Second, what have the Obamas done to encourage hard work?
Putting people on food stamps? Putting people on welfare? No.
That’s a short-term expedient. But work is what does it and Mr.
Obama has the street cred to tell his friends and brothers and
sisters that they must stop complaining and actually work.
Of course, he never does. It all reminds me of years and years
ago when I ghost wrote a book for a very famous civil rights leader
of black heritage. He would repeatedly tell audiences, “Look,
demand equal rights, and I’m with you. Demand equality of
opportunity and I am right there with you. But if you learn to
plumb a house or fix an electric circuit you can feed your family
for life.”
I wonder if Mr. Obama ever thinks of saying that. Nahh, why
should he? He has things going his way just fine.
Meanwhile, one more little note. Dave pointed out that at the
GOP convention, there was a debt clock and the dollars on it scared
him. “How big is our debt right now,” Dave asked him.
“I don’t really know,” said Mr. Obama. I AM NOT KIDDING!!!!!
What? The POTUS doesn’t know how big the national debt is? Can that
be? I guess that if he is so uninformed that he thinks that a small
tax rise on the rich and a few trims in federal projects here and
there will solve the deficit catastrophe, it is possible he
actually knows almost nothing except to be slick. And, wow, is he
slick.
I want to be back in Idaho.
cowgirl| 9.20.12 @ 8:50AM
Obama does not know how much in debt the United State is because he doesn't care. Period.
If he wins in November, he will put us into more debt, if he loses in November, he will be moving into a $35 million mansion on the north side of Hawaii. He could careless. He is covered and that is all that matters.
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 9:23AM
Indeed. Any more than he knows how many of Our Guys and Gals have lost their lives, since he's been in office.
He doesn't care
He didn't care about the people in New Orleans. He cared about Campaigning for 5 Days. When he FINALLY Pot Stopped in N.O. It wouldn't surprise me if he dumped all of the Money in the Red Cross Tins, in to his Pockets.
GM is Building a buncha New Plants IN CHINA, with OUR MONEY. His "American Jobs Initiative" head Honcho - Jeffery Immelt - has pretty much moved HIS Company - GE - lock, stock, and barrel, to China.
Gas is over $4 a Gallon.
Ground Beef is just under $6 a lb.
Everything at the Store is Higher, while everyone's chances of a better life, are Lower.
Israel WILL strike Iran. No if. It's When. And When = Soon. Real Soon.
We lost good people in Banghazi, the other day. We had our Embassy Attacked in Cairo, the other day. Our Ambassador to China had his Car ATTACKED by Chinese, yesterday.
But, ROMNEY hasn't got a Clue about Foreign Policy?
Everything that Could Go Wrong? Is going wrong, Here, and all over the World. The Americans have No Hope that their lives will Recover from all of the
Change in the way America does things, since this THING came to Power.
But, ROMNEY is Toast?
The Muslim has made us WEAK, and Animals can Sense Weakness and Fear. They will Strike, as we are seeing, RIGHT NOW, right before our eyes.
They are Coming...........
Edward White| 9.20.12 @ 9:38AM
Mr . Stein,
Are you aware that David Letterman is among the seven people receiving the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors?
Kennedy Center Honors?
Why on earth is David Letterman, a smarmy, creepy talk-show host receiving this "honor"? I find his inclusion in the Kennedy Center Honors highly suspect.
I would like to know the criteria for selecting these honorees. We have so many talented, brilliant people in our country to choose from, so why was Letterman selected?
Something smells rotten at the Kennedy Center. What a stink! (and it's not the Potomac)
I must do a little research to see who is on the selection board. One thing for sure: they're all idiots.
The Dumbing Down of Our Culture is full-speed ahead.
CJW| 9.20.12 @ 10:12AM
Letterman is getting the award because he has been kissing Obama's ass for the past four years.
Gary B| 9.20.12 @ 3:20PM
Incest is the short answer.
Cobalt| 9.20.12 @ 11:56AM
No surprise about The Kennedy Center honoring David Letterman. He is a "team player."
The Kennedy Center has already honored people like Pete Seeger, "America's most successful communist."
On Sunday October 14, 2012, the Kennedy Center will present a show honoring Woody Guthrie. Wonder which version of "This Land Is Your Land" will be performed?
Someday, look for The Kennedy Center to honor Samuel L. Jackson, a real "team player."
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 12:25PM
Next year, they'll honor Castro.
Too bad they can't do posthumous Kennedy Center awards. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Che Guevara would be shoo-ins.
Letterman. The guy was funny for five years - and the last 20 have been increasingly abrasive and obnoxious. I can't wait till he goes away.
Of course he'll be replaced by somebody just exactly like him.
Stephie| 9.21.12 @ 12:04PM
May I just ask, WHO CARES ABOUT THE KENNEDY AWARDS! The first word (name) is enough to make me not give a rats behind. But if it upsets you, put it in the toilet along with the Nobel Peace Prize.
Cobalt| 9.20.12 @ 2:43PM
The Woody Guthrie show, done posthumously, will be a centennial celebration. Be there or be in Red Square.
Bill8472| 9.20.12 @ 2:53PM
If Arlo sings it, the "on the other it didn't say nothin'" lyric will be in there.
I bet they don't sing Talkin' Merchant Marine or Reuben James...Guthrie may have been a Commie but he also served with considerable honor as a merchant marine in World War II on convoy duty with his buddies Burl Ives and Cisco Houston. He earned his right to think and say what he pleased the hard way.
RonRonDoRon| 9.20.12 @ 12:15PM
Well, Obama got a Nobel just for being elected. Why does Letterman's award surprise you?
Gr0w1er601| 9.20.12 @ 4:33PM
Letterman's not even funny. Craig Ferguson is the REAL funny man on CBS late night.
cowgirl| 9.21.12 @ 8:51AM
You are worried about Letterman receiving the Kennedy Center Honors? Get real here.
The Kennedy Family was started by Joe Kennedy, bootlegger, womanizer, racist, mobster and child abuser (he had his own daughter lobotimized). The sons were murderers and adultresses and should have been thrown in jail. The grand kids seem followed down the same path adding rapists and crackheads to the already long list of crimes and immoral behavior.
Receiving one of the Kennedy Honors just means that you are one of them.
