Keith Olbermann goes ballistic on hearing that President Obama didn’t raise taxes. Basically Keith calls the president a low-down, plate-licking, dime-pinching, two-faced, snake oil salesman for not raising taxes just when the economy needs it most. That’s the polite version. What he actually says is worse. You can read it yourself.
Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on the tax compromise.
AdvertisementTo paraphrase Churchill, again, let me begin by saying the most unpopular and most unwelcome thing: “that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road. We should know that we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole equilibrium of American politics and policy have been deranged, and that the terrible words have for the time being, been pronounced against this Administration: ‘thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting’.”
In exchange for selling out a principle campaign pledge, and the people to whom and for whom it was made. In exchange for betraying the truth that the idle and corporate rich of this country have gotten unprecedented and wholly indefensible tax cuts for a decade. In exchange for giving the idle and corporate rich of this country two more years in which to accumulate still more, and more vast piles of personal wealth with which they can buy and sell everybody else.
In exchange for extending what he spent the weeks before the mid-terms calling “tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires” to people who have proven, without a scintilla of doubt, without even a fig leaf of phony effort to make it look like they would do otherwise, that they will keep the money for themselves.
In exchange for injecting new vigor into the infantile, moronic, disproved-for-a-decade three-card monte game of an economic theory purveyed by these treacherous and ultimately traitorous Republicans, that tax cuts for the rich will somehow lead to job creation even though if that had ever been true in the slightest the economy would not be where it is today.
In exchange for giving tax cuts for the rich which the nation cannot afford, and extending their vintage through the next election and thus promising at best a reenactment of this whole sorry, amoral, degrading spectacle in the winter of 2012 and at worst a rubber-stamp from a wholly Republican House and Senate and even White House.
In exchange for this searing and transcendent capitulation, the President got just thirteen months of extended benefits for those unemployed less than 100 weeks. And he got nothing absolutely nothing for those unemployed for longer — the 99ers.
This the Administration is celebrating — taking the victims of Republican Economic Policy, taking the living breathing proof that the Bush Tax Cuts for the rich do not create jobs, and putting economic bullseyes on their backs as of next December.
On the one hand— Unaffordable Tax breaks for the beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts, made ever more permanent as they threaten to suck four trillion dollars out of government revenues in the next decade.
On the other hand: An insufficient dead-end unemployment solution for Americans who would actually work for a living, made ever more temporary.
And we are hearing nothing about those 99ers. Even though the numbers of them will balloon from two million to four million or more by next December, even with this deal. Even though just last Thursday, the President’s own Council of Economic Advisers reiterated the reality that the easiest way to create jobs and keep jobs is to make sure that the unemployed continue to have money to spend.
.The unemployed — unlike the rich whom this President has just bowed to are, in fact, the job creators. They do not have investment portfolios to expand. They do not have vast savings into which to stuff the government checks. They have to spend the money. And the Council reported last week that when someone becomes a 99er his or her household loses at least a third of its income.
And where the 99er was the sole breadwinner — four households out of ten — they lose 9/10ths of their income.
The economy is surprisingly simple. If business and the rich won’t spend, and the middle class can’t spend, the only factor left to keep pushing money into the insatiable maw of capitalism is the government.
So, should the government give the money to the rich who keep it, or the not rich, who spend it? Apparently this President does not know the answer to that question. Even though he has his own Council of Economic Advisers.
Mr. President, for these meager crumbs, you have given up costly, insulting, divisive, destructive tax cuts for the rich and you have given in to Republican blackmail which will be followed by more Republican blackmail. Of course, it’s not just tax cuts for the rich that you’ve given up.
There is also your new temporary payroll tax holiday, establishing a precedent that the way money is pumped into Social Security should be negotiated and traded off and making it just that much easier to gut Social Security later.
And, oh by the way, in the middle of a crisis over making temporary Republican tax cuts permanent, you give the Republicans another temporary Republican tax cut that they can come back later to blackmail you into making permanent. Well, Sir, at least that’s the end of it.
Except, of course, for the estate tax, what Republicans so happily call, “the death tax.” Which will be reduced from its 2009 levels.
Huh?
The money given by one dead rich person to some living rich persons, will not be taxed, up to five million dollars. More than five million and it’s 35 percent — which is less than it was under the tax laws of President Bush’s last fiscal year. Sir, you have given undeserved tax breaks —and you have carved them a little more deeply into the stone of law – to rich people, living and dead. And you want me to tell them which Democrat proposed the Estate Tax giveaway?
Blanche Lincoln! Blanche Lincoln, repudiated by nearly half the Arkansans in her own party, and then repudiated by 63 percent of the voters in Arkansas. Mr. President, you’re listening to Blanche Lincoln? What? Were Bob Beckel and Pat Caddell unavailable?
This President negotiates down from a position of strength better than any politician in our recent history. It is too late now to go back and ask why the President, why the wobbly Democratic leadership, whiffed on its chance to force John Boehner to put his money where his mouth was. In September Boehner said if he had no other option, of course he would vote to extend tax breaks only for the middle class.
So the President and the Democrats gave him another option, naturally. But didn’t extending the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy became necessary to get Republican support for extending the jobless benefits? Nonsense.
Five times in the last two years, the Republicans have gone along with extending those jobless benefits, and they’ve done it without being bribed with tax cuts for the rich. Even now Boehner’s September confession, and the GOP’s unwillingness to take the blame for killing off jobless benefits, offered an alternative blueprint for this President:
Let the law expire as scheduled in 24 days. Let all the tax breaks go, and when the Republicans take over the House and try to pass them anew, if they somehow are not stopped in the Senate, veto anything that does not keep tax cuts for the middle class and unemployment benefits as the dog, and perks for the rich as the tail. The GOP is still terrified of being blamed for cutting off the unemployed. You take that fact and you break them with it.
There is only one possible rational explanation for this irrational and childish transaction. There are Republicans and Tea Partiers who are still intent on cutting off their noses to spite their faces — the “Blind Rage Conservatives” for whom any compromise is disaster, just as for this President, apparently no compromise is disaster.
