Jackson Jambalaya

Was going with Romney. The choice is too right wing.
Im now undecided.

Gordon Soli

You're a dumb shit then Gordon.

Great thought process Gordon. Doesn't take much to sway you back toward the Obama fold, does it? If the selection of Ryan caused you to jump aboard the socialism-train, you were a liberal to begin with.

if you say the ticket is to RIGHT WING your a Fem-O-Crat...go put your lipstick and skirt on and vote for Obama AGAIN...your not fooling anyone with your politics or your gender confusion, or maybe you are one of the sissy boys that pulls his pants down to show his butt to all the other sissy boys, Gordinia!

You beat a liberal with a right winger not a liberal lite

Ryan's message is fiscal sanity. He talks about dollar and sense fundamentals. It really isn't too different than what Kingfish warns us all against here on a local level.

I don't get "too right wing", unless you prefer the fiscal insanity of our current Spender-in-Chief. Trillion dollar a year deficits appeal to anyone?

Math is too right wing for some people.

I don't know Gordon but I expect calling him names will not persuade him to reconsider.

Insulting Independents won't help win the election.

I like that Ryan has actually made proposals rather than just recited Norquist mantra. I'm a little concerned that he's been described as a Rand devotee and hope to hear that he, like Greenspan, actually understands the one obvious flaw in her theories...that self-regulation will overcome human greed.

It should be rather obvious that a failure to oversee banking and Wall Street is what got us into this economic mess as zero vetoes and no checks on lobbying. Bush did not begin with a deficit. I don't want an instant replay.

I want to read more about his proposals. I am tired of choosing between reckless social spending and foolish lack of oversight.

I realize some of you have decided our current President is the devil incarnate, but frankly, while he hasn't been a very effective President, he has hardly been as bad as some of you predicted. His strategy to go after terrorists, going into Pakistan with drones and to get bin Laden without cowtowing to Pakistan is something I applaud. I like much of the health care bill, just not mandates and a couple of sections.
Something had to be done about the insurance industry screwing policy holders and the inability to shop insurance between states.

If it's true that Ryan believes that it should be " every man for himself" and an economic " survival of the fittest" with no role for government in the economy, then I'll be disappointed as there are zero sucessful historic models for that philosophy. Successful economies need a strong middle class and without some government protections, the middle class doesn't thrive. Wealth gets concentrated in the hands of a few and with wealth comes power monopolies, lowering wages and " too big to fail" enterprises which do fail.

I'm a Christian, but am not fundamentalist, evangelical or Catholic and definitely, not Mormon so I want to know if I'm going to have the freedom of MY religious beliefs or if social policy will be a tyranny of the majority. The nonsense on birth control and the homophobia of the extreme right is particularly obnoxious to me.

I also believe this Nation's principles and basic structure are strong enough to survive any bad executive administration for 8 years. I don't have much respect for those who don't appreciate that our system does have working controls and who engage in Chicken Little predictions.

And, I'm still waiting for House Republicans to close the big insider trading loophole they gave themselves. Exempting wives and children from the Stock Act is telling. What politicians DO is more important than what they SAY.

I write this expecting insults. Insults will be a waste of energy as I'm sure they are with Gordon, but would be open to anyone cool headed enough to address concerns both Gordon and I might have as Independents...you know, those people who think for themselves rather than follow a party mantra that the parties need to win national elections.

Odd how many conclusions and concerns you've reached on behalf of Gordon based only on his 13 words.

The elocutionist at 9:43 could have stopped at "I realize he hasn't been a very effective president". The rest of the commentary is, well, what an elocutionist does best.

I'll just point out our freedom of religion is, as of August of this year alredy under attack from the Department of Health and Human Services. Oh, and don't you love the DOJ who won't prosecute anything that could embarrass their boss?

"Something had to be done about the insurance industry screwing policy holders and the inability to shop insurance between states."

where exactly did Obama open up insurance to interstate competition? where can you buy, in Mississippi, an individual policy from another state?

Burns Strider from Grenada who runs this very left christian coailition for Pelosi, says Ryna is not Christian enough!

You can look at the link below. It gives a comparison of Ryan and Obama's budget. Both are on a path of distruction.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/04/interactive-map-paul-ryan-vs-obama.html

After all this time you still don't know how to hotlink.

