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PoliGAF 2013 |OT1| Never mind, Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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Z

zero shift

Banned
Synth_floyd said:
I don't get the whole argument of "having guns will prevent tyrannical regimes." The government has tanks, planes, missiles, mortars, body armor, tactics, training, etc. The people have a few assault rifles.

Take Syria. The rebels basically have AKs and some homemade grenades and mortars and the only reason they're winning is because they are 85%+ of the country's population.
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Not to mention don't they get a vast majority of their supplies from defected military units?
 
C

codhand

Member
Here's Obama's Message to GOP by Appointing Lew Treasury Secretary
President Barack Obama is sending a pointed message to Republicans by nominating Jack Lew as Treasury Secretary: I'm not backing down from this budget fight.
These tensions are not new. Lew alienated Republican lawmakers during the summer of 2011 when he was director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. According to Rich Miniter's book Leading from Behind, House Speaker John Boehner complained during the 2011 debt ceiling negotiations that he simply could not negotiate with Lew.
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http://www.cnbc.com/id/100367675
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
Stinkles said:
Christie reminds me of Schwarzenegger - state in the shitter, charisma and populist chatter holding his office together.
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Yeah, the latest poll had like 52% of Democrats liking Christie - probably because he stuck it to House Republicans and did a good job with trying to get Jersey aid after Sandy. But I hope these Democrats realize that policy wise, on almost every issue of note, Christie is a dirty douchebag.
 
B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Amir0x said:
Yeah, the latest poll had like 52% of Democrats liking Christie - probably because he stuck it to House Republicans and did a good job with trying to get Jersey aid after Sandy. But I hope these Democrats realize that policy wise, on almost every issue of note, Christie is a dirty douchebag.
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It's just Sandy and the shaming of the GOP. His numbers were nowhere near as good during the summer.

Dax01 said:
The threat of new gun regulations is bringing out the crazy in the gun advocates. It's very scary.
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It's also pretty funny.
 
S

speculawyer

Member
WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House official says Attorney General Eric Holder and the secretaries of Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs will remain with the Obama administration as it enters a second term.

The official said Holder, who leads the Justice Department, and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki will remain with the administration amid changes to the Cabinet as President Barack Obama moves into his second term.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel changes, said the three remaining officials were not an exhaustive list of which Cabinet members intended to stay.
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Hmm. I want to hear about Energy secretary Chu. I certainly hope he stays but I wouldn't be surprised if he leaves.
 
A

adamsappel

Member
airmangataosenai said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_C9QJ41Jx0

Has there ever been a better case made for gun control?
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I think hardcore pro-gun advocates need to quickly get on board with some types of gun control, before another mass shooting takes place. Acquiesce on smaller magazine sizes, cosmetic changes to military-style rifles, make a big show about restricting sales of high-powered ammunition, etc. Because more incidents will happen, they are inevitable even with strict gun control, but publicly dragging their feet and screaming about tyranny over seemingly-reasonable regulations will only result in further public condemnation and push for even more restrictions.
 
S

speculawyer

Member
Governor Jerry Brown say's California's budget . . . has a surplus?!?!

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - California's budget deficit is gone after years of financial troubles, Governor Jerry Brown said on Thursday, proposing a plan that raises spending on education and healthcare, boosting total expenditures by 5 percent.

Brown vowed to push back at legislators eager to raise spending quickly, restoring the billions of dollars to social services and other state functions that were cut in lean years.
"I am determined to avoid the fiscal mess that the last few governors had to deal with," Brown told reporters as he introduced the budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year beginning in July.

The state expects $98.5 billion in revenues and transfers and plans spending $97.7 billion, according to the proposal published on the state Department of Finance website.
That leaves a surplus of $851 million for the year, in addition to a projected $785 million surplus for the current fiscal year, which ends in June, allowing the state to put $1 billion toward a rainy day fund.

