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Sliming Joe the Plumber

Liberals Love Privacy -- Unless it Interferes With Political Goals

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  October 17th, 2008 at 02:45 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

An ordinary citizen speaks up about how federal policies affect his family and his pocketbook, and bloggers dive into his personal life. His finances, his address, his background and family connections are all splashed all over the internet as bloggers line up to debate whether the instant celebrity is all he appears to be. Many feel he’s concealing enough about his background to make his opinion worthless.

Next the media steps in to defend the ordinary guy. Time Magazine’s Karen Tumulty says he’s being ‘swift-boated.’ The New York Times says he’s being ‘slimed.’ One partisan blogger says the other side ought to stop ‘snooping around.’ Another accuses adversaries of launching ‘a baseless smear campaign.’ Commenters at Democratic Underground label those at Free Republic ‘scum’ for investigating his personal life.

That’s right: Democratic Underground, Paul Krugman, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, Think Progress, Time Magazine, and lots of others on the Left were defenders of privacy when Graeme Frost delivered the weekly Democratic radio address regarding SCHIP. To the Left, it didn’t matter that Frost had specifically chosen to make himself a spokesman of the Democratic party; his personal life was still sacrosanct. Those who investigated his background were beneath contempt.

‘Joe the Plumber,’ on the other hand, never endorsed a candidate, never identified himself as a spokesman for Senator McCain, and never even asked to become a celebrity. All he did was ask a question and state a position when Barack Obama knocked on his door. And that was enough for the defenders of privacy on the Left to tear apart his background and destroy his livelihood.

The liberal message is clear: privacy is wonderful until it conflicts with our agenda. Your privacy rights end where our efforts to destroy conservatives begin.

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COMMENTS

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  • WillcoCons

    This is a must-see. The first 20 seconds shows it all.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqis9mRcWl4

  • SRT

    You mean an ordinary citizen is used as a tool a couple dozen times on national TV by a national candidate.

  • azaeroprof

    If Obama wins, we’ll have 4 years of character assassination everytime ANYONE disagrees with the Messiah’s utterings. And that will include Democrats as well!

    Interesting news today. I was trolling over at Daily K%s (can’t type the real name as that would be profanity). Don’t worry, I never post there! Their R2K 3-day tracking poll shows Obama up today 52-42. First of all, I think that margin is significantly inflated. But the interesting thing is the daily polling results that go into that 3-day average. They are: Tues +12, Wed +10, and Thurs +6 !!

    It’s too early to get excited about that, but it bears watching over the next few days. I’ve been saying since the weekend that Barry’s “spread the wealth” may become his version of “the fundamentals of the economy are strong”. Maybe even worse, as “spread the wealth” has a face named Joe. That’s why BHO and Axelcrook are going after him.

    But McCain and Palin MUST stay on that message continuously and repetitively as long as possible. They will not get any help from the drive-by media in replaying that quote over and over like they did McCain’s, so they have to take over the distribution themselves. (Too bad we don’t know how to astroturf like Axelcrook ;-)

  • izoneguy
  • deltar

    John McCain brought up “Joe the plumber” a dozen times in a national debate. Do you really think that the opposition won’t start digging to see who he is? Do you really expect better of reporters and bloggers? I sure don’t.

    And if Obama had brought up the name then the reporters and right-leaning bloggers would start surfing immediately to find anything they could to discredit him.

    It’s part of the game, and both sides play. Whine when they do it to you. Then do it to them when you get the chance, justifying it with “But they did it to me!”

  • Vegas_Rick

    Resistance is futile. You will be crushed by the Obamanian machine. Speak up and be ruined financially, or have your reputation smeared in national news.

    They will tell any lie, break any law, and ruin or eliminate anyone who gets in their way.

    They will pay groups like ACORN $800k to conduct criminal voter registrations.

    They will file motions in Federal District court to keep from proving that the One is really a US citizen rather than submit the birth certificate the court asks to see.

    They will destroy the One’s college records and state senate records to keep the public from discovering the real BHO.

    They will seek to block access to the Annenberg Challenge records to keep hidden the socialist activities of the One and Bill Ayers.

    They will do, and always have done, what ever it takes to “win”.

