-
Tebows in Paradise
June 11, 2013 | 62 comments
-
Dick Morris’ Bad Entitlements Advice
April 1, 2013 | 41 comments
-
Will Welker Walk?
March 11, 2013 | 273 comments
-
Not Yet Elite, But Pretty Neat
February 5, 2013 | 8 comments
-
The Harbaugh Bowl
January 22, 2013 | 33 comments
Political Hay
No, You Can’t!
Obama reminds us there’s no “I” in government.
(Page 2 of 2)
Just because government built the Hoover Dam doesn’t mean we should celebrate when government blocks the Keystone Pipeline. Just because tax revenues support valuable infrastructure and public safety doesn’t mean excessive tax rates can’t kill jobs.
By all means, thank your mother or father, a teacher or soldier, a friend or supportive group for contributing to your success. Thank even your lucky stars, if you don’t want to cling bitterly to religion and thank Someone Else. But don’t belittle personal achievement.
“The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together,” Obama conceded. When the president says, “Yes, we can,” it may be worthwhile to ask: “What do you mean ‘we,’ kemosabe?”
About the Author
W. James Antle, III, author of the new book Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?, is editor of the Daily Caller News Foundation and a senior editor of The American Spectator. You can follow him on Twitter @jimantle.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (88) | Leave a comment
More Articles by W. James Antle, III
More Articles From Political Hay
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/07/17/no-you-cant
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 7.17.12 @ 6:19AM
Obama's speech leaves several questions that should be asked now.
If the roads belong to us all, then why is the private sector the group who makes better usage of them and creates jobs while government bureaucrats have limited vision and simply try to regulate the job creators?
The Obama statement clearly indicates that the government sector is composed of mental midgets who have little creativity and further, little knowledge of that which exists in the private sector that creates jobs and opportunities.
Government at that point has been defined as a one ring circus by Obama, incapable of understanding anything created outside the bounds of layers of government regulation.
In that sense, it's a failed government, separated from the people who it allegedly represents.
That's the real issue Obama touches on. Our governments have become a society of elitists who care not about the common voter.
The voter is viewed as part of a group and to Hell with their individuality. If you're not part of the community and give all to the community then you're worthless.
You must be part of the community to be led by the exalted ones. They have no vision or creativity or job creation skills but they have badges and authority.
In essence, Obama was bragging about being a community organizer who is organizing the Fifth column.
Stephanie| 7.17.12 @ 7:58AM
Isn't that called communism?
MK48| 7.17.12 @ 11:17AM
I say VOTE the POS and his ilk out of office come November.
Appleby| 7.17.12 @ 6:55AM
I remember a little exercise thta one of my Grade 8 teachers used to help us understand what Communism was all about (we had a mandatory class in the subject after the school board discovered it had hired a Communist to teach Grade 7 history to kids who didn't know any better, but did know that when someone says "don't tell your parents" it's a signal that we should). She told us that after a snap quiz she'd given us, she was going to add up all the points and divide them evenly among us, so we'd all get the same grade. Even in Grade 8, very few people thought that was "fair".
Albertus Magnus| 7.17.12 @ 10:56AM
In today's world, your grade 8 teacher would be fired, especially in California. Communists are rife through the school system, and "don't tell your parents" is standard procedure.
MK48| 7.17.12 @ 11:22AM
AL.......in CA we have to worry about all the sick teachers that "touch" our kids. One more hit the news yesterday.
Glad mine are out of school I just pray that my grand kids won't have to go through all this DIVERSITY.
Skippy| 7.17.12 @ 3:27PM
When the truth about Big Govt schools and the tenured sexual predators that have free reign over our children is common knowledge, the Catholic Priest furor will be drowned out by the screams of teachers being publicly disemboweled by formerly trusting parents.
TrueBlue | 7.17.12 @ 5:26PM
The fury over the Catholic Priest incidents amuses me since they actually have the lowest rate of occurence amongst all Christian religions in this country, and Christian priests are well below the national average for the rest of the civilian populace. Not saying it's right, just wish people had their facts straight on the matter.
On the flip side, I wouldn't be surprise if teachers were well above the national average.
MK48| 7.17.12 @ 11:45PM
Blue...no such thing as a christian priest....ps....I challenge you to ask a christian you know if there is a differance between a christian and a chatolic.
