The Goat Pen

"big loss for all those kids graduating college"

just referiing to my own kids who now have to think about an extr bill if there employers do or don't offer medical insurance which more and more kids don't take the offer because it's not the top[ of their priorities when they think they are invincible

Diet Mountain Dew just came through my nose...

Classic Story

The Gentleman's Club in Raleigh, the joint on Yonker's that was once "The Doll House," is always a fun experience, but the back room is $40.00 per song, which tends to get expensive...

Yeah, for $40 you could eat at Big Ed's for a week.

I loved Bristols over in Monroe. The girls had a room down the street. Good times.

Bristols

For some reason I felt compelled to Google it. Man, Southwest Ohio sounds like a hotbed of fun...

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/1 ... ols19.html

ACA

crashcourse wrote:"big loss for all those kids graduating college"

just referiing to my own kids who now have to think about an extr bill if there employers do or don't offer medical insurance which more and more kids don't take the offer because it's not the top[ of their priorities when they think they are invincible

Now, that's something I have little sympathy over. It's those kids that actually make health costs and hits to government budgets so high. To not have healthy people pay into the pot raises the premiums on those who do have insurance (healthy, or not). It could also mean health care costs are impacted because these invicible young adults still get into car accidents, develop leukemia or suffer some other ailment that somebody will have to cover the bill for. For young adults without health care that go through this, the person footing the bill is you, John Q. Taxpayer. Plus, most bankruptcies are caused by massive medical costs, not people overextending themselves with home purchases, jewelry and cars (although the banking lobby worked hard to make the change in bankruptcy law a reaction to the latter). Theoretically, having a larger pool of participants in the healthcare system will keep those uninsured people from reaching the point where they are financially crippled after an unforeseen medical issue.

Also, it can ironically be seen as a boon to those who graduate college but are allowed to stay on their parents' insurance for a few more years because they haven't secured their own insurance.

I don't know if that's the greatest story ever told in here, but it was the greatest telling of a story. I was literally cackling at the Led Zeppelin album cover bit. Still am. God damn man, that was good...

Shit. Now I have to read it. Thanks asshole.

Kids would have jobs this summer had Mitt not sent them to China.

Sorry Mr. Speaker...

its interesting that Roberts validated the program but as a tax on the American people.

He may have just assured Romney's election

No external force outside of the unemployment rate can assure Romney's election. Mitt has an incredible uphill journey. He has to almost sweep (4 out of 6/7) all the swing states (OH, VA, CO, PA, NH, FL...maybe throw IA in there too) to win. I don't know if he has it in him. Right now he's playing keep away, but sooner or later he's going to have to lay out things from a policy perspective and it will be pretty obvious he's not much different than Obama.

At that point, it'll be "The Devil You Know Who Saved The Auto Industry." I give Romney's chances at 30%, even with this ACA ruling.

Bklyn wrote:No external force outside of the unemployment rate can assure Romney's election. Mitt has an incredible uphill journey. He has to almost sweep (4 out of 6/7) all the swing states (OH, VA, CO, PA, NH, FL...maybe throw IA in there too) to win. I don't know if he has it in him. Right now he's playing keep away, but sooner or later he's going to have to lay out things from a policy perspective and it will be pretty obvious he's not much different than Obama.

At that point, it'll be "The Devil You Know Who Saved The Auto Industry." I give Romney's chances at 30%, even with this ACA ruling.

I consider myself pretty unbiased on this as I am no Romney fan, but Romney needed a galvanizing moment among his base and this is it. He can now count on the anyone but Obama vote that wasn't all in on him before. I think the conservative base just assumed the Supremes would strike down Obamacare, now they think they actually need Romney.

Couple that with the European crisis leaking over into the States - the end of 2012 has the potential to look like the spring of 2008 and I think you'll see Obama having to justify why he should get another chance during the debates. He'll be on the defensive because Romney doesn't have a record to run on - and don't think Romney won't run the quote from Obama where he said that after 3 years he didn't get things turned around he should be a 1 term president 24/7 in the runup to voting day.

Oh yeah, that narrative (the "1 Term President" line) has been on full blast already, fuck this Fall. That's why Obama's campaign has been pushing to get people to look at the shrinking public sector as the main depressant on job numbers. They're trying to decouple public from private and focus on the 4M jobs created on the private side. They're staying low key on it now, but you will see it rolled out in full force in September if the fragile economy can stay growing in the 2nd quarter.

Don't sleep though, Romney has a record. He has a record as a governor and a businessman and as a quote machine over the last 8 years. There are plenty of plans to fight fire with fire, when it comes to using the candidate's words as ammo 24/7.

The European crisis is actually helping Obama, so far, ironically. The European stagnation has impacted oil prices, big time, and it has provided relief at the pump for Americans. As long as Angela Merkel keeps writing checks for her Mediterranean problem children this could turn out as a win for Obama.

If Greece leaves the Euro (which would be the action that would cause global markets to rumble) or if Spain's spreads on debt widen too far (small rumble) then we'll see some shit here. The thing is, if Greece leaves the Euro, I doubt it comes before 2013, so I don't know if that will be a contributor to any voter sentiment here come November.

Whether fairly or not, I still think when Obama hammers Romney during the debates about his "buy, fire, sell" philosophy at Bain Capital, it's going to make Romney look pretty bad. I am a total capitalist, but the perception is going to be that Romney made millions by firing average Joe's left and right. Throw in Romney's direct quote of "I like firing people" when he was talking about health insurance (granted, it wasn't really that bad in context, but again, perception is more important than facts in most elections) and it's going to be hard for Romney to appear to be a friend of the working man...

no doubt Romney is going to come off stiff in the debates, but Obama isn't going to be running against Romney, he is going to be running against Obama '08.

Romney has to keep presenting himself as the anti-Obama, a steady performer and a generally trustworthy guy with the American economy.

I don't either one has the ability to win by a landslide, I just happen to believe that Obama isn't going to win on charm and the possibility of what could be now that he has shown he is too much like presidents of the past.

Romney doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell at getting elected.

I wonder if swing states matter less than the Latino vote in the bigger picture?

"Romney has to keep presenting himself as the anti-Obama"

Well, running as the anti-Bush certainly worked for Obama in '08, but I don't think Obama is nearly as unpopular now as Bush was then. Sure, with the hardcore Hack/puter/Wiz crowd he is the antichrist, but I don't think the average voter is as ready for change now as they were in '08. And frankly, I don't think Romney is anything more than a republican version of Obama...

", I don't think Romney is anything more than a republican version of Obama..."

you are right about that. That is why I said he needed a galvanizing moment like health care.

I readily admit I could be way off. There may be a huge part of the country that is excited about what the healthcare mandate provides but few if any of those people claim to be conservative.

I dont think anybody in their right mind thought Obama would be able to do a whole lot with the economy when he got elected, much less when the Repubs took over congress (which assured he wasnt going to get much done on the economy or anything else really).