Brown said he saw a balanced budget for the next four years.
Spending in the upcoming year is set to rise 5 percent, or $4.7 billion, from the current 2012-13 budget. Schools and universities will see a $4 billion boost, health care spending will rise $1.2 billion, while transfers to local government will drop $2.1 billion.
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http://news.yahoo.com/governor-brown-unveil-california-budget-141509838.html

Dude, keep looking for places to cut. Remember, that tax hike was temporary and we have no idea where the economy is going. But good work!
 
K

kehs

Banned
Forever said:
Chu is supposedly at the top of the list of those Obama wants to get rid of. He fell out of favor after Solyndra.
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What? No.

If chu gets the boot it's because he doesn't know politics. The whole solyndra thing was a blip to anyone other than repubs trying to hang the ARRA.
 
F

Forever

Banned
Copernicus said:
What? No.

If chu gets the boot it's because he doesn't know politics. The whole solyndra thing was a blip to anyone other than repubs trying to hang the ARRA.
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83519_Page4.html

Chu is probably the Cabinet secretary the White House wants to see go the most. Nobel Prize cachet aside, the Solyndra debacle has been a disaster, and the Hill is unhappy too. Possibilities here include Cathy Zoi, a former CEO of Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection and Kathleen McGinty, the Clinton-era chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. This could be a private- sector draw too — there’s talk of Lewis Hay of NextEra Energy and Jim Rogers, the head of Duke Energy who was co-chairman of the Democratic convention in Charlotte.
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He's gone.
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Found this from my friend on FB:

So never owned a gun in my life, but became a member of the NRA today. I'm not very politically active but some times it's important to get involved when your rights are being infringed upon. That's my two cents.
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I found out a few months ago that he's a tea bagger, which is really both a shame and shocking since he is one of the nicest people I've ever met.

Le sigh. :/
 
R

RDreamer

Member
Oblivion said:
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Found this from my friend on FB:



I found out a few months ago that he's a tea bagger, which is really both a shame and shocking since he is one of the nicest people I've ever met.

Le sigh. :/
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Oh christ...

Sad to see your friend go, man.

I know a bunch of gun owners where I work. They're guys who are even buying up some guns right now (one guy in particular just bought a shotgun and stuff), and they're against the assault weapons ban thing. But they all hate the NRA. All of them. And not even just in a "they say what I think, but I'd rather not have them saying it so loudly" sort of way, either.
 
empty vessel

empty vessel

Member
Oblivion said:
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Found this from my friend on FB:

I found out a few months ago that he's a tea bagger, which is really both a shame and shocking since he is one of the nicest people I've ever met.

Le sigh. :/
Click to expand...

A lot of people are duped right now. It's an unfortunate consequence of massive inequality.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
RDreamer said:
Oh christ...

Sad to see your friend go, man.

I know a bunch of gun owners where I work. They're guys who are even buying up some guns right now (one guy in particular just bought a shotgun and stuff), and they're against the assault weapons ban thing. But they all hate the NRA. All of them. And not even just in a "they say what I think, but I'd rather not have them saying it so loudly" sort of way, either.
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Why do they hate the NRA?
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
empty vessel said:
A lot of people are duped right now. It's an unfortunate consequence of massive inequality.
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Seems less about inequality and more about stupidity and hatred. In this case, hatred of a democrat president, and willful stupidity to justify it. To date Obama has never argued for gun confiscation or a repeal of the second amendment. His recommendations will likely be a return of old regulations (assault weapons ban) and reinforcing laws that are already on the books (background checks). Plus perhaps closing gun show loopholes, which most Americans and NRA members agree with. Most Americans also support banning high capacity mags, although I can understand why some folks feel that type of ban would go too far (and likely would not be particularly helpful to lowering crime/attacks).

I see nothing extremist about this, and thus must come to the conclusion that the FUD coming from right wing individuals is rooted solely in anger, resentment, and ignorance.
 
Z

zero shift

Banned
Why is California in this mess anyway? The point both the right makes with unions and the left makes with low taxes have been dubious at best with me so far.

