RRC Archives

pigsteak wrote:obama-rama

Here's one for piggie and dmw. I know you'll love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN54Fb9d ... review.com

Honestly, McCain and Palin are the genuine reformers. Both are courageous and effective leaders, they hold their own party responsible for bad deeds. They are what Obama claims to be, true leaders in political reform. Meanwhile it is becoming increasingly clear that Obama is just another Chicago machine politician. He's been completely ineffective as a "community organizer" state, and now U.S. senator. All he's ever done in life is give a mean speech (from the teleprompter) and get elected. Oh, I almost forgot. At forty-something he's already written TWO autobiographies, and now he's made an absolute chicken shit choice in Biden as a running mate. In short he's an empty suit, and an arrogant ass.

dmw - When you come after me, bring your dirt bike, and full body armor. We can play follow the leader in the Bangtails, the Bridgers, and along the Gallatin crest. First one to eat shit six* times has to switch sides. And girl, don't tell me you don't have a dirt bike.

*Why six times? For the pure cruel fun of it, that's why. 8)

you are on dude. and don't call your future president an ass. that is so unpatriotic of you!

I wouldn't bash his for using a teleprompter when McCain gives a speech like a 5th grader in public speaking class.

Not bashing for using a teleprompter, it's a useful tool. But when he's not in front of one he falls apart. I think McCain actually does better without one.

a small voice under the rickety bridge wrote:Honestly, McCain and Palin are the genuine reformers. Both are courageous and effective leaders, they hold their own party responsible for bad deeds. They are what Obama claims to be, true leaders in political reform. Meanwhile it is becoming increasingly clear that Obama is just another Chicago machine politician. He's been completely ineffective as a "community organizer" state, and now U.S. senator. All he's ever done in life is give a mean speech (from the teleprompter) and get elected. Oh, I almost forgot. At forty-something he's already written TWO autobiographies, and now he's made an absolute chicken shit choice in Biden as a running mate. In short he's an empty suit, and an arrogant ass.

Wow. So that's what's bouncing around in the Right-wing echo chamber, eh?

Let's take a look at Palin's "reformer" approach while mayor of Wasilla. (Of course her campaign was based on "Christian values" not her qualifications to actually run a town - sound familiar?) She hired a former staffer of Sen. Stevens (yeah, Mr. "bridge to nowhere", "Internet tubes", "I'm going to be Federal Inmate #2322748723") as a lobbyist in Washington, DC. That lobbyist got, you know it!, EARMARKS for her town - tens of millions of dollars for a town of a few thousand. Well, you say, so she played the system like anyone else. That's a pretty low bar, but it gets worse. On top of those tens of millions of pork from DC, she also ran up millions in debt for the town. When she came into office the town had zero debt. While running up the debt, she also passed a sales tax increase to fund yet more projects. Yep - a "tax and spend conservative" just like DC has been full of from 2000 to 06.

Seriously: you call that a "genuine reformer"?

What about that famous "bridge to nowhere" that she "opposed"? So you're saying that in her '06 run for governor, she didn't go to Ketchikan and tell residents she felt their pain when politicians called them "nowhere." She didn't tell them that as governor, she would see that the bridge got built? Really?
http://www.adn.com/sarahpalin/story/511471.html
The story also notes that Alaska is currently building a road to less than nowhere - they're throwing money away building the access road for the canceled bridge!?! Good thing we don't need that $25million for things like, oh, highway bridge repair. That's even more wasteful and stupid than building the whole project. While we're at it, Palin may have flip-flopped to oppose the "bridge to nowhere", but she kept the money from Washington. The people in Ketchikan are pissed that she doesn't keep her word.

Seriously: you call that a "genuine reformer"?

But, you say, (or, she says herself!) she got a "reform bill" through to clean up Alaska politics! Nice, except for the fact that the reform bill was the doing of Democrats in the state legislature. It was nice of her to sign it, but she can't take much credit.

So, she's a "reformer" when Democrats hand her reform.

And then there's "troopergate." Palin is under investigation because she fired the state's Commissioner of Public Safety because he wouldn't fire her soon to be ex-brother in law, who was a state trooper. How's that for a "national security" plank - fire the top state official who deals with Homeland Security and FEMA. The investigation is likely to show that she abused her power as governor to put a family dispute ahead of the security and safety of the people of Alaska. Palin's replacement in this crucial position - well, he lasted all of two weeks before a sexual harassment charge caught up with him. (Turns out she's not so good at vetting, either!) I guess that'll give him enough "executive experience" to be national FEMA director!

The Republican party has sent a team of operatives and lawyers to shut people up and do their best to run clean-up on this mess.

Abusing official power for personal issues - your idea of a "genuine reformer"?

