A VC - Latest Comments in Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Junior Illuminata — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 11:07:49 -0000

11/16/2008

Reading this inverted logic nosense and see the supportive comments, I now believe in Collective Insanity which
sooner or later leads to Collective Suicide.

Remark: Hitler was for national unity; eliminate all those who do not agree with you. Then there is the inverted logic of many democrats (read socialists) that "We are more tolerant than you. If you don't believe it, we will eliminate you".
Your pal Bill Ayers in "Prarie Fire" says that there may be as many as 25 million Americans who it would be impossible to re-educate, and it would be necessary to "eliminate" them. All in the interests of "bring people together" sans doute...

To see the left embrace facism/socialism/communism with open arms is indeed remarkable. The "Dream of Socialism" doesn't die easily... The dream of suckering someone for a free lunch is quite attractive...

Junior Illuminata...

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Sethop — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:38:08 -0000

Pretty scary stuff there Mark. I'm not sure how the disqus formatting works but given the indentation I suspect you replied to me rather than him, and he won't get the email notification, if in fact he has email notifications for replies turned on. I note that he has failed to reply to any of the pointed replies I have made to his recent "verbiage" - or perhaps we should call it "garbiage".

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

markslater — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:32:02 -0000

hello out there - Mr campaigner or academic. How are your views on the economy doing now?

I'll tell you. Your boss just suspended your campaign and now has you scurrying for verbage. Yup that little can of whipped cream is now gonna get abused on that dogshit again. Let me guess - blip? GDP stable? short sellers replacing oil speculators?
i'll save you some search time and quote from some research:

Durable goods orders plummeted by 4.5% m/m in August, bringing to an abrupt end the recent run of stronger than expected data on bookings. The decline would have been an even bigger 5.0% if not for another sizeable increase in orders from the military. Transportation orders fell by 8.9%, driven by an 8.1% drop in motor vehicle orders and a 38.1% drop in commercial aircraft orders.

Excluding transport, core orders fell by 3.0%, dragged down by sizeable declines in metals and machinery. Core non-defence capital goods orders fell by 2.0%, while shipments in the same category dropped by 1.7%. These steep declines suggest that either overseas orders have fallen sharply as a result of the economics slowdowns in the UK and Europe, or domestic demand took another turn for the worse. Either way this is bad news as far as Q3 GDP is concerned.

Elsewhere, Hurricane Ike was largely responsible for the jump in initial jobless claims to 493,000 last week, from 461,000 the week before. The Labor Department estimates that as many as 50,000 of those claims were due to Ike. Nevertheless, even without those 50,000, claims are still well above the 400,000 mark, suggesting that non-farm payrolls are falling heavily again in September.

Elsewhere, US new home sales plummeted by 11.5% m/m in August to a 17-year low of 460,000, from 520,000, suggesting that the housing market is still getting weaker. Nearly all the decline occurred in the West, however, which makes us suspicious that there might be some sort of distortion at work here that could be reversed in the coming months.

The number of new homes for sale continued to decline, but not by enough to prevent the supply of unsold homes rebounding to 10.9 months, from 10.4. The median price of new homes fell by 6.5% over the past year. Overall, just when we think the housing market has lost its capacity to shock, we get a set of figures like this. At least sales can't fall below zero

If you can actually look yourself in the mirror and say more of the same, If you can actually use oil speculation as an obama distraction for your campaign. If you actually really care about this country then you will do us all a favor and think hard before you vote more of the same.

I'll be back here next week with 'more of the same' on this devastating economic decline caused in large part by a strategically flawed and failed administration.

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Sethop — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:31:50 -0000

Were you *running* for Governor? There's a difference between leading and managing. Obama has shown incredible leadership in his campaign. As Fred says, he'd make an awesome CEO as well as an awesome President.

I'm not surprised to discover that you've been (or are) a republican campaign manager, your comments on this blog certainly have the hallmarks of a professional spinmeister.

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Sethop — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:48:07 -0000

Why put quote marks around it as if he actually said that? In any case, Roosevelt was elected Governor of *New York*

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Steve — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:16:37 -0000

And I've been to Alaska several times, so you're wrong on that one too. Ketchikan , Juneau, and Anchorage

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Steve — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:17:49 -0000

Garth is right that you're refuting a point I didn't make. And Alaska isn't flyover country. But Illinois is, so stop buying in so easily to all the cliches.

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

ben — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:47:13 -0000

Quick point on the Swift Boat prize: a group HAS come forward with what seems like very definitive evidence, but Pickens has refused to accept their submission. Remember, he's both accuser and judge of the contest... so you can't really expect him to be on the level.

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Sethop — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:43:59 -0000

Halarious! And I note that he hasn't replied, can't think why.... I read in another of his comments that he's got plenty of experience running campaigns, so a repug operative, probably not good enough to be on the McCain payroll or he wouldn't be wasting his time commenting on this blog. When he saw your resume he must have shat his pants.