You might be surprised............
Mimi | 7.17.12 @ 8:05AM
HE JUST GAVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE The very best INSULT ...He stupidly let his inner thoughts of contempt flow out. Forget it, don't take offense....He just did us a big FAVOR...On this DAY...July 16, 2012 ....He LOST the ELECTION!
spike59| 7.17.12 @ 4:42PM
the mask hasn't slipped; he's ripped it off
TLP| 7.17.12 @ 8:09AM
It's too bad that Humans have such Short Memories.
To my Jewish Cousins, and my Christian Brothers and Sisters: Am I the only one who hears HITLER, whenever this Demagogue gives a speech?
These words. These CHARGES, against people who HAVE, made by a man who's intention is to Fire Up the Passions, in those who HAVE NOT, is exactly what that Hitler was doing against THE JEWS. Next came the Violence of Krystalnachtl. Then, the Ghettos. Then the Trains to the Camps, where The Showers were waiting.
He divides us by Race, Creed, Colour, Religion, Income, and by our Legal Status as Citizens.
Corporations are EVIL, unless they are those that HE CONTROLS.
Rich People are EVIL, unless they are those that HE CONTROLS.
He is pulling us Backwards in time, to a place before there was a Middle Class. To a place of the Very Rich, and the Very Poor. Both, easily Controlled by an All Powerful State.
Race Relations have gone BACKWARDS under this new Feurher.
Trust in each other has been destroyed by his Divisive Rhetoric of Divide and Conquer.
He is turning The Melting Pot, that used to be admired by the entire world, in to Balkanized Armed Camps, pitted one, against another.
And he does it right out in the open.
SIEG HEIL!
One Bullet could have stopped the Apocalypse of WWII.
I'm just sayin.
Gary B| 7.17.12 @ 10:24AM
TLP is right. There is no need to write long articles analyzing Obama. It's really simple... his agenda is to push the tired, old dilapidated international socialism argument - appeal to the masses by offering a free ride and make the evil private sector pay for it. Class warfare - victims vs. perps. It has nothing whatsoever to do with improving society. It's a means to acquire and concentrate power - that's it. Everything he says or does fits this template. Everything he says or does - lying, cheating, breaking the law - is a means to this end.
Is the sleeping giant awake yet?
MK48| 7.17.12 @ 11:28AM
TLP.........our resident PAUL HARVEY your voice rings loud and clear.
I can hear Beethoven's Funeral March as the Horse Drawn Caisson goes by.
Petronius| 7.17.12 @ 12:06PM
Right you are T
Corporal Hitler attracted votes by exploiting a tax issue against wealthy Jews who withdrew their money from the banks and bought real estate after the Weimar Government passed an intangibles tax levy on interest income. And there would be no difference in the public reaction to any politician who mouths ascent to the infantile attitudes of the economically illiterate rubes. One of the idiots at my union hall told me his complaining will stop when his pay check buys him the same living standard as Donald Trump enjoys. Duh. He'll vote for Obama again in his twisted belief that jackasses deserve to be thoroughbreds.
TLP| 7.17.12 @ 3:50PM
Nice, P.
Couldn'ta said it better, myself.
Especially that last line.
That was a thing of beauty.
Wiley| 7.18.12 @ 12:33PM
Absolutely right.
Hitler came to mind in 2008 during Obama's acceptance of the Democrat nomination for President when he declared himself to be presiding over "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal". Views of the audience showed a uniformly rapturous crowd mindlessly eating up this drivel, and it scared the pants off of me. The guy was obviously delusional with a messiah complex and these people were eager to hand over control of the country to him.
Obama ranks right up there with Hitler as a master manipulator through demagoguery, and it's truly frightening that so many people are still so easily manipulated.
Mimi | 7.17.12 @ 8:16AM
To open your own business it takes every bit of your body ,spirit, courage,....last dime and all you can borrow. You work harder to put it together...day and far into the night...than you ever thought you had the energy to do!
The opening DAY is like a child at Christmas...complete joy! The first dollar is framed and stays on the wall. God Bless this country for this unique gift and experience....To create your own job and business is one of lifes greatest experiences....No one....I said NO ONE gets to feel that pleasure and joy of accomplishment like each creator of a BUSINESS!
Reggie Love| 7.17.12 @ 8:26AM
Drugs do affect peoples mental faculties.
