Just another thinly vieled attempt to keep the poor and elderly from voting.

Posted by 726
* * * *

Oh. So is requiring a photo ID also a thinly veiled attempt to keep the poor and elderly from checking out a book from the public library? Using a credit card? Cashing a check? Setting up utility service? Registering to vote? Buying a car? Setting up a bank account? Getting a mortgage? Signing a lease? Setting up an investment account? Signing up for Social Security? Getting a job?

I'm just trying to keep track of all the things these people are depriving themselves of, because they can't trouble themselves to have a photo ID made. Could it be that if you don't do any of those things, maybe you shouldn't be involved in the electoral process?

I've outsourced my end of the discussion today to Truthhurts.

A great life lived. Were there just a few more like her, the Holocaust might not have been allowed to happen at all.

RIP

This is good, actually. Tosser enjoys his life, and we enjoy ours. And ne'er the 'twain shall meet, as they say.

We should occupy ourselves with building nuclear power plants coast-to-coast, putting our national transportation system onto the electrical grid, and informing the Islamic world that beginning in say, 2015 or thereabouts, they can pound sand. God knows they've got plenty of that.

Our parent's generation paid for WWII with income taxes and didn't whine or call the president a communist....they shouldered the responsibility so that their children would not have to. All I am saying is that our generation should be willing and happy to do the exact same thing.
* * * * *

Preposterous. They had Buy Bonds drives all the time, where you were considered unpatriotic if you didn't lend the government a bigger and bigger share of your paycheck at rates that were below that of inflation. What's more, there was strict rationing on meat and sugar and butter and gasoline. The coinage wasn't even with real copper or silver.
You'll have to peddle your nonsense elsewhere, methinks.

$150,000,000 a month in US aid to Pakistan.

Need I remind you who gave him the precursor chemicals used to make the gas that he used on the Kurds?

Posted by ddenton
* * * *

Apparently I did. But at the time it was agreed that we needed to have a strong Iraq to counterbalance a resurgent Iran. "He's an SOB, but at least he's our SOB."--was the thinking.

But the reality is--he's an SOB.

Total waste of money and time. Whenever you put a dollar into an Islamist's pocket, he looks around to see what he can blow up.

Iraq was a worthy and noble effort, and a waste of time. We'll know better next time--given the choice between modernism and barbarism, they'll take door number two, every time. If you lead an Islamic horse to water, he would just put poison in to kill everyone else. It's a shame, but there ya go. And the idea that a single one of my tax dollars went to improving the life of someone like Tosser is all I need.

I see. So you think $1.5 trillion distributed "should do nicely."

Well, let's work through the math. I presume you want to tax, say, the upper one-third of American households, and distribute the money to the lowest two-thirds.

There are 300 million Americans. So if you take $1.5 trillion from the top 100 million and give it to the botton 200 million, that works out to . . . (drum roll) . . . $7,500 for each lucky winner, spread out over ten years at $750 a year.

Hope they don't spend it all in one place.

I was typing my post and didn't see T&C's, which is very good. And coincidentally similar.

Wow.

Well, you'll be surprised to hear that in the past couple of years I've come around to your point of view on a couple of things. I'm completely confident that every dollar we spend in the Middle East in hopes they will somehow magically reform themselves--as Nazi Germany and Militarist Japan did, for example--is a fool's errand. What do you do, when hundreds of millions of people prefer tribalism to a democratic republic? When hundreds of millions of people prefer to live in the ninth century, as opposed to the twenty first?

Nah. We're just throwing good money after bad. Despite trillions of dollars worth of oil revenues, I can't think of a single company in the Islamic world that makes, say, pharmaceuticals. Or chemicals. Or agricultural equipment, jet planes, automobiles, computers. Even the stuff they need to get the oil out of the ground comes from here--how hard is it to make a drill bit? That part of the world invented mathematics, accounting, and banking--yet now relies on New York, London, Singapore and Frankfurt for their capital markets.

So I hear you. What fellowship hath light, with darkness?--etc.

I'm sure there are plenty of people poorer than you, Danni. So how much should your taxes go up to redistribute your wealth to them? $500 a year? A thousand?

Oh, wait--I think I know. You think income redistribution is a good idea as long as it's someone making more than you, who will be picking up the tab?

Oh.

So the mass graves were from . . . me? I did it? How about the gassings of the Kurds? Did he invade Kuwait, or no?

But I'm the "far greater evil"? Now what . . . wait a minute . . . are you my ex-wife?

