US Politics Mega-thread - Page 189

On April 07 2013 00:30 JonnyBNoHo wrote:

Boehner offered closing tax loopholes/expenditures in lieu of raising rates. Obama rejected it in favor of raising rates (at a cost of more revenue), now he's circled back around to 'compromise'. That's not compromising, that's winning and then pretending to compromise because it's good PR.

On April 07 2013 09:01 paralleluniverse wrote:

Guess what? Obama offered Chained CPI during that same budget negotiation. But what matters, according to Boehner's argument is not when they offered it, or why they offered it, or whether it's good policy or not. According to Boehner what matters is that they have both agreed on it at some point.

Given that around 80% of deficit reduction so far has come from spending cuts and only around 20% has come from tax increases, I wouldn't call it a win. If this isn't a compromise, then what is?

As I asked, what should Obama do?

On April 07 2013 07:36 NovaTheFeared wrote:
Yeah I'm heartened by that poll in some respects. 10% is the threshold of the lunatic fringe. You can get 10% on a poll to say yes to anything: aliens living among us, government controlled by lizard people, personally seen a ghost, etc etc. This means that pretty much everyone knows it's unconstitutional.

On April 07 2013 10:03 JonnyBNoHo wrote:

My understanding is that Obama is offering chained CPI now. Supposedly it's in his latest budget proposal (source).

I'm also going to point out that not all spending cuts have been on things Democrats like. The military is generally a sacred cow for the Republicans and, if I'm remembering right, about half the sequester.

As for what Obama should do - honestly I don't think some grand bargain is going to happen. He should let congress fight over the budget and focus on his role as the executive. It's not like there isn't anything to do there...

On April 07 2013 10:15 Mindcrime wrote:


nope

only 4% for lizard people overlords

On April 07 2013 07:01 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Be afraid, be very afraid...



Source

On April 07 2013 07:01 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Be afraid, be very afraid...



Source

A Georgia town has passed a law requiring its citizens to own a gun and ammunition — a measure one councilman says is similar to putting a security sign in your front yard to deter criminals.

The ordinance in the town of Nelson, population 1,300, contains no penalties, has exemptions for felons and the mentally ill and allows anyone to opt out. Town leaders said they wanted to make a point about gun rights.

The law requires the head of every household to own a gun and ammo to “provide for the emergency management of the city” and “provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants.”

The law is also meant to pre-empt any future attempt by the federal government to confiscate guns, according to the council’s agenda.

“Some people have security systems, some people don’t, but they put those signs up,” Councilman Duane Cronic said. “I really felt like this ordinance was a security sign for our city.”


The ordinance passed 5-0 on Monday night and takes effect in 10 days. Nelson is about 50 miles north of Atlanta.

Heath Mitchell, the only police officer in town, said that Nelson is far from the two nearest sheriff’s offices, and that having a gun would help people protect themselves.

Lamar Kellett, who lives in Nelson and spoke against the law at a hearing Monday, said the town would never pass a speed limit and allow people to flout it. He said the ordinance was pointless.

“People who want a gun, they already have one probably,” he told WXIA, the NBC affiliate in Atlanta. “There’s been no violent crime in Nelson in the past 10 years. So how are you going to improve on no violent crime?”

The measure is modeled after a law adopted in 1982 by Kennesaw, another Atlanta suburb. Police there acknowledge that they haven’t tried to enforce it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar voiced optimism Friday that the nation’s first offshore wind farm will soon break ground after more than a decade of delays and be followed by more off the Atlantic coast.

“I think there’s a good chance it will happen before the end of the year,” Salazar said of the Cape Wind project. Speaking in an AP interview a few weeks before he leaves office, he also claimed gains as secretary in tightening oversight of offshore drilling after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “I think the coziness with industry that was there when I came into the department is gone,” he said.

A former U.S. senator from Colorado, the 58-year-old Salazar ran the Interior Department throughout President Barack Obama’s first term.

Along with changes at the offshore drilling agency, Salazar pushed for renewable energy such as solar and wind power and helped to settle a longstanding dispute with American Indians.

The Interior Department manages more than 500 million acres in national parks and other public lands, as well as more than 1 billion acres offshore. The department oversees energy, mining operations and recreation and provides services to 566 federally recognized Indian tribes.

Under Salazar’s watch, Interior authorized more than 40 solar, wind and geothermal energy projects on public lands that officials say will provide enough electricity to power more than 4 million homes.

On April 07 2013 10:29 paralleluniverse wrote:

Here's what Boehner said:
“If the president believes these modest entitlement savings are needed to help shore up these programs, there’s no reason they should be held hostage for more tax hikes,” Mr. Boehner said in a statement. “That’s no way to lead and move the country forward.”

It could have been:
“If the Republicans believe these modest tax loophole closures are needed to help shore up public finances, there’s no reason they should be held hostage for more welfare cuts,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “That’s no way to lead and move the country forward.”

