Clipmarks | Rustee's Comments

A pit bull with lipstick is a good thing?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:42:18 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Why would anyone want to refer to themselves as a pit bull with lipstick? Is that some kind of endearing quality? Is that some kind of characteristic we want in our leadership? I just don't get it. Pit bulls are notorious for attacking innocent bystanders (often children) with fierce vengeance - that's certainly their stigma at least. So why in the world is it something that a potential President of the United States would be proud of comparing herself to? Personally, i find it very scary that she would say that and i honestly find it scary that a room full of people would stand up and cheer the idea.

Clip Source: www.slate.com

A Pit Bull With Lipstick

Tags: palin, pit bull, vice president, politics

Why Everyone Should Be in Favor of Reducing Taxes on the Rich

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:04:41 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: mises.org

Are the American people being primed to elect a home-grown version of Hugo Chavez, in the person of Barack Obama? This is a question one can come away with after reading "Obamanomics," the featured article in this last Sunday's (August 24, 2008) New York Times Magazine. Written by Times' columnist David Leonhardt, the article provides insight into Obama's thinking on economics and the economic policies he would be likely to pursue if he were elected President.

Obama's agenda, we are told in more detail, includes "a $500 cut in the payroll tax for most workers" and major middle- and lower-income tax credits, to the point of simply handing out government money to those for whom the tax credits more than eliminate the taxes they would otherwise have to pay. "These tax cuts," Leonhardt writes, "are really the essence of his market-oriented redistributionist philosophy (though he made it clear that he doesn't like the word 'redistributionist').

Warm Fuzzy Leftists

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:22:21 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: "The 'Welcoming Committee' is a criminal enterprise made up of 35 anarchists who are intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention,"

The statement said the items found in the searches included:
# materials to creating "sleeping dragons" (PVC pipe, chicken wire, duct tape), which is when protesters lock themselves together
# large amounts of urine, including three to five gallon buckets of urine
# wrist rockets
# a machete, hatchet and several throwing knives
# a gas mask and filter
# empty glass bottles
# rags
# flammable liquids
# homemade caltrops (devises used to disable buses in roads)
# metal pipes
# axes
# bolt cutters
# sledge hammers
# repelling equipment
# Kryptonite locks
# empty plastic buckets cut and made into shields
# material for protective padding
# an Army helmet.

Clip Source: www.twincities.com

Weapons and devices to disable buses - among other items - were found in searches in the Twin Cities last night and today by Ramsey County sheriff's deputies.

Authorities said the items came from "key members of the RNC Welcoming Committee," a self-described anarchist group.

Five people have been arrested and four properties have been searched, according to the sheriff's office.

At 8 a.m. today, the sheriff's office executed search warrants at three Minneapolis homes - 2301 23rd Ave. S., 3500 Harriet Ave. and 3240 17th Ave. S. They were assisted by the FBI, Minneapolis police and the Hennepin County sheriff's office.

Shaking things up on Clipmarks.com

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:55:57 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Please read the entire post by clicking the source link before reacting.

Clip Source: clipmarks.wordpress.com

Unfortunately, we have recently become increasingly concerned that the site has become overly antagonistic and inappropriately controlled by a disproportionately loud group of users. In all honesty, we no longer feel that the processes of our site are producing a unique, high quality blend of content. Instead, the magical blending of diverse topics on the Clipmarks home page has seemed to dissolve into a battleground for extremely hostile politically oriented users who are overwhelming the rest of the site. Because of this we are working on making some fundamental changes to the way the Clipmarks site works. We will do our best to make changes that improve the site and will continue to iterate until we are comfortable that it is just right.

Tags: clipmarks

Time for Cat Laughs

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:59:54 GMT

clipped by: kkcapricorn
clipper's remarks: we all need something to smile about

Clip Source: icanhascheezburger.com

Tags: cats, cheezburger, humor

The Ron Paul counter-convention

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:23:28 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Media pitched "fracture" that never materialized during the DNC; Now there's a counter - rally of 10,000 people led by a Republican candidate, featuring Republican big names, in the same city as the RNC, and it doesn't make the news!