    The real problem for Obama? He doesn’t know how to win. BHO doesn’t realize that Joe the plumber is the bitter, gun clinging, church going, socialist hating American that he slimed in San Fransisco. And now he’s sliming him (us) again.

    He just doesn’t realize how much he’s pissing us off. There’s some who may hate Bush and be tempted to vote Dem as pay back.

    But there are way more of us who hate socialists. BHO is toast!

    • AmericanMidge

      And “Joe/Sam” went up to Obama – not the other way around.

      “I didn’t think they were asking him tough enough questions,” he said on Thursday.
      “So, I thought, you know, I’ll go over there. I’ve always wanted to ask one of these guys a question and really corner them.”
      http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/16/politics/horserace/entry4525242.shtml

  • Reede_Chesterton

    It looks like Obama actually talking with a middle class working man may do for Obama what sitting in an Army tank did for Dukakis.

    • NightTwister

      -nt-

      • azaeroprof

        So, in your Chicago-thug conspiracy thinking, are you implying that Steve Schmidt knew that Obama would go knocking on doors, knew EXACTLY where he’d be doing it, and sent a highly-trained local plant there to ask a hard question??

        I’ll bet if you stop the video, zoom in on the bushes of the nearby house, you’ll see Karl Rove hiding in camouflage!! I’ve been wondering what the guys who blew up the World Trade Center towers have been up to since 2001! Case solved!

        • speciallist
          • rstreu

            but I hadn’t considered an *army *helmet…

          • azaeroprof

            Commie hat

          • azaeroprof

            commie hat 2

          • NightTwister

            -nt-

          • speciallist

            n/p

          • Justin_Case

            should be more concerned with answering the man’s question than what his background is.

            Instead of clarifying or retracting “spreading the wealth” he chooses to mock a fellow citizen.

            This does not bode well for Obama.

  • LibRick

    Joe the Plumber merely voiced a valid concern, as all Americans should be able to do without being tossed into the “Meatia Grinder.”

    But to be fair, given Obama’s “bonehead” response to Joe’s question, he probably wished it had went under the radar.

    McCain is the one who ran with it in the debate. Under the current sick rules of political engagement, that made Joe “fair game” for our sensationalistic and trashy media. McCain should have known this, having been on the receiving end of it on a daily basis.

    As usual, Joe, gets slimed and the rest of us get an object lesson from the Beltway Elite to just shut up. Both candidates and the media will just move on to the next convenient victim.

    [start rant] Way to suppress free speech. R’s and D’s should fight being “Joe’d.” We can’t let the system shut down citizen free speech through intimidation with the threat of digging into your life for the best negative spin. I’m for Joe! [/end rant]

    • TexasTom

      Does any sane person discredit the question when it is the answer that is the bug up the ass?

      Simply put to the rocket scientists of the left…time spent discrediting the question is time not spent defending the answer.

      Does confiscation of your earnings without a voice in opposition thrill you so?

      You libtard are so stupid. Really.

      • JLenardDetroit

        …when none of us will be able to afford heat because of an Obamination administration, so where do we buy them? lol

        • JLenardDetroit

          …when none of us will be able to afford heat because of an Obamination administration, so where do we buy them? lol

  • TexasTom

    What if a street bum had asked about how ThatOne’s tax plan would benefit him…

    And, ThatOne gave the same answer!

    The bum would be the mascot of the commies and hard working, just scrapping by Joes would be funding the bums cigs and wine through “Spreading the Wealth.”

    Shudder!

  • baserunr

    Hillary screeching “we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration!” Joe didn’t even disagree, he just asked a question. Senator Government came into Joe’s neighborhood. Joe is not “fair game” at all. If the media is going to be so reflexively hostile to those who question The One, it might be a long, ugly next several years.

  • RoxannaDanna

    Joe’s not a public person. He’s a father, who’s just trying to make a living and attain his vision of the American Dream. He’s a private citizen who asked a relevant question of TheGreatOne and now he’s paying for it. The Obama media machine is trying to discredit him and ruin his life. The left has no regard for privacy until it effects them.

    This is the lowest form of intimidation that I’ve ever seen. And it could be me or you next.

    As a Catholic child I was asked to pray for the conversion of Russia (from atheistic communism. And hey… it worked. lol)

    Now it’s time to pray for America for the same reason.

