Keeping it civil instead of returning to our dark ways

[dtb]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
State Ranking of Per Capita Spending, Per-Capita Tax Return on the Federal Tax Dollar: Fiscal 2002

1 New Mexico 2.34
2 North Dakota 2.04
3 Alaska 1.91
4 Mississippi 1.88
5 West Virginia 1.81
6 Montana 1.65
7 Alabama 1.64
8 South Dakota 1.58
9 Hawaii 1.56
10 Arkansas 1.55

11 Oklahoma 1.52
12 Virginia 1.51
13 Kentucky 1.50
14 Louisiana 1.49
15 South Carolina 1.34
16 Maine 1.34
17 Missouri 1.33
18 Idaho 1.31
19 Maryland 1.30
20 Tennessee 1.28

21 Iowa 1.22
22 Arizona 1.21
23 Nebraska 1.18
24 Utah 1.15
25 Kansas 1.13
26 Vermont 1.13
27 Pennsylvania 1.10
28 Rhode Island 1.10
29 North Carolina 1.08
30 Wyoming 1.05

31 Ohio 1.04
32 Georgia 1.04
33 Indiana 1.01
34 Florida 1.00
35 Oregon 0.98
36 Texas 0.96
37 Michigan 0.90
38 Washington 0.89
39 Wisconsin 0.89
40 New York 0.87

41 Delaware 0.86
42 Colorado 0.80
43 California 0.79
44 Massachusetts 0.78
45 Illinois 0.78
46 Minnesota 0.78
47 Nevada 0.76
48 Connecticut 0.69
49 New Hampshire 0.69
50 New Jersey 0.66

Facts are a most effective tool in shutting up the "no it isn't" corner, and its "Best Post Ever" award ceremony.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
How about "White Trash". Lets call it what it is.

I grew up in PA. I know White Trash when I see it, and I see the GOP surfing into the Oval Office on a sea of White Trash.

You entirely missed the point. But what is new?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by pony_trekker
Economic secession. Let's be creative here.

You'll need a Visa to take the kids to DisneyWorld, or to go to Vegas.

[dtb]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
How about "White Trash". Lets call it what it is.

I grew up in PA. I know White Trash when I see it, and I see the GOP surfing into the Oval Office on a sea of White Trash.

I see no reason not to call a cracker a cracker. What can he call me in return? Educated? Informed? A smarty-pants? "One of them liberal elitists"? Guilty as charged. I'm not going to kiss some redneck's ass because he's got a probelm with me being more informed than he is. If he wants to best me, he can pick up some readin' materials and articulate a viewpoint stronger than "yeew Yanks think yer so smart with yer French candidate... yeeew Saddam lover..."

White Trash it is!

[SlaveNoMore]

Tyrone Slothrop
It'll be interesting. There are obviously a whole bunch of conservatives with very profound concerns about Bush's domestic and foreign policy who have been hoping that a Kerry victory would let them avoid an internal conflict. Now it's up to them. Can the adults in the GOP stage an intervention?

I certainly hope so. And I intend to be vocal about it.

In Congress, DeLay is maybe more of the problem than Bush...

He's going down soon (thankfully). I see him ducking out before 2006.

On the foreign policy side, Powell and Rice have suggested that they're gone -- will Cheney allow their replacements to check him and Rumsfeld?

This is the wild card. I had assumed Condi would move up the chain.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
It seems to me that this kind of stuff is totally massageable, and that the "north-east/mid-west coalition for economic equality" is going to be seizing on numbers that make it look like they get screwed, and minimizing the effects of stuff that helps them/hurts non-ne/mw places.
.

Problem is they sort of lost that debate with the 16th amendment.

ETA:

A more relevant rank is per capita spending, as opposed to net return, because it separates out the sizable impact that the income tax has on the latter.

(table)

While there obviously some red states at the top, there are a fair number of blue states in the mix as well.

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Now that this Kerry boil has been lanced, rather than become complacent in victory, I think it is of the utmost importance for the fiscal conservatives in the GOP to speak up and force this Administration to get in line.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAAAA!!

Oh please, please, stop. You're killing me!

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore

I have no idea why he is so deified.

Hagel - Edwards in 2008. You read it here first.

Because he's one of the few GOP stars who isn't nauseating. Name me anoyone else in the GOP right now who isn't a frightening freak. Santorum? The creepy cocksucker made his wife carry a dead baby to term rather than abort. He's fucking nuts. Frist? He's Santorum-light, with a brain. DeLay? Goes without saying.

