Morning Must Reads: Data

I feel safer already. Now all we need is to find out what day Homeland Security is taking off from protecting us from man-caused disasters (formerly known as terrorists) so we can head for the bunkers.

Can you imagine the coverage of this if it was Sarah Palin who said it?

“What I say to the American people is that… thousands of people are working 24/7, 364 days a year to keep the American people safe.”

http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2010/12/napolitano-were-working-364-days-a-year-to-fight-terror-video/
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Good MMR today, Adam…

Karen Tumulty zooms out on the recent trend of public employee criticism.

Excerpt:

“The extent and the depth of it is new. This is a concerted, deep attack on public employees and public workers,” said Gerald W. McEntee, president of the 1.6-million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “The problem in the economy has not been created by public workers. It was created by Wall Street, and this political sleight of hand will do nothing to solve the problem.”

Exactly. Oh, and before Freeper starts his usual nonsense, he should probably read Tumulty’s article – it’s fair – and then maybe read through this…turns out, when you control for experience and education, government employees don’t get such a great deal:

The idea that the private market pensions are in tip-top shape doesn’t strike me as accurate, and piling on the entire unfunded liability into a single year is, of course, going to distort the scales and not focus on the specific hypothesis testing that is being carried out. And yes, even if we were expecting to pay off the entire unfunded liability we are talking about 2.2% of payroll, still less than what NIR, EPI and others found as the pay gap.
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Again, there’s simply little fat to cut here. Government workers are less compensated than private workers – cutting more will simply mean a weaker workforce with less human capital, which will lead to weaker government services. Which will discredit the idea of government, which I guess is the point for some people.

Which is right, although I would have added ‘union-busting’ as another motivation. One last point about Tumulty’s article:

Chris Christie, the Republican governor of deeply Democratic New Jersey, has become a folk hero to conservatives – and a YouTube sensation – in part because of his confrontations with that state’s educators, whose salaries and benefits he has tried to scale back.
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When a teacher complained during a town hall last May that she wasn’t being fairly compensated for her education and her experience, the governor retorted: “You know what? Then you don’t have to do it.”

From The Other Klein:

I’ve seen the videos of Christie berating constituents at town hall meetings. They make for a good YouTube clip. But it wasn’t until I read Jason Zengerle’s profile of the combative Garden Stater that I realized how calculated they were: “Almost everywhere Christie goes,” Zengerle reports, “he is filmed by an aide who job it is to capture these ‘moments,’ as the governor’s staff has come to call them.”
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And the aide isn’t stuck hoping that fortune will smile on his FlipCam. Christie is hungry for these moments. He’s looking for a citizen to smack down. Like a comic known for filleting hecklers, he pumps the audience up in anticipation of the beat-down. “This could happen right here,” he excitedly told a crowd in Moorestown, N.J. “This guy at times has a tendency to annoy me. …If you have your own cameras, start rolling!”
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Christie didn’t end up hammering that guy. He went after a woman who asked about the Hudson River tunnel. “Look at me,” he scolded her while answering.

Apologies in advance for the worn-out scroll wheel and the tendonitis in your index finger.

Adam Sorensen:

–The Federal Communications Commission is poised to approve “net neutrality” rules today that would restrict Internet service providers from speeding, slowing or blocking broadband access to one source of content over another.

No, that’s not completely true.
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They’re poised to approve rules that will specifically exclude wireless internet service providers from those restrictions, so that, if consumers access the internet from wireless devices, service providers can speed, slow or block access to one source of content over another.
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Please update your post, before folks get the wrong idea about what’s being protected, and what’s not.

“Santa? Nooooooo!”

(not safe for your six-year-old)

“Some of you may remember Repent Amarillo as the far-right group whose planned Koran burning last September was foiled by the shirtless ‘Dude, you have no Koran!’ dude. As its name suggests, the group’s mission is quite simple: pressure the Texas city’s 67,000 godless residents to repent for their sins and find Christ. To that end, organizers have created their own nifty ‘prayer map,’ which carefully charts various local hotspots for spirtual warfare (the group has already claimed victory for shutting down a Masonic lodge, a swingers bar, and a strip club.)