Skippy| 7.17.12 @ 4:43PM
Is O'Bama still snorting blow?
MelvinNC| 7.17.12 @ 9:05AM
The election commission or what ever it calls itself isn't awfully too interested that Obama is receiving campaign funding from the Communist Chinese.
Our government is totally broken with all systems of checks and balances have all but been erased.
Embrace anarchy for she comes.
TLP| 7.17.12 @ 3:53PM
Of course they're dumping cash in to The One's Coffers.
He's a Drunk Gambler, with an ATM Card, in their Casino.
And, we all know how that ALWAYS turns out.
Can you say: TAIWAN?
Peter| 7.17.12 @ 9:28AM
At this point I have a near supernatural hatred for Obama and his criminal gang from Chi-town
tasine| 7.17.12 @ 9:57AM
What is to say? Every sentence is a gem. Obama talks as though America is a foreign and hostile land to everybody who isn't wealthy. I realize he is clueless about many things, but what I do not understand is what was going through the minds of the people who voted for him and STILL defend every pitiable move he makes.
Gary B| 7.17.12 @ 10:31AM
Unfortunately, he's not clueless. He's a simple, single-minded communist agitator and he's damned good at it. His kind have been around for generations. He just happened to be an articulated black who was electable.
Those who vote for him either want something for nothing (Obama bucks) or they're empty-headed liberals marinated in guilt.
C Smith | 7.17.12 @ 10:23AM
"If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen" (President Barack Obama during a partisan address in Roanoke, Virginia, July 14, 2012).
No: the American family farm is the ultimate small business. I grew up on one that my grandfather and father literally built from the ground up. We survived not because of the somebodys in Washington but in spite of them.
"There are some things, just like fighting fires; we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service" (President Barack Obama during a partisan address in Roanoke, Virginia, July 14, 2012).
Wrong again: Fight fires? Had no choice. Remember one windy spring day when a grass fire jumped the road and was accelerating toward our house, livestock barn, granary, and other outbuildings. Ripped off my coat and beat them back long enough for a tractor to be hitched to a plow. Then as I sunk to the ground in total exhaustion. The tractor began cutting the first of a series three furls perpendicular to the advancing flames. The line held, but had to remain vigilant as trunks and roots smothered day and night for days to follow.
Moe Blotz| 7.17.12 @ 10:32AM
The Hosehead in Chief may think that Booker T. Washington succeeded because of Affirmative Action.
Occam's Tool| 7.17.12 @ 11:20AM
Obama has no clue how people live because he is an alien.
Obviously, he has no clue how 5 Guys, who make his favorite hamburger, works as a company. He is an amazingly arrogant and ignorant man. In short, a typical grad of Harvard Law, the most useless institution of higher learning in the country.
TLP| 7.17.12 @ 3:55PM
He is NOT Ignorant.
He knows EXACTLY what he's doing.
We underestimate Hamas' Deliveror, at our own risk.
sfb | 7.18.12 @ 8:44AM
"In short, a typical grad of Harvard Law, the most useless institution of higher learning in the country." So you're going to vote for Romney, also a graduate of Harvard Law School? And Bush, who went to Harvard Business School?
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 12:20PM
No, sfb, they're gonna vote for Sick Rantorum also a graduate of Harvard Law School, or Palin also a graduate of Idaho community college.
ps.
Hey! are you dissing Romney? He's a graduate of Harvard Law School AND Harvard Business School! (what an elitist!) ;)
JD| 7.17.12 @ 10:36AM
"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help."
And got paid for it, so there's no further debt.
Skippy| 7.17.12 @ 4:47PM
The perfect response!
How many times must I pay for the same things?
WallyG| 7.17.12 @ 10:42AM
Of course! It stands to reason Obama would believe you can't do it on your own. His entire life story is one of getting assisted by someone else because he obviously lacked the mental abilities and required skills to accomplish anything. He need affirmative action because he was sholastically lazy. He asked former Burrough Prez Percy Sutton for an introduction to Khalidi to get into Harvard, he wandered from California to NYC and Columbia and was unimpressive to people who were acquainted with him. He uised his race, his fictional background and made up entire parts of his life because on his own he was a nothing. Today, he is President, still lacking in skills, still monumentally lazy, judging by his daily Whoye House schedule, and incredibly unsuited for anything beyond reading from an electronic device words others put into his mouth.