    • antisocial

      Did McCain send Joe to Barack? NO. Barack himself went to Joe’s house and then uttered the now famous words “spread the wealth…”. Unlucky Barack.

      Bad luck isn’t just leaving him. See his great friend and idol Louis Farrakhan decided to endorse him and call him a Messiah. WOW!!! And then the media and particularly conservatives told him who this guy was. Who in the world asked for this guys endorsement? How unlucky!!! And he was told by conservative media and bloggers that his pastor for 20 years J Wright who was like family was actually a very despicable character. What? Poor Barack. And these hateful right wingers started bashing Obama. And then he bought this house from with a friend of his called Tony. He was not a felon that time. But these conservatives and racists needed just about any reason to bash Obama. Poor Barry. And then he did some community work (instead of working for wall street firms) with a professor by the name of Mr. William Ayers who did some despicable acts when Barack was 8. And then again these desperate right wingers got after Barry… How bad can luck get?

      The issue is not whether Joe is a plumber or not or how much he earns. The issue is “spreading the wealth around”… Socialist Agenda.. Ideology Sir!!! Of course I want to earn millions of bucks and I don’t want government to take it away to distribute to people who are “have nots”. I would want to use that money to earn even more.

      • Jack_Savage

        The LEFT is smearing Joe. The LEFT. Not the right, the LEFT.

        We are all Joes, but only lefty Joes count in Barack’s book.

        • hunter

          I mean, does he think he is a citizen or what?
          And how should a mere plumber not expect to mocked by a great writer and accomplished statesman for asking impudent questions?

  • lockedon

    Joe the Plumber’s experience with the left-winged media validates what many Americans have come to realize as an infringement upon their right to speak freely. If speaking out against an opposing political party or force results in one’s reputation being tarnished and one’s privacy being invaded to one’s harm, then the protection of free speech exists only as a symbolical reference to the past. Our right to speak our minds as Americans is being tested by Joe. We ought to commend him for his bravery and his honesty and join him in speaking our minds. Only through collectively speaking our minds can we ensure the continuation of our freedom of speech, what so many of our forefathers have fought to protect.

  • kowalski

    That’s pretty much David Axelrod’s strategy. Someone stands up to the Messiah and asks a question, though, and he gets hammered.

  • GrizzlyAdam

    Joe could be a raging felon. What would it matter? He exposed Obama for the socialist he is. That is what the Left is frothing at the mouth about. Who cares who Joe is and if he has skeletons in his closet. He is being demonized because he made The One admit his Marxist plans for America.

    Regardless of who Joe is, how much money he makes or whether he not is a plumber means nothing. Obama answered the legitimate question with a very revealing and Marxist answer.

    Capitalists and Conservatives everywhere are thanking Joe for doing what Larry King, Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric, and every other “journalist” has refused to do.

    Question The One.

  • NightTwister

    -nt-

  • izoneguy

    Obamacomm

    • zsmvf6

      nt

      • jimmuy8

        Not to the Obamarevolution, you’re not. You will be crushed under the tracks of the Obamatank, grease for the Obamanation–and it will be your fault for daring to be a free man.

        I AM A FREE MAN.

        I will not be a slave to the Obamathink, I will not join the Obamaparty, I will not sing the Obama’anthem.

        No matter: I will live or die free but, I will be free.

        • kyle8

          at least five years ago I was going on about the Stupid party and the evil party.

          I am still pretty fed up with our party, the stoopid one.

  • Gekster

    I don’t watch much tv, its only good for video games to me. I listen to WJR in Detroit on the radio. I heard several reports about our freind Joe. They were all about how dishonest and criminal he was. I didn’t think much about the reports untill Mitch Album came on. He has a sports column in a local news paper besides a two hour show on the radio, and I think he’s good on sports. But his first 15 minutes of his show was trashing Joe.
    All he did was ask a question, and I think he might get tied to both Kennedy assasinations by the drive by’s. They haven’t even looked at Obama this hard.

    • PaRep

      .

      • MikeO

        It wasn’t Joe the Plumber who exposed Obama for the socialist that he is. It was Obama who exposed Obama for the socialist that he is.

