1 Good Morning Morons.  Today is Monday, December 31, 2012, the last day of 2012.  On this day in 1938 the first breath test for drivers, the "drunkometer," was introduced in Indianapolis.  It was invented by Professor Rolla H. Harger and worked by collecting a breath sample into a balloon.  The sample was then pumped through a Potassium Permanganate solution.  If there was alcohol in the sample  the solution changed color with the amount of change dependent on the amount of alcohol. IÂ’m sure it was very accurate.  I am also sure that it being New YearÂ’s Eve had nothing to do with the date of first use.

2 As expected, no deal reached yesterday.  Republicans want a cut in SS benefits, which is an obvious non-starter for the Dems and in my opinion a contentious subject that should be part of separate legislation.  The Dems want even more new taxes and INCREASED spending.  IOW, their normal modus operandi, jack up taxes, ignore the deficit, and increase spending even more than they increased taxes.  It should be obvious even to the idiots in the MFM that the Democrats do not want a deal, but they will still blame the Republicans.  Faux will blame “both” sides.  But in the end we all know what will happen.  Boner will cave.

http://is.gd/d3bgQj

3 Clinton is in the hospital with blood clots from the concussion.

http://is.gd/YvHaUy

4 Now we need more bus control.  9 are killed when a tour bus in OR plunges through a guard rail and goes off a 100 ft cliff.

http://is.gd/hvqXS1

5 As expected, judge orders psychiatric evaluation of NYC subway pusher.

http://is.gd/Ne0W2Z

6 Faux offers up ways to avoid a hangover for tomorrow.  Most of it is bullshit.  There are only two ways to avoid a hangover folks.  Either donÂ’t get drunk at all or get drunk a lot for a long time.

http://is.gd/drgZwU

7 Here is a prime example of a frivolous lawsuit that should be dismissed with prejudice.  Occupy DC protestor sues the gov because the police used a taser arresting his stupid ass.

http://is.gd/TBi2UO

8 Another foreign policy win for Obama.  Our Syrian rebel allies behead Christian man and feed his body to wild dogs.

http://is.gd/92eYYm

9 Obama yesterday on the NBC Demonrat PR program advocating more violations of the Constitution.

“Something fundamental in America has to change,” said Obama, who visited on December 16 with families of victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings.


Yes you shitstain, if you wish to remove the second amendment you must go through the legal process for doing so.  THAT is fundamental. You can not do it via executive fiat with ATF regulations and you can not do it by getting shitstain buddies in the Senate to pass a BS law.  If you can deem the Constitution a worthless rag to be ignored, then so can we.  

How about the House passing a bill that says they interpret impeachment to be the sole discretion of the House by a majority vote and we kick your commie ass back to Shitcago where it belongs.

http://is.gd/stUd2M

10 David Gregory removed Obama’s balls from his mouth long enough to ask Obama if the “cliff” was his Lincoln moment.

http://is.gd/RVBs5o

11 Outright lie for a headline link at WaPo

Dems abandon tax demands, but still no ‘cliff’ deal

Of course the story gives them a little cover but I am not going to link it.

12 Continuing the Strawman buying story from Webster, NY.  We see that court papers filed by the prosecution allege that Ms Nyugen had the whacko felon with her when she purchased the weapons and completed the paperwork.

http://is.gd/ipY8yC

13 Mark Steyn continues the ridicule of ball munching David Gregory on the high capacity magazine.

http://is.gd/LXLdSn

14 Another example of why tort litigation in this country should be eliminated entirely.  Especially class action scams.

http://is.gd/jhkOPt

15 Whoa - that bus over the cliff thing is, like totally a metaphor!

16 IBD editorial looks at lessons learned from 2012.  Hint:  None of them are good.

http://is.gd/Pk2BWf

17 Kindle Daily Deals

http://is.gd/yDn4gP

18 TodayÂ’s bowl games (the big ones start tomorrow)

Music City Bowl: North Carolina State Wolfpack at Vanderbilt Commodores 12:00 PM         

Sun Bowl: USC Trojans at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 2:00 PM        

Liberty Bowl: Iowa State Cyclones at Tulsa Golden Hurricane 3:30 PM
        
Chick-fil-A Bowl: LSU Tigers at Clemson Tigers 7:30 PM    

Scores

http://is.gd/I9GD8w

19 And thatÂ’s it for Monday, December 31, 2012.  And Morons, donÂ’t forget that if you want to deduct State and Local taxes on your Federal 1040 you must mail them off TODAY.

20 Sigh. Until the power of the MSM is definitively broken there will be no chance for honest dialogue and/or genuine compromise.

21 That chained CPI thing was a stupid move on the GOPs part.  If it was an Orellian strategy to offer up something to make the Dems look at bad it was stupid.  If it was a "real" intention it was even more stupid.


Item number 1:  SS should not even be an issue on this fiscal cliff shit.  We can't solve every GD [rpblem DC has in the waning hours of 2012. SS itself isn't in danger of immediate fail, and most of what problems it does have are in the are of SSDI fraud and abuse.


Item number 2: Obviously their intent wasn't to make the CPI "more accurate" if their intent was to reduce SS payment. You do that by making the CPI artificially low which they have been doing for decades.  I have document numerous examples of this over the past few moths.  Inflation has been systematically understated since the 60s when it started taking off.


All this was just another BS weak-ass attempt by the GOP leadership to look relevant. If they really wanted to look relevant all they would have to do is promote a deal to return spending to 2007 levels for ALL departments.


Not a damn sole has proposed that.


Piss on all of them, but mostly piss on the Dems.

22 Repeal the Hollywood tax cuts. And get rid of all the "free money forever" intellectual property laws. If there was ever a time when you could argue that the big media empires should be exempt from paying their share because what they do is a vital national interest for all Americans, this is not it. Revenue must be raised? Soak the rich? This is the right place to start.

23 So the media got played, the American people got rolled.


The media did not get "played".  The media is a "player".

24 Just a reminder that we still haven't heard from any of Hillary's doctors or the hospital.  One would think there would be a statement or a press conference, or something. 

If you are hearing doctors comment on TV or radio,  notice they are from OTHER hospitals and are NOT Hillary's doctors.

I really do find this strange.  The only person issuing statements is the State Department spokesman Philippe (I got in a pissing email match with Zeke Miller) Reines.  Reines is also the guy who slammed CNN for passing the Stephens diary around after it was found.

25

Point of order - the coming 50/50 deal (50% of workers paying no tax, and a top rate of 50%) became inevitable when Teh SCOAMF and Dingy Harry became the only two elected people who matter in DC for the next four years.  Indeed, both parties wanted the first half of that for at least the last dozen years.

26 I will withhold comment on the Clinton blood clots until something more happens.

27 worked by collecting a breath sample into a balloon.

...not too drunk to blow into the balloon and fill it... /no matter

28 Oh, and Vic is right - the Rat Presstitute Organs are playas.

29 As for Clinton, here's a bold prediction - she will be in the hospital until after Kerry is confirmed as Secretary of State, then she'll ignore all Congressional attempts to supoena her.