Maybe the reason the Administration’s numbers don’t add up in this deal is that it was too busy instead counting votes and there really are enough on the Far Right to sink it and the President winds up having his cake and eating it too, proposing what he can call a “tax compromise” and then having it derailed publicly and embarrassingly by the Republicans. Maybe the political calculus here exceeds both in priority and quality, the real calculus.
But I deeply doubt it. Yesterday I had an exchange with a very Senior member of this Administration who wanted to sell me on this deal. I pointed out that that was fine, except that — as I phrased it to him — “frankly the base has just vanished.” “Well,” he replied, “then they must not have read the details.” There, in a nutshell, is this Administration. They didn’t make a bad deal — we just don’t understand it.
I think if this keeps up we will hear Olbermann say “this stupid n*gger.” It’s possible. Progressives often reach the point where they think their use of such language is protected because of their record of condemning racism. Then they discover all shields go down when you enter certain quadrants.
Go, Olby, go!
This was Mardi Gras, right?
Thanks for the laugh.
Where are the clowns and the little cars?
The man clearly is insane. Why does anyone take him at all seriously?
Eric Hines
What a d**k. Cry me a river Queef. You’re tears are so sweet. It’s funny how the left is always crying about equality but then go on to scream about tax cuts for all Americans that includes the evil
rich. There is no negotiating with Queef and his ilk. They believe it is “right” to take from others what they themselves have not earned. I haven’t read the bill but from what I hear it could be worse and it could be better. I’d like the rate to go down even further and become permanent. I’d also like to see us not owing so much money to the Chi-coms but I’m not an economist or financier so I’m not sure how I’d go about it. I think sealing the border (or annexing Sonora) would help reduce our Medicaid spending thereby shoring up some of the budgets in the states. The big gripe from some on the right is that we could have gotten so much more. I can understand that. On the other hand, it’s set up now so that we’ll be having the tax discussion in 2012 presidential election which, to me, is smart political maneuvering by the repubs but puts politics above the state of the economy in two years. Not sure I like that.
Taxes on the rich come out mostly of investment; the rich have all the money they need, so they pay taxes with money they don’t need.
Investment, unfortunately, is capital, and capital is why the ditch digger with heavy equipment earns a thousand times more than the ditch digger with a shovel.
That earnings windfall into productivity is what trickle-down is; not dimes falling from the pockets of the rich.
Taxes on the rich convert wealth-producing investment into government entitlement consumption, and consumption without the wealth from which to consume.
That’s too complicated for the Obermann audience. If Obermann said it, the audience would get bored and tune away.
It’s not just Olbermann. Several liberals have made exactly the same comparison.
More people read the bitter word
This Olbermann decree
On Belmont Club than they were heard
On MSNBC
The Left is angry, mad as hell
That money one has earned
Belongs to him, but do not tell
That to a Lefty spurned
The Left believes in fairy tales
That money grows on trees
That’s why you hear these sobbing wails
From MSNBCs
marxists have taken over the government, nationalized major industries, quadrupled the debt, sucked 20 trillion out of the economy, shoved government health care down our throat, knocked the US down to 3rd world status….and the fruitcakes are apoplectic that it hasn’t happened faster and harder.
Little lenin has accomplished more in 23 months than Hitler was able to do in the same time period….but it ain’t enough for UberDumpkoff.
What is absolutely hilarious about this is the selective memory in play. It’s like these people have no idea there was an election a month ago and they lost big time.
The budget deal was foretold three months ago by Peter Orszag, who had served as the Director of Management and Budget in the Obama Administration. In a column published in the September 6 issue of the New York Times, Orszag wrote:
“… the best approach is a compromise: extend the tax cuts for two years and then end them altogether. …. Senate Democrats and Republicans almost never come together anymore. This month, they should fight the dual deficits rather than each other. Let’s continue the tax cuts for two years but end them for good in 2013.”
If Orszag published this idea three months ago, then I think that President Obama began preparing himself mentally for this deal at least that long ago. That is why Obama seemed to be surprisingly decisive when he concluded the final agreement.
I love it. It reminds me of George Bush and the GOP base circa 2006. Harriet Miers- nominating, amnesty- pushing, war- fumbling Jorge Arbusto enraged them and vast numbers voted democrat, stayed home, or just stopped sending money. The GOP had a rather bad year, and was on the way to another.
Well, the left has just had a rather worse year than the GOP had in 2006. Coming up, they get to defend 23 Senate seats plus a bunch of dodgy House seats held by members who get to explain why Nancy Pelosi has absolutely nothing to do with them- all while Obama slowly stumbles toward George Bush levels of popularity.
Where’s my popcorn?
Of course the core problems of the country still aren’t really being addressed- but at least I’ll get to watch the left squirm for a while before it all comes apart.
Funny Walt. OT have you read George R.R. Martin’s ongoing Ice and Fire series? I see that HBO has adapted it to the screen. I just finished the first one and am now on the second. They’re pretty good. I’m going to get around to W’s new book after I catch up with Martin. Also, I would like to read your stuff but can’t remember the names. Could you point me in the right direction by posting your pen name please? I like to read at night while my patients are sleeping and am always looking for new stuff. I’m also curious to know your favorite reads/authors. I used to read Feist but have taken a long hiatus from him after reading the Riftwar saga(an all time favorite) and Jim Butcher’s latest doesn’t come out till next year so any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.
“So, should the government give the money to the rich who keep it, or the not rich, who spend it?”
There are so many things wrong with this statement that we do not have the time to cover them all. But the most important is the delusion that the government is “giving” someone money by means of not increasing taxes. Of course, it is not the government’s money to give.
But in fact this deal will do the exact opposite. By allowing a Payroll Tax holiday the government will transfer money from the rich to the rest. There is no way that Social Security can afford to pay out benefits to people who do not contribute – it does too much of that now. And there is no way the politicians will allow those on the “holiday” to suffer the consequences of not contributing to their own retirement.