That state is an economic powerhouse and should be full of profitability.
 
P

pigeon

Banned
Copernicus said:
What? No.

If chu gets the boot it's because he doesn't know politics. The whole solyndra thing was a blip to anyone other than repubs trying to hang the ARRA.
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There was actually an interesting Wonkblog post about the entire targeted loan program involving Solyndra being generally ineffective.

wapo said:
The federal clean-energy loan guarantee program that gave you Solyndra wasn’t just a multibillion-dollar political debacle – it also didn’t create jobs, didn’t reduce carbon emissions and ran up financial risk for taxpayers.
And yet, the program wasn’t enough of a bust to outweigh the job-creation and emissions-reducing successes of the complete $90 billion “green stimulus” the Obama administration built into the $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act four years ago, as the country was plunging deeper into recession.
These are the conclusions Harvard University economist Joseph Aldy reaches in a new research paper on the economic and environmental effects of the Recovery Act, just published online by the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy. They’re notable – particularly the harsh critique of the loan guarantees – because Aldy helped craft the act from inside the White House....
His top-line, and unsurprising, takeaway is that the green stimulus was worth it – perhaps not optimally cost-effective, but still important for both jobs and carbon, even if neither unemployment nor emissions levels are where America needs them to be today....
He cites administration calculations that the provisions yielded about 720,000 jobs and leveraged billions of dollars of investment in renewable power. That’s particularly true in the wind industry, which boosted its generation capacity nationwide by 60 percent from 2008 to 2010. That essentially speeded up Energy Department projections for wind installation by 20 years. “Wind was basically dead without the Recovery Act,” Aldy said in an interview.
Emissions are a trickier story. On one hand, Aldy credits all that new wind generation – and solar installations driven by grants and tax credits – with at least a 2 percent reduction in power-plant emissions....
On the other hand, Aldy concludes that the marginal cost to taxpayers of the stimulus-driven emissions reduction “could be significantly higher than the marginal benefits,” based on what the government calls the “social cost of carbon” – the dollar value on the damage from carbon dioxide emissions.
Aldy is particularly critical of the loan guarantees handed out to the now-bankrupt Solyndra, along with a handful of other firms. The guarantee program was slow moving and bureaucracy-intensive; it took 100 to 200 federal officials and contractors to decide who would receive the eight loan guarantees. It left taxpayers with a $500 million liability when Solyndra folded and no discernible benefits across the board.
The program “had no meaningful impact on the economy, no meaningful impact on the energy system,” Aldy said. “The dollars spent per ton of carbon avoided are very high… as an economist, you actually can’t estimate infinity.”
Contrast that with the big success of the green stimulus: a grant program that partially subsidized any new renewable power project that met its specifications. It helped fund nearly 5,000 projects and about 10,000 megawatts of renewable electricity. Because the program gave the government no discretion in handing out grants, it kept politically connected firms from influencing the results.
There’s a clear lesson there for policymakers, and not just in the energy space, Aldy said. “If you want policies that drive investment, and you want to support them in some way, make the program simple and transparent. And if you want to get rid of the politics, get rid of the discretion.”
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/09/solyndra-stunk-the-green-stimulus-didnt/

Unfortunately, because the Republicans were attacking the Solyndra loan program, I just assumed it must've been a good and sensible plan. In this case, apparently, that was not an effective ground rule.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
Chances on Sessions filibustering Lew? It's hilarious that republicans are claiming Obama "picked a fight" with the Hagel nom as they prepare to throw shit at 3 of his 4 nominees. Brennan certainly deserves some tough questions about drones, but the other "controversial" nominees seem rather tame.
 
E

el retorno

Member
PhoenixDark said:
Chances on Sessions filibustering Lew? It's hilarious that republicans are claiming Obama "picked a fight" with the Hagel nom as they prepare to throw shit at 3 of his 4 nominees. Brennan certainly deserves some tough questions about drones, but the other "controversial" nominees seem rather tame.
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hagel is the only one who's gonna have a fight and I think he'll get through. lew's problem is with the house who doesn't have a say in the cabinet.