JD| 7.17.12 @ 10:45AM
I could give other people a billion dollars and Obama would still be making "you owe other people" speeches.
The key to his speeches is not that debts exist. It's that the debts are open-ended and unquantifiable. He wants to establish rationale for any and all redistribution. If he put a dollar amount on the "societal debt" one owes to another, it could be paid off. Then his rationale to take from that person would be gone.
He needs it to never be gone. The debt to society must be eternal, and for some inexplicable reason, it must not cut both ways!
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 12:25PM
"He needs it to never be gone."
1. this is just a product of your feverish imagination.
2. is debt inherently bad? If you wanna run government like a business (which is stupid, but what you lot want), are there many businesses WITHOUT debt? NO NO NO NO!
3. You can't run a country like a business. A corporation is a dictatorship, and a country is not. That's why getting business men to run your govt is a dumb idea. Half the time is gonna be wasted on their frustrations that it CAN'T be run like a business, the other half of the time is gonna be spend on finding illegal, unconstitutional and undemocratic ways, to MAKE it run like a business.
RonRonDoRon| 7.18.12 @ 8:00PM
Your point 1. - Unsubstantiated assertion.
Your point 2. - No, debt is not inherently bad. Whether business or govt, it has valid uses. At some point, however, it does become bad. Regarding your hypothetical (running govt like a business), no, few businesses operate without debt. However, business aren't considered quite fully creditworthy if their debt-to-income ratio goes over 40%. The federal government debt is now slightly over 100% of GDP (and that doesn't take into account state and local debt, which can only be paid out of the same income pool - GDP). True, the govt can get away with more debt than a business, but at some point it becomes a problem (doesn't it?).
Your point 3. - A business is only a dictatorship when it's a sole proprietorship. In almost all large corporations, the CEO has to answer to a board of directors and they have to answer to the shareholders. Not all that different, in principle, from our government, where both the President and the Congress have to answer, ultimately, to the voters. BTW, it appears that it isn't only businessmen who, as Presidents, seem to spend time finding "illegal, unconstitutional and undemocratic ways" to do what they want to do.
JD| 7.17.12 @ 10:59AM
If everyone owes everything to everyone else, who actually produces anything?
Oh, right, Democrats believe that wealth is a preexisting thing that is seized and consumed, not produced. It shows in all aspects of their rhetoric.
spike59| 7.17.12 @ 4:45PM
exactly-they have this insane idea that, one day, long long ago, there was this pile of 'the wealth' which just appeared, and was stolen by greedy bastiges
they also believe that the government IS the country and that the federal budget IS the economy
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 11:44AM
Nope, there's a pile of wealth right now, and the rich are taking TOO MUCH out of it.
RonRonDoRon| 7.18.12 @ 8:02PM
And where, exactly, is that pile of wealth located that the rich are "taking too much out of"?
Cobalt| 7.17.12 @ 11:12AM
Obama and company know exactly what they are trying to do.
Guess where we fit in on the pyramid of oligarchical collectivism.?
http://park-204.wikispaces.com.....lt_svg.png
C Smith | 7.17.12 @ 11:16AM
C'mon guys, cut Obama a little slack, seriously! He is partially right if he is talking about Black businesses in America.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 12:25PM
You're a racist.
Petronius| 7.17.12 @ 11:51AM
Speeches like Obama's about business are the canards the slackers use to justify their claims on the wealth generated by their betters and their activities to prevent them from keeping any of it. They hate the FACT that this world is not a sand box. It's an arena.
Who Knows?| 7.17.12 @ 11:58AM
Oh, I get it! What a dummy I’ve been!
Obama isn’t the president---he’s “Jay Leno”, the hottest comedian EVER, hosting the America TODAY show.
He is TOO funny. Why, his daily jokes are so good, they’re making the audience laugh itself to death.
Listen, as he jests that government, not entrepreneurs, make things. Hilarious!
Did you hear the one, about how Obamacare will both save money AND insure more people? What mirth!
Why, just think. Even today, going on 40 years later, we still get off on Nixon’s “I am not a crook”. And, RIGHT NOW, we have “The One” rattling off better one liners, daily, too fast to keep up with.
