There are probably some things more annoying than whining Republicans, but I can't think of any today. That's because I just got my very own copy of Citizen News, the bi-monthly newsletter from the John William Pope Civitas Institute. The lead story in this edition is by Puppet President Jack Hawke, entitled "Republicans Win the Vote, Lose the Election."
In the 2006 election, Republican candidates for the state House received 31,703 more votes than Democrat candidates. The Republicans also received a majority of 51 percent of the vote in state House races. Yet, in spite of receiving more than 31,000 more votes than the Democrats, the Republicans not only failed to gain the majority, they lost five seats.
Hawke attributes this oh-so-sad turn of events to gerrymandering and money. He's probably right about both. After years of control and decent stewardship (with some notable exceptions) the Democrats have gained a significant structural advantage in North Carolina electoral politics.
But I must admit, the irony of Jack Hawke's poor-mouthing is killing me. I didn't see the North Carolina Party of Greed getting all democratic (small "d") on us six years ago when Frat-boy George stole the keys to the White House after losing the popular vote by more than half a million.
Hawke goes on to write a prescription for victory in the future based on work by Chris Hayes, the Civitas legislative "analyst." Read it if you want at their website, but here's the bottom line: spend more money. Which is not surprising given that Civitas is nothing more than a bunch of crybabies shilling for the Party of Greed. They'd never stop to consider that their state and national ass-kicking might actually have something to do with what they stand for. Their government-hating rhetoric. Their manifest incompetence. Their rich-get-richer policies. Their divisiveness. Their assaults on personal freedom. Their illegal electioneering.
In the 13 most competitive state House races, Democrat candidates raised $2,776,501 while Republicans raised $932,876. This wide discrepancy in fund-raising is primarily attributable to the support of the state parties. The Democrat Party gave candidates in these 13 districts $1,216,878, while the Republican Party contributed only $43,990. The result was a 28 to 1 ratio in favor of the Democrats.
For a Puppet who believes that money is the measure of all that matters, Jack Hawke is sure having a hard time accepting that the "free market" has examined the North Carolina Party of Greed and responded with a resounding "no thanks." You see, businesses in North Carolina don't want to see our public education system dismantled by Republicans. They don't want to see a legislature worried more about gay sex than healthy children. They don't want more poverty. And they don't want reactionaries like Art Pope and Jack Hawke calling the shots.
Comments
Annoying
Reb. in power.
Jack! These are the numbers that kick your ass?
3000 Americans died in Iraq
20,000 Americans wounded in Iraq
600,000 innocent Iraqi's died in Iraq
Unless you and the boys down at the Pope Latin think center come up with some more of new age Neo-Con Republican cult math about death rates in unconsitutional wars. You will be continue to be known as the wizs of Enstein math that has gone terribly political wrong with the American people.
I think that certainly there
I think that certainly there is at least one thing worse than a whining Republican and that is the voters in his district voting Black back in. This is a fine example of the ingrained corruption in North Carolina politics from the city level clear up to the state level.
I admit that I am a reformed Liberal of the 1960's and '70"s who has lived to see the devastating results of the liberal reforms passed during Johnson's Great Society. Not only did these social reforms not end poverty, but they actually increased poverty, and the increase in single parent homes (which insures poverty) has been astronomical since the advent of social welfare and Medicare and Medicaid. The list of problems we created is almost endless. This is a good source of information if you care to get the stats: http://www.ncpa.org/pi/welfare/!wel6.htm National Center for Policy Analysis, Article: “How Much Difference does Welfare Make?” Sources also listed.
I tend to agree with you about Jack Hawke however. His rhetoric caused me to turn him out a long time ago. (LOL That is one tirader calling another black! LOL) We have enough money now if we would just spend it on what it was intended for without all the old hands taking their “fair share” off the top.
Of course politics and pols have always been dirty, except now with all the people watching and the access to information more readily available we know more about who is doing what. My disappointment is the voters willingness to accept corruption. I don’t think this would have been the case even 25 years ago.
YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME. THANK YOU FOR VISITING. BRENDA BOWERS
It isn't that they accepted corruption
it's that they realized voting for Hal Jordan could put them in much greater peril. Better to vote for the devil you know than the devil you don't.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
***************************
Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
You think Medicare and Medicaid INCREASE poverty?