Now, Repent Amarillo has set its sights on an institution more powerful, even, than the Crystal Pistol: Santa. Here’s a video the group just released, in which they execute the big man via firing squad, as part of an effort to teach kids the true meaning of Christmas.”

A WaPo investigation into how the tools and techniques used for the Global War on Terror have come home to roost.

“The months-long investigation, based on nearly 100 interviews and 1,000 documents, found that:
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* Technologies and techniques honed for use on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan have migrated into the hands of law enforcement agencies in America.
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* The FBI is building a database with the names and certain personal information, such as employment history, of thousands of U.S. citizens and residents whom a local police officer or a fellow citizen believed to be acting suspiciously. It is accessible to an increasing number of local law enforcement and military criminal investigators, increasing concerns that it could somehow end up in the public domain.
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* Seeking to learn more about Islam and terrorism, some law enforcement agencies have hired as trainers self-described experts whose extremist views on Islam and terrorism are considered inaccurate and counterproductive by the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies.
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* The Department of Homeland Security sends its state and local partners intelligence reports with little meaningful guidance, and state reports have sometimes inappropriately reported on lawful meetings.”

“eeper starts his usual nonsense,”
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You mean by showing how pathetic your arguments usually are? McEntee stands ups for the unions. Alert the press!
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“turns out, when you control for experience and education, government employees don’t get such a great deal:”
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How come this argument never convinces liberals when they think women are short-changed?
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“Christie is hungry for these moments.”
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And yes he is the first politicians to target somebody unlike say Obama with HC, Big Business, Wall Street, Banks, the amorphous “wealthy” or Chuck Schumer in from of any camera.

Please update your post, before folks get the wrong idea about what’s being protected, and what’s not.

It’s won’t make much of a difference. The reactionaries already have no idea what net neutrality is (other than it’s a big, bad “liberal” thing, ooooh, scary) and will be in shortly to decry the government takeover of the internet.

Yeah, if Palin said it she would have been rightfully mocked because she says dumb crap like that on a daily basis. Napolitano, Obama, etc… misspeak occasionally themselves but they haven’t founded careers and cultivated cult followings based on the dumb crap that they say.

Thanks Stuart. I’ve added the word “Web.” I havent seen the actual rules yet, but my understanding is that wireless Internet browsing will fall under the same rules as fixed wire, but that in-app content on wireless devices such as mobile versions of skype or netflix could be curtailed. Stay tuned

Thank you Free in Pennsylvania for this timely update!
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It is not enough that the Dimowits and libtards want to tax all of our monies! Now they want to tax our days!
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It is my day and I earned it with the blood and sweat of my own labors. The government can have that day when they pry it from my cold dead hands!

Current polling indicates that no one really knows what the hell is going on.*

“A CNN poll conducted in mid-November found this about the message from the election: 70 percent of those surveyed said the results were a rejection of Democratic rule in the House while 17 percent called it a mandate for Republicans. Eight percent answered “neither” and 5 percent had no opinion.

A new poll released Monday by CNN/Opinion Research suggested that whatever most motivated voters in the 2010 midterm elections, their views going forward may be less clear-cut.

The survey finds that Americans believe by 55 percent to 42 percent that the policies being proposed by President Obama will move the country in the right direction. But those surveyed said by 51 percent to 44 percent that the policies being proposed by the GOP will take the country in the wrong direction.

When the question is asked about Democrats in general it produces a split with 48 percent each in the right-direction and wrong-direction columns.”

(*I’m sure that there are some demagogues out there that will be more than happy to try and take advantage of the uncertainty…)

Like I said, “Before Freeper starts his usual nonsense.”
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Thanks for proving me right, Freeper!