Seriously---did the government, or YOU, just pick up that cup and use gravity to pour coffee down your throat? Did it drive you to the store, was it there as you shopped, and brought home your bacon?
Like I say---BHO is humorous, beyond words.
We should just enjoy him, while he slimes, ‘er shines.
And, remember, shining is simply sublime slime.
Yes—Washington D.C. is NOW that sliming city on a hill, and don’t you forget it.
MelvinNC| 7.17.12 @ 1:51PM
Your wrong D.C. isn't a sliming city on the hill....D.C. is a steaming pile of fetid dog squeeze, attracting flies.
Petronius| 7.17.12 @ 4:46PM
Mel
Please do not insult mans best friend. Sheep feces is more to the point.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 11:45AM
if it's so bad, why you wanna run it? You *like* a steaming pile of dog poo? You must be a fly.
Dixon| 7.17.12 @ 2:27PM
"Somebody else made that happen", stated the shallow, ignorant, arrogant, narcissist obama as he was rewriting the American Dream into the "American entitlement".
But looking at the odious BO's "career", his frame of reference would give rise to the stupid, shallow comments.
BO is a history mostly manufactured by others: Communist/marxists parents and mentors, the Ayers family trust, Felons Rezko and Blago, chicago slimers Axelrod, Plouffe, Emmanuel, bag man Soros, et al.
They have put BO's talents of rigid ideology, ability to read speeches, and nice toothy smile to good use.
In BO's case...he most certainly did not do it alone. Without "help", he'd be one of the most popular dealers on Maui about now.
TLP| 7.17.12 @ 3:57PM
George Soros.
Appleby| 7.17.12 @ 7:15PM
Read Luke 4. You'll see who took that deal that Jesus Christ turned down.
Louis Jenkins| 7.17.12 @ 8:07PM
And Satan showed Jesus the world and all it's wealth. It can be yours if you will fall down and worship me. Satan will work many clever things, say and do many works, and he will have a front man. Perhaps it is Obama. But first that person must suffer a cruel and unusual death, and be revived. Christ turned Satan down in every manner and way, but there are others who will take him up on his offers. They are amongst us.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 12:28PM
yep, they're called conservatives:
# Matthew 19:24
And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
# Mark 10:25
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Where, oh where in the Bible did Jesus say that we have to protect the rich man at the expense of the poor? No where. Jesus said the opposite. If there's any freedom talked about in the Bible, it's about the freedom for the oppressed poor, not the yacht owners and the billionaires.
RJ| 7.17.12 @ 11:16PM
So the narcissist who made a fool of himself by constantly claiming, he killed Osama, now tells every business owner that someone else built their company. Is this man still on drugs? Obama so often demeans the accomplishments of others and his hypocrisy knows no limits.
Cross| 7.18.12 @ 1:22AM
I've read the article by w james antle, the third.
I've read the comments following.
I've read the text of President Obama's speech.
In the line: "If you've got a business-- you didn't build that", do you see the two little dashes in between the words 'business' and 'you'? It's a big clue! "that" in the sentence is not a reference to the business, it's a reference to the infrastructure, the roads, rails, airports, telecommunications that serve that business.
The author, blah, blah, blah the third, is a damn lier but he does know one thing:
He has an audience that is composed of a bunch of gullible fools!!!
Leenation | 7.18.12 @ 7:07AM
Actually, I did build the roads. It is a cost of my doing business, since I buy gasoline, and the gas taxes pay for the roads. Gas taxes are a user fee. Same with rails, airports, and telecoms.
But your biggest argument is that whoever transcribed the sentence used a dash instead of a comma. Your conformational bias is showing: Everything Obama says is correct, every critisism is unfounded.
RonRonDoRon| 7.18.12 @ 11:55AM
The use of "--" in a transcript simply indicates a pause. In this case, it tells us nothing about what "that" refers to in the sentence. The use of "--" doesn't change the principle of syntax involved. Good syntax requires that, unless there is some indication to the contrary, "that" should always refer to the nearest preceding subject or object in the sentence.
Failure to follow that guidance is a common example of sloppy syntax and a common cause of mis-communication. So, giving the benefit of the doubt, it was at least an instance of sloppy communication.
I've searched the Net for news of a White House clarification - can't find anything. But let's assume there is one and it's the same explanation that's being offered by others - that "that" referred to the infrastructure he was talking about before he brings up that hypothetical business that was built.
