Fair is Fair

The Legend of Billie Jean starts off with a girl and her brother who are harassed in a Texas town by a gang of teens. When her brother’s scooter is destroyed by them, she goes to the ringleader’s father, who owns a business. She demands he reimburse them for $600 in repairs. He wants to take it out in trade $50 at a time. When he’s accidentally shot by the brother, the two kids become fugitives. Billie Jean becomes a national figure when she produces a video, claiming “fair is fair.”

During this cross-country adventure, she runs into a ridiculously wealthy young man who gives her video equipment and cops who are apparently unable to outwit a bunch of teens. Collections are taken up for the siblings well in excess of $600 and the man who owed them the money is raking it in by selling memorabilia. The movie reaches its conclusion when Billie Jean gets the money and the man’s concession stand goes up in flames.

I tell this story because I think an inordinate number of liberals use this as a blueprint for what being rich means. Rich people hang onto their money at all costs. They accumulate it in immoral ways and they spend it in an unworthy manner. Assuming that the man was culpable for his son’s crimes, being shot led to more than $600 in medical expenses. If this went to the People’s Court, no one would get jack.

Reasonable people can disagree about what taxes wealthy people should pay. George Bush cut personal income taxes for 10 years to send a signal that people would have more money in their pockets. Bill Clinton raised the top rate for personal income taxes, then lowered the corporate tax rate. He recently suggested we lower it again and remove the special loopholes that benefit a few companies. Obama so far has defunded Social Security for his tax “cuts” and expressed his enthusiasm for taxing CEOs, which I’m sure doesn’t make them hesitant about hiring at all.

The goal should be a tax system that is both effective and fair. Soaking the rich should not be a goal. It may not even be a good long-term result. We certainly don’t need the kind of class warfare that is literally going on in the Eurozone. If people don’t like the austerity measures of their governments, vote them the hell out. If you respond by looting the stores, you’re just making sure businesses are less likely to make loans and more government money will go to police instead of social programs.

Fair is fair. Protests are a legitimate and frequently effective public expression of dissatisfaction. Rioting is effective advertising for a group’s opponents. Do we really want to address income inequality by shooting the shop owner and burning down his store? I know for certain some people do.

If you thought 2008 was nasty, just wait

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Nevermind, it’s already started:

Romney gets in heated exchange with hecklers at Iowa State Fair

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s (R) exchange with a few hecklers turned into something of a shouting match while he was stumping Thursday in Iowa.

Romney faced aggressive inquiries with a liberal bent at the top of the question-and-answer segment of his soapbox speech, which was organized by the The Des Moines Register and broadcast on C-SPAN.

He also waged a defense of low taxes for corporations with a response — “Corporations are people, my friend” — on which Democrats quickly seized.

The first two questioners pointedly asked Romney why he wouldn’t raise the cap on Social Security taxes, or promise not to cut Medicare benefits.

“If you want to speak, you can speak. But right now, it’s my turn,” Romney said, raising his voice toward the questioners, who bantered back-and-forth with him.

But it was his last line in response to a heckler that might stick with Romney the longest.

Democrats giddily circulated coverage of the comment; Democratic National Committee (DNC) communications director Brad Woodhouse emailed reporters an article about the remark with the subject line “BRUTAL.”

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Remember those innocent days of yesteryear when election campaigns started less than a year before the election?

Long gone.

Obama apparently is taking no chances, he’s turning his attack dogs loose on every Republican seeking the nomination. He plans to raise a BILLION dollars and spend every penny of it trying to make the Republicans look worse than himself.

Really though, what else can he do? He sure can’t run on his record.

Hopenchange motherf**kers!

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Purging dissent – it’s the Obama way

thereisnospoon

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So I drop by VastLeft Conspiracy and I see this post:

Hullabull

My comment in response to thereisnospoon’s latest:

I know a magician never reveals his secrets and all, but maybe just this once?

Is this deliberate sleight-of-hand, or are you actually incapable of remembering that the Democrats–and in particular Obama–are full co-conspirators in our crappy governance?

Or do you have some other explanation for why you persist the fiction that the donkey party has any inclination to drive the ball in the opposite direction from where the elephants are taking it?

Today, 11:58:40

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So I click over to the comment thread and guess what? VastLeft’s comment is nowhere to be found!

I’m not the first person to notice this phenomena. Yesterday our friend Mary posted this comment here:

In going back to previous threads at Digby’s to see responses, I’ve noticed that on Spoon’s threads, he has quietly deleted (a day later or so, hoping no one notices) the posts that disagree with him the most vehemently, and are well written denouncing of his crazy thoughts.

Pretty chicken shit, ain’t he? What a fool!

Now as for myself, I’ve been tossed out of some of the nicest places in Left Blogistan, but I’m rude, crude and frequently profane. But Vastleft is practically a boyscout – his comments throughout the blogosphere are unfailingly polite and are never insulting. They are invariably thoughtful and on topic.

So if his comments are getting deleted then the problem is with someone else. Apparently that “someone else” is David Atkins, aka “thereisnospoon.”