30 Report a blood clot and the world holds its breath...

31 Most States no longer use those roadside kits because they were notoriously inaccurate.  Breathalyzers now pretty much have a lot of rules for operation.

32 >> If you are hearing doctors comment on TV or radio, notice they are from OTHER hospitals and are NOT Hillary's doctors. HIPAA prevents Hillary's doctors from commenting.

33 Blood clots in the brain are serious shit, which is why I am withholding comment.

34 I think the Tampax Cotton Bowl is on the 4th between
Texas A&M , and Oklahoma...

35 @21

It's as usual the GOP RINOS were trying to be cute. This is all they have to offer.

1) Leave the top 2 tax rates alone, cut the rest 2 points.
2) Strip the stimulus out of the baseline budget.
3) 10% across the board cut in discretionary spending.
4) Do away with baseline budgeting and automatic increases.

Middle class gets a tax cut, the budget is balanced.

But no the GOP goes to CPI, something nobody outside a policy wonk even knows about.


Pathetic, just pathetic.

36 All you NYC Morons who say you want to move down here with me note that the low here in this hottest year of the decade was 23.2°.


By the standards of the NOAA and the MFM we are headed for another ice age.

37 C'mon - if the Clinton's weren't such sneaky little shits, nobody would have any doubts this was true...

38 Regarding SocSecurity, the bigger half (Old Age and Survivors) isn't in immediate danger, but the Disability half will go belly-up before the 2016 election.  In fact, there's about a 40% probability it will go belly-up before 2016 gets here.

39 #32  Yes,  but only if it isn't authorized.  If Hillary authorized her docs to comment,  they could.

So she is keeping everything quiet.  Why is this.  Her spokesman is saying it is a blood clot,  so why can't we hear the docs say the same?

When Bill Clinton had his bypass,  there were reports on his condition by HIS doctors in front of the hospital every few hours.  So I am not buying this "privacy" stuff that Martha Raditz just pushed on ABC. 

40 Tulsa over Iowa State is my upset pick for the day. LSU will crush Clemson.

41 At this point I am actively rooting for Gojira to rise so that we can stop.  fucking.  talking.  about.  this.  shit.


It doesn't matter what happens, Math is a stone cold bitch and will come for us soon.   All we are fighting about is if it's sooner or not as sooner. 


I'm truly beginning to understand the draw of disengaging from all politics.   It's exhausting and, most damningly, boring to have the same fights over and over and over and over again.  

42 The House and Senate Ag Committees announced yesterday they had reached a deal to extend the 2008 farm bill (which expired in Sept.) for another year. This, it is claimed, will prevent milk prices from shooting up in January. See, it's all about milk for the chilluns. Nothing else is funded in this bill, nope nothing at all.

What isn't being talked about is that the deal will also fund other ag subsidies, and especially the biggest spend in the bill, food stamps. The House had previously proposed a cut in food stamp spending of nearly 10%. The deal still has to be approved by both parts of Congress tomorrow which is not a certainty in the House.

But we know they will fold. They always do.

Related is this article about EBT fraud:

Earlier this year, an owner and a cashier at Glenwood Food Corp. in Canarsie, Brooklyn, were arrested for ringing up bogus transactions... A federal sting found the bodega was recording phony purchases on EBT cards, handing customers about 70 percent of the amount in cash — and pocketing the rest. Goods were rarely exchanged in the scam, which defrauded taxpayers out of $985,000 in two years...

http://tinyurl.com/a9fbo2s (Director Blue)

There's more fraud discussed in the article.

43 Repeal the Hollywood tax cuts.
And get rid of all the "free money forever" intellectual property laws.
**
re: youtube Hollywood Mocktheirgunneries

...make them perform and live as they demand from their audiences...

No More: violence, explosions, exploitation, threats, weapons, income...

44 LSU will crush Clemson.

Posted by: toby928© for TB at December 31, 2012 07:32 AM (QupBk)

Agree

45

And as someone else said if they start asking why your giving tax cuts you say we need tax cuts to offset Obamacare taxes.


These RINOS really don't even try to win the game.

If you keep whining about the bias of the press and are waiting for them to have a come to Jesus moment you a deluding yourself.

You have to always articulate and advance your principles - ALWAYS



The moderates and RINOS brought us ALL of these bad deals.

46 Posted by: GnuBreed at December 31, 2012 07:33 AM (ccXZP)


The last time I looked at that "Farm Bill" it was 80% food stamps and the rest going to big "farmers" in the Midwest.


All farm bills should be killed dead and the dept of agriculture abolished.

47 The House and Senate Ag Committees announced yesterday they had reached a deal to extend the 2008 farm bill


Arrrrrgggggh.    Cannot ponder farm bill.   Eye will not stop twitching.   Must go to work and pretend to be a grown up.


Send chocolate.   All of it. 

48 The other thing I don't understand about the "issue" with milk prices is why they would go up?  If anything if we got the damn government out of the milk buisness they should go down.

Are there any farmer Morons out there that know why this is?

49 Sigh. Until the power of the MSM is definitively broken

**"and let it begin with me"

there will be no chance for honest dialogue and/or genuine compromise.

**pfft, "the devil made me do it"

http://tinyurl.com/akaua2h

50 The reason why milk prices will go up in most of the country is, instead of the subsidy being set on the price of milk in Boston (or indeed, the price of milk at all), it will be based on how far away the cow is from Eau Claire, WI.

51 46 Vic,
 
Yup 80% of the bill is for EBT. Back in the Seventies, I was a cashier at a grocery store that took food stamps. There was fraud in their use then, and you know it is vastly worse now.
 
There were 26 million on EBT in 2007; it is now over 46 million.

52 it will be based on how far away the cow is from Eau Claire, WI.

Posted by: steveegg at December 31, 2012 07:39 AM (o44nj)

That doesn't make sense because every community I have ever lived in has had a local dairy and sometimes more than one.

And I have lived in a LOT of communities nationwide.

53 Clinton is in the hospital with blood clots from the concussion.

http://is.gd/YvHaUy

***

The Easter Bunny is looking after her so she'll be okay.

54

Re: #52:

 

I know it doesn't make sense, but that's how it was between 1938 and 2003.  It's the fucking federal government after all, not an entity that makes sense.

55 From Twitter:

@miltonwolfmd I'm an MD. Concussions do not cause blood clots (DVT or PE). Totally unrelated. #Hillary's "concussion" is not vindicated by this.

56 I know it doesn't make sense, but that's how it was between 1938 and 2003. It's the fucking federal government after all, not an entity that makes sense.

Posted by: steveegg at December 31, 2012 07:47 AM (o44nj)

But how does it work to make prices go up if they can no longer do anything?

57 52 Vic, steve,
 
One place where dairies are struggling (and going out of business) is CA. There were multiple articles about this a few months ago; I tracked one down from CNS News:
 
http://tinyurl.com/avekybc

58 It's because BIG DAIRY using it's lobbying muscle has extracted an agreement from the government where the government would buy milk and other dairy products if the price gets too low.

