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Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Capitol View — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:39:42 -0000

the original Boston Tea Party was about no taxation without representation.

Apparently the Far Right believes that we only have representation when the Conservative Republicans are in charge.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

2ConfusedCrew — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:51:24 -0000

During the course of the day, I learned of three TeaBaggers
1. Husband owns an small, but profitable oil company.
2. Works for a hospital
3. Husband for a large equipment maker who sells either to government or to government contractors
Hmmmm

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

sal-says — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:46:59 -0000

Yup; read the letter in this am's Trib.

Sounds like Houli just passed the Natl Repub Party's Budget and Finance 101 class. Yeah, the one with a lot of claims, tax relief and no numbers on 'how' to do it.

Sorry....A 'plan' ain't a plan without the 'how we gonna do it' numbers.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

walter sobchak — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:10:14 -0000

I walked down to the protest in Chicago without any help from a 'billion dollar cable news organization' and saw a couple of thousand rather cheery seemingly blue collar and middle class citizens with very imaginative signs walking around with surprised looks on their faces at how many of them there were. Seemed pretty spontaneous, got bigger while I was there, had none of the lock step-ism of 'Bush Lied, People Died' protests of the last few years, and I thought...hey this is pretty cool...democracy at work. Whether the emotions expressed have political legs enough to turn out in 2010 will have to be seen, but if I were a betting man, I would bet that there will be more 'organization' and much bigger crowds on the Fourth of July.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Rich Miller — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:19:48 -0000

===A â€œlefty dem blogâ€ and a billion dollar cable news organization arenâ€™t exactly the same.===

You string a few of those blogs together and you've matched Fox's audience.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

JonShibleyFan — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:18:07 -0000

===And support for past demonstrations by some of the really big â€œlefty demâ€ blogs is probably similar to that of Fox Newsâ€™ support for this one.===

A "lefty dem blog" and a billion dollar cable news organization aren't exactly the same. And at least a partisan blog doesn't pretend to be journalism and call itself "fair and balanced."

===I mean, what did you expect from Fox?===

That point I will readily concede.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

SAP — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:58:11 -0000

Point of clarification on Houli's Sales Tax reduction. The state-imposed rate is 6.25%. A 1.75% reduction takes it down to 4.5%, not 3.25%. He is conveniently ignoring the 1.25% portion that is allocated to local governments and focusing on the 5% that the state keeps.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Rich Miller — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:19:58 -0000

Hadn't noticed.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

George — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:13:30 -0000

Rich, a lot of new folks here today.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Boscobud — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:11:14 -0000

I think these protests are a good thing. The big questions is how effective are they. What more does the GOP have to do to get there ideas across? I take that back there were lots of GOP people but there were also Dems at the protests yesterday. It was very interesting watching CNN and Fox News yesterday and what kind of media the protests got. CNN to me looked like they were avoiding the subject but they did have a girl in Chicago and she was rude to the protecters. Then Fox news did none stop coverage which to me was a little over kill.

This was just my observation.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Belle — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:10:25 -0000

As a new tea-party protester i'd like to remind everyone that the tea party was about more than taxes. I and fellow party goers are ticked about the so called bailouts of banks\private industry, the white house firing of a ceo and any government takeover, and we wish to stop the free for all spending that has rewarded the campaign backers of those in Washington DC. Seems like the first days of Blago all over again...

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Rich Miller — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:02:08 -0000

VMan, on this post you argue that people should watch what they say. On another post, you argue vehemently for totally free speech and deride anyone and everyone (with barely concealed homophobic insults) who believes differently.

Time to take a rest, dude.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Rich Miller — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:58:26 -0000

===It was a corporate-sponsored, astroturf event===

Most national protests have organizational sponsorships or direction. That's not new. Somebody has to do the hard work. I think that aspect was way overblown by the other side. It's not easy at all to get people out of their homes and into the streets. It's darned difficult, in fact. Professional help is always advised.

And support for past demonstrations by some of the really big "lefty dem" blogs is probably similar to that of Fox News' support for this one. I mean, what did you expect from Fox?

What'll be interesting to watch is whether they're building some sort of centralized contact list(s), and who is doing it, if anyone, or whether it's gonna be bottom-up p2p, and who will try to take it over.

