Soros! ACORN! Ayers! NPR! Libs-Libs-Libs!

_/derp

Just wait until he starts explaining the difference between "near" and "far"....

Nothing says "hardworking American who has been taxed too much" like the son of a business executive who went to the finest Ivy league schools and lives off his dad's estate.

shivashakti: Just wait until he starts explaining the difference between "near" and "far"....

Far is socialism! Grover has had 47 muppets sign a pledge to never be far under any circumstances.

NewsBusters - So you can bust a nut laughing over your morning coffee™

So is it the modmins point is that neocons are incapable of stringing together a dozen sentences, and we shouldn't hold them to that standard? Well, I guess it's ok to give a green ribbon to crap like this because we wouldn't want to hurt their feelings.

The pledge itself doesn't have magical powers that keep them voting against the interest of the middle class and poor, it is the legalized bribe money coming in from the people that own them.

I don't recall anyone taking the Soros Pledge.

Subby, if officials elected to serve the people are instead beholden to individuals and organizations (sometimes far from their districts) is it wrong to call them out on that? If there is more than one of them, should we not call ALL of them out in turn?

Why should your vote, whichever party it's for, be superceded by your elected official's obligations to some private person's personal agenda? Why should elected officials go around signing pledges that may not be in the best interests of the people who elected them? Why should they focus more on the agendas of the people who fly them around on private jets to conferences at swanky resorts than on the agenda of the people in their district?

More than 2 despicable aged silver spoons are using their fathers' earned money to keep them from having to work for what they have like the little people have to? IMPOSSIBLE!! I'm reporting this to the good people at Forbes right away!

EvilEgg: Norquist's stupid pledge and other absolutist positions are mostly what is wrong with our dysfunctional political system.

Agreed. Cons need to understand that this is what Norquist is doing:

Better Koch than Soros, amiright?

Being a conservative, I find myself mistrustful of Norquist. As a poster said above, he represents an absolutist position that's bad for politics. He also represents the rich and not the middle or lower class, despite his rhetoric. The man also wields too much power for someone who refuses to be transparent.

Silly Democrats. Worrying about people with unlimited amounts of money and influence who want to destroy the government. Silly silly.

Notabunny: So is it the modmins point is that neocons are incapable of stringing together a dozen sentences, and we shouldn't hold them to that standard? Well, I guess it's ok to give a green ribbon to crap like this because we wouldn't want to hurt their feelings.

It's a "participation ribbon".

someone needs to repost that list of Republican boogeymen.

FlashHarry: b...b...but SOROS!

I hear he's the true father of the Kock brothers.

EnviroDude: getting a kick out of the people barking about how he inherited his money when you consider the number of democrats that 1. Marry into it like Kerry, 2. Get it from valuable insider trading hints while pondering key votes on the industry giving the hints.

When you have a chance read Chapter 13 of the Art of War. The section named "Expendable Agents" should be like looking into a mirror for you.

I remember in college what an unbearable bunch of tools the many of the College Republicans were on campus. I remember thinking to myself, "Man, what kind of people do these folks turn in to when they graduate?" Then I learned that the College Republican leadership in the past included guys like Grover Norquist, Jack Abrahmoff, & Karl Rove, I had one of those "Ohhhhhhh" moments.

Marcus Aurelius: Grover Norquist's stated ambition is to destroy the US federal government. He is the enemy, and must be defeated.

Wait...that would make him a traitor.

The main problem I have with these stupid pledges is that they sound like something a first-grade "no girls allowed" club would come up with. Except we're dealing with grownups.

It's just sad that these politicians feel more loyal to a pledge they made to a lobbyist than they do to the american people

While I find the demonization of the Kocj Brothers as highly amusing as anyone (they're no better and no worse than any other global industrialist), Norquist's hold on the GOP is a real phenomenon.

PonchoNeilio: I remember in college what an unbearable bunch of tools the many of the College Republicans were on campus. I remember thinking to myself, "Man, what kind of people do these folks turn in to when they graduate?" Then I learned that the College Republican leadership in the past included guys like Grover Norquist, Jack Abrahmoff, & Karl Rove, I had one of those "Ohhhhhhh" moments.

