The Opinionator

Stuff I See on Facebook or Idiotic Things Leftists Post

We belong to a few groups on Facebook, including a couple of political ones. The things I see make me shake my head in wonderment. You know all of those crazy things that people say but you think no one really believes about Conservatives, they do. First of all, the confuse their strongly held opinions and gross generalizations with fact. And every thing they have seen on DailyKos, HuffPo, Addicting Info, etc., is considered factual. And once they post something from one of these sites, they completely lose it if you post something from Heritage, Fox News or any conservative blog to refute their assertions. Even when the post has links to the underlying data so they can view it themselves. 

With that as the background, in the group Cons vs. Libs, (where they are very unhappy it is not an echo chamber), the creator of the group posted the manifesto below. Since I did not wish to out him but he goes by two first names, I shall call him "Ricky Bobby". What I will be doing is responding to each of these assertions as time permits. I post them here in total as they are very instructive as to what the far left thinks. Enjoy!

Why would anyone vote Republican? Well, here are 10 reasons.
1. You are a bigot
It's true that not all Republicans are bigots. But if you ARE a bigot, the Republican party will be much more your group than the Democratic party. Remember that there are lots of ways to be a bigot: You could be a racist, a homophobe, an Islamophobe, or lots of other things.

2. You like eating, drinking and breathing poison.
Many Republicans are calling for or voting for shrinking or eliminating agencies that protect us against poison. They seem to think that the corporations will do the right thing, without any pressure from the government. Uh huh. Read The Jungle. Look at the way Monsanto is hiding facts about Round Up. Look at food safety and outbreaks of E. Coli. 
Corporations exist to make money. They will do so any way they can. The government needs to stop them from doing so in ways that hurt people.

3. You think the rich don't have enough money
The idea that giving more money to rich people (via tax breaks) will help poor people is nonsensical and has been shown wrong time and again in history. Huge tax breaks for the rich (a la George Bush) don't work.

4. You don't support our veterans
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran's Association (IAVA) rates every member of congress on how well they support our veterans. In the Senate, 9 people got A or A+: All were Democrats. 30 got D or F: 29 Republicans and one Democrat. More on this

5. You like big deficits
Since the end of WW II the ratio of debt to GDP for the nation has gone down in 9 administrations (3 Republican and 6 Democratic) and up in 7 administrations (6 Republican and 1 Democratic). The largest increases by this measure were GW Bush's 2nd term; GHW Bush, and Reagan's first term. The largest decreases were the three terms right after the end of WWII (Truman and Eisenhower). The last decrease under a Republican was in Eisenhower's 2nd term
source

6. You don't believe in free speech.
The American Civil Liberties Union is the premier defender of our civil liberties, including the right to free speech. That's free speech for EVERYONE; from Nazis to Marxists to Fred Phelps to anyone else. They rate politicians, including governors, senators and representatives. 12 people got a 100 rating: All were Democrats. 65 people got a score of less than 10: All were Republicans. Only 6 Democrats got a score under 50 (Joe Donnelly, Michael Ross, Collin Peterson, Joseph Shuler, Mark Critz and David Boren). Only 2 Republicans got scores over 50 (Olympia Snowe and Mark Kirk) Full list

7. You like big government
The Republicans like to claim they are against big government. It's a lie. They only object when government helps people. But they are supporters of the Patriot Act; they want the government to say who you can marry; they want the government to forbid abortion; they want the government to be able to spy on you without restraint. Unfortunately, many Democrats agree with them on some of these, but to find opposition to these big government ideas, you have to look to the Democrats.

8. You want government to hurt people, but not help them
This is really just a summation of some other points.

9. You are greedy, short sighted and rich
You really have to be all three for this to work.
If you're rich but not short-sighted, you know that, in the long run, when there is huge income inequality, it leads to things like stock market crashes and revolution, and everyone loses. In a revolution, it is often the rich who lose most.
If you're rich but not greedy, you recognize that helping others is a good thing, and that the government assuring that people have a safety net is a good thing as well.

10. You like torture
The Democrats don't exactly shine here, but the Republicans are much worse. It was, after all, Dick Cheney who bragged in his memoir about being a war criminal. It was Don Rumsfeld who opined that a problem in Abu Ghraib was that they weren't torturing prisoners enough. And it is mostly Democrats who have objected to torture.
Torture is wrong. It's also stupid. It doesn't work. People who are tortured will say ANYTHING (true or not) that they thing their torturers want to hear

"Magical Misery Tour" - That's Good stuff!

Mitt strikes hard at President Barack "Hard Luck" Obama. Good show!

Mitt Romney mocks President Barack Obama 'Magical Misery Tour' of midwestern states - NYPOST.com.

The President's Vacation

Here at Opinionator headquarters, we do not begrudge President Obama a vacation. Even if he does take a lot of them and seems to play more golf than a PGA Tour pro. However, doing so in the middle of such a rough patch in the economy in which we are being counseled to accept austerity is terrible optics for the White House. How bad? When a reliable liberal like Colbert King starts attacking President Obama over the appropriateness of taking a vacation, you know it looks bad.

In the meantime, we will rejoice in the fact that there is very little damage that Obama can do to the country while on vacation and encourage him to take more of them.  

(H/T PJ Tatler)

Perry's In!