It's been a lot of years since I have heard the Malthusian argument. It is true that if we refuse to provide medical treatment to poor people they will die, so I guess you're right after all. Fewer poor people equals less poverty.
where to start
Thats definetly true. Just ignore the savings and loan scandals, Watergate, and every scandal from 50-100 years ago. Certainly no one knew about those scandals.
Additionally,
Not only is that false, its insulting. Single parent homes have NOTHING to do with Medicare and Medicaid. Not only was Ronald Reagan encouraging racism when he said they were he was flat out wrong. Single parent homes also do NOT ensure jack shit.
Also, any supposedly "ingrained" corruption has nothing to do with Jim Black getting reelected. But then, I am sure you know that since you talked to thousands of people who live in that district. If corruption was ingrained Jim Black wouldnt have been asked to resign by almost every newspaper in North Carolina. He would not have had a challenger, and he would be assured the speakership. I will grant that some have been slower than they should to question him, but lets not forget that a man who HAS NOT EVEN BEEN INDICTED will not be speaker because people think that he MIGHT have done some corrupt things that were morally wrong but may or may not have been illegal, assuming he did them.
PS- I was all happy after the Steelers game and you had to go and ruin it. Damnit.
HelpLarry.com
"Keep the Faith"
Figures don't lie
but a lot o'liars figure.
Not to be combative and I honestly don't mean to pile on here, but poverty rates before Johnson's social initiatives were at around 24%. Are poverty rates today really higher than 24%? From what I remember, they've bounced around between 11 and 15% since the early '70s. I think you might wanna check how the numbers you're looking at were crunched.
P.S. I'm the Head of a Single Parent household ... a situation that had more to do with the end of prohibition in the '30s than with the Great Society of the '60s. ;) Yes, my household income is about half that of my peers. In fact, it's below the median NC household income. I would submit, however, that I'm in this situation not because I'm a single parent, but because companies in this country no longer pay a salary on which one working-class/middle-class wage earner can comfortably support a family. I'd be interested in hearing theories about how Johnson's Great Society was responsible for that situation.
"They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum Then they charged the people a dollar 'n a half just to see 'em. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
Civet ass
The most expensive crap in the world comes from the civet ass.
"Kopi Luwak" is the world's rarest coffee and commands about $100 per pound. In south east Asia the palm civet eats ripe coffee berries digesting the fruit and passing the coffee beans intact but transformed by digestive enzymes.
Civitas digests ripe data, consuming the juiciest parts and passes nuggets transformed by partisan politics as exclusive and significant. It's really only expensive crap from the Civitas.
Greg, damn fine cup o' Joe...
Triple spit take on that Greg... I look forward to promoting your Civitas meme (i.e.steal you line).
CitizenWill
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. MLK,Jr. to SCLC Leadership Class
CitizenWill
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. MLK,Jr. to SCLC Leadership Class
People I gave you a
People I gave you a reference ( http://www.ncpa.org/pi/welfare/!wel6.htm National Center for Policy Analysis, Article: “How Much Difference does Welfare Make?” Sources also listed.) As a reformed liberal who believed sincerely that these measures were necessary and worked hard for their passage you can not imagine how the resulting damage to society has saddened me. But change the way people behave these social programs certainly did. Both the Black and White illegitimate birth rate tripled and this state of affairs certainly does insure poverty for the mother and child, or in most cases, mother and children.
Medicare and Medicaid saw health care and drug cost soar at the rate of double digits for years. Far out distancing any other service or product whose costs increased at or near the yearly inflation rate. There are many reasons for this including an increase in life expectation.But this alone does not account for the drastic increases in costs. It is only human nature to take advantage of a service if one feels one does not have to pay for it. There was no other possible explanation for the outrageous increases in costs but human nature. The costs of labor did not raise much above the inflation rate for the drug companies, or for doctors and nurses for that matter. And neither was there any great increase in time spent on research or the substances in the medications. What then accounts for the astronomical costs of medical care and drugs?
As for education, when the government got involved the costs for a college education also took an indecent leap upwards. Go back and check the cost of a year at any college or university in late 1950’s and early 1960’s compared to the 1980’s and today. These costs too far outpaced the rate of inflation. Why? It certainly isn’t because people are getting better educations for their money. In fact the costs of an education today are creating another semi-poverty population of people working into their 30's and 40's still paying off student loans.