The defense gets lamer and the more shrill is the gist of KT’s article. But just to help you understand since you have trouble with keeping tax rates unchanged is not spending…
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“Relative job security with generous benefits that extend into retirement”
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Relative job security? Short of murder it is next to impossible to be fired. In tough economic times job cut backs – nominal – solution tax the rich. Small wonder the struggling taxpayer is ticked especially as we heqr whining of pay freezes – NOT CUTS.
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“Nor do he and others in labor see it as a coincidence that all of this is happening at a moment when, for the first time in history, a majority of union members work for the government rather than the private sector, where labor membership has plummeted.”
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I wonder if he sees the coincidence of the declining private sector labor force with the labor unions bankrupting the steel, aluminum, airline and auto industries. Maybe we can head off the same fate from befalling governments?
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“American Enterprise Institute, have countered that the real bonanza for public-sector workers comes after they leave government, because of generous and secure retiree health and pension benefits.”
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Ding ding ding here is the winner. This is bankrupting us at all levels with a work force that produces nothing And you can put as much lips tick on this pig but this is death for the American taxpayer.
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And you conveniently left out “other research SUGGESTS” that public earns less. Suggests is not an absolute of any magnitude.
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Nice try. You warmed up your excuse pitching arm early. But it time for the showers again

The Swampista Emeritus did have a good story about public-sector jobs.
Gov. Dumb Dumb*** , Clue Clueless (or whatever his name is) must think kids can educate themselves. Or maybe a Wal-Mart greeter can help. Ye gods.

U.S. Census data that will be used by the states to reapportion congressional seats is due out today.

Look for overblown and badly-drawn conclusions as a result.

Really appreciate your making the effort to get that precise accuracy, Adam Sorensen, it’s an issue of interest to so many people right now.
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And thank you so much for responding to commentary.

Once again, Freeper ignores fact and context and selects a phrase or two that says what he wants to say. Easy enough to do:
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…murder…the rich…especially as we hear…of…the declining private sector labor force…[and] the steel, aluminum, airline and auto industries. Ding ding ding here is the winner…death…
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Freeper, I’m shocked, just shocked that you would suggest such a thing!
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…it time for the showers again.
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Is that some sort of sick Holocaust reference, Freeper? I may want this country’s wealthy to pay their rightful share in taxes, but sending them to the gas chamber is way too hateful and extreme. Shame on you, Freeper.
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…
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Kinda like that, huh, Freep?
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Gov. Dumb Dumb*** , Clue Clueless (or whatever his name is)
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The Other Klein has an update on the Big Bully.
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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/12/chris_christies_pepsi_problem_1.html
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“The Quinnipiac survey shows Christie with a 46 percent job approval rating, with 44 percent disapproving. That’s down from his 51 percent approval rating last month. He also now holds a net negative rating on education, with 45 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving of his reform efforts, taking on the teachers’ unions and educational establishment in the process.

For the first time in many months, Obama’s approval rating has inched ahead of Christie’s. The president’s approval in New Jersey is now at 50 percent, up four points from last month — and the first time he’s gotten majority approval since June.

The Rutgers poll found 39 percent giving Christie positive ratings, with 54 percent rating him negatively. The 28 percent of voters who consider his job performance “poor” is the second-highest for any first-year governor in the history of the poll.”

If your point is that she misspoke, point taken. When Republicans show the ablility to walk on water, call me.

Thanks, GC, for the 411 on Bull Bully.
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UTR (Under the Radar) BO’s approval ratings have stabilized (why don’t the MSM report his record-low approval ratings anymore, huh??) and with a combative group coming in next month it’ll be easy pickins for him to juxtapose himself as the champion of the people versus a group who wants to take him down at all costs — impeachment (!) included.

For all the hoopla and expressions of outrage, GOPers still want to stymie the Zadroga-9/11 responders bill.

“New York Democrats hoping for quick action on a bill to give health care compensation to Ground Zero workers are about to run into Tom Coburn.

The Oklahoma Republican and physician — known in the Senate as ‘Dr. No’ for his penchant in blocking bills — told POLITICO Monday night he wouldn’t allow the bill to move quickly, saying he has problems with parts of the bill and the process Democrats are employing.