        Joe the Plumber asked a loaded question, and the one-time President of The Harvard Law Review jammed his own foot in his own mouth…all the way to the ankle…and the mask slipped…in front of rolling cameras.

        If the MSM and the rest of the NKVD’s sleeper-cell lapdogs want to be mad for being foiled yet again, then they should direct their anger where it belongs: right under the thorny crown of their phony Teleprompter Jesus.

  • gamecock

    that are so tone deaf

    • LibRick

      you mean the media, I understand your response under the premise that the Media is Leftist. The political “left” despises the media as much or sometimes even more than the right — Check out Kos or Media Matters. Fair warning … as a liberal, I can’t even stomach those sites.

      I think the media is more opportunistic than Leftist. They need to fill the 24/7 news mill with juicy stories regardless of relevance. So far, the political Principles in this race have not smeared Joe. It’s the “opportunistic” media that fans these fires assuming that everyone left or right will buy the framework.

      My point was that the media wants to frame the issue as “Left” vs “Right” because it’s grist for the ratings mill. Obama and McCain are ok with that. Joe, and you and me suffer for it. :)

      • kyle8

        just don’t seem that way next to the Kos crowd. Sort of the same way a jumbo jet doesn’t look so big in the Grand canyon.

        The mainstream media always had a bias. but tried to hide it better in the past. Since the rise of talk radio, blogs and Fox News they have thrown off all pretense.

        In addition they are also as you say, opportunistic, and if something bleeds it leads. So they can still feel “objective” because every once in a while they will fall upon a fallen left wing politician like a pack of hungry piranha. But that doesn’t make them balanced.

  • McCainForPrez

    nt

    • paint_it_red

      Wow, so you believe that because someone asks Obama a question and wants to get a straight answer then its okay for Obama to go nuclear on the guy? Unbelievable.

      You know, McCain is running a far more respectful campaign than Obama. When someone steps over the line in their criticism of Obama, McCain tries to reel them in, even if they’re not associated with his camp. Obama does not even make the effort, except in the very rare instances where it becomes politically necessary and expedient to do so.

      • kyle8

        I should have seen it coming at me like an atom bomb!

        Is there any way we can kill those people for playing that commercial too often?

        • LibRick

          We can label it any way we want. But, in the end, Joe, you, and me have to suffer the punishment for the great offense of just asking a simple real question. Sucks, huh?

          Sometimes it’s not about Left or Right… just about what’s right. Having read your posts, I think you may agree on this point.

          • JLenardDetroit

            You said it… Big time Liberal… He gets his pink (commie) panties in a bunch and has to rant and rave to keep his loyal bunch a Leftists to keep his TOKEN LIBERAL on WJR that once was all Liberal and come to the RIGHT (read that: correct) SIDE of Life.

            Albom’s garbage is easy enough to avoid when he spews it in the newspapers and fortunately equally as easy to avoid on the Radio. He’s betting on, no doubt, that once the Dem’s force the “Fairness Doctrine” against our “Free Speech” and “Freedom of Choice” that him and his cronies will have their show expanded.

          • AmericanMidge

            Seriously, how? Links from valid sources would be great.

          • AmericanMidge

            but this “Joe/Sam” went to Obama, that is fact and that is the truth – the only truth by his own words (Joe/Sam) the plumber.

            Someone is lying.

  • fisk2521

    Apparently you must first consult with your attorney before you dare to ask a question of Obama while he walks around campaigning. Your lawyer can tell you if you are risking any legal problems by asking the question.

    I heard Mort Kondrake going after this poor guy on Fox tonight. Imagine if Mort (the journalist) asked a question of either candidate and his background was delved into by the media . Would he not believe, and justly so, that his civil rights were being violated?

    I was going to suggest this was all nonsense, but it’s far more serious than that. It’s a violation of the first amendment and a dangerous precedent set by the left-wing media. We seem to be going further into the realm of the unbelievable these days with this kind of persecution.

    • GregInFla

      Glenn Beck did an opening monolog Tuesday or Wednesday in which he outlined a similar history: every Obama turns, these awful things keep happening.

      • fisk2521

        Does that mean that the American public can get a copy of Obama and Michelle’s credit report as well?

        • MikeO

          It?s not that I want to punish your success, I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success too. I think that when you spread the wealth around, it?s good for everybody.