Clip Source: www.crooksandliars.com

Fractured Party? Ron Paul Holds His Own Convention

During the Democratic National Convention, there was not a day of coverage that did not include breathless speculation on how fractured the Democratic Party and how at any time either Hillary Clinton or both of the Clintons would institute some sort of coup de grace and undermine Barack Obama

But not one mention that there is a whole other Republican rally going on right now

Why, media, why? The portion I watched on Tuesday had such names as Tucker Carlson, Bruce Fein and Grover Norquist speaking

Almost 9,800 tickets had been sold for the Rally for the Republic, being held in Minneapolis

Paul

considers the rally a celebration of traditional Republican values

But Paul has no speaking role at the GOP convention. He said his staff made overtures to the party, but nothing came of its efforts.

Tags: ron paul, rnc

Steep Stairs

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:39:08 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: slashninja.com

Why Everyone Should Be in Favor of Reducing Taxes on the Rich

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:04:41 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: mises.org

From the Mouth of a Conservative: The Palin Pick

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:58:26 GMT

clipped by: DanaGarrett
clipper's remarks: "To the extent the experience, qualifications, and national-security arguments are taken off the table, Obama wins."

No kidding. That's why the Palin pick appears superficial, a desperate grab to pick up disaffected Hillary voters, and to help us forget that John McCain has been in Washington DC a long time.

And while the pick temporarily distracts the US from one of the greatest speeches delivered in history of the US (Obama's last night), within 2 weeks Palin will be seen as a liability, another deer caught in the headlights like Dan Quayle.

The allegation that she had a trooper fired for divorcing her sister won't help, especially since the firer said he was pressured from her to fire the trooper. That no doubt credentials her with Rove and his Rovian minions within the GOP.

Clip Source: corner.nationalreview.com

Inexperience. Palin has been governor for about two minutes. Thanks to McCain’s decision, Palin could be commander-in-chief next year. That may strike people as a reckless choice; it strikes me that way. And McCain's age raised the stakes on this issue.

As a political matter, it undercuts the case against Obama. Conservatives are pointing out that it is tricky for the Obama campaign to raise the issue of her inexperience given his own, and note that the presidency matters more than the vice-presidency. But that gets things backward. To the extent the experience, qualifications, and national-security arguments are taken off the table, Obama wins.

And it’s not just foreign policy. Palin has no experience dealing with national domestic issues, either.

Debates. Maybe, as Jonah said the other day, Biden will look like a bully going up against her—and maybe she’ll shine. But I can think of a lot of other picks who would have been lower-risk.

Obama's Fair Tax

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:34:57 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

Mr. Warren, a man of the cloth, has done us a great service by asking the candidates to answer a pretty secular question: What kind of income makes an American "rich"? Maybe in the more secular setting of an upcoming debate, one of our nonpastor moderators could ask the candidates the moral question: What specific rate of individual taxation would it take for the rich to be paying their fair share?

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

He talks about it as a general theme: "It is time for folks like me who make more than $250,000 to pay our fair share."

He invokes it as a solution for Social Security: "[W]e will save Social Security for future generations by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share."

He points to how it guides his energy policy: "The first part of my plan is to tax the windfall profits of oil companies and use some of that money to help you pay the rising price of gas."

And he stuck to it on capital gains, even after ABC's Charlie Gibson noted that the record shows increased taxes on capital gains -- which would affect 100 million Americans -- would likely lead to a decrease in government revenues: "Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness."

It's not about robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Robbing from the rich will do, especially if it's done in the name of fairness.

Tags: taxes, election

Olbermann dislikes freedom of speech and of the press

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:49:18 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: www.editorandpublisher.com

In an unusually heated attack on a veteran political reporter by a cable news host, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann laced into the Associated Press's Charles Babington an hour after Barack Obama had concluded his speech in Denver on Thursday night.