No thank you.
Kingofthenet| 9.20.12 @ 2:36PM
Ground Beef 6 bucks a pound, what are you doing grinding up Fillet Mignon into ground beef?
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 3:54PM
$5.79 a lb. Dumb@ss.
Unlike You?
The rest of us don't get Government Hamburger.
GFYourself, and come back when you pull your Stupid Head outta your Lying Ass.
Or, whoever's Ass it's in.
Kingofthenet| 9.20.12 @ 4:20PM
Well I am not dumb enough to pay $6 for ground beef.Maybe you should shop at Costco or something...
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 6:15PM
Kingofthenet doesn't care how much food costs.
After, all, that's why Gaia made EBT cards.
It's all free, right freeloader?
Kingofthenet| 9.20.12 @ 6:27PM
What? I make plenty, and have no problem helping out my fellow man, maybe that is why I am so lucky, generosity gives good karma.
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 6:38PM
So, if I get this right?
You've got yours, and Fck everybody else.
You're the Perfect Liberal.
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 7:38PM
I love all of you libs who troll this site - you all claim to be entrepreneurs, business owners and wealthy philanthropists. It really never fails. Most of you turn out to be perpetual students or professional channel surfers.
When asked for specifics, you're gone faster than wind from a duck's ass.
I guess, as card-carrying liberals, lying is just what you do.
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 11:51PM
What a surprise. "Kingofthenet" is nowhere to be found when asked how he makes his lucre.
I find it fascinating that a liberal who preaches egalitarianism chooses as his moniker a name that alludes to monarchy - "KING." Shouldn't you be "Comrade-of-the-net?"
Also, fool, you claim you make plenty and don't mind helping out your fellow man. Let's assume for the moment that you're not lying (because we both know you are a taker): You may want to give freely of your money. That might be considered generosity.
However, if you send the IRS to put a gun to a rich person's head and force them to hand over their money, they will not enjoy the fruits of their own virtue; that is not generosity on the part of the rich man. It is extortion on the part of the government.
Parker| 9.20.12 @ 11:28PM
Filet Mignon would be about $17.99/lb. High quality lean ground beef is about $5.79 everywhere. Laura's Lean is certainly that much. Most general 78/22 is as much as $4.00/lb all over the Midwest. What do you eat, sawdust?
Fiscal| 9.20.12 @ 9:26AM
Given that Romney's budget will create more of a deficit than Obama's, and Romney has told seniors that he will not only put back Obama's cuts to Medicare, but guarantee it in the future, plus he wants to get into more wars, it's hard to argue that he cares about about our debt either -- except as a talking point...
The fact is that we fiscal conservatives don't have any candidate for President...
jothepro| 9.20.12 @ 9:54AM
Conservative my ass. Go troll somewhere else Fiscal...
jpmccn| 9.20.12 @ 10:35AM
Get behind Romney or there want be another choice.
Fiscal| 9.20.12 @ 10:40AM
I didn't say "conservative", I said "fiscal conservative". Basically, I'm more libertarian than anything. And yes, I am a libertarian "troll" that wants to cut government significantly, believes in facts rather than ideology, wants to reduce entitlements and wants individual liberty on the left AND on the right to let people make their own decisions about success, abortion, gay marriage, etc. Bush was not a fiscal conservative, Obama is surely not a fiscal conservative, and neither is Romney. There is no fiscal conservative running for President -- and I'm beginning to believe there is no fiscal conservatism here at AmSpec, either.
TeaPartyNow| 9.20.12 @ 11:04AM
You can't keep liberal family disintegration in place & be fiscally conservative. I get that the right has had it's head up it's donkey on social issues for at least seventy years, possibly all along. But listen, the abortion, gay marriage culture is exactly what creates welfare dependency. Abortion allows every person U.S.A to never have to adhere to the confines of taking responsibility for their own actions. If abortion was illegal in America, the American People would have to take life responsibly. Self government is only had when you (independence from welfare) have a people who can live without government help. Religion is needed for it's belief in moral imperative to each individual. Gay marriage, is a false narrative. Gay people believe that they will be equals, if they are allowed to marry. This is not true. Hold on, I'll continue, there's a characters limit.
TeaPartyNow| 9.20.12 @ 11:18AM
Do you realize that the American People haven't known even the slightest little details about anything in their governments, city, county, state, federal, for a good solid thirty years? Before that we knew very little. We have been manufactured by our medias to be a marxist nation. But Gays believe that their happiness exists inside the ones who will make them equals, the democrats. It doesn't exist there. Gays, put bluntly, are gay, & can never took to others for their own happiness.
This culture of social liberalism is the life blood of welfare nanny state government. Every corner in America now has at least one social worker around it. Every child in America belongs to the state & not his or her parents any more. Not watching them, we the people gave our governments the power to kill us if they want, take anything away from us, take all of our money & our sanity, our children, everything. There is nothing a citizen in America can do to win if attacked by Americas' governments, period now. & this marxism that breeds it, lives by social liberalism. So you can not have fiscal sanity & maintain the social liberalism that is the life blood of welfare. We true conservatives know the path home for America.
TeaPartyNow| 9.20.12 @ 11:19AM
Mitt Romney isn't qualified to even speak for us, let alone lead us. We know where self government is. I think we've lost the war with pot & I personally am for a constitutional amendment making it legal for every citizen to grow their own without government taxation & intrusion. But other than that the social workers & social liberalism has to go, before recovery can come. Family values, money delivered as close to home as possible, empowering local governments & stripping despotic laws & federal power. We can do this. We can recover & we will, as social conservatives & true freedom.
Bob Grant| 9.20.12 @ 11:34AM
The country's fiscal/monetary health is borderline terminal and your focus is on pot?
Come on, lay off the smoke for a few days and let your mind clear...i.e. pull your head out of your a**!!!
Priorities, my man!!!
TeaPartyNow| 9.20.12 @ 11:51AM
I am female & I was focused on abortion & gay marriage. But did you know that the government is now the distributer of pot? The governments today manufacture high quality pot, so that it can sell it to people who pay them for a licence to buy it from them & the product. If a citizen grows pot in their home, they are bound by law to pay taxes to governments for their product.