          Senator Obama has clearly revealed that he wants to steal the fruits of the labor of productive, useful members of society and give the takings to the worthless parasites like himself.

          • Tim_Schieferecke

            What, do you think that McCain’s campaign somehow knew the future and that Obama would slink around there someday arranged for Joe to buy a house there and WAIT till The One showed up? When did you lose your grip on reality?

          • AmericanMidge

            why did my valid links not show up? Curious. sad really.

          • GregInFla

            What matters is what Obama said. Joe did not put words into BHO’s mouth. BHO is simply upset that the question was not screened like all the others.

          • MikeO

            Someone is lying, all right.

            Do you have a mirror around? If you mount it over your monitor, you can catch the liar in the act. Just look-up before you hit the “post” button.

  • McCainForPrez

    nt

    • civil_truth

      This doesn’t involve the First Amendment since there’s no government actor involved.

      What I would agree with is that the media are abusing their privileged status under the First Amendment, but their actions are not a violation of law, and the remedy is also non-judicial: public oprobrium and loss of trust & respect by the public.

      The price of freedom is that we have to endure to some degree those who would take advantage of that freedom.

      (Though if the media’s machinations result in an Obama victory, they may soon find themselves surrendering their rights to a new tyrannical regime, probably willingly, possibly not.)

  • SirGladiator

    The liberal media may enjoy attacking a regular American who dares ask their favorite candidate a question, that’s fine, let the left wing hate-machine run wild with their lies, maybe by the time this is over Joe will be the father of the downs syndrome baby that Sarah’s daughter secretly gave birth to. The key is that they are showing their character to the American People. As they attacked Sarah, and now attack Joe the Plumber, people who are great Americans who have done nothing to deserve any of this venom, they show how wicked they truly are, and they are proving to the American people, in ways that we Conservatives never could on our own, that they cannot be trusted.

    This is just like the Paul Wellstone funeral, the liberals turned it into a campaign rally, and lost an election they had in the bag, because they couldn’t hide their true nature just a few more days. Once again, just days from an apparent victory the far left is showing how truly vile they can be, and once again it will cost them the election. So let them go ahead, let them doctor a photo to show Joe the Plumber wearing a nazi outfit, or let them say that Joe the Plumber wasn’t really born a man, or whatever else these sick people can think of. They’re just digging themselves a deeper and deeper hole, one they won’t be able to climb out of until after they’ve lost this election. And while its certainly sad to see a great man like Joe the Plumber attacked so viciously and wickedly, Joe will have the last laugh when he’s one of the guests of honor at the Inauguration of President John McCain and Vice President Sarah Palin!

    PS, don’t forget to watch Joe the Plumber on Mike Huckabee’s show tomorrow night, it should be a lot of fun!

  • ILLINOIS_CONSERV

    Anyone who gets thir political news from late nite comics aren’t going to vote anyway. It’s just one more example of the elitist mentality of the left. What is really funny is that if they had to fix a burst pipe in their mansion, they wouldn’t know a shut-off valve from a garden hose. So who is the idiot here?

    • Gekster

      Yup. I think so also.

      • theBlur

        Turn your brain on. You have been one on this thread bashing the questioner, and not answering to the response given by Barack. Which is more important? The question asked by someone who the NYT (a liberal organization, trust me), the WaPo (another) has become the issue, not the response. It is an attempt to obfuscate the real issue – the Obama response.

        It has almost become a “if we cannot kill the message (that we gave) than let us kill the messenger who caused us to give it.

        The question that Joe/Sam or whatever, was a valid one that a lot of small business owners probably would have loved to ask Barack. Who asked it is not important, what is important is the response.

        And, when I hear “spread the wealth” coming from a candidates mouth (not, I might add Joe the Plumber’s), I get worried. And, apparently, so does the left.

        • Gekster

          I’m gonna have me some lobster tonight.
          But I wont get “Iranian,’ caviar.
          I’ll go for the Venezualan oil. It cost more.
          The wealth I’m gonna spread is to me.

          • Gekster

            It is ment to be teasing and sarcastic.