From what I understand, Mr Atkins was one of the original Obamabullies at DailyKos. WMCB:

I remember ThereIsNoSpoon from the Big Cheeto. He was a vicious asshole then, making whatever argument would favor Obama, and when completely blown out of the water on facts, he would blithely shift to a different subject.

He was also one who routinely downrated perfectly civil (but factually damaging to Obama) comments by Hillary supporters until the auto-ban/auto-hide kicked in. He’s a fucking tyrant, a bullying silencer of dissenting opinion, even if it’s majority opinion. Just like the rest of the current Democratic Party and their media sycophants.

It’s gonna be a long fifteen months until the next election. But the Obots won’t chase off of this blog.

BTW – Have you heard about the new (David) Atkins Diet?

“Eat shit and vote for Obama!“

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We’re right, they’re evil

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Here is one example of something we see many times a day:

Finding it hard to defend his often listless and repetitive performances, Democratic strategists and commentators are privately agreeing with Republicans and comparing Mr Obama to Jimmy Carter, another Democrat who remains the post-war benchmark for a failed president.

“He is a do-gooder at heart,” said Morris Reid, a Washington consultant and former Clinton official. “He thinks everyone has the same agenda to do the right thing, but other people don’t have the same agenda. Their agenda is to score points and get their party re-elected.

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How often do we see comments expressing the idea that “our” side wants to do what’s right, but “their” side won’t cooperate? The implication being that “they” know “we” are right but are acting on improper motives to obstruct us?

Here is a basic truth – just about everybody thinks their view is the right one. Their belief may be well reasoned and logical or selfish and rationalized, but they believe it.

The Tea Party thinks they and they alone are doing the right thing for the country. The DFH leftists think they and they alone are doing the right thing for the country. Conservatives think they and they alone are doing the right thing for the country. Progressives think they and they alone are doing the right thing for the country.

I’m sure Obama in his selfish, narcissistic way thinks he is doing the right thing for the country. So did George Bush (but I repeat myself.) How many times have you seen Obama make some comment that basically goes “I’m right and everyone knows it, so why won’t they be reasonable and agree with me?”

Until you realize that the other side truly believes they are doing the right thing, you will never reach a meeting of the minds with them. The best you can hope for are transactional agreements (We get this and they get that.)

Right now in this country not only do the left and right mistrust each other, but the two sides are splintered into multiple factions that also don’t trust each other. Everybody seems to think that everyone outside their own narrow consensus group:

1. Is wrong

2. Is crazy

3. Wants to ruin our country

4. All of the above

What’s the answer? I don’t know.

But I do know this – I can only control (somewhat) myself. I can’t fix or cure anyone else except myself. I can only free my own mind.

It’s not much, but it’s a start.

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Putting the “fun” in “fundraisers”

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Jim Geraghty:

Are Obama’s Frequent Fundraisers a Form of Therapy?

[...]

In that light, with money not really being an issue for his campaign, we have to wonder: why the relentless fundraising schedule? Why multiple events per night, and multiple nights per week?

In light of how Obama’s crowds at his rallies are shrinking, and how he occasionally gets told “I’m exhausted of defending you,” it seems reasonable to ask whether the fundraisers are for Obama’s campaign or for Obama himself. No matter how bad the day has been – say, a 634-point drop in the stock market, ominous polls – there’s always a well-heeled, well-dressed crowd greeting him with cheers and smiles, eager to tell him what a great job he’s doing. No matter how bad things get in the real world outside the doors, beyond the security guards, metal detectors and velvet ropes, inside those fundraisers, to Obama it is always a great day – say, May 24, 2008 – and the magic of his previous campaign lives on. No one is suffering in those fundraisers, no one is giving him bad news, no one is disapproving of the job he’s doing. It must feel like a warm bath of unconditional affection.

Even better than Calgon, I’ll bet.

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With all the bad news these days Teh Precious must require some historic ego-stroking to keep his spirits up. And ass-kissing – lots and lots of ass-kissing.

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Win one for the Gipper!

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El Cheeto Grande at Cheetoville:

Wisconsin wrap up, a real victory, and we fight on

I’ve got to say, I expected to be torn up if we didn’t get to three seats. I expected to suffer through yet another bout of electoral depression, bummed at coming up short yet again. And we did come up short!

Short of what? Short of taking the Wisconsin Senate? Sure. That would’ve been nice.

But let me just say, if tonight was a loss, I hope we have many more such “losses” in 2012.

[...]

Beyond Wisconsin, if we can enjoy a similar “loss rate” in Republican-held districts (picking up 33 percent of them), Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have a huge majority in 2013. We had a message that resonated with large numbers of working people in overwhelmingly white working-class districts that shifted hard against Democrats in 2010. GOP overreach is winning them back for us. Just think, before today, only 13 state legislators had been recalled in the entire history of this nation.

So yeah, I feel strangely energized and elated.

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Another “victory” like Tuesday and we’ll all be speaking German.

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