That would explain a lot, actually. Carry on.

Most of it is propaganda to make the American public feel better about what their soldiers were fooled into doing.

Never happened.

When there is one lie (WMD anyone?) it takes at least 2 dozen more lies to support it.

Posted by Tosser
* * * *

Really. So all those people in those mass graves, where did they come from?

Fair enough. You don't change, neither will I. You're blind to the evil that was Saddam, along with many of the other posters on this site. Good for you.

Tax and spend is far better than borrow and spend.
Taxing and spending is known as Keynsian Economics and it is responsible for the creation of the largest middle class in history. Another term for it is wealth redistribution which really makes rich fucks angry. Makes me laugh.

Posted by danni
* * * *

You misunderstand Keynesian economics. Keynes was all for borrowing, which explained why the Keynesians always ran deficits. So did the non-Keynesians.

If you think wealth distribution will be successful, have at it. The rich have always gotten richer, and--in America--so have the poor, just not nearly as quickly. Obama's not going to change that simply by raising some taxes. I press a button and POOF the money goes away, and will return only with preferential tax treatment.

Money and capital are like that, see. So if you plan on voting for Obama and waiting by your mailbox for the big checks, well--just don't count your chickens before they've hatched.

Umm, if the state is already broke, why is he proposing any new programs?

I think I'm seeing the real problem. They don't need more taxes, they need to quit trying to be so creative with the money they think they have.

Dennis Farina is great. Loved him in Get Shorty and Midnight Run.

Amazing how America turned Iraq... a nice easy going place which was totally secular... into what it is today.

Posted by Tosser
* * * *

Uh huh. It was nice and easy going. Kinda like Dachau was just a genteel place, until the Third Army came in and ruined everything.

I guess if you choose to ignore the rape rooms, the gassings, feeding live human beings through shredders, slaughtering entire families because of the paranoia of the moustache at the top--sure, what's not to like about Iraq?

Please don't change. I need people like you to remind me what we're up against.

The ranks of the military are filled with millions of young GOPhers fresh fum boarding school and Ivy League Universities.

The last I heard the recruiting stations had to lock the doors they were getting so many trust fund children from the hamptons and upscale burbs banging down the doors to enlist.


Posted by 726
* * * *

LOL. Sure. All those conservative Republicans who fill up Ivy League schools, and the Hamptons.

If you're first generation wealthy--that is, you earned the money yourself--there is an 85% chance you vote Republican. If you inherited the money and are living off a trust fund, the odds reverse. Which is the best argument I've ever heard for a massive death tax.

Fact is, I'm for it. America's youth are too valuable to ruin them with unearned money and liberalism. Makes them no different than a family on welfare, living off of money they didn't make themselves.

Take it all.

There are two major forces at work undermining many of these pensions, when you lift under the hood and really start looking hard at the numbers.
The first is that pensions of Northern states are in dismal shape, because of population shift and a declining tax base. And because the politicians that run those states (and others, unfortunately) don't happen to come from the private sector, they react to a declining tax base by raising taxes, which exacerbates the shift. Until and unless and the Michigans and the Illinois and the Marylands start to make their states more hospitable to new job creation and investment, it will only get worse.
But the second factor is longevity. Public pensions simply have to account for the longer life expectancy, and adjust dramatically upward the length of service required to collect pensions. Otherwise, they'll collapse. The rates of return have to be stratospheric to let tens of thousands of police and fire workers retire after only 20 years, and collect pension benefits for another 40 years. Can't work.

This is some thread. You liberals have a lot to be proud of. What a bunch of bitter, small people.

Ah well. Obama will ride to the rescue, raise taxes on the rich, give the money to you, and you'll be slightly happier.

Few Floridians were complaining about the free market when the prices were going up, up, and away.

Guess what? It works both ways. And the fact is, had the government not been so involved in pumping up housing (Community Reinvestment Act, HUD, FHM, FNM) you wouldn't have seen the bubble appear at all. Now the people who bought at the very top, or refinanced to pay off credit cards, which they promptly ran back up again--are looking for Washington to create some more mojo, to keep the wheel spinning.

And it won't work. You can't borrow your way out of debt, and housing is a lousy investment historically. And the government is made up of a bunch of morons. So you're on your own, which is exactly where you should have been in the first place.

These kinds of comments are only funny when Bush says them.

Interesting though, Geezer, how your first thoughts drifted to pedophilia. Might want to get some help.

