This is why our Vice President is God’s gift to reporters and YouTube fans. In a visit to an ice cream shop this week, the manager asked him to lower taxes and Biden responded by calling him a smart ass.
I have tried to find the origins of the term “smart ass” with little success. I find it odd that being both a “dumb ass” and a “smart ass” are negative terms. One would think that at least being an average “ass” would be acceptable, but that also turns out to be a put down. It appears all forms of ass status are negative. Why is the humble donkey subject to such complete derision while most animals remain largely neutral or even positive in reference? Consider the fact that when President Obama was under fire for being too passive in the face of the BP disaster, his first response was to look for some “ass to kick.”
The question (that the MSM wants to avoid) is whether the Obama Administration is anti-donkey — a form of self-hate for a Democratic administration.
I also agree with Amir…
Swarthmore mom: Thank you for the link. Dennis Kucinich’s remarks are noteworthy, IMHO. He says, accurately, “We are losing our nation to lies about the necessity of war.”
I agree with Amir.
Biden could’ve said we’re doing the best we can, friend.
This guy got away with something. He is lucky Biden didn’t threaten to kick his ass.
This is where we are ….folks don’t even get the idea of joshing with each other anymore…we use to do that kind a stuff all the time to each other in Chicago…if you didn’t, you couldn’t be sure whether you were loved or not…light n up everybody….
I just read or heard yesterday that 82 cents out of every dollar currently spent by the Department of Defense goes to private corporations. That’s 82% of the DoD budget, all taxpayer money of course, getting sucked right into the coffers of some of the greediest, filthiest, mega corporations ever to disgrace this planet. And yet we still hear this constant shrill shrieking about “entitlements” — the loudest from a Party with zero credibility, unprecedented incompetence, and unparalleled hypocrisy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/28/house-dems-citing-corrupt_n_628126.html
Dan Bronx doesn’t get it. There’s no bigger socialist welfare system than the US Military, the bloated budget of which is dragging this economy down deeper than the carcass of the Deepwater Horizon wreck.
Moreover, social security is my entitlement because I pay for it with every paycheck deduction. That’s not welfare. Real welfare, corporate welfare, the kind of welfare that actually make a decisive difference, is the kind never discussed in the commercial press in general and by Fox News Blowhards in particular.
Corporate welfare burdens society infinitely more than programs like food stamps, which were granted by the ruling class not because they’re bleeding hearts, but on the contrary, as a form of riot insurance to keep the unemployed masses from dreaming up and organizing for a new, less iniquitous social arrangement.
Corporate welfare is everywhere and it’s the real unsung burden, with a far greater social cost than anything you can counterpose. The big banks get money from the Fed at 0.5% interest then lend it out to consumers at 20% interest or more. Then when their private investments go sour the public foots the bill in welfare bailouts to the super rich, just like they did with the Savings & Loans back in the 80’s, when Neil Bush literally stole $50 million in cash and walked away with the words: “You’ve got to admit it was a pretty sweet deal.”
Defense contractors not only get free R&D monies from the Pentagon at taxpayers expense to dream up new ways to vaporize people but then they get filthy rich supplying the military when the public is lied into needless wars.
The Pentagon just admitted it spends $400 per gallon for fuel to run all the machines in the Afghan war.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/63407-400gallon-gas-another-cost-of-war-in-afghanistan-
That outrageous cost, nevermind the rest of the war & then Iraq, amounts to direct corporate welfare, particularly when companies like Halliburton that Cheney used to run continue to get no bid contracts and have admitted to gouging up to $7 billion in overcharges.
The mindless mantra of conservatives has always blown hard about “entitlements” while hypocritiaclly ignoring that giant corporations like BP are the biggest recipiants of welfare, avoiding taxes with offshore registry and “entitled” to suck the finite resources from under our public lands for pennies on the dollar, then leaving the land a toxic dump that taxpayers will have to pay to clean up because rest assured $20 billion over ten years is just a fraction of what the real social cost of what that disaster will really entail. And conservatives have the audacity to apologize to BP!
“Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.” — John Stuart Mill
“Your ‘low taxes’ for Median Income earners have simply been deferred and cost shifted to businesses and other income levels because there can never really be substantive low taxes for anyone when the Government is spending more than it can legally rake in.”
so true! but if ‘low taxes’ were the only ingredient in this drecht pie how does that explain the dwindling middle-class? One has to look at ALL the picture and you cannot blame the workers, the ‘welfare recipients’ or anyone else who follows the gameplan only to get screwed by those who keep changing the tune when it comes THEIR turn to dance…
Karl F. Says:
Of course small businesses get the shaft, but in alot more ways than just taxes. That’s not Obama’s fault. That’s modern capitalism’s fault,
It’s a stretch to say that the Federal government’s self-inflicted deficits from its massive entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Public Union Pensions is the result of ‘Capitalism’. Who burdens businesses with the ‘FICA’ tax? ‘Capitalism’ or Congress?
On the “…that’s not Obama’s fault” for creating an anti-small business growth climate, the WaPo differs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/03/21/GR2009032100104.html
Your ‘low taxes’ for Median Income earners have simply been deferred and cost shifted to businesses and other income levels because there can never really be substantive low taxes for anyone when the Government is spending more than it can legally rake in.
The bill will eventually come due…ala Greece!
The politicians in this world… have at their command weapons of mass destruction far more complex than their own thinking processes.
–Charley Reese
All wars are fought for money.
–Socrates
Our ‘politicians’ are fighting wars on too many fronts, including here at home…and this manager is pretty courageous to speak this truth to the V.P., cameras rolling and all…
I wonder the P’sTB are becoming cranky at hearing so much distress from so many ‘little’ people must make it difficult to pass those bailout bills…
Ditto to what Bloise said 🙂
Of course small businesses get the shaft, but in alot more ways than jsut taxes. That’s not Obama’s fault. That’s modern capitalism’s fault, which is a system utterly ruled by multinational corporations like BP.
It’s hardly extortion to get $20 billion from them over 10 years. Hell, their taxes, at last years rate of profit, should be more than that after 10 years anyway, so we the people have gottten nothing but disaster.
‘Kevin O’Rourke 1, June 27, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Federal income tax chart for the last 50 years for ‘average family of four’.
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/4-14-10tax-f1.jpg‘
Yes things were looking good there for a bit but I think the issue is more complex for small business owners such as the man in the video;
This article finds that the effective federal tax rate facing middle-income households has trended downward over the last 25 years and is currently low by historical standards. BUT middle-income tax liabilities over this period has shifted away from individual income taxes toward payroll taxes.And then you get to add higher property taxes if the store owner owns or higher rents if he rents. I don’t think sodajerks have seen the astronomical rise in profit that other corporate CEO’s have…and then add the skyrocketing insurance costs to play fair w/the people that labor for you….it is not so simple…..small businesses get a big shaft!
http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/united-states-missouri-metro-areas/4004545-1.html
As to his duty?
“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President (or Vice-President) of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” These words are required by Art. 2, Sec. 1, Cl. 8 of the Constitution of the United States of America.
He has a helluva lot more duty than to pay for his muffin.
Then you simply expect very little of your politicians.
And people tend to rise to their perceived expectations.
“Because he has more political influence than the average customer and a duty to both the citizens and Constitution of this country.”
He has a duty to pay for his muffin.