I believe that the government having the power to deal pot is worse than just letting the people grow it, which is what pot smokers want to do, & be left alone.
I talked about making abortion & gay marriage illegal & all you saw was a giant pot leaf. I don't smoke or drink at all myself. But living in Washington State, I can see that the governments are killing us with this stuff now. & all that it really does is make pot growers worship & pay democrats. I am against it.
spike59| 9.20.12 @ 12:27PM
hahahahaha....'fiscal conservative', 'Tea Party Now'....i see what you did there; it's like when a 300lb biker insists on being called "Tiny"...
TeaPartyNow| 9.20.12 @ 12:38PM
You obviously read nothing of what I posted. Or you have your head so far up Romneys butt, you can no longer feel anything but what's under his magic under pants.
TeaPartyNow| 9.20.12 @ 12:40PM
They head up Romneys' butt comment was towards spike59. & if you have nothing intelligent to say, you resort to personal attacks. Typical Romney shill.
Cpm| 9.20.12 @ 2:56PM
TeaPartyNow is an Obama worshipper and paid Obama shill. Romney is infinitely more preferable than what we've been enduring the last four years, and that is the only choice.
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 3:56PM
That's because he's a Fckng Genius.
But, you already knew that, right?
Of course you did.
Bob Grant| 9.20.12 @ 11:30AM
"Given that Romney's budget will create more of a deficit than Obama's..."
-----
The above statement makes you either a troll, a liar, or extremely ignorant of the facts.
Let's discuss obama's "budget", shall we?
Cats1cowboy| 9.20.12 @ 11:53AM
Budget? Was I supposed to present a budget?
Dave Williams| 9.20.12 @ 12:27PM
"Budgets? We don't need no stinkin' budgets!"
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 3:57PM
What's a Budget?
Contest, Tomorrow.
TeaPartyNow| 9.20.12 @ 10:54AM
Conservatism itself is silenced almost completely by Mitt Romney. Romney personally swears that he will never comment on any conservative family values in America, ever! Why do you think that liberalism is dancing in the streets, & dancing on the grave of our founders, declaration of independence & constitution? Because Romney is what it looks like when D.C. despotic elites control who we get for nominee, & they pick a pandering, liberalisms' butt kissing, inept, clueless moderate.
Every day, John McCain looks smarter & smarter, doesn't he? Mitt Romney runs his campaign by hiding under a rock & attacking the American People behind closed doors.
Worry not my conservative believer, we the People are slowly beginning to see that it doesn't work to live without knowing what our governments are doing. Eventually, the Liberty Bell tolls in America once again.
We may be a marxist nation, but our hearts still belong to liberty. Give us liberty, or give us death begins in 2013.
Hardcard| 9.20.12 @ 8:54AM
dear ben,
why are you watching davey anyway. Yeah that soetoro is real smooth or is that slick like cigar willie. davey and cigar willie have a lot in common their both about the same draft dodging age, and both are very rich and they both have didled their employees while on duty. ben do you also tune in to mtv, msnbc, and the price is right, dr.phil, dr.oz, al sharptongue much such mush smooth??
SUBVET| 9.20.12 @ 10:20AM
Monica..........you remember her.......the one that could smoke a cigar without using her hands to smoke it.
Just got a 10 M book deal so she can tell about her 9 encounters with "Mr. Peyronie's disease" in the oral office.
Only in America..................
Cobalt| 9.20.12 @ 8:59AM
"The POTUS doesn't know how big the national debt is?"
....and he doesn't care, either.
Obama fully intends to destroy the middle class in this country.
He is an evil idealogue with no shame.
Fiscal| 9.20.12 @ 9:32AM
I guess no one here is interested in facts. The middle class has been declining (i.e., no increases in income) for over a decade. The Bush tax cuts have not helped. This decline is attributed to business increases in productivity that has reduced middle management jobs in addition to manufacturing moving to third world countries. When these jobs remain here, they are at lower wages. Bush didn't do anything about it and neither has Obama. Romney doesn't have any answers either except ones that have proven not to work.
The fact is that this is a result of market forces -- and market forces are much more powerful than any President.
George S| 9.20.12 @ 12:32PM
This post shows you are no fiscal conservative.
When the middle class is more productive but their income is stagnant, what does that tell you? It tells me that their extra productivity is eaten up by regulatory compliance costs, that is, accounting, legal, human resources, lobbying, consultants, building codes, environmental codes, health care management, etc.
But someone has to earn the money to pay for those employees and consultants. That is you. The middle class employee who does the work that makes the product that earns the money to pay the non-productive compliance cost.
Now you see why the percentage of GDP eaten by government affects your salary?
Fiscal| 9.20.12 @ 12:44PM
I can't give a class on econ here, but it isn't "middle class" productivity, it is corporate productivity. Regulatory compliance is an extremely small factor. We know this from the deregulation done in the late 90's -- it didn't change the productivity curve at all.
The problem here is that we have large numbers of people whose knowledge of econ comes from ideology rather than analysis. If we used your methodology, we'd still think the earth was flat because that's the way it looks when you look out of your window.
George S| 9.20.12 @ 1:19PM
You have not refuted a single point I made.
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 4:09PM
That's because he can't.
Surprised?
Warrior| 9.20.12 @ 2:06PM
You may want to check on the costs of regulatory compliance prior to continuing the ideology discussion.
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 4:09PM
Exactly.
Contest, Tomorrow.
Stkman| 9.20.12 @ 2:57PM
Both of you are missing something. Greed. Market forces you say Fiscla. Jobs are not going to China so the product can be sold at a competative price on the market. They are going to China because corporations/stock holders get more profit. It has nothing to do with being competative. Not only is the good manufacftured for less, its sold at much higher margin than an American made product. Mfgr's make 24% profit and up on goods made overseas. Not only that, when they lay Americans off and hire overseas workers they don't have to contribute to the Social Security fund. Now go figure what there profits are when you include that bit of savings. Add thet they don't contribute anything to the overseas workers health insurance cost either, because there is no health insurance.
George, not everything is because of the EPA. Sometimes it's just good old fashioned greed.
Romney needs to start arm twisting as does Congress about bringing jobs back to this country so our folks with low or no education can make living of somekind.