Other Republicans like Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said he had concerns with the measure and said it should instead move through the committee process.”

So gratifying to see I can still start an argument in this space.

YES YOU CAN!
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Merry Xmas KT and thanks for all you continue to do.

You’re always on the tip of our conversations, KT.
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Ms. Controversy strikes again!
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Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Are these guys truly concerned about our economy or just plain heartless?
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I ask rhetorically.

Argument? What argument?
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It’s not as if I can have a battle of wits with someone who is completely unarmed…
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…Good to have you check in, Karen.

Whether they’re 3 sizes too big or too small, our hearts are always with you, Karen. Happy Holidays!

grape_crush: I believe there’s more here than is being widely reported. The Chamber of Commerce has lobbied strongly against this bill:
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“The US Chamber of Commerce was behind an intense lobbying campaign to kill the bill because it would have closed a tax loophole allowing multinational companies incorporated in tax havens to avoid paying taxes on income earned in the US. The revenue generated from taxing these companies would be used to pay for health services and provide financial compensation for 9/11 rescue workers. ”
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/senate-democrats-hope-pass-911-health-bill/

Some dems removed that “objection” for the latest attempt to move it through, but still intend to fund the bill through a tax on certain foreign companies, and on US companies that use foreign labor. The latest is on a WSJ blog. I don’t have a lot of time so can’t look up the link for that one.
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In any event, I think there is more to this story, which would make the repubs look yet more craven if told.

keep in mind that these guys vote against their own earmarks, but only when they know they don’t have enough votes…

“misspeak occasionally themselves but they haven’t founded careers and cultivated cult followings based on the dumb crap that they say.
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Obama visited 57 states and I bet you are part of his cult following and I bet you even voted for him

You don’t mean that we are part of the democracy cult, do you?
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As for 57, did you declare all your outbuildings on the back 40 as independent entities?

“must think kids can educate themselves”
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Judging by what we spend versus where they rank globally, they must be.
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“Freeper, I’m shocked, just shocked that you would suggest such a thing!”
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Hard to figure out if you are truly incapable of reading or being typically obtuse when presented with the reality of how the left with sacrifice the taxpayer for more more more.
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“Is that some sort of sick Holocaust reference, Freeper? I may want this country’s wealthy to pay their rightful share in taxes, but sending them to the gas chamber is way too hateful and extreme. Shame on you, Freeper.”
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First I gave no Holocaust reference. More precisley, you are sick of having your thin tortured arguments for liberalism torn down so you revert to a liberal classic, try and denigrate with the (fill in your fav.) racist, anti-Semite- homophobe meme.
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But please tell me what is “rightful” share as deemed by the Great Grape? 30% 40% 60% 80% Or what ever percent to spend to fulfill your twisted sense of entitlements that you think needs to be given. 40% pay NO income taxes now, the upper 10% pay 60%.

The left gets apoplectic when a company earn 15% profit margin. They are greedy. But a government that takes 20% of the national income is not taking enough for your twisted sense of fairness.
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KT- It is easy to have an argument with the left here. They have an overdeveloped sense of what they know and little to back it up topped off with the fact most of the country doesn’t care what they think
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“It’s not as if I can have a battle of wits with someone who is completely unarmed…”
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See KT here is the overdeveloped arrogance of someone who plays far too often with the home lobotomy kit.

Dribble out garbage declare your belief as facts then take a victory lap. You got to love the delusional liberal mind

For those who thought the Democratic Party was already wholly-owned by the Communist Party. Apparently according to them its still a work in process.

The Communist Party should continue to infiltrate and influence the Democratic Party, but simultaneously maintain an independent financial and political base.
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But, clearly, the U.S. has entered a new political moment. Heightened class and democratic struggle, the Great Recession and its aftermath, Obama’s ascent to the presidency, the assertive posture of the AFL-CIO, the growth of social networks, the counter-revolt of the extreme right, all have combined to produce an unprecedented situation – and opportunity.

