Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

I think your first paragraph is mangled. You mean, would I prefer to see teachers or defense contractors laid off? By all means, defense contractors.

Okay, so entertainment industry and tech are also subsidized. My point is made all the more.

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

You'd have a point I your premise wasn't bullshit. Like totall backasswards bullshit.

ETA: you seem to be repeating one of
The Romney gaffes. The 47% aren't a voting group.

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

Well, that didn't take long.

Obama will beat Romney over the head with this for the next 2 months. Plus, the debates will now be more interesting. "Mr. Romney, could you explain why you believe that 47% of the American people doesn't want to take responsibility for their lives?"

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

47% = debate drinking game!

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

side bet: 65% or Americans don't think they're part of Romney's 47% and they agree with him. Not saying he'll get 65% of the vote, just saying Obama may want to tread lightly here.

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

This was leaked too early. It'll be forgotten by then. The avalanche of Koch Bros./Adelson money coming is going to shift the debate several times. (And Romney will need ungodly sums of it to overcome a terminal case of foot-in-mouth disease.)

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

It is not just about whether someone thinks they're part of the 47% or not; it's about whether someone's Mom and Dad or their child in Afghanistan is part of the 47%.

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

I don't doubt it might seem that way, to you. Which isn't surprising.

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

Imagine you're Karl Rove. You have more money to play with than you ever have had before. You've got so much money you could get Herman Cain elected President. But you also have a candidate who either already has blown it or who seems to have a terminal death wish. A candidate who is a Loser with a capital "L".

Do you spend all the money, and if you do, do you spend it on Romney or on the Senate and House?

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

I love when people say, "I don't want a handout. I just want an opportunity."

Who doesn't have an opportunity? If you're alive, in a free country, you have an opportunity. Now, economic forces may be working against you, and it may be tough, but that doesn't mean you don't have an opportunity. Small businessmen can complain about taxes and regulations making it harder for them to do business, but they can't say they don't have an opportunity. They just have to think more creatively. The same goes for individuals.

When someone says "I want the govt to give me an opportunity," what they are actually saying is, "I want the government enact policies that ease my path." That's asking for something. It's saying, "Rather than attack the problem myself, I have concluded the problem is beyond me, and I need the assistance of a rulemaker with power over the society in which I live to tilt the table a bit so I can do better than I am."

TARP was a handout. The GM bailout was a handout. These endless QEs designed to shore up banking before all the other sectors of the economy are handouts. Tariffs designed to create domestic jobs would be handouts. Corporate tax breaks for companies to bring jobs back would be handouts. And enacting policies designed to provide opportunities to people being savaged by the current depression would be handouts. Any time anyone asks for the playing field to be altered, it's a handout. And those who do so - crony capitalist or populist member of the labor force - should be reminded, harshly, when they ask for opportunity, that there's a more accurate term for what they seek.

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

I've heard some of the cash is already being diverted to the House and Senate. But that's just Rove, who is a pragmatist.* The Kochs are ideologues, as is Adelson, and they've already come out against Obama so harshly, they might as well go all the way with the bet. That and they can personally spend half a billion between them and not miss it.
___
*And, if a family member of mine who works for the GOP is correct, wants to see Obama win, because he thinks the next few years are going to be horrific, and does not want a GOP president in charge during them.

I'll pretend my ship isn't sinking.
 

Although I still think it will be a very close in the popular vote/not quite as close in the Electoral College win for Barry "I ate dog" Sotero, it would not surprise me if Governor Romney ends up winning.

But, as I said a while ago, every day that the political narrative is *anything* other than "8% unemployment under this President" makes it less likely that a portrait of the Angel Moroni leading Joseph Smith to the golden plates will be hung in a private study off the Oval Office on January 21, 2013.

And Sebby -- It's wishful thinking that merely outspending the president and his allies will be enough to win the election. Spending lots of money to push the product aint enough to get the public to buy it. (How's that New Coke/Crystal Pepsi taste?

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

First of all, I have never heard anyone say that they vote to get more benefits. Never. I have heard plenty of people say that they vote for the person who'll cut their taxes.

Second, of course people vote their self-interest.

Third, the people who say that they are voting for less taxes are usually well-off. The notional people who would vote for benefits would not be. My sympathies are with the have-nots.

Re: Pepper sprayed for public safety.
 

not in your neighborhood, I'm sure.

In Detroit former Congresswoman Barbara Rose Collins had a campaign billboard that read "Barbara Rose Collins: She brought $gazillion back home to your district!!!" I know you'll argue that isn't individual benefits, but it is in context.

And I've heard Coleman Young complain that he knew people who had been on welfare for 3 generations, and that the Government had to do something. And his supporters knew he meant the government needed to give the poor more, and his opponents knew the government needed to the end the programs.