Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 06, 2011
Transcript:
Joanie: Well, Jeff's on board. Rick: So am I. Go for it. Joanie: Well, I don't even know if Elizabeth will run, or if she does, whether there'd be a position for me. Plus Scott Brown would be hard to beat. He's not quite like his Tea Party compatriots. Rick: How so? Joanie: I dunno. He seems... slightly less insane. Rick: Now that's a campaign slogan! I'd keep it to yourself.
BE THIS GUY over 13 years ago
The Tea Party has a very low bar for sanity.
DylanThomas3.14159 over 13 years ago
Sooo, it’s the Hill after all, not the White House!
DylanThomas3.14159 over 13 years ago
Question: How vulnerable is Scott Brown? Just heard on news about a poll that says Americans as a whole blame the GOPpers more than the DEMob or the White House for the recent debacle on the Hill that resulted in Standard & Poor’s downgrading of U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+. That can’t be a bad sign for Joanie and the newly “on board” Jeff.
pouncingtiger over 13 years ago
@ leftwingpatriot, like Fix Noise at night. Wait, who am I kidding? Like Fix Noise 24/7
Orion-13 over 13 years ago
Yes, the Tea Party are insane fanatics who want to destroy the country by not spending several trillion more than we take in. Unlike the folks currently in power who have spent insane amounts of money and brought us a 9%+ unemployment rate, $5 a gallon gasoline, and an AA+ credit rating.By all means, let’s keep these insane people OUT Of government and let the sane ones keep taking us down this road that is SOO good for us all!
DylanThomas3.14159 over 13 years ago
I think Jeff has had — up to the point where Joanie is finally getting through to him, in any case — a Teapartier mentality, what with the CIA and all. Ordinary “folks at home” TPs (don’t think “toilet paper”, all you minds out there) must not realize that the Senate and House is stuffed with people who are owned by the wealthy fascist multinationalers (WFMs), some of which pay no or almost no taxes at all. Above all else they want to keep the $$$$ that Bush gave them. What these truly patriotic “folks at home” TPs have yet to learn is the harsh fact that the WFMs don’t give a spit about patriotism, “we the people”, democracy, service to country, or anything else I at least care deeply about. That’s what I have in common with these “folks at home” TPs. And that’s what, hopefully, will win them over. We do not, repeat do not, want to think of them as “the enemy”. They’re not; they’re just being screwed by the WFMs and don’t know it. Not yet at least. Go Jeff!
FriscoLou over 13 years ago
“ Tighter than McCain, Slightly less insane! ”
That ought to get the convention floor rockin’.
tudzax2 over 13 years ago
Papoon for President. Not insane.
Tog over 13 years ago
So ends the party political broadcast. Not that we in the UK can talk, We’ve got David Cameron busily trying to turn the clock back 200 years and sell the country to Rupert Murdoch the dirty digger.
DylanThomas3.14159 over 13 years ago
Jeff for GOPper STOPper.
DylanThomas3.14159 over 13 years ago
Obama: bending over FRONTward for Boehner!.Again!.
ChukLitl Premium Member over 13 years ago
When my calendar runs out, I go to the bank & they give me a new one. We just need to figure out who got the assets of the First Mayan Savings & Loan when that market collapsed.
Doughfoot over 13 years ago
The GOP is not insane for wanting us to live within our means. They ARE insane for refusing to anything to increase revenue. If a family were in this kind of debt they would be looking for things to sell rather than give away, and the members of it would be looking for second jobs or other sources of income. The GOP are devoted to giving away, or selling at bargain prices, national resources to already successful parties, and refusing all new sources of revenue. They think they can prevent the bank from foreclosing on their house by taking away their kids milk money. And at that, they are more interested in paying the mortgage than paying for their wife’s cancer treatments. And another thing that shows that the GOP are insane is that they keep calling Obama names like liberal. He is a centrist and a pragmatist. At every turn he has done almost exactly what a sane Republican president would have done, to the fury of his base who call him a traitor. The GOP should thank God that Obama is in the White House and not a real Democrat.