The Silver Spoon Mormon who's never worked a day in his life vs. the Nigerian Socialist who's never worked a day in his life.

Bain Capital vs. Harvard Law School

The Republican Party which has sold out to the Corporations and Fundamentalist Religious Nuts vs. the Democrat Party which has sold out to the Looney Left and Gun-Grabbing Fools.

Two equally distasteful candidates and neither had the common decency to pick a hot chick as his running mate.

Oh well, I will just await Wayne LaPierre's email and vote for whomever he says. Otherwise, Yawn.

in re: August 12, 2012 9:43 AM

Are you just coming to this conclusion THIS time around?

In re: Crowley
Yep.

Curt...wait...I thought he was Kenyan?

1:09 pm , you can't as yet. The bill implements in stages.But, actually, my policy is with a state with better coverage because I work for a corporation based in a state that had a consumer oriented Insurance Commissioner. I pay less than you and get more coverage.

Yes, Ironhost, every woman who wants to have control over her own body and make her own medical decisions knows that her freedom of religion is under attack.

As a woman, I like what Ryan has to say so far on fiscal issues. I'm waiting to see if he's a religious zealot that will make my daughters and granddaughters live in the last century when it comes to their health. They don't know what the 40s and 50s were like for women, but I remember. Including that there were few women in the Olympics. Thank you Title 9 for our outstanding women medalists.

My favorite Ryan factoid thus far:

Ryan’s budget would almost zero our Mitt Romney’s tax liability. “Don’t believe it? Romney himself said so, just a few months ago. The Ryan plan..’promotes saving by eliminating taxes on interest, capital gains, and dividends; also eliminates the death tax.’ Mitt Romney’s income — more than $20 million each of the past two years — comes almost entirely from capital gains on his investments, or from ‘carried interest…if the capital gains was eliminated altogether? Well, let’s let Romney explain the result in his own words, as he did at an NBC primary debate in January…’Under that plan, I’d have paid no taxes in the last two years,’ Romney said, alluding to the fact that all his income is from investments.” Alec MacGillis in The New Republic.

If that's what y'all support, then come right out and say so.

Anderson, I'm not sure I can support no taxes at all on interest, dividends or capital gains, but I think a dramatic reduction in all three will stimulate savings and investment, thereby creating new jobs. I wholeheartedly support the repeal of the death tax. Remember, rich people are greedy, right? That's what liberals always say. That means they're taking their money and trying to turn it into more money through investing in new businesses and expanding their own, not buying more yachts and private jets. That creates jobs, which creates more people paying taxes, which creates tax revenue to replace the revenue lost from the reduced taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains. Yes, some of the expansion will occur overseas because of the way unions and minimum wage laws have put the US labor market at such a disadvantage, but I think enough will happen here to see a net growth in tax revenue.

Some of the discussion is funny to me. Here it is in a nutshell. Vote for BHO or against BHO.

B.H.O.
Got To Go!

Bill, I don't know what the evidence is supposed to be for your stimulus argument. What's the long-term capital gains rate capped at now - 15%? Versus 35%?

Sitting on my butt collecting investment income vs. working for a living sounds like a pretty huge incentive to me. But even if *some* discounting is valid for your stimulus, I'm not convinced the difference needs to be 15% vs. 35%. I'm even less convinced the difference needs to be 0% vs. 35%.

Oh, that must have felt good. Anderson did you sit back and have a satisfying smoke after hitting publish? You might want to consider a protective plastic cover for your keyboard.

I don't have any ready evidence, especially in the face of declining manufacturing in the US, but my argument at least has a little logic on its side. Sitting on your butt and making mailbox money is intended to be its own incentive. You can't do that unless you earned the principal, right? We need more people with mailbox money as their goal, and reducing the tax on it will help do that. Further, I believe that continuing to raise taxes on the people who are paying them without doing something to bring the non-payers into paying status will not last very long. We have to stimulate the economy to provide more paychecks, not assistance checks.

"my policy is with a state with better coverage because I work for a corporation based in a state that had a consumer oriented Insurance Commissioner. I pay less than you and get more coverage."

Reading comprehension not your strong suit? I specifically used the phrase "individual policy". Eberyone knows if you work for a national corporation the company has one policy, issued in the state of the national HQ, that is effective in every state (cf: BC/BS of MS, AL, TN, DE, PA, etc).