And the day will come, as surely as the Sun rises tomorrow, where the Government will turn to some and say “You don’t need it, so we are not giving you any Social Security payments.” Or else they will arrange things so that the money they do give to “those who don’t need it” disappears into taxes or inflation.
By the way, Buddy, here is something for you:
http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/p-38/p-38-wayne.html
When the expedition sent to find El Dorado realizes it’s only a hick ville in the boonies the recriminations fly fast and furious. The finger pointing must have been as bad when the architects of the Great Leap Forward realized it wouldn’t work. Every failed fantasy has a crisis moment in which someone is to blame except oneself. In Jonestown the crisis came when propaganda met reality. It wasn’t working. Who was to blame?
Jim Jones faced the classic problem of the charismatic leader who leads people in the promised land, and unlike Moses or Brigham Young, found it an impassable desert with no exits. In Guyana there were no exits. Jones coped by escalating the crisis.
Ultimately the People’s Temple blew itself up. While the disappointments of the Left are unlikely to have the same effect in the US, the emergence of a genuine populist movement among Democrats, one which would pull it back to the center, might be a welcome development. Because if you leave it to the hard core Left, “revolutionary suicide” will be a preferred alternative to admitting error. “What tho’ the field be lost …” etc.
That will manifest itself in politics, not perhaps in White Nights, but in extremist positions and a shrill banging of heads against the rock of reality. The nightmare ends, but often when you wake up yelling to no one in particular.
Somehow sanity has to come back into the picture and that only happens when ordinary people start talking to each other. As I’ve often argued, the Tea Parties on the Right are a good beginning, but it is the re-emergence of common sense on the Left that will be the truly decisive development.
The left is unhinged. The “idle” rich? Taking 35% of money THAT THEY ALREADY PAID TAXES ON WHILE THEY EARNED IT…is not enough? It’s a cardinal sin that it isn’t MORE THAN HALF stolen from them by a bloated government cesspool of corruption?
Extending the current tax rates is a monstrous act because it goes to put money in the pockets of those filthy, dirty, despicable people who …pay the vast majority of the load in this country and not to the people who basically don’t pay a damn dime?
This piece of petrified road apple is suggesting that the bottom 50% aren’t getting ENOUGH off the back of those who have carried them most of their lives? Virtually every dime of government spending collected through capital gains, inheritance and income taxes…is virtually a free ride for them…and it’s evil that it’s not even a better backseat to slide into?
I have a news tip for Captain Queef. Nobody stole your pint of strawberries, you frothing, demented, vile, cur.
We don’t have the means to continue to soak the very people who are the generous, hard-working, salt of the earth benefactors of every stinking program in this country. The bottom 50% need to carry their weight…and it’s about damn time somebody said it out loud. Zero isn’t a contribution…it’s a drain. This is an unsustainable course we are on and we need a course correction. Stop this guilt trip, I want to get off.
We are out of other people’s money and this class warfare guilt trip, acid flashback is over. And the next time one of you leftist anarchist, tear down the system types wants to dream about throwing one of us through a plate glass window, you might want to wear a pair of Depends, because we are getting damn near the point of getting up off the couch and asking if you would like to repeat that offer. Captain Queef, as an American…you suck.
“The unemployed — unlike the rich whom this President has just bowed to are, in fact, the job creators.”
What a loon! Doberman needs to be fired. Then he can go down to the narrows and see if anybody living under a bridge will offer him employment. His current employer, Bill Gates, isn’t noted for being broke.
The real silly part of the Left’s wrath is that they actually think they can take money from the wealthy. I guess they have never heard of off shore banks. Of course, most of the rabid Socialists think invest means buy another 40oz.
The moonbat loon Marxist never fail to amaze me. To a man they denigh that reality exists and that nirvana is the only reality. Why doesn’t Olberman lead by example and give up all but $60K of his salary to the tax man, send his kids to NY public schools, and fly coach or better yet take the bus when he travels as a show of sacraifice? A little too real for him is my guess. Why do they always tell us what others should do but never they do? My better, I think not!
Maybe all of them will find the same pyre and imolate themselves and then the world can start over. Liberals in the English useage are the only hope if we are to survive. The ultra conservatives in this country can be as stupidly repressive as the loon left. One of the very first things that has to happen is that we pull back huge parts of the economy from the government, elected and unelected. If that doesn’t happen then we just swap one oppressor for another and we are serfs, not yoeman.
W@14: “the re-emergence of common sense on the Left that will be the truly decisive development.” A consummation devoutly to be wished. But based on Olbermania and other (alas, copious) evidence, I am not holding my breath.
Wretchard @14 write: “Somehow sanity has to come back into the picture and that only happens when ordinary people start talking to each other. As I’ve often argued, the Tea Parties on the Right are a good beginning, but it is the re-emergence of common sense on the Left that will be the truly decisive development.”
I think common sense will come to the left; however, its useful to keep in mind that the left is much more emotional. See this fascinating picture: Left Brain – Right Brain
To quote previously from wretchard “The Left is a world; a womb. It isn’t a system of thinking so much as a web of supportive emotion”
A few points: (1) we want the re-emergence of common sense on the left (2) this means we need be emotionally supportive of the goals of the left [i.e.: take care of others, the poor, the distressed, the abused, etc]; while (3) helping the left understand: the current methodology chosen by the left to help the poor, distressed, abused etc, cannot & will not work, since it will bankrupt the country first — leading many more people to become poor, distressed & abused.
The argument the left & right get into, in general, is we care, you don’t. (or when heated, an alternate argument You’re loony, we’re not). This is not constructive…
I suggest the following “Our goal, really, should be to help the two brains work together…. Both sides need each other, so that as a country, America, can gets is emotional & rational needs in sync.”
So, ordinary people need to start talking to one another. I had a delightful lunch with my liberal friend today, talking about politics & the coming of the Fourth American Republic & also about the need to transfer health care (including Obamacare) from the Federal Government to the states using interstate compacts.
Liberals care, and have large hearts … often larger than conservatives. Keep it mind & learn from them.