If no deal is reached we revert to a 1949 law, unknown to anyone but a policy dweeb and BIG DAIRY whereby the government would be forced to buy milk at twice today's prices.

59
Heres the formula :
Cow  (-)  warmth of the farmers hand.
(+) general happiness of the cow.
is (=) to the volume of milk output.
(x 10) Government interference.
(+) Distance Traveled from Wisconsin.
is (=) to eight ($)...

60

Re. 57:

 

That's why we're going off the milk cliff - nobody in the Lower 48 is further away from Eau Claire than Californica.

61 Shorter Gabe:

Republicans were stupid for not taking the phone "Plan B" option, so this phony option is not going to work because the Republicans are bad, and conservatives are stupid.

Come on, Gabe, you're not even trying. 

62 Tried to explain to one of my lib colleagues at work that she and her husband will be considered "rich" by Obama's tax plan as they file jointly and their combined income is over $250k. Her response: "That's not true. It's based on individual income." The stupid, it burns.

63 A few days ago Sotomayer refused to issue an injunction for Hobby Lobby, which is fighting being forced to pay for abortifacients thru OTaxCare due to religious reasons. They had previously lost in the Ninth Circuit, aka the Moonbat Central Circuit Court.
 
A different result came down yesterday in the Seventh Circuit though, with an injunction granted for another business with the same complaint. NRO has details:
 
http://tinyurl.com/b7yf67k

64 Maybe Hillary ate some bad tuna.

65 Posted by: GnuBreed at December 31, 2012 07:48 AM (ccXZP)


After you strip out all the BS in that article it looks like they have two major problems, high corn prices due to ethanol/Obamabucks/and some drought and CA regulations.

66
The last time I looked at that "Farm Bill" it was 80% food stamps and the rest going to big "farmers" in the Midwest.


All farm bills should be killed dead and the dept of agriculture abolished.

Posted by: Vic at December 31, 2012 07:36 AM (53z96)

Oh, I did pretty well myself.

67 If no deal is reached we revert to a 1949 law, unknown to anyone but a policy dweeb and BIG DAIRY whereby the government would be forced to buy milk at twice today's prices.

Posted by: General Woundwort at December 31, 2012 07:51 AM (zOP5o)


Don't understand how lack of a law in 2012 means a law that has been superseded since 1949 goes into effect.  Sounds like BS to me.


However, if that is the case the simple solution would be to simple pass a separate law saying no government in milk at all.


That would save money but the milk lobby would probably quit bribing them.

68 62 Eisenhorn,
 
That actually brought a smile to my face. Be sure and update this story on April 15, 2014 when it truly strikes home to your lib colleague.

69 I wouldn't know "chained CPI" from a coupon sale at a chain store, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that RINOs like Boehner are the problem with the Senate. Until we get rid of every RINO, and become a party of none, we'll only continue to lose slower.

70 Happy New Year!

71 Will do. What baffles me is that she's actually really smart and is one of the top-shelf engineers on the team. But her brain just goes to mush on anything political.

72 I wouldn't know "chained CPI" from a coupon sale at a chain store, but that doesn't matter.


Gov explanation of C-CPI - yes, it is designed to make the value decrease.

http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpisupqa.htm

73 DAY 55 1,405 to go Mayans, Muzzies, Marxists, Maoists, Mau-Maus, MFM's, Moochelle, McCain's, MIRV's, mutants, malcontents, maniacs, malignant medical mandates, miscreants, momzers, mamalukes, mooks, mariuoli, meeskeits, malodorous militants, menstruating mons veneri and miscellaneous meshugas notwithstanding.

74 @67

It's because written somewhere in the existing law or statute is that it must be continually reaffirmed and if it's not the previous law takes affect.


Or it could be just like when politicians want to raise taxes and there is resistance they start in with scary tactics of cut backs in emergency services in order to extract what they want.

Someone should find out what the mechanism is for reverting back to this arcane never before heard of law.

75 Related to the milked farm bill, here is WZ covering IL Dem Rep. and commie scrunt Jan Schakowsky saying that "the GOP voted to take the food from the mouths of babies".
 
http://tinyurl.com/b9w9k6c
 
Now there's an appeal to logic.

76

<blockquote>Shorter Gabe:

Republicans were stupid for not taking the phone "Plan B" option, so this phony option is not going to work because the Republicans are bad, and conservatives are stupid.

Come on, Gabe, you're not even trying.</blockquote>

Thank goodness someone explained, thought I had wandered into another liberal blog.

77 @72

But when you are in a big fight you hit on big easy to understand themes.

Tax cuts, spending cuts, no budgeting gimmicks.

You do not as your Hail Mary got to CPI!!

CPI?? are they kidding!!!??

Nobody, even the idiot RINOS probably don't fully understand what CPI is.


Idiots all!!

78 20 Sigh. Until the power of the MSM is definitively broken there will be no chance for honest dialogue and/or genuine compromise. - Correct. Hence: repeal the Hollywood tax cuts. Until the right starts treating Hollywood and the mass media as the collective enemy it is, it's not serious.

79

Good morning, ‘rons and ‘ronettes.  Sorry for the late posting, but I had an early morning meeting to get through.  If you didnÂ’t get what you wanted or didnÂ’t achieve what you hoped to this year, then I wish you all the best for the new.

 

 

For some reason, TCM is having an Abbott and Costello day today.  So let's talk a bit about them:

 

 
Bud and Lou met in 1929 at the Empire Theater in Brooklyn.  Costello, a former haberdasher, failed actor and failed stuntman, had a not-very-successful comedy act.  His regular straight man was sick that night, and Abbott agreed to fill in.  Much like Lewis and Martin thirty years later, the two discovered that they had a natural chemistry and began a regular round of the burlesque and vaudeville circuits.  Their break came in 1938 when they were given a ten-minute spot on Kate Smith's radio show.  From there, they were signed to Universal and went on to make a slew of movies, including Buck Privates, In The Navy, Hold That Ghost and, of course, the legendary Abbott and Costello Meet. . . series.

 

 
What was not known - either to the funnymen or the public - was that they were the subject of continuing investigation by the FBI, stemming from a 1943 incident where a woman contacted the Bureau to insist that the two were delivering coded messages to the Nazis through their radio show.  The woman was rightly dismissed as a nut, but Hoover's men continued to have an interest in Costello because of his private peccadilloes, as this excerpt from a 1944 report shows:

 

 
In October of 1944, during the course of an investigation of a purported ring of obscene motion picture operators in Hollywood, information was received that the best-known customers for obscene film in Hollywood were Red Skelton, Lou Costello, George Raft and others.  One informant, who, it has been shown, tends to exaggerate the facts, said that Lou Costello had the largest library of obscene film in Hollywood.  The informant remarked that Costello "had it running out of his ears."

