Friday Open Thread [3.29.13]

39 Comments
Does ... any of the idiot conservatives who repeat this nonsense ad infinitum [that families have to balance their budgets] have any clue how people manage their budgets? They use credit cards, which is debt. They get mortgages, which is debt. They get student loans, which is debt. They get car loans, which is debt. And let's not get started on businesses and their leveraged debts. So if Republicans want Washington to act like American families do, then we're already there!
And now lets put numbers to this story to show you how ridiculous this GOP talking point is:
U.S. household consumer debt profile: Average credit card debt: $15,266 Average mortgage debt: $149,667 Average student loan debt: $32,559 vs Income: $44,389 So, if we balanced the budget the same way households do, the federal debt to income ratio would be: 78/22 = 3.5/1 But it's currently approximately 1.7/1 So, if the Republicans actually meant what they said, we should be on a debt spending spree like never seen before in the history of the nation.

Adventures in Personal Responsibility — Or Being Mike Protack

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I know that some of you are on Facebook and you've been a witness to weeks of insulting and trolling behavior from Mike Protack. Personally, I'm not friends with the guy, but some of my friends are, and the exchanges I've seen have been utterly unhinged. No matter the topic at hand, what emerges is the completely resentful Mike Protack -- blaming Democrats or unions for all of the worlds' ills; insulting the intelligence, the appearance, the ethnic background, the appearance of the *kids* of his interlocutors; making stuff up; and just generally lacking in the basic social graces that got him banned from this place. Whether he is talking about education or same sex marriage, all he's been capable of over on Facebook is anger, insults and ignorance. Yesterday, Esteban Parra documented the most recent incident -- one where Protack decided to get his inner racist on:

The Ridiculous Reasons Republicans Give….

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The following is the reason Republican Senator Greg Lavelle gave for voting against the repeal of the death penalty:
"15 years from now, there will be a group, undoubtedly, that will come and say, 'Isn't it cruel and unusual, isn't it horrific, that as as society that we put somebody in jail that committed a murder when they're 21, 22-years-old, an adult, and they're in there for 30, 40, 50 years, isn't that cruel and unusual, and shouldn't we allow them out?'" asks Lavelle.
This is quite an assine statement, even from Lavelle. First, no one here in Delaware or anywhere as far as I can tell has ever said life sentences for adults who commit murder is cruel and unusual. So Lavelle is lying to create a straw man that he can fight against, which gives him a reason for his vote. So let's concede that point for the moment. Let's concede that Lavelle is really concerned that there is this movement out there that in 15 years will seek to repeal life sentences without the possibility of parole because somehow it is cruel and unusual. Ok. So Lavelle's answer to this concern is we must kill the convict? In order to prevent the the forces waving the cruel and unusual punishment banner from going down a slippery slope, we must keep a cruel and unusual punishment on the books? It seems to me that Lavelle, through his attempt at mockery, is conceding that the death penalty is cruel and unusual and we need to keep that cruel and unusual punishment on the books so that non-cruel and unusual punishments like life imprisonment are never challenged as cruel and unusual. Well, that makes sense!