There have already been a lot of off-the-cuff comments, by both candidates, that can be made to sound bad. If we offer the benefit of the doubt to one, shouldn't we offer it to the other? Will the left accept the explanations of what Romney really meant when he said "Corporations are people" or "I like firing people"? (I don't have the precise wording on those quotes.)
In Obama's case, if he didn't mean what he's being taken to have meant, an explicit clarification of disavowal is in order, in my opinion.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 12:05PM
Thank you, Cross!
I thought as much, Obama couldn't have said that.
Then again blah blah the Thiurd, doesn't seem to know grammar, etc.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 12:30PM
*the ThIrd... sorry.
RonRonDoRon| 7.18.12 @ 3:58PM
Please see my comment above. It's not a matter of grammar, it's a matter of syntax (and you should check your understanding of that).
RonRonDoRon| 7.18.12 @ 4:02PM
Obama did say that. The question is whether that's what he meant and has he, or will he, clarify what he meant when he said what he said.
Jchandler| 7.18.12 @ 4:27AM
The President is merely saying that we succeed on a combination of personal effort, achievement and community support. This is completely true. By your comments, many of you reveal that you are complete bigots and hysterical buffoons. You shame your party and political persuasion.
Leenation | 7.18.12 @ 7:10AM
Why would we be "bigots"?
sfb | 7.18.12 @ 8:40AM
Besides the fact that anytime someone says "criminal gang" or "Barack HUSSEIN Obama" it is obvious that the author means Obama is illegitimate in part because he is not white here are specific instances:
C Smith | 7.17.12 @ 11:16AM
C'mon guys, cut Obama a little slack, seriously! He is partially right if he is talking about Black businesses in America.
Occam's Tool| 7.17.12 @ 11:20AM
Obama has no clue how people live because he is an alien.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 12:30PM
Thanks, sfb!
RonRonDoRon| 7.18.12 @ 4:06PM
It's erroneous to lump all commenters on one side of the issues together.
Some are bigots, some are not. Some are fools, some are not. Some are completely mad, some are not.
From what I've seen, same goes for either side of any issue on any comment board.
Esjay| 7.18.12 @ 6:06AM
This is the spectacle of conservatives falling into a pre-laid trap. You may argue till you are blue in the face and still have no clue what Obama's upto.
He has two aims here. If he can argue that any product has elements in it built by others, without which the product cannot work, then the product is community enterprise. If the boss of the company share less of the profit in the form of wages, then the community has the right to claw back a further share, not in the form of taxes or penalties, but a re-compensation.
Secondly, if the product owner or the factory owner or the hoiuseholder doesn't own the entire product, then there is no such thing as 'private property'. All private property is communal property, because nobody built it on his own.
The breadth of Obama's megalomaniac ambition leaves one breathless. Of course, the man is clinically insane.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 12:10PM
Your second point simply does NOT follow from the first. A classic non-sequitur.
Obama does NOT argue that the "product" is a community-OWNED, simply because many hands helped. Where do you read that?
He argues that the product couldn't BE there AT ALL, were it not for roads, cops, teachers. A simple fact that rightwingers simply do not grasp.
RonRonDoRon| 7.18.12 @ 4:11PM
What a crock.
You really believe that so-called "rightwingers" don't understand that we need infrastructure, security, and teachers to have a functioning society?
No one but a fool believes that. Anyone who is that extreme of a libertarian ideologue has gone off the deep end, in my opinion.
So who, exactly, are these "rightwingers" to whom you refer?
Leenation | 7.18.12 @ 6:55AM
Ted Bundy didn't kill people. The government built the roads he used; the government provided his schools. It's the government's fault.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 12:11PM
Ted Bundy was a lifelong conservative.
RonRonDoRon| 7.18.12 @ 4:15PM
Does anyone actually know what Bundy's political views were? Does it matter?
I'm sure some psychopaths are (in their own minds) "conservatives" and some are "liberals" - it's completely irrelevant because each of their minds is a little world of its own, with no real relationship to the world most of us share.
Ogemaniac| 7.18.12 @ 7:17AM
You sir, are a liar of first order. You will burn in hell.
Here is the full quote, which you deliberately misquoted, making you a liar and condemning you to eternal hellfire.
"....Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."