You can't buy an individual policy from another state. For example, why should someone be forced to pay extra for very expensive, comprehensive coverage for in vitro fertilization if you don't want it? Someone was buying votes with that legislative decision, and sticking ratepayers with the bill.

The lady from 7:42 and 9:43 yesterday makes a number of good points. All are interesting and fun to discuss, but we still are restricted to the same candidates. There are two clear choices, and I submit that everyone reading this has already decided how they're going to vote in November. If not, what are you waiting for?

Oh, that must have felt good. Anderson did you sit back and have a satisfying smoke after hitting publish? You might want to consider a protective plastic cover for your keyboard.

Other than sheer hatred, what is supposed to be the point of that comment, exactly?

Could it be mentioned here that this president is an abject failure, with record high numbers of Americans in poverty & dependent on government; the longest ever stretch of 8% + unemployment; gas prices double what they were when he took office; and pathetic economic growth?

The only way he's not a failure is if his goal is to drive us into European style socialism.

The Detroit News

The Treasury Department says in a new report the government expects to lose more than $25 billion on the $85 billion auto bailout. That's 15 percent higher than its previous forecast.

In a monthly report sent to Congress on Friday, the Obama administration boosted its forecast of expected losses by more than $3.3 billion to almost $25.1 billion, up from $21.7 billion in the last quarterly update.

The report may still underestimate the losses.

Ryan's against abortion in the case of rape or incest.

That's a deal breaker for me.

Then you'll deserve all the damage and destruction coming to your personal finances from another 4 years inside the Obamadome.

Hurry along now and sign up for your food stamps.

The Ryan budget would have been balanced in a few decades. He isn't some extremist, a conservative, or even a moderate. I see nothing moderate about accepting a few more decades of defecit.spending.

The RSC budget was the conservative one.

6:21, if abortion is your deal breaker then you'd better hope for Romney to win. Otherwise you may be looking at President Obama being able to appoint sufficient liberal justices to insure that Roe will be upheld for the rest of our lives. This contest isn't about whether Romney and Ryan are perfect - it's about getting Obama out of the White House. Are you saying that you agree with Obama's position on abortion? Staying at home in protest or voting a third party because of Ryan's stance on abortion will help Obama win.

Bill, I think you might enjoy reading about Colbert, Louis XIV's advisor and about Italy in the 1300s. The economic parallels are striking.

" New" economic theories aren't terribly original. And, the nouns we give those who exercise power are derived from how they acquire authority, not how they use the power they've acquired. When it comes to economic systems, divine right, coup d'etat, military force, or popular support make little difference. Whether or not the society where they exercise grows and prospers as a whole, does matter.
You and I both know that individual tax increase and decrease has become a political game rather than a meaningful issue. If federal taxes decrease, for example, but that causes my state and local taxes or sales taxes to increase, I'm no better off.

Tax reform is what we need to discuss. But, that too depends on where those reforms take place. I am waiting for Ryan to be more specific.

Business needs good infrastructure to transport goods. They need consumers to buy those goods. One of the questions we aren't addressing is the consumers in our society. If our business continues to focus on new markets at the expense of our society, that won't work well for OUR country. And, if our upper level management is so arrogant as to believe they will still be necessary once our skills and knowledge are transferred, they should look at what happened to the textile industry. Teach folks to weave and pretty soon, they won't be weaving on your loom with your yarn anymore.
And, on an individual level, the wealth accumulated by some the great entrepeuneurs of the Industrial Revolution is no longer in the hands of their families. Many of those families aren't faring so well.

The first thing we should do is STOP looking at economic prosperity in quarters or even 4 years and STOP oversimplyfying.

Great points, but the oversimplifying is necessary if you want to win an election on any level. It still boils down to a choice between Obama and Romney. What percentage of the voters understand how the economy works? I read a lot and have studied stuff like that all my life and I'm not sure, so how is the average voter expected to know the difference between Hayek and Keynes, for crying out loud? Yes, we need tax reform, but that goes hand in hand with spending reduction which affects domestic programs which affects jobs which affects income which affects taxes and we're back to where we started. It's complex and intertwined and hard to understand, and the only way the voters are going to be able to make educated decisions is if we only allow educated people to vote, and I know you can't be talking about that. In a world of imperfect candidates and long term solutions we just have to choose the one who we think will do the best job.

