Florida State Seminoles

[Bklyn]

God (or Mother Nature) loves Mitt more than Ron...

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... us/253005/

[Jungle Rat]

So then, now you know Hizzy, now, you finally know.

I know people that would have killed her for 1/10th of that

Not like I it hasn't crossed my mind.

[DooKSucks]

Faison has always been a long-shot candidate at best.

As a family lawyer, I enjoyed reading the article. I wonder how much of a retainer his attorney charged him, who his attorney is, who the wife's attorney is, what percentage the wife's attorney is charging her on the equitable distribution case (attorneys representing the dependent spouse in large cases like that charge a contingency fee in NC) and whether or not the case was filed in Superior Court. Superior Court is the improper venue for family law cases in NC. That's for District Court. That had to be a typo or else that is one big ass malpractice suit waiting to happen.

Word to the wise. If you are going through a messy divorce, you may want to wait a few years after it's finalized before you attempt to run for office...especially if it mentions about you giving your wife herpes.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/0 ... aison.html

[Saint]

NC has always been a conservative state but maybe not as yahoo redneck as some of our southern brethren. however, NC's cities are, as in many states, less conservative than its rural areas. and of course, there are a lot of colored here and they aren't conservative.

[Bklyn]

More on our (inadequate?) Constitution...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-1 ... ldman.html

[sardis]

Even though I don't think our constitution is sacred for the whole world to emulate, I don't see how I would change it to make it better for this country. There is a system in place to "change" with the times, i.e. slavery and women's suffrage. In my opinion change in the constitution should be a difficult task and not easily effected by temporary political gains.

[Hizzy III]

NC has always been a conservative state but maybe not as yahoo redneck as some of our southern brethren. however, NC's cities are, as in many states, less conservative than its rural areas. and of course, there are a lot of colored here and they aren't conservative.

I think that's also the case with Texas. There's a bit of fundamentalism to Texas conservatism but I think the real yahoo/redneck type of conservatives that other conservatives (particularly more moderate Republicans) cringe at are the backwoods loonies in rural Arkansas, Louisana, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi who still aren't sure some of the amendments passsed over the last 100 years have actually been passed.

"You mean, I ain't got to work this here still no more out here in the woods? I can just go on in to town and buy myself a taste down at the ol' slobber? Well, don't that be all?"

Now, to be fair, there are also somewhat conservative (or faux moderate) democrats who aren't too sharp either, including those who showed their asses in 2008 with that nonsensical Obama's a muslim horseshit. Again, Republicans don't have the market cornered on head-in-their ass voters who simply don't know the times.

[eCat]

Even though I don't think our constitution is sacred for the whole world to emulate, I don't see how I would change it to make it better for this country. There is a system in place to "change" with the times, i.e. slavery and women's suffrage. In my opinion change in the constitution should be a difficult task and not easily effected by temporary political gains.

the whole living document argument.

speaking of that, Fox canceled Freedom Watch last night.

I don't watch Fox but if I did that would be the only show I would have watched. I feel bad that a guy talking about American Freedom can't draw enough ratings to keep his show on the air, but its testimony to the audience Fox attracts.

[eCat]

holy shit

President Obama’s fourth budget has now been released, which allows for a relatively full accounting of deficit spending during his four years in office. The picture isn’t pretty, but it is revealing.
Obama 4-14.jpg

According to the White House’s own figures (see table S-1 here for 2011 to 2013, and table S-1 here for 2010), the actual or projected deficit tallies for the four years in which Obama has submitted budgets are as follows: $1.293 trillion in 2010, $1.300 trillion in 2011, $1.327 trillion in 2012, and $901 billion in 2013. In addition, Obama is responsible for the estimated $200 billion (the Congressional Budget Office’s figure) that his economic “stimulus” added to the deficit in 2009. Moreover, he shouldn’t get credit for the $149 billion in TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) repayments made in 2010 and 2011 to cover most of the $154 billion in bank loans that remained unpaid at the end of the 2009 fiscal year — loans that count against President Bush’s 2009 deficit tally.

Adding all of this up, deficit spending during Obama’s four years in the White House (based on his own figures) will be an estimated $5.170 trillion — or $5,170,000,000,000.00.

To help put that colossal sum of money into perspective, if you take our deficit spending under Obama and divide it evenly among the roughly 300 million American citizens, that works out to just over $17,000 per person — or about $70,000 for a family of four.

[sardis]

Well, clearly, we're just not taxing enough...

[10ac]

Fuckin' %1

[Bklyn]

My favorite Fox show was Fox News Watch, which had both competent Conservo and Lib journalists on the show. They canceled it, then brought it back later with most of the same Conservative commentators, but replaced the Libs with either clowns or LINOs.

