The hatred here is terribly frightening. What makes people so angry, on both poles of the political spectrum, that they lose any semblance of common sense? The generalizations are woefully short-sighted and despicable.My answer:
Drew, I'll tell you -- again -- why I'm so angry. Since the red states have inherent political advantages (because this country stupidly maintains both a senate and the electoral college system), the people in those states dicate, to a large degree, national policy.
As a result, red state voters keep electing politicians who routinely toss tons of pork back home. Red staters receive far more from the federal government than they give in taxes. Californians and New Yorkers and other blue staters pay the difference.
Yet -- obscenely -- the red staters have felt free to insult and mock the Californians and New Yorkers who pay for all that pork. They even call us free spenders! They've done so for years.
Yes, that is a generalization. Nevada and Colorado are two red states which get rogered every year, and their rogering is even worse than the ones we Californians receive every year. The conservatives in those two states deserve respect. Texas leeches do not.
Because red-staters have a disproportionate amount of power, the presidency now almost always goes to someone from the south. And so we have Bush -- a man who empties our national treasury (filled with California money, not Texas money) to pay for his misbegotten war. And because the Bush administration would not pay a relatively nominal sum to shore up the levees in New Orleans, we blue staters now have to pony up at least $25 billion to rebuild that city.
Again: The money ain't coming from Texas. Texans are leeches. They already receive more from the federal government than they give. No, that extra $25 million will come from California and New York and other blue states.
And before someone says "Actually, the money will be borrowed from Asia..." let me remind you: Borrowed money is simply deferred spending. Blue staters will still have to pick up the bill. With interest.
Angry? You bet I'm angry! Justifiably so! How can you ask a blue stater to refrain from anger?
15 comments:
That's funny :o)
342
When Dick Cheney's task force came up with its list of base closings and mergings, there were only two states that didn't lose jobs. Want to guess which ones?
Correct! Texas and Florida!
Once agin, Joseph, please explain how you can be such a vigorous supporter of a steeply progressive tax system and yet demonstrate so much venom towards wealth being transfered exactly the way a steep progressive tax system demands.
By your logic, we should only have to listen to the wealthiest top decile, who currently pay for 70% of federal income tax and 55% of all federal taxes. source: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/
TaxModel/tmdb/TMTemplate.cfm?
DocID=816&topic2ID=40&topic3ID
=41&DocTypeID=2
It's not Californians and New Yorkers that are getting less from government than they pay for. It's the wealthy, and hence (if one believes in maket-based economies as I do) the most productive per capita, that are disproportionately paying for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. There happens to be more wealthy people in California, New York, and other blue states than in Texas, Alaska, and other red states (maybe it's because of all the union employees in the blue states). Thus, thanks to progressive taxation, wealth is transfered from blue states to red.
Do you really want to move further towards a political system where policy is dictated by the 10% of the population that earns the most money?
An aside - I'm a Libertarian and despise the two-party political process. But for those of you who want continue insisting that all people with right-wing ideologies are hillbillies, how frustrating is it for you that we are so over-represented by millionaires? What a conundrum it must be that we're so intellectually inferior and yet make so much more money than y'all. No wonder you're angry.
jed, to suggest that the wealthy don't
benefit from gov't spending is absurd.
Police, courts, jails, schools, the SEC,
military protection of American "interests",
highways--they all benefit the wealthy, not
the poor.
"we're so intellectually inferior and yet
make so much more money than y'all."
Oh come off it! Money is easy. All you
have to do is study it in college,
prostrate yourself to it, devote your
life to it. Any idiot can get rich, and
go on to brag about it.
Joseph, I understand and share your anger.
That said, though, I came back to your site today hoping the anger had been contained and focused.
As some others of your devotees have pleaded -- and I count myself one of them -- put flying off the handle behind you.
Outrage is justified, sure. But far more, we count on you for down-to-earth, incisive knowledge and sensitive interpretation of events.
You can't do that while you're ranting. And Joseph, while your rants are occasionally fun, this one is long since out of control.
Please. Back to business.
An admirer.
I don't know about the reliability of the following, but I thought it was interesting:
http://www.total411.info/2005/09/provacateur-forces-in-new-orleans-case.html
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Provocateur forces in New Orleans? The case builds
On Thursday, there was a report on the net Delta Force had just dropped into New Orleans. This was at about the same time this website noticed a couple helicopters full of unidentified troops being dropped off the helipad at the Superdome. If the "Delta Force" story is true (and even Army Times says forces are engaging in combat in New Orleans), or another small special ops force were dropped into New Orleans, they would be well placed, for provocateuring more than anything else. Such as laying down sniper fire on boats evacuating patients from a hospital or setting fires, or sniping at firefighters.
This item is from the LiveJournal blog of someone holed up in a functioning datacenter on Canal St. at 1pm CDT Saturday:
"The Riverwalk may be on fire (shopping mall at the river at end of CBD/Quarter). Everytime we talk to the police, we hear about sniper fire at the fire scenes. I cannot confirm that there is any. This is all hearsay, but it's coming from the police. The police we talk to, while consistent about claiming there is sniper fire, are conflicted about whether it's police sniper fire trying to take out arsonists or criminal sniper fire trying to take out police and fire rescue teams. Again, this is rumor for now, but we're hearing a lot of this rumor.
Delta Force is a criminal organization, having previously engaged in the murder of Americans at Waco, so any fire from them would by definition be sniper fire.
It seems like someone is going up and down the river, setting prime real estate on fire and making sure they burn down. First the warehouses, now the Riverwalk shopping mall, a structure orginally constructed for the 1984 World's Fair.
Are there other special forces teams out there that could take out these provocteurs? Anyone that gives a damn about America or New Orleans? Could someone call France and ask for a hand?
===
Also on the questionable side, but it rings true: see the report of a supposed White House insider (is this true? really?) about an overheard conversation in an elite dining-place. True or not, it rings true. It's at:
http://thetruthseeker.co.uk/print.asp?ID=3548
These bigshots need pulling down, don't they?
If only you would follow your doctor's advice...
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