Well, there's one race that may be happening I actually care about.

[Disco Pickle]

yeah, it might have been you, Trip.  I can't be sure but I remember having a good, long laugh about it.

[Cramulus]

doomsaying & preemptive "I told you so" aside, does anybody have a reason we shouldn't be excited for Elizabeth Warren?

[Disco Pickle]

doomsaying & preemptive "I told you so" aside, does anybody have a reason we shouldn't be excited for Elizabeth Warren?

Not that I see.  Other than the her being a lawyer.  But that's par.

She has written a lot of books I'd like to add to my reading list.

[Jenne]

The problem is that, all reality aside, it was easy to see just how TRANSPARENT McCain and Palin were about being assholish fucktards.  Whereas Obama hid his well and then was victimized tirelessly by the GOP as so many red herring false labels...it became a little difficult to remember we were seeing this guy with rose-colored glasses.  Some of us.

I regret a lot of the falderal I engaged in when becoming a little proud we'd elected who we did.

[Telarus]

You should watch yesterday's Daily Show. The author guest for the interview at the end has some very interesting inside views of how Obama's confidence faltered over the first part of his term, letting other people call the shots in certain cases.

[Cain]

I called from the start that he would suck on AfPak and economics.  He admitted as such, through his chosen policies, and through the people he surrounded himself with (I mean, come on, he hired Tim "our man in Washington" Geithner for fucks sake).

I was surprised he wasn't a little more firm on the rhetorical side of things, I'll admit, slapping the teabaggers and birthers around more, but Obama showed every sign of being a pro-interventionist corporatist, and surprise! he's governed that way.

[Jenne]

Oh, I heard some interviews on this already--was it that guy who wrote that book?--Suskind?

I have it recorded, I just need to watch it.  Doesn't surprise me that is how his presidency has gone down.  He strikes me as the "emote in private, in public be confident" type because that's how he probably dealt with social adversity (in any sense) when he was younger.

Thing is, it can be intimidating, but not in the RIGHT way when you're in office.  Not when we have people willing to elect yahoos based on whether or not they want to have a beer with them.

[East Coast Hustle]

doomsaying & preemptive "I told you so" aside, does anybody have a reason we shouldn't be excited for Elizabeth Warren?

How about "because she's probably doing alot more for the good of the general public where she is"?

[Cramulus]

so let me make sure I understand -- given the choice between Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown, you'd vote for Brown because Warren is doing more good for the public as a Harvard law professor than she could do as a Senator?

[East Coast Hustle]

No, I'd vote for Brown because I want to see this ride come flying off the tracks sooner rather than later.

But you didn't ask who I'd vote for, you asked if anyone had a reason to not be excited about her aside from the two very obvious ones whose value you seem to be dismissing just by virtue of their obviousness.

[Luna]

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.

You built a factory out there—good for you! But I want to be clear.

You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for.

You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate.

You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.

You didn't have to worry that maurauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.

Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea—God bless. Keep a big hunk of it.

But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/669655/elizabeth_warren_puts_the_kibosh_on_gop%27s_%22class_warfare%22%3A_nobody_in_this_country_got_rich_on_his_own%22/

[PopeTom]

Problem of course being that the GOP want to pay it forward to the next kid(s) that come along.  Their own kids and only their own kids.  Why do you think they oppose inheritance taxes?

[Disco Pickle]

Problem of course being that the GOP want to pay it forward to the next kid(s) that come along.  Their own kids and only their own kids.  Why do you think they oppose inheritance taxes?

I'd love a good explanation on why someone supports high inheritance taxes.  I have my suspicions, but I'd love to have them destroyed.  I'm a masochist that way. 

Please, explain to my why the wealth built in one generation of a family should be gutted and taken from the next generation of a family and given to a central authority to do..  what ever it is they do with it. 

war mostly, if history is any indicator.

[East Coast Hustle]

Though my opinion on the matter is not what I would consider well-informed, I don't support the inheritance tax.

[Phox]

I have no real opinion on the inheritance tax.

On the one hand, there's the idea that people didn't earn what they are inheriting.

On the other, they person leaving it to them MIGHT have, in which case it's theirs to do with as they wish, including giving it to their ungrateful brat who didn't earn it and will probably squander it all on hookers and blow anyway.

On the third hand, the people who screech the loudest against inheritance tax are generally the same people who want to cut welfare programs because it gives people a "free handout". Which is of course, nothing like daddy giving you a free handout when he kicks the bucket.

On the fourth hand, the government is probably going to end up using it to fund a secret war in South America that's being fought over hookers and blow, and who has the right to sell them in 'Murrica.

So, in conclusion, I don't really give a fuck.