Parker| 9.20.12 @ 11:41PM
Low education or no education ? It is not the job of government to provide people with jobs. That's part of the mess this country is in. Government jobs!
jdmeth| 9.22.12 @ 8:35AM
American businesses went overseas for survival, not profits. If one goes the others have to or be undersold and bankrupted. High tariffs and import restrictions would have prevented this but people start shouting Smoot-Hawley. Well, we got a depression anyway.
StanAmSpec| 9.20.12 @ 2:22PM
While market forces ALWAYS ultimately trump government (see Soviet Union), it may be slow but it will be victorious. It is absurd to think taxes and regulations can't be paramount in business decisions. One local example, Abbott labs moving stent production overseas, because of wages? No, taxes and regulations. Middle class jobs going to Ireland and Costa Rica.
Bill8472| 9.20.12 @ 9:26AM
Okay, we've had our flirtation with being a forward-looking nation that has no problem electing a black President even though we had slavery 150 years ago, and treated black people badly after that.
Now let's get back to business; we really need to.
I'd be really grateful for a President who doesn't appear on television variety, music, and comedy shows. If he appears on TV, it should be to tell us something important.
I'd also be really grateful if we didn't have Presidents in the future who spend half of their time campaigning for election. We pay them pretty good money - how about keeping their noses to the grindstone while they're in office? A vacation once a year is fine, a weekly round of golf, no problem, but mostly work like the rest of us.
jpmccn| 9.20.12 @ 10:41AM
That ain't gonna happen. Washington has become a Cesspool and you know what comes out of that.
Cats1cowboy| 9.20.12 @ 11:59AM
We? treated black people badly after that? Nobody alive in this country owned any slaves. I never treated black people or anyone else for that matter, badly. As for Presidents golfing, I think that when there are no Constitutional items to review in the morning meeting, all Presidents should go golfinf all day long and not think about how to expand Our federal government.
Bill8472| 9.20.12 @ 2:43PM
Well now, when you mention that absentee President thingie, I have to admit you've got something there. Maybe we could do the same with Congress, even though they're pretty good at establishing gridlock all on their own.
Jacob McCandles| 9.20.12 @ 9:29AM
Obama: "the debt is not a problem in the short term.."
translation: the debt is not our problem, it's our KIDS problem.
Bill8472| 9.20.12 @ 9:34AM
Amen; on some basis, NOTHING is a problem in the short term. In the short term, a person falling from a tall building is fine. It's just when the short term ends and he impacts with the sidewalk that things begin to get sticky.
Stan Redmond| 9.20.12 @ 12:20PM
Do you remmeber how the left skewered Cheney when he said the deficit doesn't matter when we we began the wars and the left was crying for tax increases? The deficit was 158 billion.
Bill8472| 9.20.12 @ 2:49PM
How about the ration of crap they gave Bush over the unemployment rate that ran somewhere between 4.5% and 5%? That went on for years; it was a scandal for certain folks.
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 9:37AM
Gee, I should have read who the author was before I started reading this drivel.
But when I got to the part about Obama being huggable, Rove being a genius and Michelle being likeable, I threw up.
Then I checked the byline - of course, it's Ben Stein, purveyor of journalistic saccharine!
I'll leave my opinion of the RINO establishment faux conservative Rove - who has done more to erode the Republican brand than his former boss's Statist "compassionate conservativism" ever could have hoped to - for another time.
Ben, let me explain something to you: Skin color doesn't ipso fact make people likeable. Just because one is black, that doesn't make them charming and wonderful human beings with nothing but smiles on their lips and songs in their hearts.
Michelle and her husband are execrable, angry, vengeful, sophomoric, pompous, entitled, ignorant, destructive boors. They have always lived like kings off the labor of others and pay back their affirmative action benefactors by becoming professonal extorters who have the gall to dictate morality to America, as if morality figured for a nanosecond into a single move either of these two a-holes has ever made in their adult lives.
And those are their good points.
People like Ben Stein are one reason Americans now have a completely false perception of the world.
I am genuinely disgusted.
CJW| 9.20.12 @ 10:25AM
The outrage is the Obama said he did not know the deficit amount when he took office.
Since he campaigned that the 10 billion dollar deficit was unpatriotic, then the quesiton is (1) did he forget, or (2) is he lying, or (3) to give our president the benefit of the doubt, as O'Reilly says, he does not really know since he did not have a telepromter.
Since O is too busy to have his daily presidential security briefings dealing with minor issues like terrorrist attacks on our embassies, threats of attacks, the Iran nuclear program, and Israel's concerns about Iran, then it is possible that O does not have any briefings on the economy so he does not know about the deficity. It seems the only meetings he has dealing with economics is the economics of his fundraising.
What do you think?
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 10:58AM
I think that Obama has surrounded himself with people who will tell him what he wants to hear, and most of them suffer from the same kind of arrogant ignorance that forms his own world view.
I think he is lazy as hell, and all he cares about is having his proxies and minions steer us over a Keynesian cliff domestically such that the only power in this country is government, and then castrate America internationally such that the U.N.'s wet dream of one-worldism becomes achievable - powered, of course, by the American taxpayer. It's insane, but that never stopped a liberal before.
When immature children become convinced that they're geniuses, they often have the misapprehension that their thinking is so big, so monumentally all-encompassing, that they float above mere cause and effect and what they perceive as the minutia of the empirical reality of facts. This magical thinking is the reason untrained artists can't paint beautiful landscapes or write symphonies, and, is, in fact, at the heart of Keynesianism: a religious fervor for abstract, "big-picture" models. The same is true of the religious fervor for abstract models that forms the scripture for the "climate change" zealots - in both cases, reality be damned.
I think the real outrage is that America put this malevolent non-entity, this vengeful boob, in power. Obama's not the disease - he's the symptom of the necrotizing fascitis of the soul that has killed this country.
TinaB| 9.20.12 @ 8:59PM
Grzmlyk,
You have laid out the situation as it appears to many of us. The fact that America is allowing this necrotizing fascitis, as you so quaintly put it, to flourish is simply depressing to me. I trust God is still in control, and always will be, and that's what gets me by. However, I will not lie down and I will not go quietly.
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 11:44PM
The question for me is, how is God exercising control? Is he sitting back and allowing our own foolishness to destroy us?