A kid is suspended for not saying The Pledge, and the only prloblem RIR seems to have with it is that his parents have given him a cell phone. What a moron.
FYI: Many many kids are given cell phones by their parents for purposes of staying in touch at any given moment. It is a good idea. I have made a point of doing it with my kids.

Posted by moder8
* * *

You're right. I don't really give a damn about the kid, the kid's parents, or Minnesota. And if you give your kids permission to text or use the cell phone during school, then you're an idiot too.

Nope. I can't stand her, or Rush. But this is what the Dems signed up for. 2-for-1, the Senate seat in New York, the former president stomping all over the world as the most active and loquacious former president EVER, the so-called "inevitable candidacy" of a former first lady. Everything was all roses with the Clintons and the Democrats, until Obama made things more complicated for you.

Suppose it were reversed, and Hillary had a slight lead among delegates, but Obama won Florida and Michigan? And Obama were winning the big states, but not the small ones that will be going for McCain? Do you suppose, then, that there would be big party and media pressure for Obama to play nice, and bow out quietly?

Just askin'.

I do agree with the claim, as would anyone who has ever been married. But as far as the tax code is concerned, no way.

Kim Dahl asked Brandt why he has been remained seated (during the pledge) all school year, but "he didn't have an answer ... he doesn't get in trouble; he's just a normal 13-year-old."

As for today, she told Brandt to take his cell phone with him to school and text her should he run into trouble again. "I said you should probably just stand if you're not protesting something."
* * * *

I'm ambivalent about the pledge of allegiance. But when a parent gives a kid a 13-year-old kid a cell phone to use at school, there's a bigger problem than a lazy adolescent. Parents are morons too.

Suits me. Up to me, we'd get rid of the silly "married filing jointly" tax status too. Over half of Americans are unmarried, subsidizing the lifestyle choices of everyone else.

You live in a dream World: Ignorant Americans for the most part, of both parties, think matters of faith are important.
* * * *

I'll assume you won't be throwing the lever for Obama, then?

Oops.
Meant to say, the difference between Social Security taxes paid in, and Earned Income Credit payments received.

I wonder how much these assclowns have collected over the years from the taxpayers in terms of child tax credits?

Posted by nullifidian
* * * *

A lot less than you'd think. If you have 3 or more qualifying children, the additional child tax credits are capped at the difference between Social Security Which means that after 5 children, there are no more tax credits available to anybody, period. Which means that this family is no more a drain on the taxpayer than a family of 3 living on welfare.
Feel better now?

Bill Clinton promised his voters two-for-the-price-of-one. Why should Hillary back out, when millions of Americans don't want her to?

Ooh!! I'm a fascist now!!

No, I don't believe the "unconceived" deserve voting rights. Then again, I believe you should have to be a taxpayer to have suffrage. But since that would disenfranchise about 50 million Dems, I won't be holding my breath.

No Herm, I'm afraid your douchebaggery has gotten the best of you. I'm all for birth control, and believe that if you want to have children--or not--you should have the right to do so without totalitarian know-it-alls like yourself calling them crimes against humanity.

It's a crime against humanity.

Posted by herm
* * * *

Used to be that killing a lot of children was a crime against humanity. Now, it's having them.

Wow. Herm's a sicko, ain't he?

Evangelicals have been a reliable voting block for Republicans. But to a far lesser extent than, say, blacks, trial lawyers, or public union members have been for the Dems. Will there be any calls for them to "step away from politics"?

I dunno. They home-school their kids. So what's $6,000 a year times 18 kids? Seems to me the state of AR is already up $108k a year, just because they don't like public schools. Bet this family still pays plenty in property and sales taxes, though.

Just because the kids of a lot of liberals grow up to be wards of the state doesn't make it true for everyone.

He couldn't possibly be more inept at speeches than the asshole you voted for twice. Not even if he drooled.

Posted by Alexandrite
* * * *

You mean the guy who beat Al Gore and John Kerry?

Wesley Snipes would like to know, then, why the hell Al Sharpton's not in jail.

Reproductive freedom works both ways. So why are the libs so pissy today?

BFD

Couldn't agree more. End it. Ethanol too.

Okay, next dumb question. Why does the first lady of Nevada have an office and a staff?

The exit strategy is victory. If you want to accept something less, well, that's what elections are for.

What was our exit strategy in the Second World War? Or in the Civil War? When you commit troops to combat, they had better be there for a reason important enough that victory is worth achieving, and the prospect of defeat intolerable.