Olbermann was outraged that the AP's Babington had written, in his analysis of the speech, just off the wire, that Obama had tried nothing new and that his speech was lacking in specifics.

It is analysis that strikes me as having borne no resemblance to the speech you and I just watched. None whatsoever. And for it to be distributed by the lone national news organization in terms of wire copy to newspapers around the country and web sites is a remarkable failure of that news organization.

Obama backers have criticized the coverage of their candidate by the AP

AP had transmitted a Babington preview of the Republican convention earlier in the day in which he declared "Republicans appear to have lost their identity

Tags: olbermann, ap, msnbc, liberal, bias, obama, politics

Climate Change Is Already Affecting the West's Water

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:15:38 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Unless it slaps them in the face, the typical American can't be bothered by an abstract threat. If there's a global warming event -- a mammoth hurricane, tornado, or forest fire -- in our neighborhood, then we get concerned. From this perspective, the loss of a few thousand acres of ice in a remote corner of Montana hardly seems significant. Most of us don't see it as a danger sign.

But it is. Disappearing glaciers is a harbinger of huge problems. In the West, the most obvious is drought.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

By 2020 Glacier National Park will be "Puddles National Park" and the rest of the west won't be much better off. So where's the concern?

It's said our primeval ancestors had a simple arithmetic system: "One, two, three, many." That describes the focus of many 2008 voters, whose concerns are the economy, energy prices, Iraq, and "those other problems." As we get closer to the presidential election, most Americans aren't worried about global warming. Maybe they will be when they turn the tap and no water comes out.

In early August we toured Glacier National Park with the Sierra Club, catching a glimpse of several of the humongous ice fields. In 1910 there were 150 glaciers in the park; now there are 25, which are losing 9 percent of their mass per year. Sometime between 2015 and 2020 they'll disappear. Locals joke the 1.4 million acres will be renamed "Puddles National Park."

Why isn't global climate change seen as a more important issue?

Not the Obama we know

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:31:35 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

If all you knew of Obama was what he presented to you in his speech, you would think of him as a typical Democratic politician improved by the addition of a bit more thoughtfulness and idealism than the average representative of the class. You would be amazed to learn of his extremely close relationship to a radical anti-American preacher; or that he has followed a no-enemies-to-the-left approach to politics that put him in the company of an unrepentant terrorist. You would not suspect that he favors taxpayer-funded abortion or drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants. You would not realize that he has crossed party lines far less often than McCain. You would not imagine that he had ever voted against funding for troops in war zones. It would not cross your mind that this denouncer of hardball, self-interested politics might be having his campaign intimidate reporters out of looking into his record.

Why Everyone Should Be in Favor of Reducing Taxes on the Rich

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:04:41 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: mises.org

CEO's And Their Paychecks

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:26:04 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: Disproportionate, outrageous, rip-off, shear greed, socking it to the people, billions lost to the "fair tax system" and Biden, Obama, McCain and the rest have no real answer, or do they? What a scam. When will people get really ticked off? What does it take?

Clip Source: www.csmonitor.com

How long will politicians look the other way on CEO pay?

Inequity between top executives and average workers remains at jaw-dropping levels.

Some 77 percent of Americans polled last year felt that corporate executives "earn too much." Most corporate boards apparently disagree. Last year, although the nation's economy was already in trouble, they gave the chief executive officers of the Standard & Poor's 500 largest companies on average a 2.6 percent pay hike to $10,544,470.

that sum is still 344 times the pay of typical American workers

Politicians are "looking out" to protect the campaign contributions they receive from corporate executives, says Ms. Anderson. And it's an election year.

In effect, ordinary US taxpayers are subsidizing the earnings of executives by at least $20 billion.

"Outrageous … it's a real cost to society," says Anderson. That's a big enough amount to subsidize 130,000 affordable housing units, she figures.

offshore deferred compensation,

unlimited tax deductibility