kronicfeld: That's hardly a new plan from the GOP.

Very true, "starve the beast" goes back to the Reagan days.

Y'know

I have to admire Skinnyhead and Winterwhile. They pony up and have the power to keep on the go. They can really move, and they've got an attitude.

Sometimes, some trolls just slip through the cracks, but Skinnyhead and Winterwhile, These things I know, they are true and I will tell you so, and you will see, if you believe, trolls, are you a wizards...

/Hopefully not all of them are too obscure

Lernaeus: The only thing government does right is kill people, so I'm not too keen on the notion that the government should be doing anything else.

Those that succeeded in doing other things "right" did so on the blood of millions.

I mean, who really thinks that government can provide, say, health care free from personal agendas, corruption, pressure, influence, and bullsh*t politics?

They haven't proven to do ONE THING well except kill people ... not even run the goddamned Post Office well.

Whatever you "government should" cause is, just think of f*ckers like Cheney calling the shots, then rethink your rose-colored opinion of how things should be.

The Post Office could run itself very damn well if it was let to. See the Prefunding A Zillion Years issue with the USPS.

lockers: Lernaeus: The only thing government does right is kill people, so I'm not too keen on the notion that the government should be doing anything else.

Enforcing contracts, property rights, resolving disputes? I mean sure, kill people too, but the whole reason we discuss "sovereign" is because the European warlord morphed into the source of justice and law aside from just killing people. Isn't what your proposing is a return to a feudal system that is lawless aside from might makes right? Isn't that system, in of itself, a corrupt and decadent one by definition? Why is _that_ preferable to the modern state? Also, if it is to you, do you imagine you won't be one of the surfs?

Actually, that is a disservice to the feudal system - which had at it's core the recognition from above that they had the right to what they had, and recognition from below that he above was in charge, and they'd work together to keep it. Basically, "You keep my back safe, and I'll keep you safe."

Warlordism, Despotism, and Anarchy are even more primitive forms of 'governance' - Where it is literally "I have you by the balls today". Feudalism is more like "You could have me by the balls today, but you won't because you don't know when you'll need me to keep some other guy off your balls tomorrow."

Which is a step UP from "I have you by the balls today" (Which is what the Aztecs were at during Cortez' time, and why all the people they had by the balls joined the Spaniards), but still a step down from "I recognize your rights if you recognize mine."

All property ultimately goes back down to "Someone with the biggest stick said this was mine and he'd beat other people with his stick if they took it from me" anyhow.

My question is, why would anyone purposely elect someone to a position the candidate believes can only f*ck things up further?

IlGreven: kronicfeld: That's hardly a new plan from the GOP.

Republican (n.) -- A person who says government is bad, then gets elected and proves himself right.


"When the government is run by a political party committed to the belief that government is always the problem, never the solution, that belief tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Key priorities are neglected; key functions are privatized; and key people, the competent public servants who make government work, either leave or are driven out."

- Paul Krugman


"Conservatives cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class beef bourguignon: If you believe that what you are called upon to do is wrong, you are not likely to do it very well. As a way of governing, conservatism is another name for disaster."

- Michael Wolfe

Summercat: The Post Office could run itself very damn well if it was let to. See the Prefunding A Zillion Years issue with the USPS.

This. The USPS is highly efficient at what it does.

the USPS runs a net operational profit delivering the mail. Despite the worst recession in 80 years, despite Internet diversion, the USPS takes in more money from postal operations than it spends. Over the past four years, revenues exceeded costs by $837 million; last quarter's net operating profit alone was $226 million.

The $20 billion in losses over the past four years has surprisingly little to do with declining mail volume or the Internet. Rather, it stems from the 2006 congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and do so within a decade - something no other public agency or private firm does. These roughly $5.5 billion annual payments since 2007 - $21 billion total - are the difference between a positive and negative ledger.

Remove that unreasonable obligation and the Postal Service would have been profitable.

meat0918: fusillade762: Summercat: The Post Office could run itself very damn well if it was let to. See the Prefunding A Zillion Years issue with the USPS.

This. The USPS is highly efficient at what it does.

the USPS runs a net operational profit delivering the mail. Despite the worst recession in 80 years, despite Internet diversion, the USPS takes in more money from postal operations than it spends. Over the past four years, revenues exceeded costs by $837 million; last quarter's net operating profit alone was $226 million.

The $20 billion in losses over the past four years has surprisingly little to do with declining mail volume or the Internet. Rather, it stems from the 2006 congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and do so within a decade - something no other public agency or private firm does. These roughly $5.5 billion annual payments since 2007 - $21 billion total - are the difference between a positive and negative ledger.

Remove that unreasonable obligation and the Postal Service would have been profitable.

It's

[www.everythingaction.com image 445x278]

Yup. Sure seems like a deliberate attempt to destroy a public agency. Even more striking since the Postal Service is explicitly authorized by the Constitution itself.

Corporate Self: O -- "Senator Speaker Boeher, a black man is POTUS!"
-|-
/\

[t1.gstatic.com image 215x235]

FTFY

Otherwise, LOL

and...

meat0918:

MEGALOL

randomjsa: Reality: The Republican controlled House gets plenty of legislation done, it's the Democrat controlled senate where nothing gets done, including a budget for the last several years.

Your reality is so not real.

New? Since 1868. With a couple of periods of deceleration from 1901-1909 and 1953-1961.