Are you actually insulted that I didn’t capitalize American?

Seems like a pretty weak straw man to me.

My point is that self identified republicans now make up less than 33% of the American population while democrats make up 42% (Source) We need independents to win. Language like this is incredibly insulting to people who don’t already self identify as republicans.

In effect you are telling more than 67% of the country that they aren’t actually Americans. Right below the comment box it says “Be respectful.” Granted the comment is aimed at getting people to play nice on the site, but it’s not just a policy for getting along on the internet. It is a solid way to live your life and show real maturity.

I can certainly understand your feelings. I just want to win elections and I think part of that is going to be reigning in some of the ways we talk about other people.

People aren’t likely to listen to you when you start by discrediting them, or as the adage goes “You catch more flies with honey.” I think we can still be passionate about our issues without appearing churlish to outsiders who are less aware of what’s really going on.

The proposed American service corps in particular gives me the creeps. What exactly are they servicing and why are we creating institutions that serve to spend money rather than fostering environments that solve problems while providing an economic incentive.

The reality of the market is that social change and economic stimulus is most easily adopted when there are monetary incentives in place. Just throwing government cash at a nebulous problem is not going to do anything other than cost the government money.

No amount of government spending will solve anything.
I was not for any bail-outs. Bush plowed the field for Obama to sow the seeds of socialism. In a few years we will taste the bitter fruit.

Voting against something on the floor, even in committee, isn’t “obstruction” as I would define it, so long as that vote has zero chance of holding anything up. A hold or a filibuster would count, sure.

For the record, I do not consider what the House Republicans did today to be “obstruction.” It wasn’t. It had zero chance of stopping anything. That was constructive disagreement, which is what I would have hoped to see. They made suggestions to President Obama. He listened, he did not act on them, and the House Republicans voted against the bill.

Seems fair and reasonable to me.

bipartisan-y goodness for some things. NCLB and the Medicare Drug Plan are programs that any Democrat should and did want and approve of–most of us here didn’t, so it’s no surprise that Dems were on board for those. As to using force in Iraq, many Dems voted because of the climate at the time and were fearful that not voting “Yes” would come back to bite them in 2004. And the reason for that fear? Because every single intelligence service in the world said that Saddam had the weapons and would use them. Once it became apparent that they would get a lot more support from the far lefties, they weaseled without a backward glance and felt no shame whatsoever.

As to obstructing, how many times did your lunkhead Majority leader, Reid, try to deny the troops the funding they needed? How many times did he publicly say that we had lost the war? How many times did your side use every single KIA soldier’s sacrifice to gloat and piss/moan about leaving Iraq?

As far as cabinet and SCOTUS appointments by President Bush, are you REALLY going to go down that road, Han? Because my memory says that your guys behaved disgracefully when it came time to confirm John Ashcroft for one, and as for Roberts and Alito, those were far from shining moments of honoring the elected president’s right to have his own picks. Remember the way Samuel Alito was treated? So shamefully that his wife had to leave in tears as her husband was accused of being a racist, if I remember correctly. You don’t call that obstruction? Point out to me anyone on our side behaving this way recently during confirmation of Obama’s less than stellar choices, including the tax cheat Tim Geithner . (Not that I’m proud that our guys voted for him, but hey, “I won.”)

So yeah, Han, close enough for “every step of the way”—and then some.

One of the reasons the approval rating of the Dem congress was so low was that a lot of Dems felt that the party had simply rolled over for the Bush administration on every matter of substance. They TALKED a good game, but always folded in the end. They didn’t meaningfully obstruct anything.

because I know if any Keynesian stimulus works I’m in the land of make believe. And then I’ll get on my flying carpet and go on a tour of the place. I hope to see you there, where all the liberals live, in your land of dreams.

“A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.” –Alexander Hamilton