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[ErasureAcer]

I was talking about the public option.

So you agree Obama shouldn't be called some raving socialist when in fact he's not. The guy has more in common with George W. Bush than Bernie Sanders.

 

[speculawyer]

Obama is hardly a liberal.

He wants to keep the status quo on illegal drugs many of which could be helpful to many illnesses.
He wants the min. wage to still be a poverty wage.
He wants the for profit healthcare industry to be in place.
He wants to gather all your private information as he circumvents the constitution. He should be impeached for that.
He wants to drone strike anyone he chooses...American citizens and all.

The list goes on and on...dude is basically no different than Bush. Anyone who is defending Obama and didn't attack Bush or who defended Bush and is now attacking Obama is not living in reality.

So . . . yeah, he is not a socialist. We agree.

 

[speculawyer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/us/missoula-montana-homeowner-shoots-teenager-in-garage.html

The reason why I won't support Schweitzer.

Blah Blah.

That is local politics. This fine for the state he governs. But it is not fine for the rest of the USA and I think he knows that.

And the same is true for his support of coal.

 

[benjipwns]

DAVID GREGORY: Former Vice-President Dick Cheney has been quite critical of this president and he wrote an op-ed this week in which he said in part, “Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. Too many times to count, Mr. Obama has told us he is ‘ending’ the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – as though wishing [makes] it so.” Do you think Dick Cheney is a credible critic of this president?

SEN. RAND PAUL: I think the same questions could be asked of those who supported the Iraq War. You know, were they right in their predictions? Were there weapons of mass destruction there? That’s what the war was sold on. Was democracy easily achievable? Was the war won in 2005, when many of these people said it was won? Um… they didn’t really, I think, understand the civil war that would break out. And what’s going on now, I don’t blame on President Obama. Has he really got the solution? Maybe there is no solution. But I do blame the Iraq War on the chaos that is in the Middle East. I also blame those who are for the Iraq War for emboldening Iran. These are the same people now who are petrified of what Iran may become, and I understand some of their worry…

ON KARL, ABC NEWS: Now, Rand Paul, pointing to things like that, wrote in "The Wall Street Journal" also, "Many of those clamoring for military action now are the same people who made every false assumption imaginable about the cost, challenge and purpose of the Iraq War. They have been wrong for so long, why should we listen to him -- listen to them again?" your response?

FMR. VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: With all -- all due respect, John, I was a strong supporter then of going into Iraq, I'm a strong supporter now. Everybody knows what my position is. There's nothing to be argued about there.

But if we spend our time debating what happened 11 or 12 years ago, we're going to miss the threat that is growing and that we do face. Rand Paul, with all due respect, is basically an isolationist. He doesn't believe we ought to be involved in that part of the world.

I think it's absolutely essential.

One of the things I worried about 12 years ago and that I worry about today is that there will be another 9/11 attack and that the next time, it'll be with weapons far deadlier than airline tickets and box cutters.

And when we have a situation developing in Pakistan, for example, where there are nuclear weapons, where supposedly that technology has been sold to the North Koreans, at the same time, the president announces the complete withdrawal from Afghanistan right next door, that we're -- we're missing the boat. We don't understand the nature of the threat and we're unwilling to deal with it.

KARL: Do you -- in your op-ed, you have a broader critique, which you're -- you're making now, as well, of the president's foreign policy. And you write, "President Obama seems determined to leave office ensuring that he has taken America down a notch."

In this op-ed, you also suggest the president is a -- a fool -- that was the word you used -- only a fool would -- would take the -- the approach he's taking in Iraq right now.

It almost seems like you're accusing the president of treason here, saying he's intentionally bringing America down a notch.

CHENEY: No, my reference didn't refer just to Iraq. It referred to the fact that we've left a big vacuum in the Middle East by our withdrawal from Iraq with no stay-behind agreement, by the commitment he made just a couple of weeks ago, that we're going to completely withdraw from Afghanistan with no stay-behind agreement.

We create a vacuum and it's being filled. And today, it's being filled by ISIS -- by Sisi (ph) from Syria. It's being filled by their attempt, obviously, to take over all of Iraq, but it's also being filled by places like Pakistan, where the Taliban have just launched a major attack on the Karachi airport.

The -- the scope of the problem, in part, is based upon an unwillingness by the president to recognize we have a problem. They're still living back in the day when they claimed we got bin Laden, the terrorism problem is solved.

That wasn't true then. It's even less true today. The threat is bigger than it's ever been. The danger of nuclear proliferation in the hands of terrorists is bigger than it's ever been. We need to dramatically reverse course on our defense budget. We are decimating the defense budget, not al Qaeda. We need to go back to a two war strategy, not the one war strategy that he's put in place.