Btw, deliberately misquoting can be considered slander. So you are not only going to burn forever, but you are likely a criminal as well. Why should you not be fired immediately for putting your employer at risk of a lawsuit?
RonRonDoRon| 7.18.12 @ 12:12PM
Lifting a sentence out of a longer passage (and quoting it exactly, word for word) is not misquoting (and certainly not lying), deliberate or otherwise, so your hyperbolic comments about burning in hell as a liar, and being guilty of criminal slander, are just preposterous. (I don't think I'm misquoting your comments - they are quite explicit.)
At the very least, the President's comment was sloppy communication. Has the White House issued a clarification? I've googled and can't find one.
It needs a clarification. If he was referring to "roads and bridges" the correct word to use would have been "those" not "that." In good syntax, "that" is always refers to the closest preceding subject or object, unless there is some indication otherwise. Taken literally, the meaning of the sentence is exactly the meaning that commentators have been criticizing. If that's not what he meant, will he (personally or through the White House press office) clarify his statement? Or does he just want to have it both ways?
sfb | 7.18.12 @ 8:23AM
Let me just ask one thing: Of Obama and Romney, who exemplifies the American dream?
Obama came from humble origins, made his way through the school system, to Columbia and then Harvard. He then really became wealthy when he wrote a bestselling memoir about (wait for it) the American dream.
Romney was the son of an incredibly wealthy (and self-made) businessman and politician. He had every privilege growing up (including access to Michigan state trooper uniforms via his father's connections that he used to impersonate the police--http://www.nationalmemo.com/did-young-mitt-romney-impersonate-a-police-officer-another-witness-says-yes/). Is he talented in his own right? Probably. But is he self-made? Not really.
SoSueMe001| 7.18.12 @ 10:47AM
My father lived the American Dream. Orphaned while not yet a teen he was forced to work on an uncle's farm for nothing more than subsistence - meals and the barn's hayloft for a bed. He and his brother, for who I am named, finally had had enough and bolted from what was essentially slavery and headed to California. After working at various manual labor jobs he discovered he had a natural talent for carpentry and woodworking. Time passes, as well as geography, as he takes advantage of opportunities offered, managing several lumber yards in the upper Midwest and finally buying a business from his current employer (he did have to avail himself of the public courts, threatening to sue the employer to honor their agreement).
He never had a "hand up" from government - and none was ever offered, yet he supported government, paying every damn dime owed to the federal, state and local government. And yes, there were valued employees that helped him gain success, BUT THEY WERE PAID WHAT THEY EARNED, ON TIME, EVERY TIME.
Now contrast my dad's story with Obama (or Soetoro or whoever???) Obama has never achieved a thing on his own, manipulating the system and government largess to his advantage every step of the way.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 12:15PM
And, according to Sick Rantorum, Romney is an elitist cos he has TWO Harvard degrees. (pssst! Santorum has THREE, but of course, HE's not an elitist, the black guy with just ONE degree is.
Also, Romney is the silver spoon kid, completely to-the-manor-born.
RonRonDoRon| 7.18.12 @ 4:24PM
Can we ever drop this "American dream" nonsense? Arguing about what it is, who has lived it, who defends it, etc,etc.
What this country has (or was originally intended to have) is a political and government structure that allows each citizen to decide for themselves what their dream is, and then go out and pursue it without interference (as long as they don't step on someone else's rights).
Is your dream to just have a good, comfortable family life? Go for it. To be rich? Go for it. To be a hermit in a shack in the woods? That's your right.
Hugh Manatee| 7.18.12 @ 9:32AM
In this country, it's not "yes WE can."
It's "Yes I can."
At least that's the way it was pre-Obama.
Wrong pronoun.
No Lawyers| 7.18.12 @ 9:49AM
The evil individual. The only good individual is one who gives his soul to the government and waits for it to tell them what they can be allowed to do. Obamaland!!
No Lawyers| 7.18.12 @ 9:47AM
Which came first, the government or the people? What funds the government? Without the producers, there would be virtually no government, just what the individual could afford. There would be no wealth, there would be no growth. Business survives and grows despite the government, not because of it. We can be a nation of slaves, beholden to the government and have no growth except what is bureaucratically acceptable or we can be what we were and what made the nation great.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 10:38AM
But you want a nation of slaves, beholden to non-elected Big Corp. In many respects it's already like that: we're tied to Employers for our health care, so we never criticize The Boss a whole lot: which is goose stepping.