The whole budget debate and both these proposals have the same intent, to reduce the deficit. If we cut the bullshit, the only reason Obama offered chained CPI again now is to compromise in an attempt to restart budget talks. He did not offer chained CPI because he believes in it, just like how Boehner did not offer closing tax loopholes because he believes in closing tax loopholes. Which again shows how absurd Boehner's argument is.

You're right in that there is almost no hope for a budget deal. But it's not Obama who's refusing to compromise here. To suggest that he should do nothing and just focus on being the executive is as vague as the conventional wisdom that Obama should show "leadership". Whatever that suppose to mean, no one can specifically say.

On April 07 2013 11:53 screamingpalm wrote:


I am afraid lol. For example:



Source

KENNESAW, Ga. — The exception-riddled mandatory gun-ownership law just passed by the town of Nelson, 33 miles to the north, is modeled on a similar law enacted more than three decades ago by the city of Kennesaw.

In 1982, Kennesaw was a city of about 5,000, "a rural population of Southern conservatives, strong Second Amendment advocates," city spokeswoman Pam Davis says. The city enacted the measure in response to a law passed in Morton Grove, Ill., that outlawed gun ownership.

"When the law was passed, it was common knowledge that it was not going to be enforceable," Davis says. "It was a symbolic gesture."

Still, the crime rate, not that high to begin with, plummeted after the law was enacted — by 89%, compared with a 10% drop statewide, according to published accounts. Davis says there were 11 burglaries per 1,000 residents before the law, 2.7 after. Despite slight fluctuations, she says, crime here "is significantly lower" than similar-sized Georgia cities.

No one has ever been prosecuted under the law.

Nelson, a former marble-quarrying town of about 1,400, is hoping for similar results. The five-member City Council unanimously on Monday passed the Family Protection Ordinance requiring "heads of households to maintain firearms … in order to provide for the emergency management of the city."

But the exemptions are pretty broad: anyone who has physical or mental disabilities, is a pauper, doesn't want to own guns or is a convicted felon. And there are no penalties for violations.

It's a "deterrent," says Police Chief Heath Mitchell, the town's only police officer. "I'm not going to be going from house to house asking people if they have a gun."

Nelson officials say they wanted the measure because their town straddles the Cherokee-Pickens county line, which can lead to slower response times. Also, during the debate over guns in the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre, they wanted to emphasize Nelson's commitment to the Second Amendment.

"With all of the talk about taking away guns, Nelson is telling our people, you've got a Second Amendment right to buy and keep arms," Councilman Jackie Jarrett says. "We're hoping it will deter crime."

Nelson officials acknowledge that there's not much crime in their area, where the Georgia Marble Co., once supplied marble used in the Lincoln Memorial , St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, the New York Stock Exchange and many of the tombstones in Arlington National Cemetery.

The Nelson ordinance is one of several similar laws around the USA that sprang up in the wake of the Newtown massacre, which sparked an intense debate on gun rights:

Spring City, Utah, with a population near 1,000, passed an ordinance earlier this year recommending that every household own a gun.

Last month, voters in Byron, Maine, rejected a law that would have required each household in the 140-person town to own a gun and ammunition. About 50 people voted, all of them in opposition, including the selectwoman who proposed the measure. According to the Lewiston, Maine, Sun Journal, Selectwoman Anne Simmons-Edmunds said the measure was initially tongue-in-cheek, and then it became serious.

In Nelson, Mitchell says he hopes that with the law on the books, his town will just get back to normal. "We're just ready for things to slow down," he says.

That might not happen.

More than three decades after Kennesaw enacted its gun law, the measure still draws visitors to the city. It has grown to 30,000, is now a suburb of Atlanta and home to the state's third-largest university, Kennesaw State University, Davis says.

"We still get visitors (interested in the law), not only from other cities around the country, but we constantly get foreign visitors from the international press," she says. "Japan, Russia, Canada, France — another week, another foreign journalist."

On April 07 2013 14:17 Sermokala wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +
fuck it we need to ban cigarettes in america and replace it with pot. It would literally solve our health care problem and save millions and millions of people over the next couple years. With people not spending 6 bucks a day on a carton of cigarettes they would be able to put that into different industries that are far better for our country to be in and for our workers to work in. It sickens me that people piss and moan about guns in this country when at the very most they might hit 14 thousand a year then ignore completely something that kills about half a million and cost god knows how much in health care every year.

On April 07 2013 15:13 Sermokala wrote:
They made a law that wasn't enforceable and they never intended it on being anything but a gesture.

And it lowers crime by 89%. Fucking south how does it work.

On April 07 2013 15:14 ey215 wrote:


Right, replace one black market with another that will be even larger. That's a great plan! You really think if cigarettes were banned that they'd just disappear? I've never used it but I'm all for legalizing pot but just saying to replace tobacco with pot is plain dumb.