeah, because he’ll pass that “Kill Whitey” law that the black community has been clamoring for all these years. Pay no attention to Congress or the Supreme Court or the fact that the President can’t pass any laws on his own. Whitey is gonna PAY when Obama is in the White (racist) House.
“He’s not a Christian! This is a Christian Nation!”
Oh, so then the Reverend Jeremiah Wright scandal was completely made up! How could Obama have anything to do with Reverend Wright if he isn’t a Christian in the first place! It still amazes me that a constituency that can recite the Second Amendment so passionately and eloquently is completely ignorant of the First Amendment. You remember that one, right? “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”? You can find it just before you get to the part about “Freedom of Speech” which is another clause that the Republican Party likes to ignore.
“When you’ve got a nigger running for president, you need a first stringer. He’s definitely a second stringer”
Maybe if Obama broke into a chorus of “Mammy”, he could move into the starting lineup, eh? What’s the matter? Is Obama not “uppity” enough for you, Mr John Deere hat?
Fuck. We’re 30 seconds into a 2 minute video. It gets worse.
“He seems like a…wolf in sheep’s clothing. Now Palin… She’s filled with the holy spirit.”
She’s filled with something alright. Seriously, if Christians are this stupid, how did that religion survive for 2000 years? I know this is a fundamentalist minority in Christianity, but let’s compare a list of atrocities between Christianity and Islam some time. It’s easy to blame “Islam” for the world’s ills, but don’t forget that our side has a few extremists too.
“He’s related to a known terrorist”
Who? Did Bill Ayers adopt him or something?
“He is friends with a terrorist of this country”
This would be an inconvenient time to bring up the connections between the Bush family and the Bin Ladens, eh? The Bill Ayers story has been beaten into the ground already. The fact that this “connection” is gaining traction with members of the Republican base says more about the intelligence of the average republican voter than it does about Senator Obama’s character.
“Just the whole… Muslim thing and everything”
Sorry lady, you can put it in vague language all you like, but you’re still a bigot. A bigot that is too stupid to understand that Obama is not a Muslim. You’re part of the problem.
“Obama and his wife… I’m concerned that they could be anti-white”
Project much?
“I don’t like the fact that he thinks us white people are trash.”
Not all white people, lady. Just you. In this case, he happens to be right.
The commentator in this news video introduces the video, then does not speak again until 1:20 of the 2:08 video. The pictures tell the story. The commentator introduces a pro-Obama protester, who happens to be white and is called “Baby Killer”, “Nigger”, and “Muslim” by the Republicans in attendance. He plainly states that he is afraid that one of these whack-jobs is going to try to kill Obama, and his fears aren’t that unreasonable.
“The divisive nature of this campaign has brought out into the open what is usually discussed behind closed doors in America. It’s a reminder that hate and fear are still powerful forces in American deciding(sic).”
The one good thing about all of this is that it is bringing racists and racism out into the open again. Let the world know where you stand. Are you a racist, bigoted moron? Or not? Why is the Republican party such a stronghold of white racism? Why do racist minorities flock to the Democratic party? Let’s not pretend that only white people are idiots like this. What is it that is keeping racism alive, and how do we kill it?
That’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone use “quotation fingers” around the word health.
“So called ‘heath’”?
“Alleged ‘health’”?
“‘Health’ is just a code word for a welfare mom who doesn’t want to hatch out a 17th kid”?
“‘Health’… is the extreme pro-abortion position”
WHAT?!?
Damn those mothers who want to keep on living. How dare they inconvenience our health care system with their silly desire to breathe. Sorry, I can’t even mock this idea effectively because it’s too ridiculous on it’s own merits.
Abortion is none of the government’s business and watching the religious right try to fight this issue is a comic exercise in ignorance, prejudice, and stupidity all rolled into one.
Schieffer: But even if it was someone — even someone who had a history of being for abortion rights, you would consider them?
McCain: I would consider anyone in their qualifications. I do not believe that someone who has supported Roe v. Wade that would be part of those qualifications. But I certainly would not impose any litmus test.
Schieffer: All right.