U.S. ideological life is also in flux. A broad radicalization process with its roots in capitalism’s deep systemic crisis is at work. As polls repeatedly indicate, a broad left current flows in the streams of public consciousness: fully a third of America’s youth have favorable views of socialism.

Anti-communism too is not the force it once was. Just recently in the deep south, a labor council bought an ad for the Illinois People’s World annual banquet, congratulating the PeoplesWorld.org and its labor editor, John Wojcik, for a prize-winning article, an inconceivable event in the not too distant past. In Connecticut, state AFL-CIO leaders participate in PW events where the CPUSA anniversary is celebrated; in Cleveland a well-known communist, Rick Nagin, running in a non-partisan race for City Council received the city’s AFL-CIO endorsement and nearly won…

Of course, there is no doubt that the communist movement while growing remains small. There is also little doubt that its problems are not unrelated to similar ones in the labor and democratic movements.

The CPUSA from this standpoint has held its own with several hundred spontaneous applicants for membership a year for nearly decade. Its websites reach 5,000 readers a day, or 30,000 in a week. With all its weaknesses, the party has a national infrastructure and an experienced group of organizers and activists. This background unfortunately is missing from Atkin’s analysis.

It is certainly the case that in the U.S. the real stuff of politics and governance occurs through the two mass political parties. Here is where the action is and it is here, mainly through the vehicle of the Democratic Party, that the peoples’ movement fights for its interests. Serious politics cannot stand apart from these struggles…

For the foreseeable future Democratic Party circles will be an area of engagement for those wanting to make a difference.

That said, even with the growth of newly independent forces operating within the Democratic Party, it’s hard to see how the role of a communist party could be realized within these confines. Electoral work by itself cannot be understood as constituting the sum of a party’s activity, particularly a revolutionary party

from PeoplesWorld.org

Hard to figure out…reality…left with sacrifice.
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I’m sorry that you are confused, Freeper. Just because things are all mixed up for you right now doesn’t mean you need to advocate for murdering the wealthy.
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Holocaust…for…anti-Semite- homophobe[s]…is “rightful”.
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You’re disgusting, Freeper. Stop.
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…whatever… to fulfill…entitlements…needs to be given. The upper 10% pay[s]…they are greedy…a government that takes 20% of the national income is not taking enough…
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That’s going from one extreme to another, Freeper…first you want to cut everything then you’re basically a Stalinist.
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They have an overdeveloped sense…
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Stow it, welcher. You use your own moral compass as a urinal cake practically every day. You have no room to cast aspersions on anyone.

“That’s going from one extreme to another, Freeper…first you want to cut everything then you’re basically a Stalinist.”
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Well you answered my question. You are not purposed;y obtuse you are just typically liberal stupid.

I love you half sentences where you fail to respond to issues. But then when you have a bankrupt philosophy you can’t respond with reason – just name calling.

I am sure you want every conservative gone that way you can prattle on with your nonsense unchallenged. That’s what really fries your shorts, having liberalism held up to your face. Seems that even you can’t stand that reflection

I love you…I…want…your shorts.
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You’re creeping me out, Freeper. Back off, you stalker.

“fail to respond to issues. But then when you have a bankrupt philosophy you can’t respond with reason – just name calling.”
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Are you talking about yourself? Mr Moral himself; like a dirty Jesus – can and do act like an @ss but never sullies his wings because he’s divine. He without integrity shalt not pretend he’s uber alles.

HAHAHAHA!
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Be scurred…hide under the table with yer guns cause we’re comming for ya!

Ah grape you are now in the truly pathetic as hippo (body type & Species) is stumbling to your defense.

The lame lineral dream team goes on!!!

grape_crush: Freeper never disappoints.

Oh, freeper be careful of the floride in your water. The communists are everywhere.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/20/gop-spending-cuts_n_798986.html
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Karen you may have already read this. I am sure Freeper has not.
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_ Firebrand Republican Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has for months pushed legislation to freeze what she calls “unconscionable” federal salaries. Meanwhile, her own payroll jumped 16 percent between 2007, when she came to Congress, and 2009.

_ Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican set to chair the House subcommittee overseeing the federal work force, says Washington must “figure out how to do more with less.” But the freshman lawmaker gave his own employees an average raise of about 9 percent this year.

_ Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who has long criticized federal pay, has overseen an average jump of 8 percent per year in his office employee costs between 2006, his first full year in the Senate, and 2009.

So they ARE doing more with less – more for them, less for us.

I woulda said something, but it was just too relentlessly stoopid for me to comment on.
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Sometimes, it’s just better to let the laughter ring…

Apr:
Glad it meets your usual witless condescending approval.

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“Post staffer writers Karen Tumulty and Ed O’Keefe opened by lamenting that “you don’t hear” the term “public servant” much anymore, and when you do, “it is with the kind of umbrage ordinarily aimed at Wall Street financiers and convenience store bandits.”
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Seems KT seems disappointed that the wonderful “public servants” which is now an oxymoron, are placed on the same level as Wall St and thieves. One difference KT, Wall St folks get fired, thieves go to jail, “public servants” get taxpayer funded lush retirements.

“I woulda said something, but it was just too relentlessly stoopid for me to comment on.”

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. The only thing relentlessly stoopid is you IQ5
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Notice the quick rush to deride (typical) but not a word as to why the USCommunist Party would publish this.

A typical pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. I guess next you will tell us that the MSM is right wing and Obama is a conservative. Unfortunately for the dim-witted left, nobody listens to you anymore.

Not a stalker — your worse nightmare- I expose your bankrupt mind!

Hells bells freeinpa!
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You are the one that falls for communist propaganda, not me. Bejabbers, you not only fell for it, you swallered it whole, and didn’t even chew!
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I learned a long time ago to tell the difference…

snicker…

“…but not a word as to why the US Communist Party would publish this.”
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Is there anyone, anyone at all that can venture a guess as to why?
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I already know, having experienced childhood, attained adulthood, and matured during the Cold War.
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Free hint to freeinpa:
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Count all your fingers and thumbs once. Subtract one. That’s the comment.
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Now, count only the fingers on one hand! The post that corresponds to that number is the one you are looking for.
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If that is too hard, just look at the last comment. Now, focusing on that last comment, look at the twelfth word. Yes, I know that’s more than all your fingers and thumbs, but take your shoe off and snag a couple toes. That’ll get you there.

I apologize to freeinpa:
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I had completely forgotten that the fact that Sarah Palin had named North Korea as our ally probably left you baffled.
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Again, my sincerest apology…

You are right, the Huffington Post is at best parakeet cage liner.
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But just from your post; so which side are you on apr2563, do you not want to pay hard working federal employees? create jobs? These are just poor folks trying to earn a living or does that just apply to Democrats?

And refresh my memory, isn’t each member given a budget for his/her office? Who is in charge of those budgets for the past 2 years?

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ANd just curious, did that bastion of journalism mention any Democrats who have now become deficit cutters (at least as far as tax rate cuts are concerned) who have been growing staff and salaries. Yeah I know fat chance.

“I already know, having experienced childhood, attained adulthood, and matured during the Cold War”
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Hard to make an argument with a first sentence that is incorrect. Adulthood and maturing are only things you read about.
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“I had completely forgotten that the fact that Sarah Palin had named North Korea as our ally probably left you baffled.”
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No what has me baffled is that Spitzer still thinks the Soviet Union exists and you call Palin stupid. See what an Ivy League education did for him.

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“Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), member of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the most-ardent opponents of off-shore drilling

“We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.”

Sounds like a Democrat in a rare moment of truth espousing Communism

You are as bad at math as everything else but hey say something else inane, declare yourself the winner, take a victory lap, then take your meds and off to bed. No reason to change your routine

“You are the one that falls for communist propaganda, not me.”
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Nope your crap has no affect on me well except laughter!

IQ5 does mom know your playing with the computer again

There absolutely is. Thanks for the linky!