Tags for this video have been changed from 'pants, animation' to 'pants, animation, lyndon b johnson, lbj, president, slacks' - edited by blankfist

It's become part of the Sift, not unlike Westy's spelling and QuantumMushroom finding a rightist slant that blames leftist forces for everything.


Oh, not EVERYTHING. After all, 98% isn't a 100%.

Liberals' 50 years of dreadful domestic policy
Posted: December 23, 2010

by Larry Elder

For the past 50 years, the Democrats – and many Republicans who should know better – have been wrong about virtually every major domestic policy issue. Let's review some of them:

Taxes

The bipartisan extension of the Bush tax cuts represents the latest triumph over the "soak the rich because trickledown doesn't work" leftists.

President Ronald Reagan sharply reduced the top marginal tax rates from 70 percent to 28 percent, doubling the Treasury's tax revenue. President George H.W. Bush raised the income tax rate, as did his successor. But President George W. Bush lowered them to the current 35 percent.

President Barack Obama repeatedly called the current rate unfair, harmful to the country and a reward to those who "didn't need" the cuts and "didn't ask for" them. If true, he and his party ditched their moral obligation to oppose the extension. But they didn't, because none of it is true. Democratic icon John F. Kennedy, who reduced the top marginal rate from more than 90 percent to 70 percent, said, "A rising tide lifts all the boats." He was right – and most of the Democratic Party knows it.


Welfare for the "underclass"

When President Lyndon Johnson launched his "War on Poverty," the poverty rate was trending down. When he offered money and benefits to unmarried women, the rate started flat-lining. Women married the government, allowing men to abandon their moral and financial responsibilities.

The percentage of children born outside of marriage – to young, disproportionately uneducated and disproportionately brown and black women – exploded. In 1996, over the objections of many on the left, welfare was reformed. Time limits were imposed, and women no longer received additional benefits if they had more children. The welfare rolls declined. Ten years later, the New York Times wrote: "When the 1996 law was passed ... liberal advocacy groups ... predicted that it would increase child poverty, hunger and homelessness. The predictions were not fulfilled."

Education

The federal government's increasing involvement with education – what is properly a state and local function – has been costly and ineffective at best, and counterproductive at worst. Title I, a program begun 45 years ago to close the performance gap between urban and suburban schools, burns through more than $15 billion a year, and the performance gap has widened. The feds spend $80 billion a year on K-12 education, as if money is the answer. States like Utah and Iowa spend much less money per student compared with districts like those in New York City and Washington, D.C., with much better results.

Where parents have choices – where the money follows the student rather than the other way around – the students perform better, with higher parental satisfaction. But the teachers' unions and the Democratic Party continue to resist true competition among public, private and parochial schools.

Gun control

Violent crime occurs disproportionately in urban areas – where Democrats in charge impose the most draconian gun-control laws.

Over the objection of those who warn of a "return to the Wild West," 34 states passed laws allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons. Not one state has repealed its law. Professor John Lott, author of "More Guns, Less Crime," says: "There is a strong negative relationship between the number of law-abiding citizens with permits and the crime rate: As more people obtain permits, there is a greater decline in violent crime rates. For each additional year that a concealed handgun law is in effect, the murder rate declines by 3 percent, rape by 2 percent and robberies by over 2 percent."


"Affirmative action"

Race-based preferences have been a disaster for college admissions. Students admitted with lesser credentials are more likely to drop out. Had their credentials matched their schools, they would have been far more likely to graduate and thus enter the job market at a more productive level.

Preferences in government hiring and contracting have led to widespread, costly and morale-draining "reverse discrimination" lawsuits. Where preferences have been put to the ballot, voters – even in liberal states like California – have voted against them.

Minimum-wage hikes

Almost all economists agree that minimum-wage laws contribute to unemployment among the low-skilled – the very group the "compassionate party" claims to care about.

Economist Walter E. Williams, 74, in his new autobiography, "Up from the Projects," describes the many low-skilled jobs he took as a teenager. "By today's standards," he wrote, "my youthful employment opportunities might be seen as extraordinary. That was not the case in the 1940s and 1950s. In fact, as I've reported in some of my research, teenage unemployment among blacks was slightly lower than among whites, and black teens were more active in the labor force as well. All of my classmates, friends, and acquaintances who wanted to work found jobs of one sort or another."

Obamacare

This ghastly government-directed scheme will inevitably lead to rationing and lower-quality care – all without "bending the cost curve" down as Obama promised.

Any party can have a bad half-century. Merry Christmas Solstice.

I grew up watching Dr. Who on the good ol Public Broadcasting Service. Before the interwebs, PBS was the place to be (in America) if you wanted entertainment and education. Thank you Lyndon B. Johnson!

Liberals' 50 years of dreadful domestic policy
Posted: December 23, 2010

by Larry Elder

For the past 50 years, the Democrats – and many Republicans who should know better – have been wrong about virtually every major domestic policy issue. Let's review some of them:

Taxes

The bipartisan extension of the Bush tax cuts represents the latest triumph over the "soak the rich because trickledown doesn't work" leftists.