Because if I created a beautiful planet, and created beings to inhabit it that were blessed with free will, and they proceeded to destroy it out of greed and vanity - appallingly under the guise of "virtue" - I might pull the plug - or do what God appears to be doing - let us destroy ourselves.
Sodom and Gomorrah, the Sequel.
Alej| 9.20.12 @ 10:50AM
My sentiments exactly. Stein diminished himself with that crap.
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 4:12PM
Stein?
Ben Stein?
Is Ben Stein here?
Has anyone seen a Ben Stein Column that wasn't a Phoned in POS?
Bill8472| 9.20.12 @ 4:25PM
Oh, I don't know; I liked the one where he talked about the old song from the old days, "Ling Ting Tong." That one has been long forgotten by most people, probably with good reason, but you know how those tunes are that you hear as kids - they stick with you.
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 6:40PM
You have got to come to the Contest, Tomorrow.
You have to.
Bill8472| 9.20.12 @ 4:29PM
Thank you for saying the correct "drivel" and not the much more common, incorrect and revolting "dribble."
MacWell™| 9.22.12 @ 7:09AM
"Michelle and her husband are execrable, angry, vengeful, sophomoric, pompous, entitled, ignorant, destructive boors. They have always lived like kings off the labor of others and pay back their affirmative action benefactors by becoming professonal extorters who have the gall to dictate morality to America, as if morality figured for a nanosecond into a single move either of these two a-holes has ever made in their adult lives"
The above alone is reason enough to remove this fake from the people's house.
A grown man who has NEVER earned an honest dollar in his life has no right to dictate anything to anyone. How can he, as a man, not be ashamed of his life so far?
I could not imagine living off others my entire life.
I started working, on the books, at 14, and until I became disabled at 55, worked for all of those 41 years. I just don't see the benefit of relying on others to take care of you, grow up, get a job and make the world a better place.
guru4u | 9.20.12 @ 9:45AM
Thanks for equating the GI Bill to student loans!
MikeBee| 9.20.12 @ 9:57AM
Ben,
O's comment that he wished that everyone would be in the middle class was the stunner of the interview. You took it to mean that he wished poor people well; and I'm sure he does. But, I took it to mean that he wants all RICH PEOPLE to be reduced to middle class status. His policies would produce just this: a reduction of rich people back into the middle class, and an increase of some of the poor into the middle class. Additionally, the middle class would be redefined to a lower state. Everyone in O's ideal country would be a little better than poor. His desire is to equalize everyone.
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 10:22AM
The enemy of socialism is not the rich; it's the middle class.
Obama doesn't care about the rich, half of whom kiss his posterior on a regular basis. Sure, wealth bashing makes for good class warfare rhetoric, but the real obstacle to totalitarianism isn't the super wealthy, of which there aren't that many.
The real threat is the middle class, of which there are legions.
What our government - Repubs and Dems together over decades - have built here is a sort of fascism (which is a form of socialism). The point is to eliminate the middle class and make a critical mass of Americans entirely dependent on government. They said it plainly at the Dem convention: We all belong to government; we are the government's property to do with what it will, and we live and die and prosper and suffer at the whim of Leviathan.
Obama doesn't wish anyone well. Like all liberals, he doesn't see people as individuals - they're intellectual (and I use the term very loosely) abstractions viewed through the liberal trinity of class, race and gender, and to the extent solicitousness toward "the folks" is useful in grabbing power, Obama and his fellow travelers will pretend to care (and he doesn't even do that convincingly).
But please, don't ever forget that the velvet glove covers an iron fist, and that fist is clenched around naked power.
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 4:16PM
Exactly.
Totalitarian Regimes do not have a Middle Class.
They have the Rich, whom they Easily Control, because they will do ANYTHING to hold on to their Money.
And, they have the Poor, because they have NOTHING, and will do what they're told, so long as they Get Stuff.
Cobalt| 9.20.12 @ 5:15PM
There you go. You have it.
Obama doesn't ever plan to be part of the middle class he is destroying. He figures he will always be part of the 2% living at the top of the oligarchical pyramid.
Just watch Obama continue to grow the size of the federal government, and watch him go for a national sales tax, or a VAT (value-added tax), or both.
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 6:37PM
Absolutely. Obama wants to live large, as we have seen from his and his hideous wife's spare-no-expense attitude to their own lavish, taxpayer-funded lifestyles.
Disappointingly, I think Limbaugh went off the deep end today describing Obama's partying with Jay-Z and Beyonce.
According to Limbaugh, Obama has these high-profile hob-nobs because he wants voters to see how opulent the lifestyles of the rich are in order to convince Joe Six pack that the 1% aren't taxed enough.
That is dead wrong. Obama soaks up celebrity like a drunk inhales his first shot of the evening. If you're famous, or a member in good standing of the liberal elite class, that's cool - your excesses should only be limited by your imagination. And most of those people have not made their money through producing goods or services that employ large numbers - they've done it on the very narrow basis of personal appeal.
However, if you're an entrepreneur who is a self-starter, and you're trying to bring a better widget to market, and you employee 30 people, and you happen to file your company's tax forms as an individual, and you grossed, say, $600,000 last year (of which $525,000 went into your business), you are an evil one-percenter and a greedy fat cat who WILL be brought to heel.
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 6:41PM
Contest, Tomorrow.
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 7:40PM
?
Leathersmith| 9.21.12 @ 9:02AM
There is an angle to the discussion of our current "middle class" which seems generally overlooked: What percentage of employed individuals with middle-class incomes are either directly or indirectly employed by government? If you remove from statistics all bureaucrats, teachers, police/firefighters, etc., plus those whose incomes derive from government spending, e.g., road and bridge builders, auto workers whose share of output produces vehicles purchased by government, and so on, how much of a middle class do we have left today?
I think the fascists are fine with a middle class, as long as the middle class owes its jobs to the state.
Occam's Tool| 9.20.12 @ 10:29AM
Ben,
1)raising taxes to pay for out of control entitlements in the middle of a recession is moronic.
2) Obama is a traitor.
Very simple stuff.
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 4:16PM
Contest, Tomorrow.
David T| 9.20.12 @ 10:31AM
I'm sure Obama knows exactly what the debt is, he was just afraid to say it.