 

 
By 1957, the two comedians parted, CostelloÂ’s health failing and the two of them reduced to near penury, as the IRS had dunned them both for back taxes, in the process taking their homes and assets.  Abbott turned more and more to the bottle to control his despair as well as his chronic epilepsy.  But the FBI continued to watch the two:

 

 
On 3/3/58, Los Angeles PD advised that a police informant furnished information to the effect that Bud ABBOTT, the well known motion picture and TV star, is a collector of pornography and allegedly has 1,500 reels of obscene motion pictures which he shows in his home where he has a projector of his own. . .

 

 
Costello died of a heart attack in 1959, shortly after the release of his only solo film, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (which, like Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, is a field day for Freudians).  An increasingly alcoholic Abbott lingered on until his own death from cancer in 1974.

 

 
But letÂ’s not end the year on such a down note.  Today is also the birthday of the tempestuous silent star Pola Negri:  http://tinyurl.com/a2vww5j.

 

 
Or, if she's not your style, how about this utterly delicious candybox of a woman, the Ziegfeld star Anna Held:  http://tinyurl.com/b7r5qk3

 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful day, lovely New YearÂ’s Eve and a blessed New Year.

 

80 It is raining in Tulsa and in the high 30s. We have been so dry that rain is a bigger deal than it being New Year's Eve---way, way bigger. As to hillary, I am sticking with my niptuck/gastric bypass/rehab combo theory. Unfortunately, at this time, no one has enough resources to train her in the use of shampoo, comb, and brush. I continue to muse--if she is not a lesbian, why the "regulation" hairdo. Apologies to stylish and well groomed lesbians everywhere for any hurtful comparison to La Rodham.

81 fuck

82

83 Test

84 into the barrel

85 I got nuthin'

86 Whew! Thanks for fixing that, I thought we were starting over the cliff already..

87 Hey Mary. You're killing me with that post. Anyway, have a blessed New Year (and to all you morons as well).

88

Happy New Year everyone from Down Under where it's 2013 in Sydney!

 

Home from party safely, fireworks nice as usual, called adult kiddies, cats survived all the loud bangs, the old bloke already in bed snoring, now for a lovely glass of wine...

89 90 Happy Monday. Fuck you! Posted by: Mallamutt, Now With 50% more Christmas Spirit! at December 31, 2012 08:21 AM (OWjjx) Okay! Another New Yorker!

90

So, this is a conservative blog...but the posters don't like conservatives?

91 @94

Funny, isn't it!

92 Some drama queen comparing Russian adoption block like the East Berlin wall going up on FNC



What's the deal with Huddy, she looks different?

93 94
Commenters on this blog don't like anybody!

94 #94  I don't like anyone.  Well,  maybe my dog.

95 >Commenters on this blog don't like anybody!


especially carnies and the Dutch

96

"Commenters on this blog don't like anybody!"

That I can live with.

97 Apropos of stompy, I am trying to get through to a division of the state to ask a fairly simple question. The contact email on the department's website bounced back. I was on hold 15 minutes the first time before being dumped into a voicemail box that immediately hung up on me. I called back and this time I was hung up on while being automatically transferred to the allegedly correct department. Yes. Let us make sure this type of efficiency is in charge of my health care. stompystompystompy

98

Commenters on this blog don't like anybody!

 

I don't even like myself.  Maybe we could tie this into a tagline for AoS: the smart military blog where where you hate us and we hate you even more.

99 Hillary's doctors are testing the waters for a bridge brokerage once Obamacare takes effect.

Nobody is telling an outright lie that they can get caught in besides Hill's PR flack, which is her job description.

100 Never believe a slimball Clinton!

101 Hillary's full of shit with that blood clot story


the whole thing's horseshit- She REALLY must not want to answer questions about Benghazi

'the dog ate my testimony'

102 I guess that's another advantage for the AOSHQ app, it's immune to people failing to close their tags.

103 "Democrats merely claimed that Republicans were refusing to budge on this "controversial" proposal (which in the past had been supported by many Democrats, including President Obama) and the lapdogs in the media faithfully reported that." -- This is the country is gone. Seriously. If the Marxists do anything right it is learn from their previous mistakes in implementation. They have the media, and now instead of "revolution", they will proceed slowly and wait until we die out.

104 96 What's the deal with Huddy, she looks different? Posted by: ontherocks at December 31, 2012 08:28 AM (aZ6ew) Nose job and bigger tits.

105 Hillary can't testify due to a severe bout of erectile dysfunction

106 Gotta go get some groceries. bbl

107 Just "who" are the Dutch anyway?

108 "Chained-CPI" is horseshit anyways.  If you are gonna cut SSI, just cut it..instead of hiding behind bogus inflation calculations that are even more bogus than the ones already in place.

109 Hillary can't testify due to a sudden attack of the willies

110 Please excuse Hillary Clinton from testifying. She is very ill and must have rest. At home. Indefinitely. A very famous doctor told us. Signed, Epstein's mother.

111

Aww, you guys need a hug, don't you?

112 113 Hillary can't testify due to a sudden attack of the willies Posted by: Jones in CO at December 31, 2012 08:37 AM (8sCoq) Heh. ISWYDT

113 Hillary can't testify- apparently she was recently diagnosed with an advanced case of the heebie jeebies

114 It's New Year's Eve, and I feel as though I have nothing to celebrate from the year ending, nor anything to look forward to in the next. Anybody else?

115 113 Hillary can't testify due to a sudden attack of the willies Posted by: Jones in CO at December 31, 2012 08:37 AM (8sCoq) --- Isn't that what Monica had?

116 she's got the blue balls, crabs, and the seven year itch

117 the Democrats and MFM don't give a rats ass about making a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff". This is just another way for them to try to score another victory over Republicans the country be damned. But the MFM will keep bleating that the mean evil Republicans are protecting the rich and we'll all suffer and enough idiots will nod their empty heads in agreement

118 Anybody else?

Posted by: Gregory of Yardale at December 31, 2012 08:38 AM (QXlbZ)

Are you kidding, I just sent in 4th quarter tax payment knowing it will be higher next year even though I will most likely make less money.

119 >It's New Year's Eve, and I feel as though I have nothing to celebrate from the year ending, nor anything to look forward to in the next. Anybody else?


Nah, yeah I'm pretty much fucked

120 118 It's New Year's Eve, and I feel as though I have nothing to celebrate from the year ending, nor anything to look forward to in the next. Anybody else? Posted by: Gregory of Yardale at December 31, 2012 08:38 AM (QXlbZ) We can look forward to poverty, civil unrest, gulags and Mexi-Muzzie anthrax from south of the border. Oh, happy day!

121 but gotta go

122 102 Commenters on this blog don't like anybody! I don't even like myself. Maybe we could tie this into a tagline for AoS: the smart military blog where where you hate us and we hate you even more. Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at December 31, 2012 08:31 AM (zF6Iw) Ace of Spades Headquarters: "We're not happy 'til you're not happy."

123

Resolutions, anyone?

124 It's New Year's Eve, and I feel as though I have nothing to celebrate from the year ending, nor anything to look forward to in the next. Anybody else?