Well,if winning an election is more important than the long term fate of our country...
Leadership is all about "educating the public". We had more than a few leaders in both parties who did that.

You and I both remember a time when neither party would have qualified some of these candidates.

You are pretending that the parties still have the control they once enjoyed. And, that policy isn't being dictated by the Norquist's and Beck's who haven't been elected to anything.

Yes, I think winning this particular election is vital to the long term fate of our country. Yes, I remember better times than these when Congressmen could yell at each other across the aisle but would work out their differences and get the bills passed. I remember when everyone who could made an effort to vote, and we kept up by reading the paper and watching the news on TV or listening to it on the radio. The car radio, not the big console thing in the parlor - I'm not that old. I participated in a Johnson/Goldwater debate when I was in the seventh grade at the only school in a rural Oklahoma town. Seventh grade! How many seventh graders today even know who's running? Now that we're in a 24 hour news cycle and have all these internet resources available to us we appear to have been dumbed down by the overload. Yes, the parties and candidates may be unduly influenced by daily polls and media hosts, but someone behind the scenes has always been there to pull the politicians' strings. I know I'm starting to sound like someone's grumpy grandpa, but no matter how much times have changed one thing has remained constant: We have always had a chance to elect new folks if we didn't like the old ones. We have the same choice to make in November. We may not be that thrilled about either candidate - we often aren't - but we need to pick the one we think will do the best job. I think that's Romney and I think he'll get us started in the right (HA!) direction. Bill Billingsley

Bill, our growing up experience was much the same even though I'm a bit younger. We had civics class as well, or at least, I did.

I didn't introduce myself to Keynes or other economists. I was required to read and understand economics in high school. It was not part of the gifted program , it was required for all students. And, while , as in all subjects, some did better than others, I find that even those who didn't excel in that class have a good general understanding. I keep in touch through Facebook and am very impressed by their comprehension as they comment on today's issues.

Civics and philosophy were required as well. They suffered " budget cuts". Another great example of knowing the cost of everything and value of nothing.

We also got to watch Buckley and his guests debate the issues of the time on Buckley's excellent program.

We got to watch " See It Now" and the other excellent news shows.

And, we were taught to respect the knowledge acquired by those who spent their lives studying a subject rather than to give credence to a glib, talking head.

I thought Dirkson, O'Neill, Nixon and Kennedy/ Buckley and Stevenson did a very good job on educating people on their party's positions and WHY they held those positions.

You didn't have Birchers on the air and in the news as serious guests on serious news programs nor did every crazy street corner preacher have a media podium.

We didn't have a podium for those engaged in revisionist history . Historians discussed history.

Now, both parties have some exceptionally uneducated people with zero knowledge in the subject matter influencing policy positions.

But, Bill, I can't share your confidence in the GOP given the current influence in the GOP by The Tea Party and Religious Right extreme elements.

I always liked Romney as he seemed a sensible, practical moderate, but he's cowtowing to the extreme base and I can't tell whether he's changed his mind as he says or has lost his mind or was always someone who'd say anything to win.

I am not a party loyalist anymore. How can I be, when I've even been " labeled" by my own former party as " a country club Republican?" . And Rush has so many derisive names to call those who would reach compromise for the good of the Nation or who are pragmatic. And, then there's Norquist, the unofficial, self-appointed dictator of the GOP that couldn't have gotten elected dog catcher in his hometown.

Those I respected though , at times, disagreed with, in both parties have been nearly silenced by those I frankly regard as ignorant , at best, and clinically mentally ill, at worst. I can't be loyal to a party controlled by those I don't respect.

But, most important to me, it's the JOB of elected officials and party leaders to be well informed on issues and that is even more crucial when the public is not.

I have an active life and I did NOT need to spend more that 20 min. a day reading the health care bill to get it read. It was obvious to me that those voting for and against it as well as those being paid to comment on it hadn't read it AT ALL and it's their JOB...not MINE...not the public's...THEIRS. To me , at minimum they should be FIRED.

And, frankly, I think it borders on treason to attempt to direct the future of our Nation without knowing what the hell you are talking about. One should shut up and listen to those who are informed or become informed before defending a position about which one knows jack.

I assure you, I hope your faith in justified.

Why don't you and Bill get a room.

Can we? LOL

Whaddya say Bill?

Can we have dinner first? ROFL