Y’know, I agree with every *sentiment* in Olberdork’s rant, but just none of the facts. Yes “the rich” have been prospering at the expense of the other 99% of the country.* The only problem I have with Olberdork and his yellowdog pack is that the tax system is not responsible for it happening, the tax system is not responsible for fixing it, and virtually any fix is going to be exceedingly difficult to implement without killing the golden goose of the entire economy.
It is just so touching that Olberdork has so much faith in the IRS, that he thinks they can wave a magic wand and fix what 200 years of Karl Marx (and 2 years of Nobel-prize winning President Obambus the First) has failed to achieve.
Olberdork is just a living, ranting example out of the pages of Atlas Shrugged, how does he like being such a caricature of himself?
*and no this is not a necessary or desirable consequence of the free market system, capitalism, or anything else, it is an instabiity in the system that will destroy it, a piston engine racing at high speed with a bad oil leak, something along those lines. Let us not make old Karl right for the first time after 200 years, huh?
-
Actuallly I checked the site to post two other financial observations du jour:
http://nationaljournal.com/magazine/americans-no-longer-think-u-s-economy-is-world-s-strongest-20101209?page=1
and the 10-year bond soaring (!) back above 3.3%. When it gets to 4%, we might be in sight of normality, but The Bernank has been holding it down for a year.
How much did Keith Olbermann make last year? Who the hell is he talking about when he spews this venom about “the idle and the corporate rich”?
Go look in a mirror, Keith. And do we REALLY want to talk about whether you deserve that money?
Josh…
That poll is the kiss of death for China’s future.
Ere twenty-one years ago such was said of Japan.
And before that, of Germany circa 1969/71…
All ended up predicting a PEAK of some sorts.
Our problem is the Money Trust and its enrapture of Washington.
Go to the Market Ticker and check out Janet’s power point for Congress posted there.
“While General Electric, the parent-company of your MSNBC network, was negotiating a $126 billion taxpayer-funded bailout, you signed a new contract raising your salary from $4 million to $7.5 million annually.” (lifted from I hate the Media website) Keith’s salary as of 4/09, aren’t you just thrilled you are helping to pay his salary?
I’m not rich, far from it but, the rich are ‘idle’? How did they get rich? And why should the gov’t get any money just cuz someone died? It’s no one’s business but the family.
Olbermann should change his name to Marx. Why should anyone get anything from people who are smart/lucky/industrious enough to get rich? It’s their money, not their opposites. Who is this moron and who is Obama? They aren’t giving away their considerable fortunes to lead the way as an example are they? Nope.
There is no way there’s going to be enough popcorn.
“So, should the government give the money to the rich who keep it, or the not rich, who spend it?”
Again, we are presented with the premise that all money belongs to the government, and they dole it out as they see fit.
We saw this in the recent NYT editorial, where they wrote: “By temporarily extending income tax breaks for the richest Americans, and cutting estate taxes for the ultrawealthy, the deal will redistribute billions of dollars from job creation to people who do not need the money.”
According to the NYT, all money belongs to the government, and not raising tax rates on the higher brackets amounts means the government is “redistributing” people’s income to the “people who don’t need it.” In other words, not taking money from the people who earned the money is “redistributing” it to those same people.
Leftists are sitting around thinking of ways to get this sort of phrasing into the language more and more often, so that Americans will eventually accept the idea that none of their money is theirs.
It is insiduous.
12/Ashen
Click on my name. That will take you to my blog where you will find my contact email address. Email me and I will be pleased to talk to you at length about science fiction and anything else you want to talk about.
Thanks
Walt
W-”but it is the re-emergence of common sense on the Left that will be the truly decisive development.”
I’m not going to hold my breath. The Hard Left acquiring Common Sense is about as likely as the schizophrenic waking up one day sane. Almost all of the truly hard left, and I not including fashionable liberals here, are deranged. They have this boiling volcanic cauldron of hate, resentment, anger and envy deep within them. I don’t know where it came from, or why it is there. I have tried to understand it, but in the end this deep seeded hate is a mystery. I have never seen a completely satisfactory explanation of it, either. One cannot have a pleasant political discussion with these folks of the hard left without them very quickly resorting to crude, threatening invective. The leftist philosophy has only sown pain, suffering, poverty, cruelty and death. Anyone who cannot realize the Hard Left’s track record is incredibly destructive and evil is not sensible by any means. So for the Hard Left en masse to all of a sudden reach sensible conclusions does not seem to be in the cards, ever. They are driven by demons that only use the window dressing of caring to reach much darker goals.
The only hope is for the fashionably liberal to be shown the light of reality and reject the Hard Left.
It is amazing that Obama seems oblivious to the multiple pieces of wisdom that come from that great civilizational savior, Winston Churchill. After all, there’s that big bust of Churchill right there in the White House – Obama should just look to that for insight and wisdom.
It’s gotta be in there somewhere….. right?
As usual, the Left is doing what it does really well, shifting the terms of the discussion to the moral high ground. The right is doing better at avoiding what it usually does best in these arguments, accepting the premise rather than be the bad guy.
The fundamental principle of Marxism > Socialism > Communism > Liberalism > Progressivism > Whatever-the-hell-ism is power and control. The moral outrage, the bloody flags, the drama and high sentiments oh! so nobly expressed are all window dressing, the true opiate of the masses.
The tax debate boils down to this: is all money the government’s money? Will the government graciously allows you to keep some to maintain yourself so that a little while from now you can express your gratitude in some appropriate way (and perhaps collect a tot of Victory gin)? Or is government the untrustworthy servant (which must be carefully watched and severely curtailed) of the sovereign people?
“…these treacherous and ultimately traitorous Republicans”?
There was a time when he would have been called upon to name his friends for that. That this era is not that time is fortunate for him, but extraordinarily bad for public discourse.
His whole rant is inexcusable, economically and socially ignorant, with a lagniappe of gratuitous insult. Were Keith Olbermann a saint leading a crusade against a blood drinking cult, he might have cause for this language. As the world stands, he does not. The unemployed, however distressing their situation, will not starve; the rich will not dine upon their flesh; greater wealth for one will not mean destitution for another.