President Ronald Reagan sharply reduced the top marginal tax rates from 70 percent to 28 percent, doubling the Treasury's tax revenue. President George H.W. Bush raised the income tax rate, as did his successor. But President George W. Bush lowered them to the current 35 percent.

President Barack Obama repeatedly called the current rate unfair, harmful to the country and a reward to those who "didn't need" the cuts and "didn't ask for" them. If true, he and his party ditched their moral obligation to oppose the extension. But they didn't, because none of it is true. Democratic icon John F. Kennedy, who reduced the top marginal rate from more than 90 percent to 70 percent, said, "A rising tide lifts all the boats." He was right – and most of the Democratic Party knows it.


Welfare for the "underclass"

When President Lyndon Johnson launched his "War on Poverty," the poverty rate was trending down. When he offered money and benefits to unmarried women, the rate started flat-lining. Women married the government, allowing men to abandon their moral and financial responsibilities.

The percentage of children born outside of marriage – to young, disproportionately uneducated and disproportionately brown and black women – exploded. In 1996, over the objections of many on the left, welfare was reformed. Time limits were imposed, and women no longer received additional benefits if they had more children. The welfare rolls declined. Ten years later, the New York Times wrote: "When the 1996 law was passed ... liberal advocacy groups ... predicted that it would increase child poverty, hunger and homelessness. The predictions were not fulfilled."

Education

The federal government's increasing involvement with education – what is properly a state and local function – has been costly and ineffective at best, and counterproductive at worst. Title I, a program begun 45 years ago to close the performance gap between urban and suburban schools, burns through more than $15 billion a year, and the performance gap has widened. The feds spend $80 billion a year on K-12 education, as if money is the answer. States like Utah and Iowa spend much less money per student compared with districts like those in New York City and Washington, D.C., with much better results.

Where parents have choices – where the money follows the student rather than the other way around – the students perform better, with higher parental satisfaction. But the teachers' unions and the Democratic Party continue to resist true competition among public, private and parochial schools.

Gun control

Violent crime occurs disproportionately in urban areas – where Democrats in charge impose the most draconian gun-control laws.

Over the objection of those who warn of a "return to the Wild West," 34 states passed laws allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons. Not one state has repealed its law. Professor John Lott, author of "More Guns, Less Crime," says: "There is a strong negative relationship between the number of law-abiding citizens with permits and the crime rate: As more people obtain permits, there is a greater decline in violent crime rates. For each additional year that a concealed handgun law is in effect, the murder rate declines by 3 percent, rape by 2 percent and robberies by over 2 percent."


"Affirmative action"

Race-based preferences have been a disaster for college admissions. Students admitted with lesser credentials are more likely to drop out. Had their credentials matched their schools, they would have been far more likely to graduate and thus enter the job market at a more productive level.

Preferences in government hiring and contracting have led to widespread, costly and morale-draining "reverse discrimination" lawsuits. Where preferences have been put to the ballot, voters – even in liberal states like California – have voted against them.

Minimum-wage hikes

Almost all economists agree that minimum-wage laws contribute to unemployment among the low-skilled – the very group the "compassionate party" claims to care about.

Economist Walter E. Williams, 74, in his new autobiography, "Up from the Projects," describes the many low-skilled jobs he took as a teenager. "By today's standards," he wrote, "my youthful employment opportunities might be seen as extraordinary. That was not the case in the 1940s and 1950s. In fact, as I've reported in some of my research, teenage unemployment among blacks was slightly lower than among whites, and black teens were more active in the labor force as well. All of my classmates, friends, and acquaintances who wanted to work found jobs of one sort or another."

Obamacare

This ghastly government-directed scheme will inevitably lead to rationing and lower-quality care – all without "bending the cost curve" down as Obama promised.

Any party can have a bad half-century. Merry Christmas.

Bullshit. You voted for Bob motherfucking Barr, who was hands down the most evil person on the ballot next to Lyndon LaRouche.


>> ^blankfist:

>> ^JiggaJonson:
^Maybe I can believe that both are promoting statism but "just as guilty" isn't really fitting.

I rarely find much difference between Democrat and Republican politicians. Both lie about what they're selling you for your vote. Both ultimately increase war spending and increase US imperialism. Both increase spending and give corporations a hand job.

Voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for an evil.

“I’ll have them nggrs voting Democrat for the next two hundred years.”

---Circa 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s vow after he signed into law civil rights legislation.
Inside the White House, Ronald Kessler, Simon & Schuster, p. 33.


Conversely MLK was not a "staunch Republican". Had he lived he likely would've ended up a shakedown race-hustler like Je$$e $harpton.

I have to defend Gangs of New York since to me that was hardly a nothing film. It had the quality of a period piece to where you felt like you were IN mid 19th century New York. Perhaps the movie was a bit longer than it needed to be but after re-watching it again recently I feel that it is up to the Scorsese standard. I do have difficulty remembering Eyes Wide Shut, and the only time I saw it was when it was originally in theaters.