Governor Rick Perry of Texas announced his candidacy for POTUS. A great day indeed! Here are excerpts from his declaration speech, 

"You see, as Americans we’re not defined by class, and we will never be told our place. What makes our nation exceptional is that anyone, from any background, can climb the highest of heights. As Americans, we don’t see the role of government as guaranteeing outcomes, but allowing free men and women to flourish based on their own vision, their hard work and their personal responsibility. And as Americans, we realize there is no taxpayer money that wasn’t first earned by the sweat and toil of one of our citizens."

"America’s standing in the world is in peril, not only because of disastrous economic policies, but from the incoherent muddle that they call foreign policy. Our president has insulted our friends and he’s encouraged our enemies, thumbing his nose at traditional allies like Israel."

"In 2003, and again this year, my state faced billions of dollars in budget shortfalls. But we worked hard, we made tough decisions, we balanced our budget. Not by raising taxes, but by setting priorities and cutting government spending."

"Since June of 2009, Texas is responsible for more than 40 percent of all of the new jobs created in America."

"We do not have to accept our current circumstances. We will change them. We are Americans. That’s what we do. We roll up our sleeves. We go to work. We fix things."

"One in six work-eligible Americans cannot find a full-time job. That is not a recovery. That is an economic disaster."

"The fact is for nearly three years President Obama has been downgrading American jobs. He’s been downgrading our standing in the world. He’s been downgrading our financial stability. He’s been downgrading our confidence, and downgrading the hope for a better future for our children. That’s a fact."

"In America, the people are not subjects of government. The government is subject to the people."

That looks like a pretty good start to me. You?

Heinlein on the ObamaCare Mandate

Today I was reading some Robert Heinlein quotes and this one seemed quite appropriate on a day when the mandate in ObamaCare was found unConstitutional, 

"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him." 

And that sums up the Mandate, and much of liberalism in a nutshell. I am sure he would be pleased.

The Mandate is...Unconstitutional

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reached the obvious conclusion that the mandate in ObamaCare is unConstitutional.

"This economic mandate represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority: the ability to compel Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them re-purchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives."

Surprisingly, the three judge panel was split. The dissenting judge clearly thinks that the Commerce Clause allows Congress almost unlimited power. I have often wondered if we are on a trajectory in which the Constitution becomes subservient to the Commerce Clause contained within. Next step, the Supreme Court.

Obama's Legacy

But no worries, there are still fundraisers for him to attend.  

Shamelessly Stolen from Instapundit.

Rubio: With No Budget In 822 Days, Dem Leaders Try To Force Last-Minute Debt Vote

via www.youtube.com

Marco Rubio calling out Senate Democrats on the Debt Ceiling issue. This is one reason he has such a bright future. (H/T Hot Air)

Memo to Maddow: Times Have Changed

In this Daily Caller piece, Rachel Maddow describes her new ad which will be shot at Hoover Dam. The theme seems to be that we can build ourselves out of our current economic woes as we did in the 1930s. There are a few reasons why that will not work.

First, in the Great Depression you had large numbers of men that needed work and the skills they had were primarily those suited for labor. These men were well qualified for cutting hiking trails, building huts in National Parks, working on CCC projects and to provide labor for massive projects like dams. While we certainly have unemployed that have those skills today, it is not the type of thing that will employ the large numbers of white collar workers that are out of work. It is simply not practical nor does it make sense.

Secondly, if someone wanted to build another Hoover Dam, it would be tied up by environmentalists for years, maybe decades. The Dam simply could not get built today. And the same thing would be true of many large public works projects. Think about the nearly ten years since 9/11 and all we have is a hole in the ground at the site. And roads would not necessarily be the best use of money as they do not lead to as much employment and prosperity as you might think. In Japan's "Lost Decade" they paved nearly every road in Japan and it did not move the needle for them economically. The new refineries, power plants, offshore wind farms (Cape Wind) and energy drilling that would lead to new job creation are exactly the types of projects that are being held up today. If you want unemployment to abate in Fresno and the surrounding areas for example, let the water flow!

Maddow seems to think that we have done this before successfully in Depression. However, what ended the Great Depression was WWII. There is debate as to whether the Great Depression was extended due to the New Deal rather than shortened. Keynesian economics has not proved to be the panacea the Left would like us to believe. What has been tried this time around was really just a short term effort to prop up union jobs. How has that worked out?

Times have changed. Maddow's approach has not. If she really believes we need to build our way out of this perhaps she should focus her energy on the Left and their opposition to projects like Hoover Dam. They are willing to spend. They are not willing to spend it on the types of projects that Maddow proposes. Oh, and we are broke!

Well Thank Goodness For This...

Coming to us from Hot Air, President Obama has once again decided to commit himself to job creation and the economy. Well thank goodness for this resolution as unemployment has only locked itself in at over 9%. Be sure to watch the video of Tim Kaine's lame attempt at spin. According to Kaine, Obama has been too busy with other things to focus on the economy, but they were good things, like ObamaCare. We already knew that he was not focused on the economy and was instead focused on pushing his "Progressive" agenda but it is good to see this admission.  

Bonus; Ed Morrissey destroys the "Obama ended the war" argument. Anyone with half a brain knows that the only reason we can withdraw the bulk of our forces from Iraq is that Bush pursued "The Surge" and our troops were victorious.