He needs to learn to do something more than spit vitriol.
Given the temper tantrum he threw at Tuesday’s press conference, I don’t think Obama’s planning it exactly this way, but if he wanted to get an early start on a 2012 triangulation strategy, having Olby go batshirt crazy on you a few hours later is a great way to start proving to the moderate swing voters you’re moving toasted the middle (but I still don’t believe Obama has the stomach to keep up his “War on the Left” game-plan for the next 22-plus months — he almost broke out with a case of Tourette’s Syndrome on Tuesday just talking about compromising with Republicans, no way he can play John Boehner’s BFF from now through the fall of 2012).
“Incredible Shrinking President” is what you get when you vote for oratory rather than accomplishment.
“… that’s the polite version… ” Like we used to say, LMAO. Okay, I’ll go back to reading now.
OMG, Keith the Fag is referencing Churchhill now? He must have a very serious weevil up his hole.
Amit Green writes, “So, ordinary people need to start talking to one another. I had a delightful lunch with my liberal friend today, talking about politics & the coming of the Fourth American Republic & also about the need to transfer health care (including Obamacare) from the Federal Government to the states using interstate compacts. [And your friend didn't walk out?]
“Liberals care, and have large hearts … often larger than conservatives. [Is that so?] Keep it [in] mind & learn from them.”
Surely, Amit, you jest.
(Or, more likely you’re a liberal yourself. No wonder you had a delightful chat with your liberal friend.)
Okay, so Obly doesn’t want to contextualize his asinine “Churchiill” remark. What a surprise. Yes, boys & girls, this is the Brave New Left, where words are used as confetti — ice-scram sprinkles, if you will, and all that matters is the Ideological Subtext.
This guy needs a substantial pay cut. But what are the odds? Sure, they made noises about possibly firing the idiot awhile back, but ultimately they (the MSM) caved to his Alinskyite awesomeness.
C’mon Keith, why don’t you tell us what you really think?
Olbermann knows all about “the idle rich.” He spends his life in the elevator with people who aren’t worth 10% of the capital that is misappropriated to their worthless consumption. He looks at one of them in the mirror every morning.
Obama played you punks like a fiddle on this tax cut deal. You don’t know whether you like it or not.
The alarming thing about Keith Olberman, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, et al., is that they got where they are by channelling, approving, and forwarding the predilictions of the kewl kids. They are esteemed, sagacious, witty, and pithy commenters on the world scene, but unfortunately ones whose wits are employed in flattering the egos and biases of their audience.
We can “Lay it down, clown”, and print here the exact words of these various tools as they careen unhinged off the nearest cliff. But we must brace ourselves for the shock: this self-evident drivel is taken for high knowledge by an alarming number of people. This tripe translates to educated, informed wisdom on their radar screens.
They are not dumb. They have a personal relationship with various baristas. They have degrees. They have the complete “Star Trek: The Next Generation” on DVD. They drive hybird cars. They are deeply concerned, and they can argue the latest studies.
They remind of the Wife of Bath, though.
Only two things about Olbermann’s diatribe.
1) His biggest complaint was being told if he didn’t like the tax plan “he just hadn’t read it”. So how does that feel Keith? How many times did you say conservatives were just stupid for not seeing how wonderful and brilliant Obama was? Or how wonderful free healthcare would be. So he is using the same line on YOU when YOU disapprove. Really. Has he called you racist yet?
2) How dare you quote Churchill. Shame on you. You gave up that right when you backed Obama; the man who sent the Churchill bust back to the UK. Shame on you!!
Dear MSNBC:
Please don’t delude yourself. That ratings spike is just schadenfreudists dropping by for a yuk.
Its all part of the Left’s value system. Leveling the economic field for the great unwashed masses is far more important than producing the goods and services needed to support their Utopia. Remember what Obama’s response was to the notion that upping the tax rate on capital gains would actually cause a decrease in tax revenue? He didn’t care about that–it would just make things more fair, or so he said.
Despite the outer rhetoric most of the Leftist shtick revolves around the notion of identifying some group or groups as being responsible for all the evils of the world. The solution then is to put the screws to that group. Throw them down and make them suffer and put them in their place. The core emotional motivations aren’t that much different than those of the KKK.
But the American Left has a schizophrenic edge that tends to be lacking elsewhere. “Spreading the wealth around” doesn’t quite mean what it says. Actually the American Left is interested in spreading the income around, and that is not the same thing. Income is a type of wealth, but it is only a subset of what wealth actually is. If I owned ten tons of gold I would be a very wealthy individual, but that gold produces me not one penny of income.
If we were truly serious about redistribution of the wealth we would tax all wealth, like for example, the net value of the assets in trust funds that provide income to all those trust fund babies, as well as the value of the various mansions anyone may own.
But that is the rub. The movers and shakers of the American Left tend to be fairly if not very, very well off. It we really started taxing based upon all wealth some of the poor darlings might be reduced to having to sell off their vacation homes in Martha’s Vineyard, and we can’t have that, can we?
After all, economic equality is for the little people.
When Obama talks about “enemies”, “hostages”, etc. I hear community organizer speaking, NOT The President of The United States.
And it is extremely dangerous because outside of the US everyone hears the same thing.
I hope this is not a bad time to ask about a point of etiquette.
Under what circumstances would it be appropriate to send someone a letter written upon Elephant Dung Paper? Is it even appropriate to even have Elephant Dung Paper in one’s house?
Although this technology has the possibility of liberating humanity from deforestation, and turning fiber found in animal waste into commercial paper does lend itself to the possibility of future paper factories near feedlots and dairy farms, I suspect that present day cultural taboos in much of the industrialized world may prevent the establishment of a sufficiently large customer base necessary for mass production.
I would also like to know if Elephant Dung Paper is obsolete. After all, Mr. Olberman appears to be capable of expressing ideas on television in a manner that shows how paper made from dung may be unnecessary to express or underline the variety of opinions that one may normally expect to be written upon paper made from the dung of a bull elephant.
b @ 22: That poll is the kiss of death for China’s future.