We have 40 brigades in the United States Army, only four of them are combat ready. He is dramatically limiting the capability of future presidents to deal with crises by virtue of the policies he's taken.

Now, I don't intend any disrespect for the president, but I fundamentally disagree with him. I think he's dead wrong in terms of the course he's taken this nation and I think we're in for big trouble in the years ahead because of his refusal to recognize reality and because of his continual emphasis upon getting the U.S. basically to withdraw from that part of the world.

KARL: On virtually everything you just mentioned, it seems you also have a debate within your own party. Rand Paul -- and many see him as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2016, given where he stands, again, in opposition to much of what you just talked about, could you support a Republican nominee, Rand Paul, for president?

CHENEY: I haven't picked a nominee yet. But one of the things that's right at the top of my list is whether or not the individual we nominate believes in a strong America, believes in a situation where the United States is able to provide the leadership in the world, basically, to maintain the peace and to take on the al Qaeda types wherever they show up.

Now, Rand Paul and -- by my standards, as I look at his -- his philosophy, is basically an isolationist. That didn't work in the 1930s, it sure as heck won't work in the aftermath of 9/11, when 19 guys armed with airline tickets and box cutters came all the way from Afghanistan and killed 3,000 of our citizens.

Rand Paul crushed forever by the King of Foreign Policy.

 

[Plinko]

LOL at "decimating the defense budget." Come on. Didn't the Pentagon recently say they didn't need/want what the GOP was trying to give them?

 

[Joe Molotov]

They're still living back in the day when they claimed we got bin Laden

Is Cheney also claiming that Obama faked bin Laden's death?

 

[PhoenixDark]

It's amazing how Cheney'e WSJ piece is being treated as important by the "serious people" crowd.

We blew up a country that has no concept or interest in western democracy, and watched as a bad, non- inclusive government was formed. What the hell did people expect to happen once we left? And this "provisional force" nonsense ignores the fact that Iraq kicked us out, and if they hadn't that wouldn't have stopped Malaki from being an asshole. Our provisional force might be under fire now and the question would be "retreat or send back up." No thanks.

And fuck Hillary for leaking news that she supporting leaving a provisional force. What a terrible time for a book tour, no wonder it's bombing.

 

[Coriolanus]

Is Cheney also claiming that Obama faked bin Laden's death?

No, he's claiming that the Dems said that OBL dead = End of terrorism. Which is, obv, a misconstruction from "now that OBL is dead we have fuckall reason to keep an army in that region of the world".

 

[Retro]

Ignoring the fact that Terrorism is a tactic and not an opponent anyone can actually beat, getting Osama bin Laden was a bigger "win" than standing on an aircraft carrier and saying the mission was accomplished. One actually greatly affected morale within a known terrorist organization and possibly disrupted their activities, the other was a photo op.

You know what WASN'T good for terrorism? Destabilizing a whole fucking country for bullshit reasons.

 

[The Librarian]

The list goes on and on...dude is basically no different than Bush. Anyone who is defending Obama and didn't attack Bush or who defended Bush and is now attacking Obama is not living in reality.

lol

 

[PhoenixDark]

If anyone doubted that the Republican Party would become more conservative after the ousting of Eric Cantor, his successor put those doubts to rest over the weekend.

In an interview with Fox News, incoming House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) revealed leadership's first significant policy shift: opposition to reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank when its current charter expires on Sept. 30, a move that would shutter the credit agency.

"One of the problems with government is it's going to take hard earned money so others do things that the private sector can do. That's what Ex-Im Bank does," he said. "I think Ex-Im Bank is one that government does not have to be involved in. The private sector can do it."

The Ex-Im Bank, first established in 1934, is tasked with boosting the exports of American goods and services through loans and guarantees. In fiscal year 2013, the Ex-Im bank supported $37.4 billion in U.S. exports and 205,000 export-related American jobs, the agency estimated.

Ex-Im has for years been a target of conservatives in and out of Congress, who view it as a bastion of corporate welfare and cronyism. It has a complicated history that touches internal House Republican fights for leadership which may have affected McCarthy's move.

In 2012, despite right-wing opposition, Cantor helped rescue the bank in a deal with Democrats that a number of House Republicans voted against. McCarthy went along with Cantor's deal at the time. But now things are different.

