Wednesday Open Thread
Welcome to your Wednesday open thread. It may be officially spring but winter wants to give us one more kick in the butt. Go away, winter! Let’s open this thread. What’s on your mind?
Another day, another poll showing buyer’s remorse for a new Republican Midwestern governor. This week it’s Michigan’s Rick Snyder, who won the governorship by an impressive 18% in November.
Think again. Snyder actually now has the worst numbers of this new trio of GOP Governors, with only 33% of voters approving of him to 50% who disapprove. And despite his overwhelming victory last fall voters now say that if they could do it over they’d pick Virg Bernero over Snyder by a 47-45 margin. Snyder’s current status is definitely emblematic of the adage that the higher you climb the farther you fall.
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Snyder’s ability to win big in a blue state was due to his successfully presenting himself to the voters as a centrist but he’s lost that image with a lot of folks over the last few months. In September we found 46% of voters in the state thought Snyder was ‘about right’ ideologically to only 26% who thought he was ‘too conservative.’ Now those numbers are basically tied with 37% judging him about right and 36% too conservative.
A few specific things are causing Snyder these problems. His signature Emergency Financial Act has been a giant thud with voters in the state. Only 32% of voters support it to 50% in opposition. Democrats are a lot more convinced that it’s a bad thing (71%) than Republicans are that it’s a good thing (53%), and independents split against it by a 45/36 margin as well.
Snyder’s also earned the ire of the voters because of the perception that he’s targeting collective bargaining rights. 59% of folks in Michigan think that public employees should have the right to collective bargaining while only 32% are opposed, and 49% of voters even favor a state constitutional amendment to guarantee collective bargaining rights while 37% are opposed to such a measure. While union households are obviously the most supportive of collective bargaining, nonunion households support it by a 53/39 margin as well so the voters Snyder is antagonizing on this issue go beyond who you might expect.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. There will be a referendum on a bill to guarantee collective bargaining rights in 2012. Will this bring out the labor vote?
This next story is just weird. The founder of the “liberty dollar” is facing legal troubles.
After an eight-day trial and less than two hours of deliberation, von NotHaus, the founder and “monetary architect” of a currency known as the Liberty Dollar, was found guilty of making coins resembling and similar to United States coins; of issuing, passing, selling and possessing Liberty Dollar coins; of issuing and passing Liberty Dollar coins intended for use as current money; and of conspiracy against the United States.
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During the raid, about a dozen agents seized nearly two tons of coins that featured the image of Ron Paul, a Texas congressman. They also took about 500 pounds of silver and 40 to 50 ounces of gold, as was paper currency and other metals.
The 2007 raid was a development in a dispute between von NotHaus and the U.S. government. In a federal suit filed in March 2007 in U.S. District Court in Evansville, von NotHaus sought a permanent injunction against the federal government to force it to stop referring to the Liberty Dollar as an illegal currency and to require the removal of a warning from the U.S. Mint’s website stating that use of the Liberty Dollar violates federal law.
The coins had pictures of Ron Paul on them. Doesn’t it seem like there are a lot of really strange Ron Paul fans?
Tags: Open Thread
Just an FYI. I’m now using Firefox 4 and haven’t had any of those annoying crashes that seemed to plague earlier versions of Firefox on this site..
in a free market, we would all make our own wompom and it would be worth whatever the holder says it is worth…..
“sir, if you take out my cancerous nodule, I’ll give you this dried up turd worth over a million Paulies!”
YAY LIBERTARIANISM!
I take no comfort in Synder’s crappy numbers. Sure they are dismal, but at least you know where the guy stands. On election day there are a large number of voters who vote for the guy who seems honest about what he believes even if they don’t agree with his politics.
Nobody can say Snyder and Walker are not honest about believing that workers should get screwed and the wealthy need more tax cuts. Ultimately, these guys get elected because they get to run against Democrats. The Democratic Party has done nothing to create any kind of brand equity in the voters mind and in some cases (Tom “Crumb Bum” Carper) have actively worked to blur the lines between Republicans and Democrats.