What?!?!? Young Republicans are usually turbodouches? You don't say!

Grover Norquist: "There is too much government in Somalia, not too little."

His point is that there are lots of "clans", who rule by the sword but don't actually govern. So yeah, way to go Grover, way to deflect rather than address the original question: "would you move to Somalia then?"

Norquist is a fifth columnist.

Meanwhile, Republicans are still flogging George Soros.

PonchoNeilio: I remember in college what an unbearable bunch of tools the many of the College Republicans were on campus. I remember thinking to myself, "Man, what kind of people do these folks turn in to when they graduate?" Then I learned that the College Republican leadership in the past included guys like Grover Norquist, Jack Abrahmoff, & Karl Rove, I had one of those "Ohhhhhhh" moments.

The leader of the College Republicans at my school?

Scott Walker. King of the Tools.

Marcus Aurelius: Grover Norquist's stated ambition is to destroy the US federal government. He is the enemy, and must be defeated.

Which makes me wonder why Rush doesn't see Fartbongo as a natural ally.

The gnome of M Street.

s2s2s2: Marcus Aurelius: Grover Norquist's stated ambition is to destroy the US federal government. He is the enemy, and must be defeated.

Which makes me wonder why Rush doesn't see Fartbongo as a natural ally.

Every time someone tells me not to vote for Obama, they give me a reason why they agree with him.

MFAWG: While I find the demonization of the Kocj Brothers as highly amusing as anyone (they're no better and no worse than any other global industrialist), Norquist's hold on the GOP is a real phenomenon.

Especially considering he's never even tried to win from them the right to represent us.

It's like he understood that the way to attain power for yourself is not to work in the halls of power, but to work connections and influence from the shadowy back-alleys - working, as his Americans for Tax Reform did, with Casino Jack Abramoff - and using his position (as a special-interest-lobbyist) to extort pledges from freshmen in Congress regardless of how it helps/hurts the country.

His stated goal is to make government too small to challenge private power-brokers (like himself). How is this not a gigantic problem?

He got the no tax pledge idea when he was 13. The GOP has a mind of a 13 year old. Surprised?

coeyagi: NewsBusters - So you can bust a nut laughing over your morning coffee™

So true. I have the Nut Sling™ to prove it. No coffee needed.

coeyagi: Grover Norquist: "There is too much government in Somalia, not too little."

His point is that there are lots of "clans", who rule by the sword but don't actually govern. So yeah, way to go Grover, way to deflect rather than address the original question: "would you move to Somalia then?"

It's almost as if an organizational structure of rules and responsibilities, or "government" is a natural result of any society. And the bigger the society is, the bigger the government needs to be to keep everyone in line and keep the society functioning smoothly. Amazing.

Oh wait that wasn't his point?

You know, the reactionary philosophy of the modern GOP is a symptom of the same type of non-critical thinking that creates the anti-vaccine douches. The awful past that led to a need and desire for government agencies is for most a distant memory as are most childhood diseases. People who can't picture what life was like when polio, and smallpox and measles ravaged towns, only see imagined dangers today. With no experience, they simply cannot conceive that it was worse.


That's how you wind up with a supposed conservative "intellectual" like Newt advocating for the repeal of child labor laws. They see it as something like a summer job but cant be bothered to realize the laws came about for a reason. That children were being forced into an early life of drudgery that perpetuated a cycle of poverty. That they were abused and injured because children are inherently weak and throwing them into a capitalist machine basically assures abuse.

All of these laws and agencies that they want to get arose out of a need that the nation saw. And usually it was a need to protect the individual from the unfettered power of the corporation.

Of course the alternative is that Newt and his ilk know exactly the consequences of their proposals, which makes them far worse human beings than I thought possible.

Lenny_da_Hog: Every time someone tells me not to vote for Obama, they give me a reason why they agree with him.

I'm voting for him, unless someone better comes along. It's more of a "who I disagree with least" thing, though.

gimmegimme: The main problem I have with these stupid pledges is that they sound like something a first-grade "no girls allowed" club would come up with. Except we're dealing with grownups.

Grover thought it up when he was 12. Seriously. It was on 60 minutes.