One of the most avowed opponents of the Ex-Im Bank is Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), who left the No. 4 position in GOP leadership in 2013 to chair the Financial Services Committee. Cantor, seeking to stay out of trouble with the right, had steered clear of the fight in the run-up to his June 10 primary. The business community expected him to fight for Ex-Im once he was safely reelected, but alas, he fell to tea party-backed challenger David Brat in a stunning upset.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/republicans-shift-right-after-cantor-defeat

Sounds like they just want a scalp to parade around for the midterms. They just might be able to get it, or at least shutter the agency until the lameduck session.

 

[CharlieDigital]

We are decimating the defense budget, not al Qaeda

I wonder if he would support increasing income taxes and capital gains taxes as well to fund ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the huge amount of money that will be required to pay for VA care after our 20? 30? 40? years of occupation there.

For the record, defense budget went from like $380b in 2000 to just about $700+b in 2011.

Not to mention the estimated $3.7t already spent on Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's crazy to think that perhaps at least part of Cheney's support for these wars is that he and perhaps people close to him are siphoning a small part of that money directly or by proxy (i.e. protecting business interests in the Middle East).

Dick Cheney can seriously fuck off.

 

[kaching]

And I don't think the country needs another idealist who won't be able to get things done and doesn't understand how DC works.

The Republicans are a post-policy party at this point. They seem to have their playbook worked out for whomever the next president is; if s/he isn't Republican, just be on the opposite side of every position they hold and obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. No one is penalizing them strongly enough for their deliberately destructive behavior. It won't matter how idealistic or how inside baseball the next president is. If they're not republican, they won't be getting much done with the help of Congress.

 

[PhoenixDark]

WASHINGTON — As Senator Thad Cochran, the veteran Republican, fights for his political life in Mississippi by taking the unexpected step of courting black Democrats, conservative organizations working to defeat him are planning to deploy poll watchers to monitor his campaign’s turnout operation in Tuesday’s runoff election.

Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee that has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars backing Mr. Cochran’s Tea Party opponent, State Senator Chris McDaniel, said in an interview on Sunday that his group was joining with Freedom Works and the Tea Party Patriots in a “voter integrity project” in Mississippi.

The groups will deploy observers in areas where Mr. Cochran is recruiting Democrats, Mr. Cuccinelli said. J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department official and conservative commentator who said he was advising the effort, described the watchers as “election observers,” mostly Mississippi residents, who will be trained to “observe whether the law is being followed.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/23/u...to-use-poll-watchers-in-mississippi.html?_r=0

ie "harass the black people in line"

I hope Cochran wins, just so this pos tea party extremist doesn't get validated.

 

[FyreWulff]

Blatant poll intimidation.

Proper election observers tend to not be one of the parties involved in the election, but outsiders, typically (or optimally) from another country.

 

[Aaron Strife]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/23/u...to-use-poll-watchers-in-mississippi.html?_r=0

ie "harass the black people in line"

I hope Cochran wins, just so this pos tea party extremist doesn't get validated.

Meh. The best possible outcome would be for McDaniel to win in the primary and lose in the general. That has an extremely slim chance of happening but I'd rather have that than absolutely zero chance of Childers winning.

 

[Wilsongt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/23/u...to-use-poll-watchers-in-mississippi.html?_r=0

ie "harass the black people in line"

I hope Cochran wins, just so this pos tea party extremist doesn't get validated.

Oh the fucking irony is absolutely murderous.

 

[Coriolanus]

It's crazy to think that perhaps at least part of Cheney's support for these wars is that he and perhaps people close to him are siphoning a small part of that money directly or by proxy (i.e. protecting business interests in the Middle East).

Dick Cheney can seriously fuck off.

Yerp. Crazy.

Freaking thing is worth 7 times what it was in 2001. Recovered every single dollar it lost in the 2008 crash.

 

[thefro]

http://www.businessinsider.com/president-obama-just-ate-lunch-at-chipotle-2014-6

So Obama just ate lunch at Chipotle... presidency saved!

 

[speculawyer]

I wonder if he would support increasing income taxes and capital gains taxes as well to fund ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the huge amount of money that will be required to pay for VA care after our 20? 30? 40? years of occupation there.

For the record, defense budget went from like $380b in 2000 to just about $700+b in 2011.

Not to mention the estimated $3.7t already spent on Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's crazy to think that perhaps at least part of Cheney's support for these wars is that he and perhaps people close to him are siphoning a small part of that money directly or by proxy (i.e. protecting business interests in the Middle East).

Dick Cheney can seriously fuck off.

