Everyone should have a proper ID.  

Certainly not. Sales taxes, sin taxes, excise taxes are all regressive, meaning they're a higher tax rate % the lower your income. Of course the sin tax can be avoided altogether by simply not smoking or drinking and in this respect it's identical to a lottery. Would you want important gov't programs paid for via a lottery?

Oh, and the increase in taxes on cigarettes applied evenly to anyone who smokes, regardless of race, creed, color, age, sexual orientation, financial circumstances, or political leanings.  Maybe the most fairly applied tax in history!  Can't be helped that 99% of smokers aren't rich.

And if he compares favorably, let's not bury this on page 25 of Section E.

You are surely not arguing in favor of lower taxes and therefore availability and usage of cigarettes? I mean....they could quit smoking, live another 20 years, and vote out a couple of Democratic governors or senators or maybe even a president down the road.  Not mention all the money they'd save in not buying the cigarettes in the first place.  Sorry to preach, lifelong non-smoker here. 

Oh, and the increase in taxes on cigarettes applied evenly to anyone who smokes, regardless of race, creed, color, age, sexual orientation, financial circumstances, or political leanings.  Maybe the most fairly applied tax in history!  Can't be helped that 99% of smokers aren't rich.

On this we can agree.  Let's hope it doesn't take one day being on the other end of this to get it.  Before you buy off on all the oblique arguments about how voter ID laws are just some innocent thing and what's the big deal, ask yourself this and give your best honest answer. 

Why now?  Why by GOP controlled state governments backed by the GOP House?  Why, when all evidence clearly shows this to be a non-issue - you'd sooner get hit by lightning while being eaten by a great white shark while waiting in line to vote than have someone in line with you committing voter fraud.  Look it up. Why does do the laws affect the old, the young, and minorities, and not, say, blue collar white male voters and rich people?

What I just don't understand is why we are even having this dialog in 2012.  Oh yeah, I remember now.

40. Expanded the SCHIP program to cover health care for 4 million more children

63. Ordered a review of hurricane and natural disaster preparedness

Those things aren't rights granted to our citizens the 15th Amendment to The Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  They are not anything near equivalent.  You know this, I know you can do better than that, all due respect.

And you can certainly get a job and buy booze & cigarettes without ID.  You used to be able to board a plane before 9/11.

These laws are at issue because the GOP has a stated agenda of getting Obama out of office however they can, including passing bullshit laws that are clearly aimed at suppressing the vote of the old, young, and minorities. It couldn't be more blatant and I can't pretend otherwise.

The Republican-controlled state governments that have been busily passing new and totally unnecessary & bogus voter suppression ID laws just in time for the election.

Perhaps, but who is using then now?

And that cartoon, especially the deficit reference, seems as relevant as ever...

 

Hard to believe that two years have gone by so fast...  time flies when we're having fun, eh?

 

This could get really long.

First let me say that I do generally consider myself to be fairly conservative fiscally, so I have no representation in the .gov on that front.  Socially I'm really liberal, so I think the dems have a few decent ideas, but no stomach for what really should be said and no sense at all when it comes to paying for social programs (I support quite a few of those, from public education to public health care). Frankly I think the dems main failing is a failure to really embrace the progressive side of their party.  No we can't have welfare for all and unlimited arts and social programs. But we can have single payer health care, we can have gay marriage, we can have a solid public commons that supports and grows the underprivileged in our society, and keeps all but the absolute laziest from living under the bridges (and my conservative side could fix that problem too).

The dems haven't done enough on entitlement programs. They haven't done enough on taxation. They haven't made their case that they have a good set of ideas, and been willing to stand behind them even if it means not being re-elected.  This is good for me, because I doubt I would like a lot of the social stuff they would put forward. 

So to that point - the fact that re-election numbers are so high is our fault. We keep electing these bozos and then complaining about them for then next cycle. But then we re-elect them. What a bunch of dolts we are. Sure, money, gerrymandering, misleading ads.... whatever, we punch the ballot, it's our fault. As an electorate we are failing. We can't even mobilize half of us to show up. Bad on us.

I'm all out of order here, but I'm not going to fix it.  Vicitmhood. Yes, that's you. Go back and look at your previous post. It's all wah, wah, wah, Democrats, wah, wah, wah, won't let us play, wah, wah, wah, not our fault...... Sheesh. Put your fucking pants on, wipe off the tears, take credit and blame where appropriate, and get back in there with me and let's try to get 79% of the people to vote so we can toss out some of these idiots.  Sorry if that was a bit harsh, but that post was a whiny, bitchy tirade.

Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio need to all get their shit together. The right needs to stop being so vindictive and the left needs to stop being so entitled. They need to sit down and work out a compromise. This means that neither side gets what they want, but they figure out a way to make it work. The electorate of all three deserve what they get if the officials can't get their crap together soon. Lather, rinse, repeat for the entire nation if we have a .gov shutdown in March.   

That's enough for now. I'm happy that you are active and in the debate. I'm glad you support the tea party. I want your participation even where we don't agree. I think there is enough good that we can compromise and be stronger/better together than we would be apart. If not we'll have to divide up the kids and the furniture and sell the house. And no one wins in that situation. Just don't tell me it's all my fault, and that you had nothing to do with it. This breakdown has been a long time coming. All sides are culpable and responsible and need to take part in the fix. 

Walker's Has Created The Problem!

There is a kernel of truth in Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's claim of a "budget shortfall" of $137 million. But Walker, a Republican, failed to tell the state that less than two weeks into his term as governor, he, with his swollen Republican majorities in the Wisconsin legislature, pushed through $117 million in tax breaks for business allies of the GOP. There is your crisis.

The state Legislature's Legislative Fiscal Bureau — Wisconsin's equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office and a refuge for professional expertise and nonpartisanship — warned Walker and the legislature that the measure would create a budget gap. There is your shortfall — and not one resulting from established public employee benefits. Before the tax giveaways, the fiscal agency predicted a surplus for the state. Read More Here

Elected D's are abadoning their posts like rats bailing from a sinking ship.

First they have left Wisconsin and now they have left Indiana.  WTF ?

I hear they will be bailing from Ohio next.

The whole place is upside down.  Now Democrats don't want to vote ?

This is really the best exhibition of sore loosers ever witnessed in American politics.

And they will probably want to get paid while partying hiding in other states rather than showing up and doing their elected job.

The Teachers on strike in Wisconsin have even gotten sympathetic doctors to write them phony excuses to say they were sick while protesting.

And Obama has given his blessings to this behaviuor.

This is freaking insane.  And these are adults ?

I can't wait to see what your courts look like. Just kidding.

There's lots of reasons people won't work. It's not always laziness. Nature had a perfect filtering mechanism installed, but people have subverted it. It was called the "natural process," or "survival of the fittest" for you lay folks. See, if people would have just let Nature do her business you wouldn't be having this conversation.

It's a really confusing mess of a world. I don't know what to do. Maybe we should just turn it all over to a shaman somewhere. Not JadeWahoo... it would cost us a fortune!

Read carefully. I didn't say anything of the sort. I said that under my plan there would be provisions for people in those situations. If you're down and out, we will have a program to help. If you're crazy, we'll have an institution. If you're simply to lazy to participate in our society, then I would make it so that you could not access any of the benefits of our society and make it difficult for you to stay here. It makes me sad that we have let things go so far that people are living under bridges. I'll help the down on their luck and the downtrodden, I won't help those who won't help themselves, and I will resent their presence in our great societal experiment.

If you think it's easy to live under a bridge then you've never done it. Some people simply aren't wired for this world they're in.