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Sethop — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:15:47 -0000

I always thought that Senators don't get elected because they tend to have a voting record that can be used against them, and governors tend to bring a stronger political machine with them. I'd never heard the words "lack of *executive* experience" used until the McBush lobbying team decided they needed some way to justify McCain picking a Neophyte - despite all his crowing about Obama's supposed lack of experience - because she looks good on TV and will give the preachers better talking points to bring their flocks out en-masse than McCain ever would have. done. Picking her for VP really must have hurt McCain, he wanted Lieberman apparently, probably fought the decision tooth and nail, but in the end the lobbyists talked him into it. There's a lesson there, methinks...

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Evan Schreiber — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:59:02 -0000

eeehhhh.....

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Keenan — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:16:46 -0000

Reality Check, check your reality. The majority of *real* Americans don't vote period. The young 18 to 24, those making less than 50k a year, blacks, and Hispanics have the lowest voting rates per group.

These groups are not embraced by Republicans or Republican policy. If the majority of *real* Americans, actually voted, Republicans wouldn't have a chance.

I am over this *real* American bullshit conservatives, Republicans and the religious right spits out of it's fucking mouth. Real Americans are everyone that has chosen to capitalize on the American dream, albeit becoming an actor (Damon), becoming a hockey mom governor (Palin), raising a family on a farm in S. Illinois or becoming a V.C., regardless of whether or not they go to church on Sunday, sit in front of the T.V. watching football, or fly their private Jet to Palms Springs. Non of these actions are the criteria for *real* Americans In case you have forgotten, America is what ever someone wants it to be. This notion that Republicans define real Americans AND patriots makes me puke.

The fact that you espouse your out of touch rhetoric actually makes you more American than the fact that you go to church and "work hard". Unfortunately, you don't see this and not only undermine your own American legitimacy but everyone elses too. Now that is sad!

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Gideon — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:45:33 -0000

Agreed...Obama vs McCain. If Palin were running for President then Palin vs Obama. To compare apples to apples, compare Palin to Biden. I do not agree with your assessment of Palin and her merits based on her looks. Let me state plain and clear that I normally vote Republican. But I am so disgusted with both sides more concerned with fighting each other than fighting for America that it is hard to listen to the debates and empty promises anymore (from both sides).

However, back to Palin, regardless of homogeneous populous or not. She is popular in her state. She took on the incumbents and big oil and won. She rose from an unassuming past to enact real change, for the better in Alaska. She has denied federal funds and sold the governor's corporate jet. She appears to be fiscally responsible. Palin has more merit than her looks and she has proved it time and time again. Just because she does not have a political pedigree does not mean that she does not have merit. I respect a woman that came from nothing and rose to the top, while beating the big boys along the way.

As for Senator Obama, regardless of where he stands on anything else, I could never, in good conscience vote for a person that supported partial birth abortions and absolutely no restrictions on abortion at all. It is sad that we have to have the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. Senator Obama voted against an Illinois version of this. For the uninitiated, this Protection Act is to protect babies that are completely separated from their mothers. Babies were born during failed abortions and then killed after they were completely free from their mothers. Regardless of your beliefs, complete separation from the mother and living on their own accord means that poor soul should have rights and at that point - It Is Murder!

Obama as a community organizer, c'mon. Obama wants to try community organization on a global front. This man has stated that he doesn't want to take sides. He is running for the supreme position of representing a side - America. How can you not take sides? Not salute your flag?

Regardless of political affiliation, Obama is just bad for America. Terrorists were advocating for his presidency. That should clue you in on something. As I stated earlier, I normally vote Republican. But I would vote for Hillary if she were running. Hell, she already ran the White House for 8 years...she can do it again.

Normally I do not go to this level on blogs like this. Blogs that are supposed to be about business, finance, technology, etc. You really should have posted this thread on a political blog. You lost cred Fred and I will no longer follow your blog.

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

garth — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:10:29 -0000

I tried to make it clear that I don't think we're seeing that effect yet. I think most people in Europe who are anti-Bush (where Bush's approval rating is undeniably lower than it is even here) believe that we'll "pull it together" and elect a president who is more "mainstream" by their standards. If we elect one or two or three more Bush presidents, they might not feel that way anymore. Only then do I think politicians might start feeling pressure to stand against us.

Also, just to note you're talking about countries that have a much wider range of serious political parties to draw candidates from so it doesn't take the same kind of majority to elect a Sarkozy or Merkel.

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Sadness — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:02:48 -0000

I agree completely. McCain wants to become president before he dies. He'll do whatever it takes. It's a lesson learned from W.