It is just not possible to over-state what a loathsome character Dick Cheney is. Voted against a symbolic resolution for Nelson Mandela. Voted to approve of plastic guns. Lobbied to allow US companies to work in Iran when he worked for Halliburton as CEO. When he moved to the Vice Presidency, he pushed for war that gave Halliburton no-bid contracts for oil services in Iraq and huge contracts for feeding/housing troops in Iraq. And of course he cut the taxes on himself & other rich pals. All this after getting 5 deferments from Vietnam.

He is a truly hypocritical greedy selfish prick.

 

[RustyNails]

Cheney's baldfaced rovian attacks on Obama tells you just how much he ran things when he was VP. Bush is off painting in his ranch while this guy is spreading fud about iraq.

 

[Oblivion]

Washington, D.C., anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, who has been on a long campaign to name pretty much everything after Ronald Reagan, said renaming Washington’s football team the “Washington Reagans” is a “great idea.”

...

“This is a great idea,” Norquist told BuzzFeed when asked about chatter about the new name on social media. “The former Redskins can be the Ronald Reagans on winning years and the Nancy Reagans on losing years. Unless that gets us in more trouble elsewhere.”

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/anti-tax-crusader-grover-norquist-endorses-renaming-redskins

 

[Wilsongt]

It is just not possible to over-state what a loathsome character Dick Cheney is. Voted against a symbolic resolution for Nelson Mandela. Voted to approve of plastic guns. Lobbied to allow US companies to work in Iran when he worked for Halliburton as CEO. When he moved to the Vice Presidency, he pushed for war that gave Halliburton no-bid contracts for oil services in Iraq and huge contracts for feeding/housing troops in Iraq. And of course he cut the taxes on himself & other rich pals. All this after getting 5 deferments from Vietnam.

He is a truly hypocritical greedy selfish prick.

Let's not forget that he shot his friend in the face while hunting.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

Not like it'll ever happen but if they became the Washington Reagans I would stop watching the NFL altogether.

 

[PhoenixDark]

Bravehearts seems like it would be a good replacement name.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Bravehearts seems like it would be a good replacement name.

For a second I read that as the Breitbarts.

 

[RustyNails]

Why does grover norquist fellate reagan so much. The guy raised taxes so many times and expanded the federal government. Sometimes I think the wholw thing about small govt and cutting spending is a ruse and no Republican really believes it.

 

[Aaron Strife]

http://www.businessinsider.com/president-obama-just-ate-lunch-at-chipotle-2014-6

So Obama just ate lunch at Chipotle... presidency saved!

Take that qdoba.

 

[Plinko]

Cheney's baldfaced rovian attacks on Obama tells you just how much he ran things when he was VP. Bush is off painting in his ranch while this guy is spreading fud about iraq.

I've argued for years that Bush himself isn't a bad guy. He just surrounded himself with some absolutely terrible, greedy, and immoral people.

 

[KingK]

Let's not forget that he shot his friend in the face while hunting.

And then his friend apologized to him for it.

Cheney is seriously the most unambiguously terrible person to be involved in American politics in my lifetime. He's like the only person I feel comfortable calling evil without feeling like I'm being hyperbolic.

 

[WayneMorse]

Take that qdoba.

I stopped going to Chipotle when I discovered Qdoba's nachos. There's just no way to describe how incredible they are.

 

[Wilsongt]

And then his friend apologized to him for it.

Cheney is seriously the most unambiguously terrible person to be involved in American politics in my lifetime. He's like the only person I feel comfortable calling evil without feeling like I'm being hyperbolic.

You would think after he received his heart he would change. Nope. Still an asshole. I'm sure the thing has already turned black, anyway.

 

[speculawyer]

Why does grover norquist fellate reagan so much. The guy raised taxes so many times and expanded the federal government. Sometimes I think the wholw thing about small govt and cutting spending is a ruse and no Republican really believes it.

He doesn't really like Reagan, he likes the Reagan myth that was created. The cut taxes always equals more revenue myth. The cut taxes equals always makes economy better myth.

 

[Tamanon]

Honestly, Reagan is the only GOP politician that actually still has a favorable name recognition with moderates. So they just attach whatever their personal political beliefs are to his corpse.

 

[The Librarian]

It's a good thing the Supreme Court ended racism otherwise I'd be worried about the situation in Mississippi.

 

[Black Mamba]

Nobody should ever give Dick Cheney a platform. He's lost that privilege. Every time he tries to spew something, an Iraq War veteran should shove a bag of dicks in his mouth.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

So you agree Obama shouldn't be called some raving socialist when in fact he's not. The guy has more in common with George W. Bush than Bernie Sanders.

I do agree he shouldn't be called a socialist.

Obama is hardly a liberal.

He wants to gather all your private information as he circumvents the constitution. He should be impeached for that.
He wants to drone strike anyone he chooses...American citizens and all.