          • BlizzardOfOz

            You don’t find the idea of a plumber making $250K laughable? That’s not elitist- it’s a fact that only a lucky few make that kind of money. The average income for a plumber is under 40K. The average income for a lawyer with 20 years experience is less than half of $250K. So McCain’s stunt basically shows his tax plan sticks up for the little guy, the small businessman, the Richest Plumber in the World! That’s what we’re laughing at.

          • izoneguy

            Joe the Plumber said one day he might want to buy the business he works for. The business he works for makes a little over $500,000. All of my clients are small business’s that make between $750,000-$15,000,000….These folks will take tremendous hits. So much so that I might lose a good amount of business. This is what we are talking about.

          • BlizzardOfOz

            Is relieving taxes for people struggling to pay for their mortgages, health care and education, and asking people who have no problem buying their 5th yacht really such a bad thing? Why would you consider a progressive tax system (higher marginal rates for millionaires and billionaires) an absolute evil? Are you somehow more free if Bill Gates has an extra $4 million in his pocket rather than having that money go to a planetarium in Chicago?

          • speciallist

            n/p

          • Pomme

            has been tried all throughout history! It has failed every. single. time! What makes you or anyone else the boss over how much anyone is allowed to make?? Or how much anyone needs to contribute to someone else’s pocket??

          • speciallist
          • Pomme

            They’ll eventually run out of rich people and guess who’s next on the list??

          • Tim_Schieferecke

            Why do you want the government to collect less money for your socialist fantasies? I know, you’d rather just use a simpleton’s logic to conclude that stealing another person’s hard earned income will float your boat and not hurt anyone else too bad. It doesn’t work that way. When you assess punitive taxes against success, it might make your class envy polluted mind feel better, but it does absolutely ZERO, ZIP, NADA to raise revenues. Step away from the class envy mantra you’ve been indoctrinated with. When you tax more, you collect less. A rising tide floats all boats-(John F. Kennedy, Democrat from by-gone, pre socialist days of the party)

          • MikeO

            Because the crabs are just like you.

          • Pomme

            won’t get that.

            A bucket full of crabs, when one crab starts to climb out, another pulls him back down.

            But, you know, you’re RAAAAAAAAAAACIST!

          • BlizzardOfOz

            but I’m more worried about Crony Capitalism than Socialism. We have CEOs of major corporations who make reckless short term decisions to boost stock prices, then if they get fired they get a multi-million dollar golden parachute. We have derivatives “geniuses” who game the system for their personal profit, then when they fail miserably it’s taxpayers who have to bail them out. They’re off to a private island in the Pacific and we’re left with a Depression. All this talk of Socialism is smoke-and-mirrors to distract you while the richest 0.1% rob you blind.

            Sorry for the rant…. I really don’t care about taxes, I just think free market ideology is a hoax that the super-rich use to enact policies that help them expand and hoard their wealth. We should all be united against them (by “we” I mean everyone who isn’t both rich and an asshole) and their bought-and-paid for cronies in Congress.

            More ranting… sorry. I guess my point is, why is John McCain so empathetic with a guy who might have his taxes go up if he becomes insanely rich? Where is the concern for those of us who are a lot worse off than Joe the Plumber?

          • speciallist
          • Tim_Schieferecke

            When you say Senator McCain is “empathetic” with Joe, how is that a bad thing? Joe has a dream to become a successful plumber and reap the fruits of his labor. I’m nowhere even close to being rich, but I’m working hard on things that may put me there someday. What you seem to be in favor of is statism. You may have given up on your desire to get ahead, but I haven’t and neither have most of the real members of this website. Why would you want to deny yourself the chance to ever succeed perhaps beyond your wildest dreams? America stops functioning properly when her people no longer dream and pursue success. Whatever situation you’re in right now is surmountable IF you desire to overcome it.

          • MikeO

            Take your show on the road, and ask people what they think of your ideas.

            Or, if you think that “spreading the wealth around” was not a slip of your Teleprompter Jesus’s mask, then why isn’t he loading your ideas into his Teleprompter?

            Is relieving taxes for people struggling to pay for their mortgages, health care and education, and asking people who have no problem buying their 5th yacht really such a bad thing?

            Relieve everyone’s taxes? I will readily jump on that bandwagon. But, if I agree with you about that hypothetical person with the four yachts, how long will it be before that bar gets lowered?