Given a choice between a Republican and a Republican, the voters will choose the Republican every time.
von NotHaus was minting 1oz silver coins worth about $37.20 each as of noon today. Obviosly he was not trying to fool anyone into thinking his coin was worth one dollar.
Even stranger, He was charged with “Domestic Terrorism”.
The von NotHaus (English: Of Nut House) attack on the integrity of the money supply is terrible if not terrifying.
Wow! I bought 10!
Do you think this will increase their value?
I’d sure like to fill the root cellar with the survival stuff Mr. Beck is hawking.
Domestic Terrorism sounds about right to me.
Which it would to our wingnut here if the man’s name was Walid al-NotHaus, right?
Anyone notice that it was the BushCo Justice Department that started this fight with this guy over his fake dollars? Fun Times.
I caught that lady.
I’ll only say this: You caint spel cassandra w/o ass.
While Manoor has a more traditional spelling, but the meaning is universally crap.
How does selling gold and silver rounds attack the integrity of the money suply?
Every seller of golden and silver bullion touts it as a hedge against inflation… is it terrorism to acknowledge the inflationary policy of the Federal Reserve?
Having googled images of the coins in question, only a moron would mistake them for US currency.
Well since he was selling these to the Paulites who rail against fiat money, it seems reasonable to me that they wouldn’t know any better than to NOT try to use them for goods.
There is a difference between bullion coins meant and authorized as legal tender and this BS.
@hmmmm, maybe you should reserch and read the counterfeiting laws, along with the selling and trading of bullion.
after you understand that, then consult the definitions of Domestic Terrorism, its not just about the bombs
“There is a difference between bullion coins meant and authorized as legal tender and this BS.”
Well for starters, there are no “bullion coins meant and authorized as legal tender ”
Aoine, thanks for the “I don’t have a clue, try google” responce.
See what I mean about morons?
Kruggerrands are legal tender — they have a legal face value — as do many of the bullion coins minted by governments.
@ cassandra-well, it used to be spelled manwhoor, so my ancestors dropped the “w’ and the “h”.
How were they sposed to know you all’d come up with such a high-falutin’ name for shite?
the village cassy… often wrong, but never in doubt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krugerrand
And the moron posts more of the moronic. Do you even read what you post?
The coin has legal tender status. It would be crazy to use it that way, but it does have a legal face value. As do the rare and much wanted US Double Eagle gold coins. They have a legal face value of $20.00. It would be dumb as dirt to use them that way, but hey, no one is going to accuse a wingnut conservative of having more than two brain cells to rub together. That still means (sorry not to use smaller words) that the coins are legal tender, with a legal face value. Not so for the Liberty bullshit peddled by your pal.
People would be stupid enough to think it is US currency. I once got in an arguement with a supermarket cashier because she wouldn’t take my “funny money” $2 bills.
Calling counterfeiting domestic terrorism is big stretch IMO.
Hmmmm – me thinks we have another Texas wingnut trolling around our blog.
Awesome — hmmm’s hero has apparently found a new bit of crazy. He is:
Yay!!!!
I sold my “liberty dollars” on e-bay.
Made two bucks after the various fees and shipping charges.
But, added to my initial investment, I can now buy a case of beans, some freeze-dried mystery meat and a box of Chinese 12 gauge shotgun shells.
Thank you, Mr. Beck, for worrying about the real Amuricans and makin’ it possible for us to survive the coming apocalypse to rise and populate the WORLD with REAL Amuricans with the values of our founding fathers who worshiped the ONE TRUE GOD!
Gotta go, hogs is hungry.
And all you homo-huggin’ tree screwin’ libs thought I was stupit.
To be honest… You are not there yet, but keep working on it. I think it is a little forced, which is natural. As with anything, it takes practice and willingness to try, fail and learn from that failure.
@HM “And all you homo-huggin’ tree screwin’ libs thought I was stupit.”
Pyramid schemes have both winners and losers. Just because you can claim to be a minor winner doesn’t make the whole thing not “stupit”.