Friday, October 24, 2008

Quips and Quotations

Our country, right or wrong. When right to be kept right, when wrong to be put right.

--former Union Army Major Carl Schurz, in a speech to Congress in 1872.

Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing that, democracy crumbles.

--Abbie Hoffman

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Quips and Quotations

Fred: (eyeing swanky apartments) Some barracks you got here. Hey, what are you, a retired bootlegger?
Al: Nothing as dignified as that. I'm a banker.

--from the movie The Best Years of Our Lives

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Debate Check

During last's night debate John "Maverick" McCain was a veritable Roget's Thesaurus of Republican cliches and buzzwords. Here's just a few:

Obama wants to raise your taxes: Obama actually wants to raise taxes on people who make a lot of money. How much money? Oh, lets say the salaries (and golden parachutes) of the people who run, or used to run, AIG, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia, etc.

Obama wants to "spread the wealth." : Well, by voting for the bailout package, Obama's certainly spreading the taxpayers wealth, i.e. whatever's left of the payroll tax after Social Security and Medicare gets their share. But then so did McCain.

Obama wants to "throw money" at education: Sort of the same way money's now thrown at Wall Street?

Obama wants to make government bigger: McCain wants that same government to buy up mortgages.

McCain wants an across-the-board cut in spending: See above. The man's positively bulimic.

Obama's for "class warfare": class warfare often results in socialism. But then so does voting for buyout packages.

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The real winner of last night's debate seems to be Joe the Plumber (I wonder if he's related to the late Jane Withers, of Comet Cleanser fame?) John McCain mentioned his name a total 22 times (Obama mentioned it four times, but those were rebuttals.) McCain probably thought this would appeal to the blue collar crowd. Blue collar plumbers, sure. As for the rest of the proletariat, well, McCain better hope they weren't all screwed over getting their leaky faucets fixed.

Imagine a Republican exploiting plumbers for political gain. Didn't Nixon already try that?