The interesting question is why people would think that. By most numbers, it is not even nearly true. However, by attitude and future prospects, …
#45. Alexis
There would probably be a great demand for it by members of the legal profession as well as bureaucrats. It sends a message.
If you know of anyone manufacturing it buy stock now.
“In September Boehner said if he had no other option, of course he would vote to extend tax breaks only for the middle class.”
Olby, he received another option with the landslide elections in November. Perhaps you have heard of them?
“Five times in the last two years, the Republicans have gone along with extending those jobless benefits, and they’ve done it without being bribed with tax cuts for the rich.”
Yes, extended them several times. I believe, however, that this is the first time we have extended them beyond 99 weeks. Not every extension is equal.
- But, Honey, we have been having sex for 2 years. Why not now?
- Buddy, it is time to put a ring on this finger, or forget about sex!
The extensions are NOT automatic.
Now for my very favorite part of his rant:
““Well,” he replied, “then they must not have read the details.” There, in a nutshell, is this Administration. They didn’t make a bad deal — we just don’t understand it.”
Is he complaining about ObamaCare?
Umm, Mr. President, we didn’t read the details because, umm… don’t we have to “pass it to find out what’s in it”? MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
*Wanders off still laughing maniacally*
Methinks that our good friend Mr. Olbermann is starting to channel Michael Ironside in “Scanners”. The ensuing payoff alone might be worth tuning in to MSNBC to see! One can only hope….
#3 E. Hines sees it clearly. Olbermann is insane. He’s the main exhibit at Media Showcasing Nutty Beserk Creatures.
MSNBC, give him more rope, please.
Been watching the rabid “Lefty’s” Keithy, Eddie and Sir Rachel for a couple days now and what entertainment!
Just remember though that the “deal” pending is all going to be borrowed money piled up on the national debt…excep for the promise to pay the 2% SS redcuion back out of the general fund….hahahaha! Before the ink dries that will come to nearly another trillion dollars of debt. Ironically, it is now the “Lefty’s” who are squeeeeeling about the debt and the GOP turning a blind eye to what “could” be a trap come 2012 if the economny and jobs hasn’t made significant gains. Aside from tax reductions initiatives, I’ve NOT seen or heard much strategy from the GOP for either jobs or the economy.
The GOP and Tea Party folks ran and won the 2010 election cycle on inflamed emotions, defining “targeted” problems and pointing fingers of blame without a single comprehensive strategy being presented….ooooops, I forgot stop spending and reduce the size of government.
Afraid it’s going to be more of the same….politics, ideological wars and procedural gamesmanship (gridlock) over managing responsible government and putting the interests of Traditional America first! Not to mention nobody can override a presidential veto for the next two years should the GOP try to move on their BIG campaign promises. It’s likely to be a two-year lame duck session!
@ Yoursensei of 39,
It is interesting that you would designate Keith Olberman, Stephan Colbert, Dan Rather and all the other Old Media types who supported Mr. Obama as nothing more than punks. It’s an interesting comment on the leftist mind that so many of them grew old in body without ever achieving adulthood in either mind or spirit. You would think Mr. Obama’s supporters would realize that elections have consequences without being told but the temper tantrums thown by Olberman, the DU, and the Kos Kiddies reveal that this is not the case. ^_~
There are days that I think by some terrible mistake I have become trapped inside a novel badly written by a hack who can’t stop himself from exaggerating every major character to the point of absurdity.
Plus, I think he has got himself tied up with his plot and can’t find a convincing way to resolve it. So he just keeps throwing in another twist or crescendo, upping the ante again and hoping something will come to him soon.
#28: The only hope is for the fashionably liberal to be shown the light of reality and reject the Hard Left.
I don’t even have that hope.
No, I have no hope at all that the more “moderate” democrats will overcome the moonbats and we’ll all be able to return to sanity. Why? Because the premises of both the moderates and the moonbats are the same; they just differ in degree. And the premises of the Left, whether center-left or hard-left, are WRONG. And, being wrong, they inevitably lead sooner or later to moonbattery.
How much of other people’s money should the government take to redistribute to others as they please?
The whole premise of that question is wrong. The government has no right whatsoever to take money from those who’ve earned it so they can give it to those who haven’t earned it.
Even if it weren’t wrong, you’d never get people to agree on how much is just the right amount.
Who is Keith Olberman?
What is he talking about. But of course being a core performer in major TV he’s never heard of truth in advertising. He shilled the product to those commoner saps who believed what he and his corps (core!) touted. The product he now excoriates.
The products he and his like, the superiors, the elite in America since they’ve said so, sold. Now light dawns that what you see is NOT always wbat you get when the “Mad- Men” who lie for a living beat the drums. Olberman, such an innocent.
Good example for those ordinary, those commoner Americans with theme song Yankee Doodle Dandy. No “multiculltural sneering” in that troop. For them royalty in its court was once upon a time a bad idea. What happened to that attitude ?
Bozo’s looking better all the time isn’t he
You know….
Despite all the moronic right wing rants about Obama being Marxist, socialist, whatever, he was *always* a Clinton-like centrist — what do you think all that ramped-up military activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan was about? Friggin Bush trashed our pursuit of bin Laden and al-Qaeda in his insane, lying-ass side-war in Iraq, while Obama has been quite clear for a while he was going to refocus on Afghanistan if he became President. And when he did, many of his liberal backers went basically “WTF?” as though he was just going to pull troops out of both Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama just want to get things done, and if that means having to deal with otherwise useless and up to no good Republicans, so be it.
Funny how the whole thing boiled down to:
“I don’t like this either, but people we have to DO something! If we don’t DO something SOON what I SAID I wanted during my campaign and have advocated for the last two years is actually going to HAPPEN!”
Karen #54:
I fear you are right. The moonbat Left thinks that pneumonia is good for you, but the “moderate” Democrats think that everyone should just have a bad cold.
Who are the rich? Over 250K? Under 250K? Small businesses? GE? Goldman-Sachs? Farmers? Define who they are please.