I have family and friends working as teachers, as soldiers, as doctors, as engineers--they all say the same thing. ALL feel political pressure because of lawsuits, of corporate or government culture, of labor rules and regulations.

If 700 of these scientists think they would be able to freely share with the media whatever they care to talk about under an Obama administration, they're having a crack dream. They work in a bureaucracy, and that's just the way things are. If they don't like it, it's a little bit better in the private sector. Of course, you don't have the same kind of job security you've got working a government job.

Actually, corporations need to have a tax cut too.

Charles Rangle has a great plan, that deserves your support, to do exactly that. The US corporate tax rate is the second highest in the world. It needs to come down.

I love RIG. It's one of my five faves. And I don't really see it falling apart even if oil comes down--though that WOULD be true of the integrateds, the alt fuels stocks. That's the logical part of me, though--if the oil complex drops $30 a barrel, the whole sector will go down in a blink. Even the SLB's and the HAL's and the RIG's. There's no real scholarship on it, but IMO about 80% of a stock's move is due to emotion, and 20% on valuation.

I'm long Transocean at just under 60, even before the Global Sante Fe deal. I'll probably take some off, just because. More downside risk here than up. Still, they reported a monster number, just this morning. You have to keep a position, though, seems to me. They've a virtual monopoly in the space.

To justify economic inequalities, a person could support the idea of meritocracy, in which people supposedly move up their economic status in society based on hard work and good performance.
* * *

Hmmm. So conservatives believe in hard work and performance, and liberals don't.

Well, that explains a lot. Have a great day!

I chose my words carefully. Glad you picked up on it, rightisright. I wonder how many of the people on the retort who claim to care about the environment even use recycled paper towels.

Posted by JOE
* * * *

I didn't even know they recycled paper towels. How do they do that, anyway?

First thing I thought was: how the hell do they have such great cell phone service in Shitcreekostan, but if I'm on secondary roads in Lousiana or Indiana, I get no coverage at all?

Good. I put in for the afternoon shift at Blockbuster.

So I guess I'll see you on Monday. Do we get paid every Friday? Or every other?

Most Americans who claim to give a shit about the environment are too lazy to change their own lifestyle and start making a difference.

Posted by JOE
* * * *

Most important word in this sentence begins with a "c", and rhymes with "lame".

The enviros in this country really don't give a damn about the environment at all. They won't turn off their air conditioner; they'll just insist that power plants be built far away from plain view, and further mar the landscape with the snarl of power lines and substations. They won't live in a more modest home; they'll just write letters bemoaning urban sprawl, and demand their legislators "do something about the damn traffic"; i.e, more roads. They won't give up their car in favor of public transportation; they'll just demand that millions of people starve in the third world so they can feel better about themselves by sending a bushel and a half of corn up their tailpipes with each fillup.

Do you know or have heard anyone that traded in their Honda for a (Ford, GM or Dodge)?

Posted by Unclesam
* * *

LOL. Never thought about it before, but no.

In related news, I've never heard of anyone divorcing a 25-year-old hottie for a 45-year-old fatty.

Florida never ceases to amaze me.

Then of course there are the rightwingretards (tm) that defend the school district blindly.

Good job.

Posted by 726
* * * *

Not me!!

He should sue them, for the right to do his magic tricks and let the kids play on the computers. "Hey look! That cool sub has our class today! Whoo woo!! I wish our teacher was sick every day"

Never know--maybe he can get some overgrown adolescents like you on the jury, and he can win a lot of money from the most Democratic-leaning gropu in the south (teachers unions) and the most overpaid government bureaucracies anywhere (school administrators). Everyone wins!!

Meanwhile, the Rich Oil Executives (who have now made more money ever in the History of making money on OIL) are laughing all the way to the bank.

But, of course, only HISTORY, will be the judge of that!

Who are we to say?

We are just the little people...

Posted by donnerboy
* * * *

I thought there were no classes. That they're just an illusion.
You've come a long way in 24 hours, DB.

A couple of months ago I thought that $150 oil was inevitable; now I'm not nearly so sure. Once the market starts to price in the inevitability of soaring prices, and the futures markets shifts to reflect it, there's usually only one direction: down.

Might be time to blow out of energy stocks. At least take a lot of profits.

Then again, I might feel differently tomorrow.

I drive a chevy pickup with 217,000 on it, gets 30 to the gallon.

When your non-american pos dies I'll still be driving my truck.

Instead of tooting your own horn, how about some real solutions? Use that brain of yours. Or maybe you just don't care about America.