Pecos Pete| 9.20.12 @ 11:48AM
DT: Obama can't pronounce "TRILLION" and doesn't know what it means.
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 12:55PM
You overestimate him by about a factor of four.
Facts never mean much to blind ideologues. Especially ignorant, callow, narcissistic ones.
TeaPartyNow| 9.20.12 @ 10:41AM
Well Mr. Stein, he is what is wrong. If Romney were to go on letterman, or anything similar, he's look & sound like a dufus. It doesn't matter what Obama does, if Romney is so incapable of finding anything coherent to say, Obama can win on smoothness alone. Romney has all of the right wing medias employed solely for his election. This site, foxnews, breitbart, hannity, rush... you can't complain that left wing medias are unfairly electing Obama, when you are doing the same thing personally for Romney. Media bias goes both ways now, & is not an unfair advantage in 2012.
But Romney to his "secret" 47% thing dropped the ball again. The right scream for him to lay into it & he hides under a rock. He could have made the argument against welfare in saying that it exists only to build the size & scope of government. He could have said that top down feds throwing trillions at poverty is a sure way to make poverty blow up! No, he attacks the American People end of it in private. The guy is inept, & constantly MIA.
The left is in effect dancing in the streets & on the grave of conservatism because of Romneys' persona. You wanted the moderate, you got the moderate. I wanted the conservative & the White House. Someday soon the right will see that it committed suicide by Willard & his magic under pants in 2012. (Willards is Romneys real first name & he thinks he's got magic under pants,m really, yes, freaking really)
Alej| 9.20.12 @ 10:56AM
We don't want a "moderate" patriot in the White House, but the alternative to Romney/Ryan is the continuing dismantling of America.
Personally, I want Le Kuan Yew, Attila The Hun, George Patton and Torquemada all rolled into one as president, plus permanent disenfranchisement of about a third of the US population.
But Romney is what we have to work with. Sure hope you and others don't waste a write-in vote.
TeaPartyNow| 9.20.12 @ 11:34AM
You don't have to worry about me, I live in Washington State where it doesn't matter, the state will go for Obama. & Romney will destroy America lightening quick compared to Obama. You are one of the ones driven by fear into blindly picking anything to subside your fears. I am actually interested in seeing America recover. Romney will destroy America with massive debt, over our current debt. Obama has kept us safe & like it or not, he will be able to, & Romney will not. Romney wants wars so that he can fulfill his promises to his campaign donors to buy their military supplies if he is elected. Romney is not interested in the American People. If you had eyes to see beyond your fears (right wing media induced fears) you'd know that.
I am for Santorum. His bottom up, local government, community, family, work ethic, conservative common good works.
But anyone conservative will do. Romney is not only NOT CONSERVATIVE! he is also completely inept, unintelligent & has no clue how to run a sand box in a pre-school let alone Americas' recovery.
We would have had to watch Romney, so now we just have to watch Obama. We will recover. The sky is not falling. You need to stop being so afraid to stand up. Listen, we can do this. We are Americans. Eventually we will have to go back to self governments & the lives & values that our founders intended. We will.
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 7:07PM
I'm not really a Romney fan - although I certainly hope there's more "there" there than I've seen so far.
But he's NOT completely inept and unintelligent. He DOES have a track record of success, both in the Olympics and at Bain.
That's not to say I don't think he's a pretty lame politician. And I certainly believe he's a RINO who has no intention of upsetting the Beltway applecart. Like both Bushes before him, I believe he wants to dangle conservative rhetoric in front of his right-of-center base while tinkering minimally with Big Government at the edges in order not to alarm moderates and everybody to the left of them.
Santorum, to whom I gave serious consideration at one point, blew it with his relentless and oddly immature peevishness, and his record didn't exactly burn down the State, either.
Sadly, I also think that any conservative will NOT do. Reagan was a bona fide conservative - and yet the Leviathan only grew under his administration.
Unfortunately, entropy is a one-way street. And, brother, we are giving a first-class demonstration of that.
buckeyeman| 9.20.12 @ 11:02AM
"...Mr. Obama, like his charming and very likeable wife..."
This one phrase, Ben, makes me question everything else you have to say.
TinaB| 9.20.12 @ 9:24PM
That comment and stating that Obama was "huggable" made me question the rest. Ben sometimes suffers from Big Blabbermouth Syndrome.
Cats1cowboy| 9.22.12 @ 9:32AM
I've heard Ben speak many times. I can "hear" the sarcasm and disdain when he types things like, "... his charming and very likeable wife..."
Lyneuss Fields | 9.20.12 @ 11:03AM
Ah, yes Mr. Stein! Everything is for the best in the best of “your” possible world. So, Americans—just like you brother—get rich by simply working hard and being thrifty. This con was debunked long ago, and we can now smell your stink. We now know that many of "your kind" inherit much of their wealth (e.g., S. Forbes, The Koch brothers, Mr. Norquist). Your kind buys America's politicians. You then have them eliminate inheritance taxes. It's all about you and your pissing posterity. Your fire is about to be put out!
http://lyneussfields.blogspot......rowds.html
Butch| 9.20.12 @ 5:43PM
Thank you for that taste of pure, distilled envy.
Lyneuss Fields | 9.20.12 @ 6:42PM
The hunger is rage, you piss-ass!
TinaB| 9.20.12 @ 9:25PM
Generated by envy, I agree with Butch.
JP| 9.20.12 @ 11:09AM
The President may regret winning this election. By late 2013 with unemployment again running above 9%, the nation deep into another recession, and the federal government borrowing nearly $2 trillion, the voters may just yet regret their choices for President. But, by then it will be too late.
Appleby| 9.20.12 @ 11:14AM
It's all right there in the Book of Revelation. Maybe it's time to read that one again. For those of you who cannot or do not wish to read books, there are audio versions. I'd start studying if I were you.
Lyneuss Fields | 9.20.12 @ 12:33PM
Amen Brother!
scotchieguy| 9.21.12 @ 10:31AM
Brother is a she
Louis Jenkins| 9.20.12 @ 1:13PM
Dear Appleby:
You must also read the Book of Daniel to understand Revelation.
Kingofthenet| 9.20.12 @ 2:29PM
No you need to read the Mormon 'Book of Abraham' that where all the REALLY good bits are.