Somebody slap the shite out of Olbermann. It will have to be someone with a LOT of time, because there is obviously an awful lot of it there.
Does a poor man sign your paycheck Olbermann, you moron? Or is it a wealthy person who owns the company you work for? And incidentally, how much do YOU make? Hmm?
For that matter, how much does Obubu make? Under his own guidelines, he qualifies as rich I do believe. Do you think HE will miss a tax cut? When pigs frickin’ fly.
Judy – the rich are the kulaks.
Or anybody who owns anything…
No when in history can I think of people praising tax collectors (and wishing there were more of them) until now.
I’m all for taxes on the rich. The wise Woodrow Wilson instituted such a tax on the malefactors of wealth who had benefited from the Great War. Let us return to that scale of oppression:
“In 1913, the top tax rate was 7% on incomes above $500,000 ($10 million 2007 dollars).”
“All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives,” which gives the Republicans sole power to shrink the government. Let them find the will to do what is good. A rebellious and free House can simply refuse to fund whole departments of the government, and no other branch can compel money be spent on those bureaucracies. Let them find the will to do what is right.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 . . . cognition aborted! Return Cowering Totalitarian to shed for an overhaul.
13) RWE,
Very interesting article on the P-38.
In re to the note that the twin engine design was good for morale in the Pacific, with all the long distance overwater missions, was it actually capable of S/E flight? Or does that refer to flying with partial power from one engine?
If it’s all about “class,” as in “class warfare,” what class are you? (Ask a liberal)
Is it based on what you make? What you own? What you wear? The way you speak? Most people on public assistance make more than I do, and I work every day. Are they “rich” to my “poor?”
Is a person of no means automatically “lower class?” In the progressive lexicon, yes. There’s no other explanation for their reliance on the concept of class.
Conservatives place more value on individual humans.
BC #58:
That’s all complete nonsense. Pres Bush did not cut back our pursuit of Bin Laden and Al Queda in Afghanistan in favor of Iraq.
Read the book “Kill Bin Laden” by the officer who led the Delta Force into Afghanistan. If you do you will see that blaming Pres Bush for not sending our troops to Afghanistan is like saying that FDR was not serious about defeating the Nazis because he did not send our Iowa Class Battleships to attack Berlin.
Obama’s ramp up in Afghanistan is based on Bush’s success in Iraq. It’s nothing but monkey see, monkey do policy development. And it makes as much sense as sending battleships to attack Berlin.
My trolls are miserable.
#65 tehag.
Finally. If only “representatives of the people” would do this job. This job of controlling spending.
How is it that Congressmen don’t understand this IS THEIR job NOT to compromise. Do ANY of them read, or understand the contract of employment in their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.
It looks as if when seeing that trough of money –thanks to their NOT doing their job already spent unto the nth generation — in the American Treasury, they lose their heads. Pork barrel anyone ?
So excited at the thought of all that play money they get the vapours and don’t know what they do.
Out of control spending is “not their fault”. Plenty of people believe them and sympathise so they don’t lose their jobs, the usual result for people who don’t do their jobs.
Why are professional politicians immune from the facts of life that commoners, their electors, must live by. Don’t do the job, or do the job badly, lose the job.
Pete Seeger hit the nail : “our leaders are the best of men and we elect them again and again. So it really is not their fault that they don’t do their job. Who’s in charge, to see they DO the job they are generously paid to do?
I find it amusing that the Pelosi line “We’ll have to pass it so we can find out what’s in it” gets Olberman’s skivvies in such a bunch when it’s used on his side (“…if he didn’t like the tax plan “he just hadn’t read it”).
That aside, I agree with Alana (26) and others that one of the most basic problems the left has with the study and practice of economic policy is that the money, all of it, belongs to the government and the rest of us simply get the use of it in the narrow confines of the amounts it deems necessary at any given time. This mirrors the political policy promoted by Obama Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein (from the Powerline Blog: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/12/027867.php) who “…advances ‘the radical notion that, ‘…You owe your life — and everything else — to the sovereign. The rights of subjects are not natural rights, but merely grants from the sovereign. There is no right even to complain about the actions of the sovereign, except insofar as the sovereign allows the subject to complain. These are the principles of unlimited, arbitrary, and absolute power, the principles of such rulers as Louis XIV’.”
To carry their ideas about the rich and poor to what I would consider the logical end is the fact that all of the wealth in this country, of people worth one million and a half dollars and more, totals $10 trillion dollars (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2010/tables/10s0702.pdfs). The total national debt is 9.2 trillion dollars. If the government took all of that wealth we, as a country, would be better off for sure as our books would be balanced and a year’s worth of discretionary income would be covered. On the other hand, the inexorable progression of non-discretionary spending and the ongoing press of government business would continue piling up ever more charges on the debit side of the ledger. Now however, with the goose dead, along with their 450 billion dollars a year in taxes, where does it come from? Surely, no longer from the 2 million plus people now in poverty.
Once again the Socialist Doctrine runs afoul of the Thatcher Dictum.
I have a term I like to use called “functional insanity”.
Its the idea that some people are so filled with lies, misinformation and untruths, they are effectively insane. Not medically insane, in that they don’t hear voices, cut themselves or otherwise behave like they belong in an institution. But they can’t really act in a rational manner.
But KO and Ed Shutlz sure make it seem like they do. Seesh, what a loon.
I suspect Kieth Olbermann, like a lot of wealthy or well paid (or both), Liberals are living in their own little insulated world, surrounded by like minded Liberals, Socialists, Progressives and Communists, reveling in their adherence to “principles,” that would be those seared into their juvenile brains in whatever Leftist institution of “higher” learning they reverently call their Alma mater, which will, most assuredly, they say, save the world from the evils of the free market, Capitalism and, worst of all, profit. That would be the world epitomized by the America that put their sorry asses on the throne of wealth, position and power that they revel in while despising those who have acquired an “inordinate and undeserved” order of magnitude greater wealth that they jealously covet and desperately want to confiscate; to save the struggling poor of course.
What were those principles again?