Doughfoot over 13 years ago
You know, I checked the figures recently. As of last year the Federal government employed half as many people, per capita, as it did in the 1960s (I could not find earlier figures). Tax rates are lower now than they have been at any time since World War II. The gap between rich and poor is greater now than at any time since the 1920s at least. We have abandoned the common enterprise in favor of me-first, leave-me-the-hell-alone irresponsibility. We’ve become like a great and formerly rich landholder who is selling off his property bit by bit to maintain his lifestyle rather than go out and get a job. Or a slumlord who has decided drop all maintenance of his properties, content to see them crumble so long as the rent comes in without effort on his part. Apres moi, le deluge. In the meantime, let them eat cake. But no matter what happens, the refrain will be “It’s not my responsibility,” the real motto of the GOP.
pschearer Premium Member over 13 years ago
The Tea Party is in favor of individual rights, limited government, reduced taxes, and adherence to the Constitution. Calling this insane shows how much the Left hates America’s founding principles.
ChukLitl Premium Member over 13 years ago
Before the election, there were hopes he was a new Kennedy.He’s a new Carter, nice guy, speachifies purdy.Leadership? Not so much.Except Carter didn’t use the SEALs, so Barry’s one up.(Junior B wasn’t bright enough to know what SEALs are for.)Signed, a Ford voter.
lewisbower over 13 years ago
Yeah, those TP nuts scare me When they literally read the Constitution as Congress shall tax to pay debts, common defense, and general welfare, they forget that general welfare meant “PORK” back then And that little sentance stating “all other powers shall be left to the states”, well that obviously was a typo. The reason we broke from England was to produce an all powerful central government. Remember, this wigged men were not men of difiance, they were men of reliance. They foresaw a tightly regulated society run by not only elected officials, but appointed ones.That’s why the Post Office is in the Constitution, to deliver our checksStalin had a good way to take care of nay-sayers. Since we want to embrace the rest of communism, I suggest gulags. Will also help unemployment by reducing the number of worker.Another liberal for America.
DylanThomas3.14159 over 13 years ago
The essence of Tea Party philosophy is anti-Robin-Hood-ism: tax the middle class into third-world-quasi-slavery status, give that money to the already-wealthy in the form of “bailouts”, and then let the already-wealthy get away, in many cases, with paying little or no tax at all via loopholes, etc. All accomplished by their employees (Senators and Congresspersons) . Remuneration? Campaign contributions and contributions to independent campaigns essentially unlimited by falsely-so-called “limited government”.
DylanThomas3.14159 over 13 years ago
Which was 100% Libertarian. Around 12K years ago hunter-gatherer groups began banding together for their mutual good and became farmer-herders. The first great civilizations arose thereafter — one along the Nile, one along the Tigris and Euphrates, one along the Indus, one along the Yangtse, and one in what is now Japan (the Jomon culture). They began to invent pottery, they provided for common self-defense with walled cities. Later they invented bronze, and even later iron..This was an anti-libertarian movement.
ChukLitl Premium Member over 13 years ago
Luv ya Lew. The founders had State legislatures appoint Senators, to give States a voice in Congress. The Constitutional Post Office should siphon HotMail’s advertising revenue to provide junk mail in every box.
DylanThomas3.14159 over 13 years ago
Obama may be 2/3 Republican, but he never said, “… corporations must be removed.” That doesn’t even make sense.
roctor over 13 years ago
The TBers are handed thier marching orders daily from texas.Nothing unique or patriotic.
DylanThomas3.14159 over 13 years ago
We’re headed toward fascism. Hitlerian fascism was the reverse of the kind of fascism were headed for. But both forms are fascism nonetheless. In the Nazi form of fascism, the government told the military-industrial-financial-complex (MIFC) what to do. In the form to which we’re headed, the MIFC tells the government what to do.
mabrndt Premium Member over 13 years ago
I predict a lot of this sort of thing nationwide for the 2012 election and, given the non-voting preference by the electorate, who prefer to whine and make uninformed complaints rather than becoming informed and casting a vote, it’ll probably work.
x666dog over 13 years ago
obviously a lot of liberal thoughts here. Tea Party did try to stop the debt ceiling, which was a good thing. S&P was going to down grade US bonds unless the government reduced debt. For those of you who still don’t get it, you don’t reduce debt by borrowing more. Bush had a lot of Democratic help from his Democratic Congress when WE got into the Iraq war, even from Senator Obama. Both parties are to blame for this situation, the question is which policies will will get us back on track?
APersonOfInterest over 13 years ago
Bonehead the Weeper … what a dweeb.
ChukLitl Premium Member over 13 years ago
If y’all would quit thinking D & R are the only choices…L & G may not be better, but sucking power out of the big 2 is.
babka Premium Member over 13 years ago
http://www.tomjoad.org/eichmann.htm Merton on the sane men – see especially paragraph 7 beginning “It is the sane ones”….