Posted by Jabberwocky
* * * *

My Lexus SUV has 215k and gets 28 hwy. Wanna guess where it was built?

Talk to me about the so-called American cars when BMW and Toyota and Mercedes aren't built in the United States, and Ford and GM don't build plants in Mexico and Canada. The finest cars in the world are built right here in American plants by American workers for the American consumer. They just don't have Ford or Chevy or Dodge anywhere on the rear bumpers.

"Show of hands: how many think your taxes are too low?"

R, I'm convinced that YOURS are too low. herm

Posted by herm
* * * *

I know. But instead of waiting for the government to raise my taxes so you can get more free stuff, wouldn't it be better to get a job? You'd feel better about yourself, besides--maybe you wouldn't be so bitter about everything.

I do appreciate the history lesson, R, but we're talking about WHY he lost those states. We're talking Repub tactics, R, the ultimate in criminal ugliness. And they'll ALL be in full use this fall. herm

Posted by herm
* * * *

Uh huh. If it weren't for those evil Republicans, he might've won . . . 3 states? 4? Was it those rascally Republicans that denied McGovern even his home state? After all, they knew him best.

Brazilians and Indians, leading the way.

Just wait until they get a little more money, then we'll see. But what do you expect, when the paragon of environmental protection, a Mr. Albert Gore, zips around in private jets and lives in a 20,000 square foot mansion--PART of the time?

Donnerboy,
Are there things you did in the military that you would prefer your family not know about? Not necessarily combat stuff--just things you did? How about your friends? Any of them, say, have sex with a prostitute? Get high?

Would you tell their wives about it? How about their children? I mean, godalmighty--don't their wives deserve to know if their husband took another woman home one night?

Just wondering what truths set you free, and which truths you don't share, just because sometimes it's best not to. Pat Tillman was killed in combat operations, heroically, far behind enemy lines, protecting his buddies. Now that his parents have learned the WHOLE truth, has it really set them free? From what, exactly?

You're a chickenshit. You insinuated that I was Boyd and then ran away like a girlie boy rather than defending your assertion. Typical cowardly Republican.

Posted by nullifidian
* * *

Just what he would have said. Oh. He did.

Still boring.

Were any of these pundits some of the same ones who called Hillary the "inevitable candidate"?

If you were really a Marine, then you know that there are times the government lies about where you were, and what you were doing. You can be tired of it all you like, but a government that can't keep secret operations a secret won't be around long.

And guess what?--people die in those sometimes.

If your son is in the Marines and died in the same way in which Pat Tillman died--what details would you want to know? Would you want to know the names of the kids who shot him? Would you want to know the name of his friend who finished him off? Would you want their names published in the newspaper? What if your boy didn't die--suppose he was one of the kids who accidentally shot and killed an NFL star?--would your feelings about what should and what should not be told to the world be a little different then?

Why did the governor have to move out of the governor's mansion?

Anyway, McGovern never could recoup once the biting began.
* * *

He lost 49 states, Herm. That's the understatement of the day.

Oh, there's the gutless wonder RightisRight, who ran away yesterday when I pressed him on some of his more moronic statements.

Posted by nullifidian
* * * *

You're boring to me. And you were boring to me when you used another username. Too weird to come on here and watch you follow me around, just hoping I'll notice you. Until you have something interesting to say, troll elsewhere.

You're right, RisR! It's the privilege of us all to work for menial wages building the toys of the rich! Here I thought we should all work together to support a strong middle class. But now you have pointed out to me the error of my ways. The tax cuts the richest 1% get go to providing more low-paying construction jobs and maid, chauffeur, and laborer jobs! Why didn't I SEE this earlier?
* * * *

Interesting. Well, my point was a response to Dumpling, who complains that rich people only buy houses and cars and land--stuff that middle class people build and sell.

Government knows best, though. Easier just to have the middle and lower class work for the government, and tax the rich.

By the way, what's wrong with laborer jobs? I was one. Taught me a lot. Ah well, maybe I'll become more like you, and learn to look at those people the way you do: just too poor and sorry to make something decent of themselves, held down by the rich bastards in the top 1%.

Show of hands: how many people here think your taxes are too low?

Wait a second. I thought the rich were buying planes and boats and cars. How many poor people are doing that? How many production workers at Learjet are supported by people like you?
I've no doubt you want to build a utopia, Danni. And how generous of you to want to do it on someone else's dime.