@ grrr (44) who wrote “When Obama talks about “enemies”, “hostages”, etc. I hear community organizer speaking, NOT The President of The United States. And it is extremely dangerous because outside of the US everyone hears the same thing.”
1) Your observation is spot on. If you haven’t done so yet, try to get the new Stanley Kurtz book “Radical in Chief.” He lays out in more detail that anyone else has so far the intense animus towards free markets, businesspeople, and conservatives that were the hallmark of Obama’s community organizing days since day one.
2) I shudder to imagine what he’s going say and do in his post-presidency, all while get paid enormous sums in the process–some of which will get funneled right back to the same radical activists that gave him his start.
Tax Cut deal just went down in flames in a House vote. Score one for Olby. Pelosi’s spokesman say she won’t take it to the floor again. Brawny says it’ll still pass. Some hint that it’ll pass in Senate as a tack on to another bill and be crammed down Nancy’s throat.
Grab several heaping bags of popcorn.
Some people say it’ll pass in new Congress. I think they are dreaming. There are reports of this raving mad black man screaming at the top of his lungs, running about the White House. Please alert the men in the white coats.
The bad news: taxes go up and pound the economy. The good news: no Dream Act, no START.
Obama may have tacked to the middle, but I’m not so sure there is much of a middle these days. Half the electorate despised him already, and now the other half is being told by their elites to hate him.
Politics ain’t beanbag anymore. The concept of “respectful disagreement” is gone from the lexicon. The hysterics of the Left during W’s administration have changed the country. We are all radicals now.
Buckets, “We are all radicals now.”
The Left has let the mask fall completely and exposed their true selves. Now is the time to make the case in a sound, sensible way for reform; radical reform that takes us back to our origins, based on the Constitution and common sense. Done right, we may be able to pull the fashionable liberal left back to the center by isolating the deranged hard left and through making a sensible case for reform that appeals to whatever is left of their classically liberal sensibilities.
Smashmaster…
Google Bezmenov…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlpODYhnPEo
YourSensei,
You are quite right to argue that the Left is indeed incapable of cognition but I fear the leftists, cowering totalitarians that they indeed are, are incapable of being overhauled because they have gone too far and do not dare look at what they’ve done. Hence the reason they are so vindictive to Mr. Obama when he acknowledges that he is indeed in a position of weakness and has no choice but to acknowledge that the Dummycrats lost the elections. Please look forward to the liberal implosion. ^_~
The Dems refusal to go along with Obammy’s new found fiscal responsibility and his new found enlightenment for saving the Bush era tax cuts is great political theater and the public is watching. For the US tax payer, pocket book politics are what really matters. The US government ran off the rails during the 30′s and we can never repay the 14.7 trillion $$ debt…we are broke. The treasury is full of worthless script and the Chinese know that we will probably default by making the dollar worthless. Politically, a guy like Romney who has the business acumen and track record needs to step forward and present himself as the “go to guy” to put the train back on the tracks and should step up, put his plan out like Paul Ryan’s Road Map and become a “front runner” for 2012. We need a business man not a social activist/community organizer/progressive big government type like Obama to lead us back to full employment, economic growth and American innovation. Campaigning for tax reform, focusing on economic growth, energy independence and devowing the “class warfare” rhetoric should start now while Americans are focused on this.
A brilliant post from Red State:
Assuming no tax law change, the first paycheck in January for almost everyone with a job will contain large increases in withholding—ranging from 100% for those at the bottom to 10% for those at the top. Considering about half of the country pays almost no attention to politics or the news, this is going to come as a huge shock. The propaganda media has been talking about tax “cuts” when they should have been talking about tax “increases”. Many people are going to be very, and unpleasantly, surprised.
The Republican House can announce they are going to rescue everyone, pass a “clean” bill making 2010 rates the law retroactive to January 1st and send it to Reid. If the Dems delay it they will be toast in 2012. Obama can sign it and try to take credit for “saving” the country or veto it and become the most reviled man in the USA.
This all depends on the Senate Reps not giving away the farm in a pre-emptive surrender.
Dack Thrombosis
What is absolutely hilarious about this is the selective memory in play. It’s like these people have no idea there was an election a month ago and they lost big time.
It’s not selective memory; it’s drug-addled memory. Why do you think they call it “dope”?
I work in construction as a contractor. You know the last time I got a paying job from a customer who was not “rich”?
Ha
I think that Olbermann is angling for Frank Rich’s job at the NY SLIMES;he got the hysteria,economic illiteracy,and political cretinism right,but he forgot that the SLIMES wil never tolerate criticism of any person of color, no matter how limited. Too bad,for a moment, I had visions of lining my parakeet’s cage with Olbermann’s infantile leftist rants published by the SLIMES.
67: exhelodrvr
The P-38 could easily fly on one engine, if not fight effectively.
Assuming no critical damage, as long as the dead engine’s prop was feathered, you were golden. If it wasn’t, you weren’t going to go as far, but you could still continue until your fuel ran out.
tcobb @43: “Actually the American Left is interested in spreading the income around, and that is not the same thing. Income is a type of wealth, but it is only a subset of what wealth actually is. If I owned ten tons of gold I would be a very wealthy individual, but that gold produces me not one penny of income.
If we were truly serious about redistribution of the wealth we would tax all wealth, like for example, the net value of the assets in trust funds that provide income to all those trust fund babies, as well as the value of the various mansions anyone may own.”
Yes, you’re mostly correct. Actually, “income” is not “wealth” at all. Income CAN be used to develop wealth (although usually it is not).
Redistribution of INCOME serves the purpose, for the very rich, of choking off the competition before it can get started. That’s why redistributing WEALTH is not on the agenda.
In the wealth of Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, and Bruce Springsteen, there’s real money to be had. If Obama was right that, at some point, you make enough, how much MORE right would he be to say, at some point, you HAVE enough?
But of course, the whole point of increasing marginal rates at $200K is not to raise money. Again, quoting Obama, it is what’s just.
Justice, in this context, is killing off the kulaks. It’s all about the class enemy.