Unfortunately I also lack the fortune of having seen either Goodfellas *or* Casino on the Scorsese side which makes for rather awkward conversations with the rest of the world who has. Same thing for Spartacus or Paths of Glory.

I did, however, watch Barry Lyndon for the first time just a few days ago. Now that is some damn fine cinematography. I know they used special f/0.9 lenses for the candlelight scenes, and it shows.

Upvote for the beautiful selection of music for the montage

Same here, though I enjoy both.

Seven thoughts as I watched this vid:

1. Gangs of New York was such a nothing film. The Departed and Shutter Island were terrific.

2. Scorsese's early work (Who's That Knocking on My Door, Mean Streets, and Taxi Driver) was very artistic. His movies since that time: not so much.

3. "We Are the People is not the same as We Are the People. Let's not fight. Look, I'm gonna make it real simple. We don't pay for the buttons, We throw the buttons away."

4. The only Kubrick film I was really disappointed with was Eyes Wide Shut. That was also a nothing film.

5. Kubrick's movies are timeless and infinitely re-watchable. But then, so are Scorsese's.

6. Kubrick started as a photographer and so his films are meticulous and beautiful, especially Barry Lyndon. Kubrick was an artist through and through.

7. "Hey Dad. There's a strange fella sittin' on the sofa munchy-wunchin' long tics of toast!"

>> ^therealblankman:

Barry Lyndon is probably my least favorite Kubrick film, not completely sure why but maybe it has a little to do with Ryan O'Neal's skills as a thespian...


Lol... we need to do a mash-up of the two scenes

Barry Lyndon is probably my least favorite Kubrick film, not completely sure why but maybe it has a little to do with Ryan O'Neal's skills as a thespian...

But seriously. Besides the tinfoil hat conspiracy theories... laws get passed that corporation disapprove of all the time.

It just takes some goddamn balls to do it.

Christ. Obama, if you pass healthcare reform NOW... in three more years when you're up for election either you will win handily because people will be so happy they can't stand it or you will lose because your government.. I don't know... kills people or something I don't really see a downside.

But you will be the incumbent president with MUCH more ability to be reelected than any challenger just as any encumbent president. But America despises weakness... more than anything. Jimmy Carter was portrayed as a wimp by Reagan and lost handily... because CARTER ACTED LIKE A WIMP! For the love of christ, Lyndon Johnson was a democrat! That dude was made out of fucking concrete and held meetings while he was on the shitter.

JUST DO SOMETHING OBAMA... AND DO IT WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND SOUL.

There is nothing Americans love more than a Rocky Balboa. Any guy that throws EVERYTHING he has into a fight, and keeps getting knocked down but gets back up to fight again... americans eat that for breakfast.

But if you go out there and get knocked out because you were afraid you'd hurt someone's feelings... well, join Jimmy Carter (a great guy, but not the greatest president) at the one term presidents' table.

wow, who the hell pays 350 bucks a month for car insurance????
ron paul is an idiot. isnt nasa in texas? lyndon b johnson space center, hey texans,give it back.
fort hood is also in texas,largest post in the usa. wonder if that stimulates their economy??
how about fema?? next time a hurricane wipes out huoston, dont call uncle sam. just secede !! and republicans suddenly wanting to fiscally responsible is ..just..i cant describe it. omg these people are hysterical if only they were'nt running the country.
ron paul is not principled,hes old and confused.
if i give the consumer a 4000 dollar tax break,hes buys a new car or house, then i get my payroll taxes from all the employed people. but if no one works or buys cars,or houses, i get nothing, but have to fork out unemployment. see? its simple. so simple even dr paul SHOULD get it. these programs are vital to pull us out of the tailspin caused by dr paul and his republican friends. obama is just cleaning up their mess.

turn off fox news. seriously.

Hehe. I've got that movie on VHS, and I've never watched it for lack of a player. I should netflix it.

In reply to this comment by ponceleon:
Whoa whoa... where's the coin flip???

In reply to this comment by schmawy:
Take your ground, sir, and prepare to receive fire!

In reply to this comment by ponceleon:
In reply to this comment by schmawy:
This is how we must resolve problems on the Sift. I'm sure somebody could whip up a little flash-embed dueling sim.


Sir, I demand satisfaction!

Whoa whoa... where's the coin flip???

In reply to this comment by schmawy:
Take your ground, sir, and prepare to receive fire!

In reply to this comment by ponceleon:
In reply to this comment by schmawy:
This is how we must resolve problems on the Sift. I'm sure somebody could whip up a little flash-embed dueling sim.


Sir, I demand satisfaction!

Take your ground, sir, and prepare to receive fire!

In reply to this comment by ponceleon:
In reply to this comment by schmawy:
This is how we must resolve problems on the Sift. I'm sure somebody could whip up a little flash-embed dueling sim.


Sir, I demand satisfaction!