People, even republicans, don't usually filibuster the big picks. At least that I can remember
 
G

Gotchaye

Member
pigeon said:
Unfortunately, because the Republicans were attacking the Solyndra loan program, I just assumed it must've been a good and sensible plan. In this case, apparently, that was not an effective ground rule.
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Yeah, loan guarantees were never that great of an idea, as ideal policy. The problem is that the first-best option, setting up simple tax credits per 100W of generating capability sold (or similar, or a carbon tax), requires credibility. Rewards for companies that do a good job of making solar panels that people actually want to buy don't provide an incentive to the extent that there is doubt that the policies will be in place by the time the company is ready to start actually selling things. So loan guarantees, with all of their drawbacks, start looking like a better idea because at least the next Congress can't rescind them. Although they did perform below expectations.
 
E

el retorno

Member
zero shift said:
How has it messed up California so much? I mean other states have proposition systems. Hell Switzerland is one of the most richest nations in the world and is a hybrid direct democracy.
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probably the money in US democracy, small interests put pet things on the ballot and lie about them or mislead in ads

Switzerland is only a direct democracy in like two cantons as well and I think they're the smallest.
 
S

speculawyer

Member
Dax01 said:
The proposition system.
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That is definitely a big part of it but not all of it. Prop 13 has starved the state of property taxes but the income tax I guess makes up for it. The 2/3s required to pass a tax increase but only a majority to approve spending is a fundamental balance that can screw things up.

But California does have too many programs for everything and does need to cut back. There are plenty of ridiculous examples of state workers abusing overtime rules and collecting hundreds of thousands. Pensions are too generous and were built on a pyramid scheme.


As an example of a program that shouldn't exist, I had a car fail smog check . . . well there is a state program that helps you pay for your car repair to pass the smog check. Well that's nice but if you can afford a car then you should be able to afford the repair for it! Cut that program! You just end up with a lot mechanics making repairs that just happen to cost the maximum amount available from the program.

I'm glad Jerry Brown got in and started slashing all sorts of wasteful and abused programs.
 
T

The Librarian

Banned
zero shift said:
How has it messed up California so much? I mean other states have proposition systems. Hell Switzerland is one of the most richest nations in the world and is a hybrid direct democracy.
Click to expand...

Well, for one, the smaller the population, the better direct democracy works. California has almost five times the population of Switzerland.
 
M

Manmademan

Member
thekad said:
Neither McCain or Romney were tea-partied in the primary. If Christie remains popular, he'll probably win the nomination, just after having bowed to conservative pressures like McCain and Romney did.
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Are you high? the only reason McCain got the 08 nomination is because Romney got teabagged HARD by Mike Huckabee and got his ass kicked all over the south. Without idiot evangelicals throwing their support elsewhere, McCain would never have won.

Romney 2012 had to run hard to the right to compete, and even THEN was getting primaried left and right by joke characters since the teabaggers wanted literally anyone else BUT him. The only reason that primary didn't get dragged out further is because Gingrich and Santorum were getting outspent by ludicrous margins of 8-1, 10-1, and possibly higher. edit: Romney outspent Santorum 12-1 in ohio and won by single digits. Think about this.

Chris Christie does not have the finances or fundraising to outspend the rest of the field the way Romney did.
 
B

Black Mamba

Member
speculawyer said:
That is definitely a big part of it but not all of it. Prop 13 has starved the state of property taxes but the income tax I guess makes up for it. The 2/3s required to pass a tax increase but only a majority to approve spending is a fundamental balance that can screw things up.

But California does have too many programs for everything and does need to cut back. There are plenty of ridiculous examples of state workers abusing overtime rules and collecting hundreds of thousands. Pensions are too generous and were built on a pyramid scheme.