Appleby| 9.20.12 @ 4:30PM
Good point -- I will take that up next.
Appleby| 9.20.12 @ 4:31PM
Meaning the Book of Daniel. I attempted to read the salient Mormon books when I was a Mormon and found them stupefying pastiches, by and large.
TinaB| 9.20.12 @ 9:28PM
Stupefying pastiches. I couldn't have said it better, Appleby, but then, what else is new.
Big Bob| 9.20.12 @ 11:50AM
These late night exhibitions have very subtlely taken the place of press conferences for the prez. And why not? he doesn't have to do anything but answer stupid questions and look like he knows what's up. It's easy to do and he doesn't have to be in the White House to plan anything. I think it's perfect for him...And it helps the revenues for the networks at the same time. This sounds like the perfect crony capitilism arrangement!!
Jimbobogie| 9.20.12 @ 11:51AM
The best way for young North Americans to get jobs would be to obtain work visas to China, India, Brazil or Mexico. It's called Global Free Trade and the "Job Creators" have indeed done what they're supposed to do-they've created jobs in the countries that give them the best rerturn on their investment. How do you blame government for that?
Cats1cowboy| 9.20.12 @ 12:03PM
Enacting ridiculous and onerous regulations that added up to "move or perish"
Jimbobogie| 9.20.12 @ 12:37PM
Cats1cowboy, regulations may have been part of the issue, but:
1. Money follows the best return is Rule 1 and slave wages for the same job still carry the day,
2. Those countries without regulations tend to have environmental "situations" that no North American would tolerate.
It's a no-win situation, IMHO
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 7:26PM
Which countries are you talking about? The countries that have bad environmental "situations" tend to be impoverished countries in which the citizens don't have many rights.
The wealthier the country, the more environmentally conscious it tends to be. If the foolish and self-serving activist class weren't so concerned with its own self-aggrandizement and hunger for power, it would see that free markets would take take care of pollution (and, let's face it - the human race cannot have ipads and iphones and plasma TVs without some environmental tradeoff).
The damage imposed on this country by out-of-control regulations (the delta smelt's halting of the delivery of water to Central California farmers, for example, or the recent instance where a $15M highway construction project in Texas was halted because of the discovery of a rare spider) is far more deleterious in the long run than the onerous regulations that are strangling economic development in this country to the point where no company can do anything anymore - utter paralysis, which is what the greens want.
And the only companies that CAN do things are bogus boondoggle solar and wind companies or the ethanol lobby, all of which cause far more damage - at no benefit to mankind - than an unregulated, level playing field.
And guess what the logical end of this conscious strangulation is? We descend into an off-the-grid, black-market world that will not have the luxury of "greening" its output.
Grzmlyk| 9.20.12 @ 7:32PM
Oops - screw-up above. That paragraph should read,
"The damage imposed . . . is far more deleterious in the long run than allowing freedom to determine the amount of greening that the market will bear. Onerous regulations are strangling economic development in this country to the point where no company can do anything anymore - utter paralysis, which is what the greens want."
Jimbobogie| 9.20.12 @ 11:51AM
The best way for young North Americans to get jobs would be to obtain work visas to China, India, Brazil or Mexico. It's called Global Free Trade and the "Job Creators" have indeed done what they're supposed to do-they've created jobs in the countries that give them the best rerturn on their investment. How do you blame government for that?
Jimbobogie| 9.20.12 @ 11:53AM
Sorry about the double-post...
Cats1cowboy| 9.22.12 @ 9:21AM
Government skrewed with the free enterprise system and regulated businesses out of Our Country into other countries. People go into business to earn money. Politicians go into government to take money away from businesses.
Stan Redmond| 9.20.12 @ 12:22PM
"But, more to the point, Mr. Obama, like his charming and very likeable wife"
Mr. Stein. I know you're just saying you like the Obama's because everyone is suppose to like the "nice guy." I find nothing pleasant or nice about either of them. Their smug contempt for all things American are disgusting. How anyone can find someone that "organizes" one group to hate another group likeable is beyond me.
TLP| 9.20.12 @ 4:17PM
Contest, Tomorrow.
Paul A'Barge | 9.20.12 @ 1:11PM
Republicans are the "do-too party". Republicans stand around waiting for Democrats to say something like "Republicans don't ..." and the Republicans say "Do too!" No wonder we are reactionary in political campaigns.
Republicans need to make the Democrats the "Are not party". Slam the Democrats, repeatedly. Put them on the defensive.
acix| 9.20.12 @ 3:08PM
COULD..NOT...AGREE...MORE.
MTB| 9.20.12 @ 1:37PM
Letterman is a horse's a$$ and Obama IS smooth, as most con-men are, that's how he got elected in 2008.
acix| 9.20.12 @ 3:10PM
How is Letterman even on anymore? He's just not funny. I don't agree with Jon Stewart and think he's full of it when he plays the I'm just a comedian retort when he's called on his political lectures but at least he's somewhat humorous.
Letterman isn't funny and is almost painful to watch most of the time.
Kingofthenet| 9.20.12 @ 2:27PM
Mr. Obama is so smooth, just so incredibly, unbelievably smooth, it just left me gasping.
I bet Ben even got a tingle down his leg...
MelvinNC| 9.20.12 @ 3:09PM
There is something that has been lacking in this Country for a long, long time now. What is to be done with the Communist Party, there is about 80 now that we are going to have to do something with.
They mustn't be allowed to spread their cancerous philosophy.
Kingofthenet| 9.20.12 @ 3:13PM
Yeah, the heck with that pesky Constitution, let's hang 'em!
MelvinNC| 9.20.12 @ 3:25PM
There didn't seem to be a problem with dealing with them in the United States during the 50s&60s;. Are you advocating violence Kingofnet?
Better yet what would you do?
Kingofthenet| 9.20.12 @ 4:18PM
I guess sarcasm doesn't translate into print well, my mistake. My point was that the Constitution PROTECTS people who advocate for communism, there is nothing illegal about advocating for it.
TinaB| 9.20.12 @ 9:38PM
So how does that work again, if you're a Christian, you need to shut up, we find you offensive, but if you're a Commie, preach it Joe Stalin, it's free to be me U S A? How does that translate into print for you?