They're running Frist. He's the man for the Southern Baptists, evangelicals, KKK, crackers, inbreds, rubes... you name it.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
This is the wild card. I had assumed Condi would move up the chain.

Didn't she say she was gone? In any event, she hasn't been able to stand up to Cheney & Rumsfeld. Maybe someone else in that job would fare better. Or maybe not. Hard for me to believe that a newcomer could win Bush's ear away from Cheney.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Anyone who has read this board for any period of time reads the premise of your first sentence as an admission that you do not.

Not on topics that actually mean something. I'll argue Wheaties box policy forever with you if you like.

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
But I'm not the fool.

Let's read on before we draw such a hasty conclusion.

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Yes "Osama said," not to influence, but to scare. There are big cities in red states. There are power plants. There are football stadiums with 80000+ people in them. To think there are no targets there, and to think terrorists would want people in 95% of the land mass to feel safe is the foolish thought conveyed on the subject.

You keep quoting Osama. I'll keep pointing to what has actually happened and where it has happened in this country. And Osama also said he wanted to bankrupt the US. Is he going to do this by blowing up a pig farmer in MN? Don't think so.

Are there targets in the middle of nowhere? Sure. Maybe they'll strike at a Michigan game. Have they? No. Are they more likely to attack a Michigan game than the heart of the financial engine in this country? Nope. The political heart? Don't think so. You know it. People in Buttfuck-nowhere know it. And the people in New York and DC know it.

TM

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
It'll be interesting. There are obviously a whole bunch of conservatives with very profound concerns about Bush's domestic and foreign policy who have been hoping that a Kerry victory would let them avoid an internal conflict. Now it's up to them. Can the adults in the GOP stage an intervention? In Congress, DeLay is maybe more of the problem than Bush, and I'm not optimistic that Republicans will do anything about him. On the foreign policy side, Powell and Rice have suggested that they're gone -- will Cheney allow their replacements to check him and Rumsfeld?

In a word, no and no. Bush believes he's divinely guided - do you think a man who couldn't admit making any mistakes in four years of leading the country is going to suddenly decide to listen to voices of reason? And Cheney ain't gonna take shit from either the SofS or NSA. Rumsfeld isn't listening to anyone from Bush on down. So, no way. The fiscal conservatives will find themselves outside rubbing shoulders with all the other non-True Believers.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
I vote that the "coast" shall henceforth be interpreted including all shores of the Great Lakes.

Let's cut Canada in on the deal.

We could just join the EU. And then, just like Bush, impose ridiculous tariffs on those countries, well, country, let's call it the United States of HillybillyBackasswardsia, who have wronged us! Euro jumps. Dollar tumbles. We take a big dump on the already crap-infested red states. A big rich dump.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
We could just join the EU. And then, just like Bush, impose ridiculous tariffs on those countries, well, country, let's call it the United States of HillybillyBackasswardsia, who have wronged us! Euro jumps. Dollar tumbles. We take a big dump on the already crap-infested red states. A big rich dump.

My, my, my you are so bitter. Get it all out so that you can get to work figuring out why the Dems don't appeal to the majority of americans.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by dtb
White Trash it is!

Say it. It feels good. Say it loud. Scream it from the hilltops.

"W got elected by manipulating a whole lotta White Trash!!!"

"The sorta folks who'll tell you you're going to hell... Well, they're White Trash!!!"

"The sorta folks who think Saddam and bin Laden were acting in concert... again, yep... White Trash!!!"*

"Folks who are scared silly about gays kissing... yep, White Trash!!!"

"Folks who think the estate tax will cost their kids the mobile home... you guessed it, White Trash!!!"

"People who believe that they're going to see a fat pile of money from Bush tax cuts in their check from the rendering plant... really dumb White Trash!!!"

I am personally using the term in conversations today. Its gotten some dirty looks, but I persist. I plan to do my part to interject it into the discourse as much as possible. And it just feels good.

Its the hot new word for 2004!

* Except Safire, who's just nuts.

[Diane_Keaton]

Originally posted by dtb
the jesus fucks' dictating the agenda scares me more.
ET fix shameful punctuation error. The horror!

More than the fact you know the proper form of the plural possessive of the term "Jesus fucks"?