And as governor, she brought the same approach that she had as mayor - at the same time that there was a budget surplus, she decided to raise taxes! (and keep the pork flowing in from DC, natch!) Now, I think that there are times when increasing taxes is good policy, but there's not much evidence that she was pursuing good policy. She approved state projects in her home town, but vetoed similar projects elsewhere in the state. What's that "oink oink" sound I'm hearing? Even her fellow Alaska republicans are openly critical of her inability to collaborate - sounds like she brought her "Sarah Barracuda" style from high school basketball to her "executive experience" in Juneau.

Holy shit - if that's "reform" I'll take old school Chicago machine politics!

Speaking of which .... I'm sitting here in Chicago (not Schaumburg, not Kankakee - but right here in the actual city.) I'm a fourth generation Chicagoan, I've worked on an aldermanic campaign, my grandfather ran for alderman, as an architect, I have to deal with City Hall and building inspectors. Take my word for it - I know a little about Chicago politics. Barack Obama has jack shit to do with Chicago machine politics. It's interesting that that's the current lie sloshing around the Snake Oil media.

Our little troll is probably reading and hearing all sorts of stuff about this "Tony Rezko" guy and how Obama was so closely related to him! Oh my! Hillary tried to claim that Obama worked for a lawyer for "that slum lord Rezko", and you've probably heard things about Obama's home purchase having something to do with Rezko! How shocking! Icky Chicago/Illinois politics - Obama must be sooooo dirty!

Well, sorry, but that has nothing to do with those silly "facts" that make up "reality."

Rezko owned the first Subway franchise in Chicago - obviously, Subway is a deeply corrupt organization!

Hillary was full of shit when she tried to claim that Obama performed legal services for Rezko as a "slum lord." Obama did a few hours of work as a lawer to support a low-income residential development that Rezko was involved with.

Rezko was convicted on felony charges for his involvement in various kickback and corruption deals that grew out of his relationship with the current IL governor, Rod Blagojevich. (Hey, Canada is just across the lake - I guess Blago is qualified to be VP!)

Rezko was a major contributor to Obama's campaigns as a state senator, and he was on Obama's federal Senate campaign finance committee. Pretty icky, but here's the problem: there's no evidence that Obama ever did a damn thing to help Rezko out. One of Rezko's businesses was building low income housing, and Obama did once write a letter of support for one Rezko low-income, senior housing development. But no one ever asked Obama to write the letter as a favor - he wrote it on his own because it would be good for his constituents. That's it. Chicago politics is all about "doing favors" but there's no record of Obama doing favors for Rezko.

What about Obama's house? There was a house and adjacent lot that were put up for sale. Originally, they were all one property, but the sellers realized they could make more money by splitting them. Obama was able to buy the house, but couldn't afford the side lot at the time. Obama mentioned the impending sale to Rezko, who was a real estate investor (when he wasn't scamming the state.) Obama put in the highest offer on the house, and Rezko's wife offered the asking price for the lot. Being related lots, the sales closed on the same day. All this has been confirmed by the seller of the house/lots. A year later, Obama was able to buy part of the neighboring lot from Rezko for a price a bit above the assessed value. Rezko later sold the rest of the lot and made a profit on the overall transaction. That's it. Nothing fishy, no untoward favors. Yawn.

When charges were brought against Rezko for his kickback scams, Obama did nothing to help him. (For a contrast, see McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal - McCain did favors for Keating (his campaign contributor) by trying to interfere with an investigation of of him. Ooooh! Now there's a "reformer"!)

As a community organizer, Obama set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in one of Chicago's large housing projects. What a slacker! He also succeeded in registering 150,000 of the 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state - which got him mentioned in the communist propaganda rag Crain's Chicago Business. Registering 150,000 people to vote is hardly "doing nothing" - but given that they were largely "black" people, it's certainly something that the Right-wing Snake Oil media doesn't want to bring attention to...

(We might want to also mention that he taught Constitutional Law at one of the best Law Schools in the country - putz!)

Thus, we can conclude that in Troll-land, "political reform" means abusing personal power, running up debt, jacking up taxes and milking pork as much as possible, then saying all this is a bad thing. Doing a great deal to help one of the poorest parts of Chicago and registering 150,000 new voters is "doing nothing." Also, when Trolls look at the Chicago machine, they see a politician not doing favors for a campaign contributor and that's their idea of a bad, nasty politician.

Yes, in Troll-land up is down, black is white, hot is cold, soft is hard ....

Damn it! I did it again! Larry posts some silly, hallucinatory shit that's totally divorced from reality, and I go an refute it point by point.

The really sad thing is how many people "think" like Larry.

I really should stop wasting my time pointing out that "no, the sun rises in the east ... yes, every day" or "no, gravity actually pulls objects towards the earth..." and figure out how to make money by selling these people "sunrise viewing tickets" on west-facing seats or a book on "how to fly by pretending gravity doesn't exist."

I'll take two tickets! I want to show a special lady a romantic sunrise that's way neater than those liberal, northeastern sunrises.