Stkman| 9.20.12 @ 3:22PM
Ben,
Carl Rove is whats wrong with the Republican party. He is an elitist and he could care less about the Constitution. He gave us Romney and if he didn't have Romney he'd be telling us to vote for Obama. Rove hates the middle class more than Obama does.
Intelligent Design| 9.20.12 @ 5:39PM
Slick, but not slick enough. Jimmy Carter Obama will become a professor of American Un-Exceptionalism at some leftist academic cesspool after January. He will earn extra money as a consultant to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Bankrupt_R_Us| 9.20.12 @ 6:03PM
Ben,
There aren't enough billionaires and millionaires, even if Washington confiscated all their property!
BILLIONAIRES! Let's start with the USA's billionaires. Go to Forbes on-line list of the world's billionaires. Click on USA. Download. Add up. There are less than 400 US billionaires and their worth is @ $1.4 billion. CONFISCATE.
THAT WON'T DO MUCH GOOD. That will pay off 12 months of new debt from Obama's first term in office.
MILLIONAIRES! Who's next? Millionaires? Forbes hasn't a list, but let's just say our millionaires are worth 3 x the billionaires. It's a guess, but hey, the media lies, which is deliberate, and I am just guessing.
OK, let's confiscate what the millionaires have, excepting yourself, Ben. Geitner will come for all their money, assets, property, etc.
Luckily,most American millionaires detest the constitution, which guarantees property rights. They cannot mind giving up all their money to pay off the president's new debts. Here's a few who can't wait: Wolf Blitzer, Chris Matthews, Andrea Mitchell, Huffpo woman, the Clintons, John Kerry, John Edwards, Keith Olberman, George Clooney, Susan Sarandon, who did I leave out? .
Let's guess the millionaires' cash, assets and property is $4.5 trillion. Fork it over ladies and gentlement. Obama and Geitner need it pay down three years of Obama's new debt.
Bankrupt_R_Us| 9.20.12 @ 6:08PM
That $6 trillion confiscated from passive millionaires and billionaires PAYS OFF WHAT OBAMA BORROWED IN HIS FIRST TERM HUZZAH! Too bad that pauperizes the Obamas. Michelle won't like it and Obama better have good moves to avoid hurled china.
OOPs. I forget about what the White House plans to borrow in the president's second term. (G_d help us all) $4 trillion (or more) Who says so? The president!
Google White House 2013 Budget Table 7.1. Table 7.1 shows government debt from 1940 thru projected 2017. Velly, velly interesting, as Boris and Natasha used to say.
Mr. O needs another $4 trillion to pay down the debt in his second term, if he gets one. Who can he confiscate money from next?
This of course, is where the proverbial rubber hits the road, and Obama's female voters, glad for free contraceptives, now find they have to give up their savings , pensions, etc. The fems traded $10 a month contraceptives for disaster. Nice trade, girls.
I just read a quotation earlier today in Commentary Magazine. The article, written by Brent Stephens quotes a famous US economist. The quote was unfamiliar to me so I looked it up on Wikipedia. I believe you know this gentleman, Ben. Here is the entry: Herbert Stein's Law," which he expressed as "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop. " Nice gene pool, Ben.
MonaB| 9.20.12 @ 11:47PM
Mr. Stein, I beg to disagree. I never found the worst president in American history, the current White House occupier, either charming or slick or anything worthwhile. I always thought he was a good BS artist and nothing more. He can talk nonsense constantly and throw the bull at you forever. I never fell for it, not one second.
Unbelievable what this great country did to themselves - and if they're dumb enough to reelect him (which is what he's counting on), they'll get just what they deserve. Unfortunately, those of us who knew all along what he was will suffer the consequences of their actions and join the descent into hell.
Ron Ackenberry| 9.21.12 @ 3:52AM
Why are buzzards circling Romney's campaign headquarters?
Why do these comments smell like sour grapes?
Let's face it Willard doesn't have what it takes. Even his own party doesn't like him; dueing the primaries he couldn't raise more than about 25% of the vote until the other wackos self destructed.
OK, go back to wallowing in self pity....you needs some lambs to sacrifice.
threeleafclover| 9.22.12 @ 2:32AM
If we could take all of Romney's, Buffet's, Trump's and Ben Stein's money and give it all to the "poor" - how long would it take them to get poor again? How long would it take Donald Trump to get rich again? Think Lottery winners. Think lottery winners five years down the road. Money can't buy brains.
Remember the cash cards during Katrina and what was bought with them? Tattoos, Louis Vuitton handbags, lap dances - the necessities of life.
If he gets another four years, he will need five Secretaries of Redistribution.
.
jdmeth| 9.22.12 @ 8:02AM
David Letterman does not make any money, he is an entertainer, people give him money. He doesn't rig the stock market, off shore jobs, get government bailouts. He is just funny. You should understaind that.
Most people on food stamps and welfare would love to have a job to work hard at. Mexicans have most of the hard, back breaking jobs and millions of collage graduates can't find employment either.
Cats1cowboy| 9.22.12 @ 9:18AM
If it was easy and everyone could do it, it wouldn't be called work and we wouldn't need them.
topcat52| 9.22.12 @ 4:45PM
What do you get when you add the IQs of Barack Obama and David Letterman? Ben Stein.
ulyssesmsu| 9.23.12 @ 7:17PM
Mr. Obama's wife is not charming and likable. She's an angry b*tch who treats people like dirt. How hard can that be to see, Ben?
SYAsked| 9.24.12 @ 4:30PM
Truly respect Stein, but my relatives are dreaming, and do not want to hear anything bad about Obama.
They will not discuss it. Amazing, but true.
Fox, to them, is faux noise.
DidITweetThat| 9.25.12 @ 9:41PM
But work is what does it and Mr. Obama has the street cred to tell his friends and brothers and sisters that they must stop complaining and actually work.
Are you going to tell the white welfare mooches, or just the jewish friends, brothers and sisters?
Who will break it to the corporations?
DidITweetThat| 9.25.12 @ 9:41PM
But work is what does it and Mr. Obama has the street cred to tell his friends and brothers and sisters that they must stop complaining and actually work.
Are you going to tell the white welfare mooches, or just the jewish friends, brothers and sisters?
Who will break it to the corporations?