He's most definitely not "Country First"

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Sadness — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:56:00 -0000

If you were working Homeland Security at the airport on 9/11 when Mohammad Atta boarded the flight, would you have known he was an Al Qaeda terrorist? As I recall, the hijakers didn't wear Al Qaeda logo tees on 9/11.

The key is the presumption of innocence and the preservation of rights.

I'm speaking from experience on this. I'm not Arab American, but I have been detained, told that I had no rights, and presumed guilty instead of presumed innocent. It's a harrowing experience. And I will continue to fight for my rights and vote for candidates who defend/reinstate those rights, rather than allow them to be dismantled under the ridiculous assumption that someone could easily distinguish between who is an Al Qaeda terrorist and who is a (previously) patriotic American simply going about his business.

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Guy Platt — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:26:56 -0000

Why would that be a joke? Finding oneself also sounds like a great thing to explore at college (actually I think we should all spend time finding ourselves). I still am and I'm older than Obama (and I don't mean to imply that I'm doing drugs to do so).

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Mo — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:37:26 -0000

If your assertion about electing leaders who will begin to diminish our influence with them is correct, how do you explain the elections of Sarkozy, Harper and Merkel in recent years?

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Seth Lieberman — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:47:29 -0000

Have you seen John McCain get BarackRoll'd?
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Leonard Kish — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:21:02 -0000

David Brooks, The Times' Conservative Columnist, echos these same sentiments in a NYTimes OpEd today (http://www.nytimes.com/2008.... Registration Required. Well said by all. The idea of being totally independent in this day and age no longer works:

"The irony, of course, is that, in pre-Goldwater days, conservatives were incredibly sophisticated about the value of networks, institutions and invisible social bonds. You don’t have to go back to Edmund Burke and Adam Smith (though it helps) to find conservatives who understood that people are socially embedded creatures and that government has a role (though not a dominant one) in nurturing the institutions in which they are embedded."

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Edward — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 08:59:42 -0000

I don't know about you, but I see a tremendous contrast between "Al Qaeda terrorists" and "an Arab American family."

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

toddsavage — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 08:06:59 -0000

Fred, when you describe Palin and McCain attacking Obama's experience as a "community organizer", you should be fair and note that Obama's campaign originally attacked Palin for being a "small town mayor". This is politics and she was defending an attack from the Obama campaign that was trying to diminish small town mayor experience. I think we all agree that both tickets value community organizers and small town mayors and the jobs they do, it's just that this is "high season" in politics and each side is attacking the other. It's sad, because the citizens lose in the end.

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

kidmercury — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:24:47 -0000

normally i cant stand the NY times (manufacturers of some of the finest propaganda), but i couldnt stop laughing at this one

http://thecaucus.blogs.nyti...

fred, i think it's time you take back your barbie doll comment. i mean, she's clearly a GI Joe figure!!!

hahahahaha, gotta love american politics. at least until inflation and the police state affect people personally. then it won't be so funny.

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Dan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:38:02 -0000

Isn't the real issue much, much simpler? The lunatics have been running the asylum for eight years, so it's vital that people who aren't lunatics are elected this time around. Palin and McCain are lunatics and shouldn't be elected, end of story.

Now of course the crazies will get up in arms with faux moral outrage about this kind of comment, but it's simply the truth. Anyone who believes McCain / Palin will be good for America or the world is ignorant, delusional, foolish or corrupt, or some combination of these. Is Obama perfect? Not by a very long way, but virtually no democrat could possibly be worse than a half-dead Bush clone.

Why have democrats become so obsessed with expressing phony "respect" and "empathy" for the opposing arguments? It would be infinitely more appealing to the majority of US citizens if they'd rip the creationist fanatics apart instead of pulling their punches. I give Karl Rove credit for understanding that to win you don't give your enemy any credit for anything, but instead grind them mercilessly into the dirt. And you can't build consensus with fanatics.

The GOP has suckered people with a narrow world view and limited intellectual curiosity into buying into their myths about less government and more democracy, which simply mask cronyism, corruption and willful destruction. Those who buy it are the people who are one step away from believing the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it. They'd be the ones calling for Galileo to be executed and burning witches at the stake.

What Obama needs to understand is that he's LESS likely to win by pandering to uneducated fundamentalists. Now is not the time to give them a hug; it's the time to stand up and announce that their time was an ugly blip in American history that is now fading into the past.

Re: Community Organization Is A Conservative Notion

Keenan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:30:44 -0000

Is Palin "experienced" enough, is irrelevant. It is the wrong question. The question is, is Palin the most qualfied person John McCain could have picked to be V.P. The answer is clearly NO!

McCain picked the person most qualified to help win the election not the most qualified V.P. McCain once said he we was not willing to loose a war to win an election.

It appears he is willing to loose his conviction and credibility to win and election.

That speaks volumes for his judgement. Not seeing "Country First" in the Palin decision. I'm seeing "McCain First"