ChukLitl Premium Member over 13 years ago
Higher interest is good.It should hurt to borrow.Cheaper money has less value.Con(gress)men disagree.
meetinthemiddle over 13 years ago
I live in MA and was worried by Scott Brown’s Tea Party backing. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised at his independence and rationality – especially compared to many in his party.He ran a great campaign; Coakley ran a really bad one. The Dems would need a really good candidate to knock him off.
Sandfan over 13 years ago
Maybe it’s time to try isolationism again. Didn’t work in the early 20th century, but times have changed. Cut foreign aid to the bone and pull back almost all of the troops, Let the Brits and Germans handle Europe, let the Chinese handle Asia, let the Arabs and the Africans continue their tribal slaughters with no outside interference, let the Israelis prove they are the “chosen people” on their own. American foreign policy would be based on ’We have food. You have something we want. Want to trade?" We would, of course, need to keep our nuclear powder dry.
ImaginaryFriend over 13 years ago
Lets see, there are the gun carrying workers of America who are tired of seeing their money wasted in Washington, and then there are the loud mouth politicians (from both parties). Ah, I forgot the people who just want the government to do everything for them because they think it is owed to them. Tough choice but I see why the Tea Party is so popular!
meetinthemiddle over 13 years ago
^Imaginary, it’s interesting that the distribution of federal funds goes more to the gun-toting states – i.e. many states in central, south-central and south get more money back from the federal govt than the states send in with tax revenue. I guess there are a lot of “gun carrying workers” getting more than they’re putting in “because they think it is owed to them” too…
BE THIS GUY over 13 years ago
Truman and Obama have more in common than you think. The Dems lost control of Congress in 1946, just as they lost control of the House in 2010. The Republicans were intent on making Truman’s time in office hell, just as Tea Partiers are doing for Obama (consequences for the nation be damned).
BE THIS GUY over 13 years ago
GWB was our generation’s Hoover or did you forget who was president when Lehman collapsed and the great meltdown started?
BE THIS GUY over 13 years ago
Clinton passed his economic package in 1993 with a Democratic Congress, without a single Republican vote. He then used the threat of the veto to keep the policies in place when the Republicans took over. Remember the government shutdown of 1995? Taxes were not decreased after the 1993 increase and spending went up. The reason for the revenue increase was due to higher taxes on the wealthy and record economic growth. The labor market was so vibrant when Clinton was president that the only qualification you needed to get a job was a pulse.
RinaFarina over 13 years ago
So should we send an email to Elizabeth telling her that she has to run so that GT will be able to put here into Doonesbury??
RinaFarina over 13 years ago
correction:“will be able to put her”
RinaFarina over 13 years ago
I can’t appreciate this! I don’t know enough about American politics! Well, at least I do know the name of the president. But who’s Boehner? Scott Brown? should I approve of them, or disapprove?
ChukLitl Premium Member over 13 years ago
Teddy did more with that chair than his bro’ did with the big one. Liz don’t have his personal problems. She needs this job, we need her to have it. Wall street bankers hate her, that’s enough endorsement for me.
ghretighoti over 13 years ago
Gary Trudeau for President, 2016.
funkynunu over 13 years ago
What if we gave BIG tax incentives to all businesses that would bring back any jobs that were ever sent off-shore, primarily to China, et al?
There is already some movement by bringing call centers back from India but we could accelerate this movement with federal and state tax incenitives. (There were tax incentives to move jobs off-shore -now just reverse that and bring the jobs home and keep the $ here. China and India are doing well now – maybe we could even provide goods and services to those countries.)
This move would help the “rich” plus these onshore jobs would provide income to American families, increase state and federal tax revenue, as well as provide a stream of customers to local businesses. Politically, this would seem to be a Win/Win for GOP and Dems as well as the radical TP — unless they really are racists/obstuctionists and just want to dis Obama at any cost and destroy our country.
Maybe an idea that could be presented by Trudeau and crew?
ChukLitl Premium Member over 13 years ago
Missed a point back there; Student debt? Public service to fill pot-holes, build affordable housing, & provide universal healthcare. Apologies for going chat room on y’all, hope today’s lefty infighting here was more informative than last weekend’s right fight in D.C. Now I have to go to work.
Whitecamry over 13 years ago
It’s called “aging.”