They're gonna do another round of these on July 4th, I see. That'll be Round 3. We'll know a lot more then.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

VanillaMan — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:53:02 -0000

An unphotogenic 48 year old spinster cat woman from a Scottish village appeared on a talent show this weekend, and was roundly laughed at. The crowd whistled and taunted her until they heard her sing. She left the stage with the crowd cheering. A lot of people this weekend saw this event and relearned an old truth - you don't let your prejudices and elitist snobbery close your mind towards neighbors. Everyone has a story to tell.

But all I have been reading since yesterday is insults and catcalls towards the groups of unphotogenic "homogenous" anti-tax crowds who appeared by the hundreds of thousands across the US, angry over how the governments have let us down. I watched MSNBC, CNN, and other ridiculous supposed reporters call these folks "teabaggers" and used frat dorm jokes to insult them.

It is digusting. Imagine if we saw that kind of reporting during the Civil Rights March. Can you ever imagine Walter Cronkite dismissing Martin Luther King on television as some kind of religious nut bent on dragging his Biblical beliefs into Washington? Sure, there were those who opposed the Civil Rights Marches, but did any of the major networks act as partisan, narrow minded or elitist as what we witnessed yesterday?

It is offensive. The first rule in a democracy is to defend one another's right to be heard. To respect differing opinion sincerely presented. Just how long can these pompous TV talking heads keep it up? Why is bigotry and hatred towards those whith traditional views acceptable?

Those who favor big government and feel that taxes should be patriotically paid are not making friends or building bridges. They are not including or healing the country with this kind of prepubescent insults. Enough is enough.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

JonShibleyFan — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:51:25 -0000

And can we stop the notion that this was some people-powered populist uprising? It was a corporate-sponsored, astroturf event full of people who, as the anecdotes like that which Rich relayed point out, had no real idea why they were angry (except maybe that their guy lost in November).

They do not constitute a silent majority (and way to use Nixon references), they are a very vocal minority.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Pot calling kettle — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:46:06 -0000

If you cut every single government employee, you would not get to 50%. Most of the money goes to medicare, medicade, pensions, and social security. (and debt service at the federal level)

And how many state police, corrections officers, and military people are you willing to do without? And, have you been complaining about the potholes? Who will fill them? And we could double the class size in schools, that would be a real boon to learning.

Of course, we could all admit we need to pay for the services we expect...

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

JonShibleyFan — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:45:49 -0000

Amusing, they were protesting, so how were they "silent?"

And a Gallup survey found some 60% of Americans feel taxes are fair. So how are they the "majority?"

@ VM:

"The people rule."

Yes, they do. We DID just have one of those national election thingies five months ago, no? And the people chose.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Ghost — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:23:57 -0000

I was supprised at how homogeneous the crowd appeared to be for a tax protest.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Rich Miller — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:08:43 -0000

Yeah, that's a plan that'll pass.

C'mon.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

enrico depressario — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:04:37 -0000

Here's a plan. Chop all government by 50 percent. The only reason we employ all these yahoos is to serve as patronage armies for the sleazy politicians.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Sick of it — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:34:52 -0000

Just sayin that the Federal tax cut is overblown IMO. I don't really have a problem with a state tax increase, just in how low to middle income single people are taking a big hit compared to middle class families.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Rich Miller — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:27:16 -0000

Sick of it, if you don't care about a small federal tax break, then why get at all upset about a 1 to 1.5 percentage point tax hike which is deductible on your federal taxes?

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Sick of it — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:24:02 -0000

A couple thoughts...... At least the tea parties did not turn into riots like the far Left protests in Seattle a few years ago.

95% of Americans getting tax cuts.....gee, that $16 a month is really a big help!

I realze the state needs more revenue and don't mind an income tax hike that's fair to everyone but Quinns plan seems to target single people unfairly. My girlfriend make around 20k a tear and will see a hike while a family of 4 can make over 3 times that and get a cut. Maybe a compromise would seem fair, increase the standard exemption but not the additional ones.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Reality Check — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:11:54 -0000

How's this for strange bedfellows: The people making the most sense on this thread are Cassandra, Bill and Schnorf. I hope that means there is political consensus for doing the right thing.

Re: Tea and Houli – and a guy named Cullerton

Cassandra — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:09:08 -0000

Cullerton's proposal may be more practical politically but it is slightly more regressive.

And the people who lose the increased deduction are the ones most likely to really need the money.
Not to mention that they are most likely to spend it right away.

Interesting how quickly the Dems lose their concern for the lower economic orders when expediency calls.