Posted by: Gregory of Yardale at December 31, 2012 08:38 AM (QXlbZ)

2013 looks to be a grim year. Although things have been getting steadily worse for 4 years and not enough people seem to give a shit

125 Ace of Spades Headquarters: "If you're happy, you're not paying attention." Saw an example of this over the cruelty-free holiday. Asked SIL why he's so happy if his home is losing 5k in value every year and he's gonna pay 2k more next year in taxes. I don't remember his answer, but I think it was a punt.

126 Intrade has the odds of a fiscal deal today at a whopping 2.3%.
 
Such optimists.
 
Oh, and my suspicion is that Hillary has developed a case of the 'Benghazi vapors'. It's a very rare disorder.

127 Anybody else?

I've got beer in the fridge and a date for New Years Eve. I'll worry about the rest tomorrow.

128 "And I don't like anybody very much" (for Kingston Trio fans...)

129 Things have to get worse before they can get better.  The Low Information Voters need a good spanking.  Now they are going to get it.  Good and hard.

130

Yes. Let us make sure this type of efficiency is in charge of my health care.

 

Wait till you experience the bed side manner of doctors who have been turned into paper shuffling state bureaucrats.

 

You're no longer a customer to please, but an inconvenience to process.  It's teh fucking awesome!

131 @127

The same one I've been making for the last 15 - Lose 20lbs.

132 128 2013 looks to be a grim year. Although things have been getting steadily worse for 4 years and not enough people seem to give a shit Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 31, 2012 08:45 AM (1Jaio) I have no more shit to give. Like the old Shell Oil commercial: "What can one man do, my friend? What can one man do?"

133 If you're happy and you know it, get the fuck out.

134

Hillary's full of shit with that blood clot story

 

Oh, good. Another conspiracy theory requiring dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people to successfully keep a secret with no reason to do so.

They don't call us the Stupid Party for nothing.

135 Say what you will about Andy Reid but I loved what he told a reporter last night... to paraphrase, I love Philadelphia, I love the fans, I love everybody in it... except you.

136 it is better to curse the darkness than to light a candle

137 Come on. Hillary's clot is for real. It's the best clot that government money can administer.

138 >Oh, good. Another conspiracy theory requiring dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people to successfully keep a secret with no reason to do so.
They don't call us the Stupid Party for nothing.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at December 31, 2012 08:48 AM (IkTb7) 

Fuck off

139 127 Resolutions, anyone? Posted by: Mama AJ at December 31, 2012 08:45 AM (SUKHu) I resolve to generate 20 percent more bile and 30 percent more piss and vinegar.

140 So, okay. If Hillary is really bed-ridden, can't Issa take a deposition from her hospital bed?

141 > Resolutions, anyone?
Posted by: Mama AJ at December 31, 2012 08:45 AM (SUKHu)


will move from talking about punching liberals in the face to actually punching liberals in the face

142 144 So, okay. If Hillary is really bed-ridden, can't Issa take a deposition from her hospital bed? Posted by: J.J. Sefton at December 31, 2012 08:52 AM (XkWWK) Let the nurse do that.

143 145 Posted by: Jones in CO at December 31, 2012 08:53 AM (8sCoq) Whoa! Easy, big fella.

144 So, okay. If Hillary is really bed-ridden, can't Issa take a deposition from her hospital bed?

Issa wouldn't be able to contain himself, with Hillary in bed looking all sexxxxy and everything.

145 It's entirely possible that Hillary has a health issue that they are allowing speculation about Benghazi, her fall, and concussion speculation to give her more time to evade congressional hearings without actually connecting the dots officially or medically.

After all, she is a much traveled, hard partying old bat.

 

 

146 In case anyone is still feeling too damn cheerful, Breitbart has this:
 
In an attempt to seize total control over national security and bypass congress, a frightening new step by the Obama Administration is coming into play. As noted in FridayÂ’s Wall Street Journal in an op-ed by John Bolton and John Woo, a State Department advisory group that is run by former Secretary of Defense William Perry is advising that the U.S. and Russia both reduce nuclear weapons without a treaty, as a treaty would require ratification by Congress.
 
http://tinyurl.com/a9fjdwy

147 Issa wouldn't be able to contain himself, with Hillary in bed looking all sexxxxy and everything.


No amount of brain bleach.........

148 150 Posted by: GnuBreed at December 31, 2012 08:56 AM (ccXZP) Time for a coup. And how stupid do I look (see #!47)???

149

>>> Resolutions, anyone?

 

Ask fewer stupid questions.

150 41 At this point I am actively rooting for Gojira to rise so that we can stop. fucking. talking. about. this. shit. Posted by: alexthechick - SMOD. We're not worthy. at December 31, 2012 07:33 AM (Gk3SS) Comet ISON waits to greet you. The Mayans were correct, great change is coming. "Comets have, through the centuries, appeared in numerous works of fiction. In earliest times they were seen as portents, either of disaster or of some great historical change."

151 >>> Fuck off heheh, and take that other clownfucker with you

152 Resolution: Take the idea of new beginnings seriously

153 Coded Nazi messages and dirty movies!? "Slowly I turned, step by step..."

Is Hillary too old for The Fantods? Because it sure sounds like The Fantods.

AP story in WSJ, "Small US Plane Leaves After Emergency Landing," refers to the Iran trip in which HRC was alleged by a very sketchy source to have been injured. I am, as we say, just saying. This looks to me like an attempt to make her look good, you know what with all the travel and all, so I'd just as soon skip over it, but hey, a lot of true stories start out like this. One time, the Enquirer wasn't lying.

154 145 > Resolutions, anyone? Posted by: Mama AJ at December 31, 2012 08:45 AM (SUKHu) will move from talking about punching liberals in the face to actually punching liberals in the face Posted by: Jones in CO at December 31, 2012 08:53 AM (8sCoq) Now that is funny. I can't wait to see what happens when they punch back. All that MMA and videogame shit filters out into the GENPOP and allows them a basic grasp on asskicking. Please post the photos of your eyes swollen shut, or you hospitalized with big old swollen balls. I need a laugh. Even more so than your dumbassed post already allowed for.

155 >>> Resolutions, anyone? By year's end, increase dried food supplies to full year. Purchase at least two firearms. Stock up on ammo. Also, hike part of the Appalachian Trail.

156 it's gonna be quite funny when we next see Hillary Clinton in, oh, 5 weeks from now and she looks, oh, about 10 years younger

157 will move from talking about punching liberals in the face to actually punching liberals in the face Posted by: Jones in CO at December 31, 2012 08:53 AM (8sCoq) Dude, you are going to be bitch-slapped with so many man-purses.

158

My NY resolutions

 

 - drink more wine

 

- smoke more ciggies

 

- be nasty when I feel like it

 

- whinge and complain whenever

 

Now get off my lawn!!!!!!

 

Seriously Happy New Year to everyone from Sydney Down Under where it's just after 1am 1st January 2013!