Before you knee jerk just take the time to do a bit of research. And you are certainly correct, figures don’t lie.
Dirty politics and scandals were punished. Watergate brought down a president. Infidelity killed many political careers. The savings and loan scandal was I believe probably the beginning of the public's ignoring corruption. Perhaps the public is just overwhelmed and feels helpless to change anything. Perhaps the attitude of better the devil we know than a new one has taken over due to this disinterest/disgust/whatever.
I'm leaving now people. This opinionated old broad has had her say tonight. BB
YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME. THANK YOU FOR VISITING. BRENDA BOWERS
I know you did, and I read it
and I also went and checked out who wrote it.
That tells me all I need to know. This paper was written by a group who started with the conclusion they wanted to reach. Then they set about the task of crunching and confabulating numbers twenty different ways until they found a method that pointed to the conclusion they had preordained as correct.
I'm afraid we'll just have to disagree on your analysis of the reasons for illegitimate birth rate increases (sexual revolution, etc.), and especially the increases in medical costs and prescription drug costs (the ~20% profit margins enjoyed by big pharma companies coupled with the astronimical costs of NDAs, INDs and PMAs (new drug, investigational new drug, pre-market approvals) and 10-15% profit margins for pharm-related industries might have a little to do with the drastic increases in medical costs, but I'm not an actuary, so don't quote me on that).
I'll agree that human nature may play a tiny roll in all of this, though. If you tell a woman she can get section 8 housing (even in horrible neighborhoods), medicare, free immunizations at the health clinic, WIC and AFDC assistance, she's likely to take it to keep herself and her kids alive, whereas --- back in the day -- we could pretty much count on a large percentage of single unemployable moms and their bastard kids dying of starvation and/or disease far from the prying eyes of polite society. Nowadays we get the pictures and the numbers and the bleedin-heart whatnot shoved in our God fearing faces every time we turn around. Damned lib'rul press.
Love ya' BB but your attitude about the social safety net sticks in my crawl. Also, I, admittedly, may be a wee bit defensive on the issue of taxdollarsuckinSingleMoms due to my particular situation and all ... 'case you couldn't tell. ;)
"They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum Then they charged the people a dollar 'n a half just to see 'em. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
screw that
Im tired of people backing down from fights because they want to be civil. I have facts and basic human decency on my side.
HelpLarry.com
"Keep the Faith"
:) ok.
Have at it!
It's just that i get all the confrontation and push-back my reclussive anti-social self can handle in my offline life. People are exhausting. ;)
Here online, I try to be more of a diplomacy-first, pie-as-a-last-resort kind of comment'r.
"They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum Then they charged the people a dollar 'n a half just to see 'em. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
fair enough
n/t
HelpLarry.com
"Keep the Faith"
sigh
For someone who supposedly lived through these events I would expect a better memory, but then again, police dont trust eyewitness accounts over forensic evidence...
Increase in access, increase in middle class able to buy drugs, an aging population, increase in research...Oh, you wanted agreement. woops.
Oh really? It certainly couldnt be because we have created more schools. More people are going to college. Many of our schools require large amounts of money to make cutting edge research available to students. We have made college available to the poorest among us. I agree that a lot of money is spent on schools that could be spent better if we did some auditing, but I also believe that those who are smarter and work harder should be given oppurtunities to suceed. I dont mind paying more so that a poor kid can go to college and become successful and pay society back 5 times over instead of working a minimum wage job for 20 years. But then again, why not just keep college costs down and only ask the rich to pay. That way society will be perfect and amazing. Puke.
HelpLarry.com
"Keep the Faith"
Stop Stop signs.
Since the advent of traffic signals and stop signs the number of auto accidents has increased steadily to reach the unprecedented levels we see today. It's time to stop pandering to lazy and dependent drivers who have been taking advantage of this service. Let unfortunate people suffer the consequences and let their children pay. Remove the stop signs and let's go forward.
Great illustration, Greg
I was just going to comment post hoc, ergo propter hoc, but your illustration really clarifies the point. Leslie is absolutely right; I didn't even go to the link to read what they said because I recognized the source. As far as I'm concerned, they have as much credibility as the John Locke Foundation. When you set out to prove a point, and only consider evidence that is congruent with your preconceived notions, you can generally persuade yourself at least, and others who are so inclined.