No, it’s not all right. In one sentence, McCain says that someone who supports Roe v Wade is not qualified to be a judge on the Supreme Court. In the VERY NEXT SENTENCE, he says “I certainly would not impose any litmus test”.
Litmus Test: A litmus test is a question asked of a potential candidate for high office, the answer to which would determine whether the nominating official would choose to proceed with the appointment or nomination. (The expression is a metaphor based on the litmus test in chemistry.) Those who must approve a nominee, such as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, may also be said to apply a litmus test to determine whether the nominee will receive their vote. In these contexts, the phrase comes up most often with respect to nominations to the judiciary.
If you’re going to bullshit, at least put in a couple of sentences of fluff about how you are fighting for a person’s right to life. (even though you support the death penalty)
Then, of course, there is Joe the Plumber…
I have a few questions for Mr. “The Plumber”.
1) Since when do plumbers make more than 250,000 per year? (No, really… I might consider a career change)
2) According to the data provided by CNN and mentioned in an earlier column here, the tax burden for people making between 250,000 and 650,000 dollars will increase, on average, by 12 dollars per year. If such an additional burden means that you are now unable to afford to buy your own business, then isn’t your capital stretched just a little thin already?
3) How, exactly, did you manage to appear on Fox News almost immediately after your “spontaneous” encounter with Senator Obama?
Wait just a minute…
In the first few seconds of this clip, you mention that your business makes between 270,000 and 280,000 dollars per year.
You’re seriously telling us that paying an additional 12 dollars per year in taxes (on average), one dollar per month, is the difference between you being able to afford your own business and not being able to afford it?
Bullshit.
In fact, since I will admit that I’m using an “average” figure to come up with 12 dollars/year, let’s look at EXACTLY how much more “Joe the Plumber” will pay in taxes under Obama’s plan.
FACT: Obama will raise the marginal tax rate on income greater than 250,000 dollars per year from 35% to 39%.
FACT: Marginal tax rate affects only the income within a particular bracket.
CONCLUSION: Given Joe’s statement that he makes between 270 and 280 thousand dollars, here are the numbers.
270,000-250,000 = 20,000 dollars taxed at the highest marginal tax rate.
280,000-250,000 = 30,000 dollars taxed at the highest marginal tax rate.
Under the current tax code, Joe pays between 7,000 and 10,500 dollars per year at the highest marginal tax rate. (35%)
Under Obama’s tax plan, Joe would pay between 7,800 and 11,700 dollars per year in taxes at the highest marginal tax rate. (39%)
Net difference: 800 dollars per year.
So 800 dollars per year, not counting the elimination of Capital Gains taxes for small businesses is the difference between “Joe the Plumber” being able to afford his own business and not being able to afford it? Sure, that’s a bit more than the 12 dollars/month cited elsewhere, but we haven’t yet discussed the savings from Obama’s “Making Work Pay” program that would put an additional 500 dollars per year in Joe’s pocket (whoops, final number just dropped to 300 dollars per year) nor have we mentioned reductions in lower marginal tax rates that would bring the overall tax burden down significantly.
800 dollars per year translates to about 16 bucks per week. (300 ~ 6 dollars/week)
Perhaps if Joe cut out a couple of six packs per month, he’d be able to afford that business of his after all. The fact is, if the success or failure of his business depends on less than 20 dollars per week, maybe Joe is riding a little too close to the edge, financially, to be successful as a business owner at this time. Maybe another year or two might help Joe stabilize his financial position to the point where a cup of coffee each day won’t be the difference between success and failure.
While watching the debate last night, I thought that McCain clearly outperformed Obama in the first 30 minutes or so. The “Joe the Plumber” references were really hitting home and illustrating the difference between McCain’s plan and Obama’s plan. The problem is that folks like you and me can go back and check the facts, run the numbers, and watch previous speeches and debates to see where candidates have fudged facts or outright lied to us.
In fact, Jon Stewart and friends have made a rather successful TV show based on this concept. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.
While some parents and community activists were outraged by the actions of Greg Howard, Jackson County NAACP officials want to gather more facts before the group considers taking action. But some parents feel Howard should be fired.