159 >>> All that MMA and videogame shit filters out into the GENPOP and allows them a basic grasp on asskicking. Urine idiot. Now get back under the stairs.

160 Andy Reid is a dunce of a coach who will doing anything to keep his job.  He knows there is zero chance of him ever getting hired again at the pay he is making now.

161 All that MMA and videogame shit filters out into the GENPOP and allows them a basic grasp on asskicking. Lotta good it did me.

162 Oh, good. Another conspiracy theory requiring dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people to successfully keep a secret with no reason to do so.

I don't know. They kept Abbott and Costello on ice all these years, didn't they?

163 Wait till you experience the bed side manner of doctors who have been turned into paper shuffling state bureaucrats.

You're no longer a customer to please, but an inconvenience to process. It's teh fucking awesome!

Posted by: Lurking Canuck at December 31, 2012 08:46 AM (NF2Bf)

 

 

Ann Coulter said it best about Obamacare- "The efficiency of the DMV combined with the compassion of the IRS."

164 I'm giddy (probably the wine)!! The SyFy Channels Twilight Zone marathon has started and will last till the wee hours of Wednesday morning. I work mids so I keep weird hours anyway so I'll be watching lots and lots of Rod Serling's wonderful bizarro world!! I love this show. I'm such a geek. A slightly buzzed geek. Give me a break! I just got off a 12 hour shift. Its early evening for me.

165 it's gonna be quite funny when we next see Hillary Clinton in, oh, 5 weeks from now and she looks, oh, about 10 years younger

Posted by: Soothsayer Riprock at December 31, 2012 09:06 AM (+oin+)

The only way that old bag ever looks good is if there is some painting of her that looks hideously deformed

166 Hillary may be bed ridded or even comatose, but I bet that Bob Woodward could get an interview of out her.

167 Norv Turner fired

168

Norv Turner fired[/]

So they fired Coach Rasputin!! He's amazing really. A terrible head coach but he keeps getting hired as a head coach. Damn impressive!

169 Got guns? If you don't have some guns and lots of ammo you be fucked! F the bamster, and the horse those leftist A holes rode in on! I will defend this to my dying breath. Outta my cold dead hands I tells ya!

170 New Years Resolution.

Buy bigger clothes.  Much easier than dieting.

171

oops

sorry

172

Ann Coulter said it best about Obamacare- "The efficiency of the DMV combined withthe compassion of the IRS."

 

Bang on.  To be fair, I should clarify that obviously plenty of Canuckian doctors/nurses/etc.  do what they can to make the best of a shitty, convoluted system.  But it understandably wears on them and you get lots of jaded assholes, especially those who are already more  jaded  asshole-inclined.

173

Is anyone else watching the "24" marathon? 

 

How did the writers get the Sherry Palmer character exactly like Moochelle Obama?

174 Resolutions, anyone?

Posted by: Mama AJ at December 31, 2012 08:45 AM (SUKHu)

 

Same as always - drop some pounds and finish the new book.  Being an incurable pessimist, I don't think either one will happen.  Almost a paraylsis of the soul.

175 All that MMA and videogame shit filters out into the GENPOP and allows them a basic grasp on asskicking.

I started the day thinking that the dumbest thing that could possibly be said in 2012 had already occurred.

I was wrong.

176 170 Hillary may be bed ridded or even comatose, but I bet that Bob Woodward could get an interview of out her. Posted by: Reader C.J. Burch writes.... at December 31, 2012 09:11 AM (Md8Uo) Reminds me of a Bloom County strip from when Woodward's CIA book "Veil" was first published. Woodward is sitting on a park bench scribbling in a notebook while Bill the Cat is next to him wearing a William Casey mask. "And in 1966, the CIA tried to assassinate Frank Sinatra with a salad fork....." "Wow, this is GREAT stuff!" *scribble scribble*

177 #138 Oh, good. Another conspiracy theory requiring dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people to successfully keep a secret with no reason to do so.
They don't call us the Stupid Party for nothing.

This is not a conspiracy theory,  Gabe.  We have received NO information from her doctors or the hospital where she is staying.  She is 4th in line in the succession.  It is a matter of national security. How do we know she hasn't been kidnapped?  She hasn't been seen in public since she had that flu thing.

A simple statement from her doctors is all I want.  She might actually have a blood clot.  However (as the doctor's tweet said and which I also learned from my grandson's concussions this fall) , concussions do not cause blood clots.

We do not know where the clot is.  We do not know if it is life threatening.  The only info we get is from Philippe Reines,  notorious State Department flunky.

I just want a doctor's statement,  like we receive for almost every other person in a high-ranking office.

178

We have received NO information from her doctors or the hospital where she is staying.

 

A simple statement from her doctors is all I want.

 

As Andy wrote, federal law prohibits her doctors and the hospital from providing patient information to the public. There is no exception simply because she's 4th in line in succession.

179

160
it's gonna be quite funny when we next see Hillary Clinton in, oh, 5 weeks from now and she looks, oh, about 10 years younger

 

 

And equipped with a penis.

180

Also, it's troubling that you would take a *lack* of information as the foundation of a conspiracy theory.

 

Generally, where we admittedly lack information about a situation that we do not loke, the right course is to say: we don't know what's going on.

 

The wrong course is to say: because we don't know, but don't like the person involved, there must be (or could be) a massive secret conspiracy that explains the situation that we don't like.

 

It would be convenient, wouldn't it, and certainly enjoyably sordid, if Clinton had faked her illness and coerced dozens of people into lying about it indefinitely. If the fact that it would require secrecy from dozens of people who have no reason to keep it secret wasn't enough to say this conspiracy theory doesn't pass the smell test, the fact that it would also be a fantasy-come-true should have. It's far too Hollywood thriller and we should know by now that the world does not work that way.

181 #182  It prevents them from doing so WITHOUT her permission.  So,  she should give permission.

I am quite familiar with this law.   This is why you sign a release for your insurance company to have your medical information.  She should sign a release. 

And the fact that she hasn't is disturbing.  Since Reines is out there telling us she has a blood clot,  the blood clot is no secret.  So why didn't she sign a release so that someone from the hospital could appraise us of her condition?

It is her responsibility and duty to do so. 

I repeat,  she might have a blood clot.  We should be told how serious it is.  We fund out about Dan Quayle's blood clot,  remember?  Actual doctors came out and explained it!

I refuse to let this be swept under the "crazy conspiracy theory" rug.

And I suggest you learn more about patient law before inferring that I am some sort of ignoramus.

182 118 It's New Year's Eve, and I feel as though I have nothing to celebrate from the year ending, nor anything to look forward to in the next. Anybody else? Posted by: Gregory of Yardale at December 31, 2012 08:38 AM (QXlbZ) It's an excuse to drink champagne. Other than that, I got nuthin'.

183 Also,  Gabe,  a lack of information is quite often an indicator something fishy is going on.

Benghazi
Fast and Furious
John Corzine walking around without an indictment
Silence from the DOJ on any one of a number of cases that should have been prosecuted.