According to conservatives, these are hard left/communist policies.

 

[Drakeon]

It's a good thing the Supreme Court ended racism otherwise I'd be worried about the situation in Mississippi.

Care to elaborate? What's going on in Mississippi?

 

[Avon Barksdale]

Care to elaborate? What's going on in Mississippi?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=117866126&postcount=12738

 

[CHEEZMO™]

For a second I read that as the Breitbarts.

Washington Whities

 

[cooljeanius]

http://www.businessinsider.com/president-obama-just-ate-lunch-at-chipotle-2014-6

So Obama just ate lunch at Chipotle... presidency saved!

Hm, article doesn't seem to say which one though... doesn't look quite like the one I would go to when I was in DC, but maybe they remodeled... (that one was on the same block as a strip club btw)

 

[thepotatoman]

The former Redskins can be the Ronald Reagans on winning years and the Nancy Reagans on losing years.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/anti-tax-crusader-grover-norquist-endorses-renaming-redskins

What does he have against Nancy Reagan?

 

[KingK]

What does he have against Nancy Reagan?

Gurlz can't win at sports. duh.

It's a good thing the Supreme Court ended racism otherwise I'd be worried about the situation in Mississippi.

Don't be silly, Dax. Obama's election ended racism. The Supreme Court just made sure everybody knows that it's over now.

 

[benjipwns]

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa has subpoenaed a White House attorney after the Administration balked at allowing her to testify, according to House Oversight Republicans.

The panel had called Jennifer O'Connor, former counselor to former Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, to answer questions about what she knew of the disappeared emails of ex-IRS official Lois Lerner.

The White House waved it off, according to a copy of a letter obtained by POLITICO. A hearing had been set for Tuesday.

"It thus appears that you and others in Congress are now receiving substantial information from those at the IRS most familiar with the discovery of, and investigation into, the computer failure," the letter from White House Counsel W. Neil Eggleston to Issa said. "This new information should address the questions that may have prompted your earlier hearing invitation to Ms. O'Connor."

The IRS watchdog that uncovered the IRS tea party controversy last year has launched an investigation into the disappeared IRS emails, according to prepared remarks set for delivery by IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

"The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has already begun an investigation of this matter and his report will provide an independent review of the situation concerning Ms. Lerner's computer crash three years ago," Koskinen will say at a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing Monday night.

The IRS told congressional investigators that Lois Lerner, the former head of the tax exempt division that singled out conservative groups, lost two years of emails in a 2011 computer crash.

Here comes Obama's Watergate.

 

[speculawyer]

Here comes Obama's Watergate.

Why don't they just subpoena the Lois Lerner emails of everyone relevant that they think she communicated with?

 

[Oblivion]

Gurlz can't win at sports. duh.

No, it's to provide a shield against against the good name of Ronaldus Magnus being sullied. Ronald Reagan, by definition, is incapable of losing, thus any actual loss must be shifted to someone else. It's how conservatives are able to absolve many of the sins Reagan committed (tax hikes, spending hikes, amnesty, etc.) by blaming the Democrats in congress.

 

[PhoenixDark]

He doesn't really like Reagan, he likes the Reagan myth that was created. The cut taxes always equals more revenue myth. The cut taxes equals always makes economy better myth.

Pretty much. Reagan is a myth now, a perfect, Founding Father type symbol the right can heap all praise on. Probably because Reagan was the only popular republican president since the late 1950s. Democrats don't hype Clinton nearly as much, but you do see some "let's go back to the awesome Clinton years" stuff since he was the last democrat president to preside over a good economy.

 

[Aaron Strife]

Care to elaborate? What's going on in Mississippi?

Republicans are now trying to prevent black people from voting Republican.

 

[Owzers]

Watching the IRS hearings....it's a farce.

 

[Oblivion]

Reagan isn't loved by Republicans for what he did so much as for what he represents. He's a symbol for all that is right with conservatism. A man who cut taxes, cut spending, curbed the growth of government, who was always principled and never compromised with the enemy, be it foreign or domestic.

Sure, Ronald Reagan might have tripled the national debt. But the REAL Ronald Reagan never did such a thing, and in fact balanced the budget.

Sure, Ronald Reagan might have given amnesty to 3 million illegals, but the REAL Ronald Reagan shot them out of of a canon back into Mexico.

Sure, Ronald Reagan negotiated with terrorists by giving them thousands of missiles, but the REAL Ronald Reagan would merely need to give said terrorists a brief second of stinkeye for them to willfully and unconditionally surrender lest they incur his patriotic wrath.