Seriously, is this really big news? Does anyone pay attention to George McGovern, the loser of the biggest landslide election in American history?

Now I never said anything about cameras and the like. But I do believe that the families should get the truth.

* * * *

What's the difference. If the family knows that a Corporal named Brandon Jones from LA, California was responsible for the death of their kid, why wouldn't they call the paper? Or an attorney?

What if a 1LT gets lost, and has his unit in the wrong place with a mission kicks off, and wastes half the team? What if a chute is packed improperly? What if the new coordinates didn't get properly loaded into a GPS system, and a bomb gets dropped in the wrong place and gets good guys killed?
I only ask because I've had friends die in those ways. And there's a reason that the military isn't anxious to share the precise details of how the tragedies unfolded, or who ultimately was responsible. The parents need only be told that their boy is dead, that he served with impeccable distinction, and his unit loved him. And that's it.

That's the way it is. If you want President Obama to transform the military into a big open book, where all questions get asked and answered publicly, and reporters from Good Housekeeping accompany all American troops in the field--then that would be his prerogative, I suppose. Wouldn't even surprise me.

But noooooo - reality check. The wealthy are buying more land, third castles, humvees to go with their porsches, bigger boats, and - get this - jetplanes, not to mention millions spent on paintings and jewelry here and abroad...
* * * *

Uh huh. And who builds the castles and the big cars and the big boats and the jet planes? Who works at the resorts and golf courses and tennis clubs and luxury hotels? A lot of other rich people?

Who got hurt the most after 9/11, when nobody was flying? Rich people who would've gone to Disney World? Or working-class people who work at Disney World?

I remember when the Dem retards got together and passed a big tax surcharge on luxury boats. Then, the luxury boat builders in Connecticut and Rhode Island went out of business, while the rich just bought their boats from the Norwegians or the Greeks.

Still--you guys know best. And the government knows best. I just find it amusing that we can jumpstart the economy by raising taxes on the rich, but not on you. Now why's that, I wonder? LOL. How typical. "We would be so much better off if they would just raise taxes on . . . that guy over there."

I'm already tired of Dem whining about Republican crossover votes. There are plenty of them going to Obama. Are they all because they're idealistic and support him, and all Hillary's Repubs because they believe she's easier to beat? How about a soccer mom who wants to see a woman in the White House, who never listens to Limbaugh?

Obama's already got the victimology part down pat. No wonder he's the frontrunner.

Republicans won't like it but taxes on the rich will rise before our economy gets any better. We already know Republicans don't have the guts to do what is necessary now we'll see if a Dem does.

Posted by danni
* * * *

LMAO. Uh huh. What we need is a big stimulus package of tax increases.
I never really understood just how, exactly, raising taxes on people improved the economy. Maybe you can help. I'm supposed to help the economy by . . . saving more? Investing? More capital spending? Hiring another assistant?--no. Sending more money to Washington.

Hmmmm.

Another thought, these boys are trained professionals not snot nosed conscripts. As such they should be held accountable when they fuck up. To fire without properly identifying your target is negligence IMHO.

Posted by Salaryman
* * * *

The military does hold them accountable. There's a difference between that, and parading them in front of the cameras, or telling families of the dead the names of the kids who were responsible. Choppers go down. Planes crash. Friendly fire accidents. Is it really your position that the guy who didn't put the pin on the rotor properly should have his name turned over to the media?

As to the rest. Yes, a cool head during combat would be a wonderful thing. Sheer panic, explosions, noise, people running in all different directions--not quite like Hollywood, really. There's an old saying, "No plan survives the first contact with the enemy." If combat were full of cool-headed, rational people, why is the cliche true?

After watching the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries Tuesday night, McGovern says it's virtually impossible for Clinton to win the nomination.

McGovern says he is calling former President Clinton to tell him of the decision and adds that he remains close friends with the Clintons.

* * * *

He'll be calling former President Clinton to tell him of the decision . . . but not before calling Time Magazine first.
I take the back seat to no one in my revulsion of the Clintons. But this seems kind of rude. No "close friend" of mine would call the media before trying to speak with me--why couldn't McGovern afford his so-called friends the same courtesy?

Parties will or lose because the deserve to. The Republicans deserve to lose, and badly. But it's hard to see how the Dems deserve to win.

Time will tell, though. Six months is a lifetime in politics. But if the Republicans are going down, best to do so with a squishy moderate at the top of the ticket, and in a relatively weak economy where even a hard lefty like Obama would be reluctant to raise taxes.