As an example of a program that shouldn't exist, I had a car fail smog check . . . well there is a state program that helps you pay for your car repair to pass the smog check. Well that's nice but if you can afford a car then you should be able to afford the repair for it! Cut that program! You just end up with a lot mechanics making repairs that just happen to cost the maximum amount available from the program.

I'm glad Jerry Brown got in and started slashing all sorts of wasteful and abused programs.
Click to expand...

California is spending the same now as it did when brown took office, roughly. But 2 years later the revenues have increase as unemployment comes down and the property values go up (as do sales amounts) along with the new taxes/fees.

This is mostly revenues from a jump in gas tax and sales taxes under Brown plus a massive increase in "minor revenue" whatever the fuck that is.

Spending had actually come down a bit under Ahnold after it went up quite a bit under him (lot of k-12 spending) and continued to come down under brown and sort of settle, now.

Of course, our higher education fees have skyrocketed the past 7 years to help.

This doesn't seem to be as much about spending cuts (though there have been some) as it is about new revenues.


edit: Ahnold tried hard to reform stuff like pensions but couldn't do it. He didn't want to increase revenues through taxes much and tried to reform some busted systems (he did help by cutting some ridiculous overregulation). On the flip side, Brown wanted new taxes and he's been more successful with that, obviously, than Ahnold was at getting his reforms through the Legislature. If we could have done both, the uni system would still have been more affordable.
 
C

Carpe Libertatem

Member
Manmademan said:
Chris Christie does not have the finances or fundraising to outspend the rest of the field the way Romney did.
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If the Republican establishment wants Chris Christie as the nominee, he can absolutely have the same funding Romney did. Mitt, as far as I'm aware, did not use his personal wealth for his campaign at all. He was solely backed by the Republican establishment as he was their preferred candidate. If, in two or three years, Chris Christie is the preferred candidate, he will get the funding. Christie is substantially more exciting than Mitt Romney as well, which will help contribute to his fundraising ability.
 
G

gcubed

Member
Brown is cutting and reforming the prison system for some bigger gains also. They had some private out of state companies running portions of the prison system and its healthcare


Romney didn't spend his own money in 2012, but did in 2008
 
T

The Librarian

Banned
Anybody remember Ripclawe? He appeared randomly in my "people you may know" thing on Twitter. So I decided to take a look at some of his tweets.

Obama causes market freakout – https://twitter.com/Ripclawe/status/266198140984635394
Obamacare cuts jobs – https://twitter.com/Ripclawe/status/265606320969875456
Welfare checks get votes – https://twitter.com/Ripclawe/status/265794414826377216
Ripclawe blasts Obama for behaving like a politician – https://twitter.com/Ripclawe/status/266050673823596544
No longer a center-right nation :( – https://twitter.com/Ripclawe/status/266014872607813633

And my favorite: https://twitter.com/Ripclawe/status/288810337669619712
 
M

makingmusic476

Member
FUCK BOBBY JINDAL:

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/01/gov_bobby_jindal_calls_for_eli.html

Gov. Bobby Jindal is proposing to eliminate Louisiana's income and corporate taxes and pay for those cuts with increased sales taxes, the governor's office confirmed Thursday. The governor's office has not yet provided the details of the plan.

"The bottom line is that for too long, Louisiana's workers and small businesses have suffered from having a state tax structure that is too complex and that holds back economic prosperity," Jindal said in a statement released by his office. "It's time to change that so people can keep more of their own money and foster an environment where businesses want to invest and create good-paying jobs."

Jindal said the plan would be revenue-neutral and that the goal would be to keep sales taxes "as low and flat as possible."

The governor's office has not yet confirmed or denied an article in The Monroe News-Star that reports eliminating the state income tax could require increasing the state sales tax from 4 percent to 7 percent.
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I'm thinking about making a thread in OT about this. This is about the biggest "fuck you" to the poor (or anybody that isn't rich, really) he can do.
 
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