We have much more say over Government, because we have elections.
And no, we can NOT vote with our feet on Big Corp because more often than not, it's the only place to work in town, or the only place to shop, like Wal-Mart.
And you people do everything in your power to make "voting with our feet" less possible, rightwingers often vote with MORE corporate power, not less.
HenryMiller| 7.18.12 @ 9:47AM
"Government is simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together."
Yeah, right. The people of Syria are choosing to massacre themselves. Sure.
And who's doing the choosing? The Democrats who crammed Obamacare down our throats, despite the fact that a majority of us didn't, and still don't, want it?
"Government is simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together." is a sophistry employed by government--not just the Left--to justify any bloody thing it wants to do. It's a lie told by government to gull the gullible.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 12:17PM
"Yeah, right. The people of Syria are choosing to massacre themselves. Sure."
Wow. Are you really this dense to think that the people of Syria VOTED this Assad dictator INTO office?
MAN!!! With enemies like these, we don't have to fear a thing.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 10:34AM
Oh yeah: you lost on Health Care with the ACA.
"Lots of people attend public schools. Very few people become Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Everybody uses the roads and bridges the factory owner uses. But not everyone builds a factory."
Nice fallacy, non-sequitur. This is not the argument Warren and Obama are making. They are saying, AND Bill Gates AK the commie bastard is saying that with them:
WITHOUT government, the roads, the legal system, the police, the publicly educated workers, we wouldn't be as rich as we are.
Obama and Democrats get that it's BOTH things: community, America, AND entrepeneurial spirit that makes a succesful entrepeneur.
"The tax dollars (...) came from the innovators, the factory owners, and the entrepreneurs too"
Too! Glad you acknowledge that we poor slobs from the middle-class pay taxes ...
Those 400 richest folks did NOT pay the vast majority of taxes, so we don't owe em anything.
Also, if they possess 90% of the national income but only pay 50% of taxes, they pay way too little, especially with progressive taxes. (a principle that hasn't been entirely abandoned by the Repub-Teaparty regimes)
"What do you mean 'we,' kemosabe?"
He means the 99%. YOU, it seems, means the 1% ... 'bubba'.
You people believe a LOT of lies, like trickle-down, taxcuts pay for themselves, and Family Values (doesn't work in Vitter, McCain, Gingrich, larry craig, Guiliani, mark foley, ensign, sanford, yes I'm calling you hypocrite)
Wiley| 7.18.12 @ 1:30PM
You might want to check your facts about income and taxes. The Heritage Foundation reports that "the top 10 percent of income earners paid 71 percent of all federal income taxes in 2009 though they earned 43 percent of all income".
Numerous analyses have confirmed that tax cuts often result in higher tax revenue because they encourage individuals to work, save and invest. In 1960, with the top individual tax rate at 91%, individual tax receipts as a share of the economy were 7.8%. In 1988, with the top rate at 28%, tax receipts were higher at 8%. Today, with the top rate of 35%, tax receipts are 7.5%. These are facts, not lies.
Limited, wise government benefits all of society, but when government grows too large, too intrusive, and too poorly managed, a symbiotic relationship, in which the governed benefit in equal measure to what government takes from them, becomes a parasitic relationship where government sucks the life out of its host.
Obama and his supporters mistakenly see themselves not as the parasite but as the host, and in pursuing this delusion they're accelerating the process of the killing the real host--the people who actually produce things of value.
TheSteelGeneral| 7.18.12 @ 11:42AM
"The speech -- which in turn echoes Obama's comments that the rising debt is due to the Bush tax cuts, wars, and the Medicare prescription drug benefit"
to use your own words, Does anybody really dispute this? Bush increased spending and cut income, how hard is this for you to get? Unlike the stimulus, which is
" (policies the current president mostly kept in place)"
This is a lie. Obama TRIED to reverse the taxcuts but was held back by a crying Boehner, almost foaming at the mouth.
Really, the conservatives in other countries aren't this folly: they know that if you reduce income and increase spending we're gonna get a deficit.
Obama wants to INVEST in the people, not SPEND uselessly in some DUMB war on Iran or Iraq. ===> but Romney wants that.