So don't be talking all high and mighty to me about how your superior instincts tell you this is nothing to be concerned about.

184 Dearest Gabe, you unfortunately have been unusually dismissive of various comments lately. Has something changed?

185

Dearest Gabe, you unfortunately have been unusually dismissive of various comments lately. Has something changed?

 

I dismissed one conspiracy theory. What else have I dismissed?

186 Shut it down.

187

Laughing my ass off.

"It would be convenient, wouldn't it, and certainly enjoyably sordid, if Clinton had faked her illness and coerced dozens of people into lying about it indefinitely."

Have you heard from the 20 or 30 people in the state department who were rescued from Benghazi?

Thought not. One would think they have a lot to say no?

 

 

188

So don't be talking all high and mighty to me about how your superior instincts tell you this is nothing to be concerned about.

 

Miss Marple, I apologize for thinking you were unaware of the probable reason her doctors haven't issued a statement.

 

The root of my determination to dismiss the idea that Sec. Clinton has faked her illness is the extremely small probability that dozens of people could be persuaded to keep a pretty big secret. That's what you term my "instincts," and it underlies my general opposition to conspiracy theories.

 

The reason I was so "high and mighty" about it, though, is my embarrassment at how often Republicans are fairly accurately portrayed as out-of-touch, freakazoids who live in a Bizarro World where Kenyans are elected President of the United States and the Bilderburgers are building a secret superhighway from Mexico City to Toronto. I am sick of how often that happens.

 

Here, note how the story has changed. See, first they doubted that she'd even had a concussion. Few seem to be doubting that now. Now they've just moved on to doubting whether it really is as severe as it seems. As a conspiracy theory, the only constants are that there must be a secret truth here and that Sec. Clinton is lying about it. The particular facts are tossed aside as irrelevant.

189 It's far too Hollywood thriller and we should know by now that the world does not work that way.
_____

Yeah.  That's what I thought about 9-11.  Wait, that was a Clancy novel, right?

190

"my embarrassment at how often Republicans are fairly accurately portrayed as out-of-touch, freakazoids"

How about the hurricane steering machine Bush used on New Orleans!

Oh wait, that was democrats. And were nuts?!!

The Clintons lie, they have a long track record of lying. I take nothing about them at face value because more often than not it turns out to be a lie.

191 I look at the "conspiracy theory" purely for entertainment value. 

As I said before,  I have NO EVIDENCE to prove she had a stroke.  I certainly enjoy, however, the thought of it.  Yes.  HIPPA prevents her doctors from talking without her permission. 

192 188 Dearest Gabe, you unfortunately have been unusually dismissive of various comments lately. Has something changed?

<snort>

The David Frum of AOS is superior and dismissive?

shhhhocking!

193 Not just today, but in the past few weeks. And I mean dismissive as in"you are a numpty for even thinking x way"

194 Not just today, but in the past few weeks. And I mean dismissive as in"you are a numpty for even thinking x way"

195 Muse, I have no idea what you're talking about.

196 Muse, I have no idea what you're talking about.

197 Come on. The CPI is a complete hoax as it is. Inflation is FAR greater than the CPI tells you it is. Adjusting it down even further may reduce gov't entitlement payments, but it does NOT reflect reality. If we really want to give SS and Medicare recipients less benefits, the least we can do is be honest about and not pretend, well, we're using a more accurate, chained CPI. What utter bullshit.

198 Come on. The CPI is a complete hoax as it is. Inflation is FAR greater than the CPI tells you it is. Adjusting it down even further may reduce gov't entitlement payments, but it does NOT reflect reality. If we really want to give SS and Medicare recipients less benefits, the least we can do is be honest about and not pretend, well, we're using a more accurate, chained CPI. What utter bullshit.

199 Absolutely.  Dems won't lie about medical issues.  Why, there were no lies told about Jesse Jackson Jr's medical condition in Illinois.  After all, it is really common to have months long inpatient treatment for depression.  It happens all the time and one shouldn't doubt the press releases.  On a smaller scale, John Stroger, the one time Cook County Board President, had a massive stroke but the Chicago political structure told us he was on his feet and ready to head back to work.  Surely Hillary wouldn't lie about health issues in the way that these far more minor functionaries would (and get away with it). 

200 Oops, I should have refreshed before posting my last comment

201 Dear Gabe,

You know what is wrong about not releasing medical information through her doctors?  It gives foreign countries an opportunity to stir up mischief,  as can be seen in an article popping up from a "source" in Russia,  which says that she was injured in a plane crash in which the Seal Commander (identified as the same one who committed suicide in Afghanistan) was killed.

The supposed plane crash was after a supposed secret meeting in Tehran.

This is probably Russians stirring the pot and trying to smoke out where she is.  However,  now THIS rumor will be percolating around the Middle East,  and it could have been avoided if she had simply signed a release and let her docs make a statement!

I do not understand why you would support the total lack of transparency in this administration.   This is not asking for the results of confidential tests for STD's or liver tests for suspected cirrhosis.  I am not asking for anything embarrassing to be released.

Just a statement fromt he actual hospital that she is there,  has a blood clot in her (leg, lung, brain) and is being treated.

I will even accept the concussion and the hitting the head from fainting due to flu.  But by gosh,  I want to know where she is from a reliable source (which does not include her flunky Philippe Reines)!

202 "How dare these Senators, the conservative commentators said, not consider the rejected House plan of Speaker Boehner to be a baseline for any Republican fiscal cliff offer?" Show me the "conservatives" out there who said this, or anything even close to this. There is a fucking reason you didn't manage to link to any of them. It's funny how you spend the entire post writing about the Democrats pulling one over on the media and therefore keeping their strength, and then turn around and somehow pretend that if the House had passed Boehner's plan B, they would have lost their strength. Do you not see how this works yet? They never lose their hand. THe Media always reports what they tell them to report. Plan B would have been nothing more than Republicans in the HOuse voting for tax hikes and the Democrats squashing it. What a win!

203 Hundreds of people in a conspiracy?  Why?  JJJr didn't need hundreds.  John Stroger didn't need hundreds.  Just lie through your teeth with impunity-it works just find. 

204

Inre Hillary, there is such a thing as a "diplomatic illness."  While the clot may be genuine, I don't believe for a second her "concussion" actually was. 

And we *are* talking about the Clintons here.  For me that's enough to put the odds of a clot at 50/50 at best.  These are people who lie as naturally as most people breathe.

Speaking of the Clintons, where's Bill?  I haven't seen any statements from him.  Nothing issued saying he's praying for his wife.  No news stories about how he's staying at her bedside, biting his lower lip.

 

 

205 John Stroger was a minor Dem figure reduced to a vegetable by a stroke.  He won the Dem nomination while a vegetable as he was getting ready to head back to work according to those telling the lies in Cook County.  It really wasn't much of a conspiracy.  Just other Dem pols telling lies.  Do you think they need to dummy medical records that no one will see? 