The Budget

I'm just glad we're being transparent with the numbers, finally. The question is, what things in the budget should not have been in place? The tax cuts? Doc Fix? Iraq? Afghanistan? Public Education? NASA? We know nobody on either side of the aisle is touching SS or Medicare, so leave that off the scale. "Obamacare" hasn't even been fully inacted, I'm pretty sure any costs that aren't offset by savings are not substantial.

So, outside of the numbers just stated simply as the total numbers, the question lies on what you would have done differently to impact those numbers? I think we all have our thoughts on it...but I'd be pretty certain that we won't be uniform in our thoughts. If we wouldn't line up unilaterally here, I'm not too sure how anyone would think Congress would.

[crashcourse]

the obvious fix has to be SS/Medicare/--so called mandatory spending

social security and medicare/medicaid medicate make up 1.6 trillion dollars out of the 2.1 trillion of mandatory spending. of that you have to figure we spend > 80% of that on retirees

raise the retirement age/ throw in some caps on anyone with over a million in assets and stop spending money on the last 6 months of life which is where most medicare expenditures come from --keeping grandma and grandpa alive for another couple of months

[sardis]

My favorite Fox show was Fox News Watch, which had both competent Conservo and Lib journalists on the show. They canceled it, then brought it back later with most of the same Conservative commentators, but replaced the Libs with either clowns or LINOs.

The Budget

I'm just glad we're being transparent with the numbers, finally. The question is, what things in the budget should not have been in place? The tax cuts? Doc Fix? Iraq? Afghanistan? Public Education? NASA? We know nobody on either side of the aisle is touching SS or Medicare, so leave that off the scale. "Obamacare" hasn't even been fully inacted, I'm pretty sure any costs that aren't offset by savings are not substantial.

So, outside of the numbers just stated simply as the total numbers, the question lies on what you would have done differently to impact those numbers? I think we all have our thoughts on it...but I'd be pretty certain that we won't be uniform in our thoughts. If we wouldn't line up unilaterally here, I'm not too sure how anyone would think Congress would.

I'm having trouble finding details on the budget proposal to make an analysis. Do youhave a link?

[crashcourse]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Unite ... ral_budget

[sardis]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Unite ... ral_budget

That is this year's, not next year's proposal.

[hedge]

"but is a child better off in a traditional marriage home over the same sex couple? I'd say yes to that as well."

I guess it depends on what you mean by better off. Better off in Kentucky (etc)? Probably, but I think that says more about the culture in Kentucky (etc) than it does about the gay fambly. But in most major urban areas? I doubt it matters at all...

[Bklyn]

Until the U.S. Conference of Bishops recently got crosswise with the Obama administration, even the church rarely emphasized the contraceptive issue. So at first, I was mainly struck by the sheer quaintness of it all. (As, evidently, were many Catholic universities and hospitals quietly complying with state laws mandating contraceptive coverage.) The bishops’ indignant fulminations about their wounded consciences put me in mind of the hilarious production number in Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life,” with its chorus of impoverished Catholic urchins singing

“Every sperm is sacred. Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate.”

Coarse jokes about priests, altar boys and contraception virtually wrote themselves. I’ll spare you. But while we’re at it, let’s light a candle for Sinead O’Connor, an eccentric woman in combat boots with a shaven head, who tore up the pope’s photo on “Saturday Night Live” in 1992 to protest clerical sexual abuse of children in her native Ireland: wrecking her U.S. career to make a point entirely lost upon most viewers at the time.

The late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s marriage was declared null and void after 24 years and three children because — get this — he’d entered it with reservations. Specifically, he never intended to quit “dating.” (Evidently a family tradition.) Never mind that Kennedy’s ex-wife Joan agreed. Mine found it sickening, a patent end-run around the church’s unwillingness to countenance divorce.

For that matter, a couple of bishops attended Newt Gingrich’s third wedding. So don’t tell me they couldn’t find a way to accommodate President Obama’s downright Jesuitical compromise to the effect that Catholic hospitals don’t have to offer employees contraceptive care, but their insurance companies do. Canon lawyers make distinctions like that one every day.

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/16/catholi ... its_worst/

[Owlman]

stop spending money on the last 6 months of life which is where most medicare expenditures come from --keeping grandma and grandpa alive for another couple of months

See, there is no use to this even being a proposal. It's not going to happen. It's easy to say in the abstract, until it's you, your spouse, your parent or your child. Of course, we could try death panels?? Too bad it's not in PPACA???

[hedge]

"stop spending money on the last 6 months of life which is where most medicare expenditures come from --keeping grandma and grandpa alive for another couple of months"

Very true...

"See, there is no use to this even being a proposal. It's not going to happen. It's easy to say in the abstract, until it's you, your spouse, your parent or your child."

Even more true, thankfully. Those last few days or months might end up being the most priceless things in the lives of many people, and not just to the dying party. Not in every case, but how could anyone ever judge?