            Simple answer: Nobody will ever buy a fifth yacht, so the lack of revenue will force lowering the cut-off to three yachts, then to two, then to one, and so on. Eventually it will be everyone with more than three dress shirts, and we’ll all be wearing polo shirts to work.

            Why would you consider a progressive tax system (higher marginal rates for millionaires and billionaires) an absolute evil?

            Why would I need to consider it an “absolute evil?” Isn’t it enough that it’s evil?

            Progressive taxation punishes success and promotes non-productivity and indolence.

            Are you somehow more free if Bill Gates has an extra $4 million in his pocket rather than having that money go to a planetarium in Chicago?

            Yes. We are all more free. Without disputing the questionable value of a planetarium in Chicago, by the time that $4M gets to the planetarium, it’s probably passed through a bureaucracy that takes $40M off the top to keep itself in operation. And, the appropriations get bigger and bigger for more and more things because everyone wants his own cut of the bread and circuses.

            Redistribution is robbery. It is theft under the threat of imprisonment.

            But once again, if you are so sure that redistribution of wealth is the right thing to do, then get your candidate to campaign openly on that platform. I dare him. I double-dare him.

          • Tim_Schieferecke

            Nice!

          • MikeO

            More ranting… sorry. I guess my point is, why is John McCain so empathetic with a guy who might have his taxes go up if he becomes insanely rich? Where is the concern for those of us who are a lot worse off than Joe the Plumber?

            If you would spend less time scheming over how you’re going to steal from people more successful than you are, and spend more time and energy on improving yourself, then maybe you wouldn’t be so much worse-off than Joe the Plumber.

            People identify with Joe the Plumber out of HOPE that their lots will CHANGE for the better. More likely than not, these same people will WORK to achieve the CHANGE.

            This is the land of opportunity. Anybody leading-off with a plea for concern or handouts is less than a man.

          • speciallist

            lol

          • gamecock

            5

          • LibRick

            all the hype. I wish everyone could look past the circus and see that a regular guy merely asked an important question and the sharks try to kill the messenger.

            Instead of a discussion about the merits of Obama’s answer to the question which I believe is the media’s job, Joe gets smeared.

            In the future, how many other regular “Joes” will think twice about speaking up and posing a good question whether in a town hall meeting or campaign event.

  • Vuk

    If Obama wins, we’ll have 4 years of character assassination everytime ANYONE disagrees with the Messiah’s utterings.

    I hate every bit of the politics of personal destruction, but we’ve seen an administration out a CIA agent because her husband wrote a dissenting op-ed column. Fortunately, it only cost her job.

    After the earlier “plumbers” broke into Daniel Ellsburg’s psychiatrist’s office, I didn’t think I’d ever have to apologize for my own party’s leaders’ attacks on a private citizen again in my life. I was wrong.

    Any campaign (or blogger) who feels that the appropriate way to support his/her candidate is to mess up a private citizen’s life is behaving in a way that’s counter to what we’d like to believe about ourselves as Americans.

    • Reede_Chesterton

      A plumber’s “license” is a simple business license, like that of a grocer or a street vendor. In general, the owner of the DBA holds the license and the plumbers under him need not be licensed. It would just be an unnecessary and time consuming expense.

      The “not licensed” smear only served to confirm for experienced tradesmen what they already knew… Joe was being slimed.

      I’m going to have to think long and hard how I’m going to prepare my young son for such a world when I have been raising him in the basic truth that “There is no such thing as a bad question.”

      • Reede_Chesterton

        The hourly union rate for a journeyman plumber in the Philly metro area is $40+… that’s $83,000 as a starting salary. Ironically, virtually all of those budding six figure earners will be voting democrat according to their union bosses. Non-union plumbers for thriving business don’t fare quite as well, but they typically do better than $40K/yr. ($20/hr) even if it means they work their own side jobs, which virtually all healthy tradesmen will do, especially ones with families.

        It’s perfectly within the realm of reality that the owner of a thriving plumbing business would gross triple the annual income of one of his employees. It’s also perfectly withing the realm of reality that there’s a direct positive correlation between the number of employees hired and the income of the small business owner. Mess with that correlation for any reason and the result is as predictable as the sunset.

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