206

You know what is wrong about not releasing medical information through her doctors? It gives foreign countries an opportunity to stir up mischief, as can be seen in an article popping up from a "source" in Russia, which says that she was injured in a plane crash in which the Seal Commander (identified as the same one who committed suicide in Afghanistan) was killed.

 

I suppose I'll just have to get used to being called "dismissive," because I am not going to respond to this except to say that on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is "nobody cares" and 10 is "both the U.S. Constitution and the Pope himself require this," the proposed justification "the Middle East is spreading rumors" is a big fat 0 for doing anything.

Ms. Marple, you don't accept the State Department as a "reliable source." Okay. Why should I believe that you would accept the Sec. of State's doctors as reliable sources? They have no obligation to be truthful even if they were authorized to talk to the public.

 

Also, do you still believe that Clinton is faked her injury and illness in orer to avoid congressional testimony or are you now suggesting that we simply don't know the details of her injury and illness and that's frustrating because she's 4th in line in succession, not to mention a major figure in our government? The second, to me, seems like a reasonble position to take, since, after all, it happens to be true.

207 Off topic.....
What is the deal with Hillary? I suspect she has something much worse and is trying to hide it.. It only makes sense...It just does not add up....I smell a big big Clinton fish....

208

While the clot may be genuine, I don't believe for a second her "concussion" actually was.

 

God help me.

209 Gabriel,
I do believe something is wrong. But because they have been so secret about it, now it is just snowballing out of rumor control....

210 Let taxes go up, since Democrats won the election and all they've advocated for the last several years is higher spending, more regulation and substantial tax increase. Gabe argues that, in the next election, voters will somehow blame Repubs for Democrats having implemented their election promises. Well, maybe (time will tell), but I think it's much more likely that lower take home pay will mint legions of newly convinced smaller government believers. You saw evidence of that in the NY Post article interviewing good NYC Democrats who suddenly realized how tax increases are going to rob them of food and housing. The interviewees weren't happy about it. Gabe is wrong on this, and tax increases can only help us next time around.

211

Gabe argues that, in the next election, voters will somehow blame Repubs for Democrats having implemented their election promises.

 

Republicans currently share power. They will therefore *rightly* share the blame for the things that happen on their watch.

 

Also, I don't believe tax increases help anyone. It's one of the reasons I'm a Republican.

212

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at December 31, 2012 11:16 AM

 

 

And what exactly is in Hillary's history that makes you so bound and determined to give her the benefit of the doubt.....?

213

And what exactly is in Hillary's history that makes you so bound and determined to give her the benefit of the doubt.....?

 

The benefit of the doubt about what? We lack information. That doesn't give us license to make up a fantasy about how she's faked an injury and an illness.

214 Good ol Gabe. What I like about him the most is he's not DrewM...I gotta remember to start reading this blog only after 12pm.

215 Gabe,

My position is that we need to know where she is and her condition.  It is unacceptable for a Secretary of State to simply disappear,  which is what has happened.  If she is sick, well, we need to know if her illness is minor or major,  due to her position.  And if she is sick,  who is running State? 

I am ignoring the theory that she is dodging testifying.  I am talking about the fact that we have a sitting Secretary of State who has had a series of illnesses and mishaps (none reported by any physician),  no one has seen her, the hospital doesn't even verify that she is there (and don't think that the HIPPA rules aren't known by the administration and used to their advantage), and her doctors have not given us even a written report.

Do you not find this curious?  Do you not think that perhaps someone should check on her whereabouts and condition?  Given the lack of curiosity by people like you,  and the press,  she could be tied up as a hostage in Tiajuana and no one would even look for her!

And also,  where is Bill?  Chelsea?  Why was there that diversion about them being in the Dominican Republic? Why hasn't Bill made a statement?

I realize you think I am some sort of silly old woman,  but I am still of the opinion that high cabinet officials should have there health and whereabouts accounted for at all times.  It seems to me that this is a basic rule of how governments are supposed to run.

216

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at December 31, 2012 11:34 AM

 

This isn't a court of law and I'm free to use the Clinton's past as context for what she is saying in the present.  And right before she's supposed to testify about something of which she earlier said she had responsibility for, there's a highly convenient concussion?

 

The thing about the Clintons...they certainly do seem to rely an awful lot on coincidence but the sniff test invariably fails.  I believe her concussion was a diplomatic illness and her current hospitalization is exaggerated.  If it weren't, we'd be hearing breathless MSM news reports about the struggles of the American Icon that is Hillary. 

 

You're free to keep taking the Clintons at their word, but I've been around long enough to know the expiration date on their honestly passed over twenty years ago.

217 Can someone  call Monty out of retirement? Honestly, this whole "fiscal cliff" fiasco has his name written all over it, and I'm really up for a Monty penned "Taxpayer Doom" thread.

218 I gotta chime in again and say Gabe is right. 

House GOP should have passed Boehner's Plan B, then started taunting Dems about how much Dems are slavering to raise middle-class taxes.

219 "I gotta chime in again and say Gabe is right. House GOP should have passed Boehner's Plan B, then started taunting Dems about how much Dems are slavering to raise middle-class taxes." I swear its like you people keep waking up everyday forgetting what happened the day before. In what world does this work? The Democrats would simply lie, say we are still wanting to hurt the middle-class, and then the media would report it exactly as such, and that would be that. How is it you still don't get this?

220 "Republicans currently share power. They will therefore *rightly* share the blame for the things that happen on their watch. " So says Gabe, forgetting that voters will remember that Democrats have gone to the mat yet again for across-the-board tax increases. This, again voters will recall, after having devised the sequestration/tax increase plan in the fopirst place and after passing massive new taxes in ObamaCare. And yet Gabe thinks that because there is still some trace of Republican influence in Washington voters will somehow ascribe some portion of the blame to the party that fought tooth-and-nail to prevent tax increases. Ridiculous. Moreover Gabe ignores the basic point, made so well by Avik Roy in his column the other day and evidenced by the Post interviews-- Obama voters are aghast when they see the impact of even these moderate tax increases on take home pay! Let the voters get a taste of a Democrat economy! Let the taxes rise, the regulations burst forth, and the recession come- we will no longer have the problem of voters unable to connect dot "A" to dot "B" as we do now. We will also not be monetizing national debt and, soon, a whole host of other terrible things.

221  So says Gabe, forgetting that voters will remember that Democrats have gone to the mat yet again for across-the-board tax increases.

Ah, but Democrats haven't gone to the mattresses for across-board-tax increases, have they? They've gone to the mattresses for middle class tax cuts that are extraordinarily popular.

And you accuse me of ignoring things....

222 So we should just ignore the entire election, the platform and the last several years of Democrat calls for tax increases? Drudge's headline all afternoon pictured a different message ("Obama calls for more tax increases!") and I think thats the message voters are getting. Do so if you wish, but the monomania is looking weird. The press may have it that the GOP "shares" responsibility, and the Democrats will surely try to spread that message, but the voters aren't showing any evidence they are buying that particular bridge.