madness of the GOP is the central issue of our time

[boutons_deux]

"Obamacare is a cluster "

You Lie

Ms have access to medical care, and there's tons of other stuff ACA has created, shaken up. Yes, it was really dumb to have Baucus and his industry exec/lobbyist write the bill, the sausage is better than no sausage.

the cluster is Repugs KILLING 1000s of Americans, esp mother and babies, by denying them access to expanded Medicaid.

[boutons_deux]

Yr Wonkette would just like to know: is there somewhere we can subscribe to a 24/7 video stream of the Colorado House of Representatives when it starts its next session?

Because one of our favorite crazies, disgraced former Navy chaplain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InBXu-iY7cw

and nutso webcast preacher Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt won election to the District 15 seat by a whopping 40-point margin over some sane Democrat lady.

Mr. Klingenschmitt is a truly epic figure — he was court-martialed and kicked out of the Navy in 2011 for wearing his uniform at a White House protest, which gave him just the right “oppressed Christian” cred to become a national hero to wingnuts. At every opportunity, he explains that literal demons are at work in people he disagrees with, from The Gays to Barack Obama to public school teachers, and probably cable installers who don’t show up on time, because Satan and his Army of Darkness are everywhere.

Let’s just remember some of Assless Dr. Chaps’s greatest hits, shall we?

• He knows why animals turn gay: Gay demons leaking from gay humans.
• He’s said that allowing a transgender kid to use the locker rooms of her choice amounts to visual rape of other girls (and of course that demons are at work there, too).
• He wants to exorcise the demons from atheist kids who objected to attending high school graduation in a church.
• He has a real, practical solution to the problem of wedding photographers who are oppressed by antidiscrimination laws: if you’re forced to take pictures of a wedding, just let your customers know that you stamp the text of Romans 1:32 on the back of all your photos, to remind them that sexxicans are “worthy of death.” That should be a real hit with the straight couples, too!
• He knows why the NSA is even a thing: Obama’s possessed by demons, and he wants to watch us all the time.
• He’s warned that Sen. Al Franken “wants to require pedophilia in all public schools, in the form of mandatory pro-gay lectures to all public school children.”
• Did we mention the gay animal demons? Sure we did. But you may have missed it the first time.

And those are only the ones we’ve covered here at Wonkette! Somehow, we missed his brilliant explanation of why “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” never should have been repealed:

If you allow gays in the military, we’ll never be able to win a war again because of all that buttsexxing:

You see, soldiers will always be “taking breaks on the combat field to change diapers all because their treacherous sin causes them to lose control of their bowels.”

That’s just science, although we were somewhat disappointed that he didn’t also consider the possibility that gay troops would also be accompanied into battle by their fierce Anal Combat Gerbils.

And now Gordon Klingenschmitt gets to make laws. What a country!

http://wonkette.com/565581/gordon-kl...colorado-house

Repugs!

Christians!

[spurraider21]

Exactly. During Obama's Presidency, unemployment has gone down, economic growth has accelerated, the budget deficit has plummeted, and millions more Americans have health insurance. So why don't people give him credit for his accomplishments?

Because of the color of his skin.

of course unemployment went down. was it supposed to keep rising from 10%...?

his cleanest budget deficit (2014) was at 492 billion, which is still higher than any year of any other president. much like the unemployment figures, its not much of an accomplishment imo.

and its a completely baseless assumption to say it is "because of race"

[spurraider21]

Repugs!

Christians!

democrats aren't christians?

[boutons_deux]

democrats aren't christians?

Repug Christians are a special class of theocratic Taliban nutters.

[spurraider21]

Repug Christians are a special class of theocratic Taliban nutters.

You didn't answer my question

[DarrinS]

Let me ask you this: If working-class white voters were informed that the overwhelming majority of welfare recipients are white, instead of the single-parent black teenaged mother that they imagine it to be, do you honestly believe they'd still be as vehemently opposed to it as they are now? That's a simple yes or no question, and I want a straight answer.

I think welfare should be a safety net and not a lifestyle choice (regardless of the race of recipients).

Call me crazy, but I don't think a record number of people on food stamps is an accomplishment.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I think welfare should be a safety net and not a lifestyle choice (regardless of the race of recipients).

Call me crazy, but I don't think a record number of people on food stamps is an accomplishment.

1994 Contract with America thinking! YAY! That was that they were saying about the 'en lement problem' back then. They want to be on welfare. Then policies along those thinking were shoved down are throats with Newt and then reality met with rhetoric and it was demonstrably wrong.

You sure are good at regurgitating memes. Maybe soon you will start thinking for yourself. Doubt it.

[DarrinS]

1994 Contract with America thinking! YAY! That was that they were saying about the 'en lement problem' back then. They want to be on welfare. Then policies along those thinking were shoved down are throats with Newt and then reality met with rhetoric and it was demonstrably wrong.

You sure are good at regurgitating memes. Maybe soon you will start thinking for yourself. Doubt it.

[spurraider21]

Democrats like to stick peoe on welfare where they stay dependent and loyal to them and then claim to be champions for the lower class. Vicious cycle. Brutal yet effective marketing imo

republicans are just as insincere if not more, but they're up front about it. They basically say ur on your own, get ur ass to school (which we won't adequately fund) and go get a job

[ElNono]

I think welfare should be a safety net and not a lifestyle choice (regardless of the race of recipients).

Call me crazy, but I don't think a record number of people on food stamps is an accomplishment.

Democrats like to stick peoe on welfare where they stay dependent and loyal to them and then claim to be champions for the lower class. Vicious cycle. Brutal yet effective marketing imo

republicans are just as insincere if not more, but they're up front about it. They basically say ur on your own, get ur ass to school (which we won't adequately fund) and go get a job

Do you guys really buy this stuff? "welfare lifestyle" and "welfare dependent cycle"?

[DarrinS]

Do you guys really buy this stuff? "welfare lifestyle" and "welfare dependent cycle"?

"Today we have an historic opportunity to make welfare what it was meant to be: a second chance, not a way of life." -Bill Clinton


"Today the Congress will vote on legislation that gives us a chance to live up to that promise, to transform a broken system that traps too many people in a cycle of dependence ..." --Bill Clinton

[ElNono]

"Today we have an historic opportunity to make welfare what it was meant to be: a second chance, not a way of life." -Bill Clinton

"Today the Congress will vote on legislation that gives us a chance to live up to that promise, to transform a broken system that traps too many people in a cycle of dependence ..." --Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton also said he had nothing to do with Lewinsky... Al Gore invented the internet... they're politicos.

But the question dodge is duly noted...

[DarrinS]

Bill Clinton also said he had nothing to do with Lewinsky... Al Gore invented the internet... they're politicos.

But the question dodge is duly noted...

Do you guys really buy this stuff? "welfare lifestyle" and "welfare dependent cycle"?

I do. I think there are some people on welfare who would rather work. I think others just want govt handout.

[spurraider21]

Do you guys really buy this stuff? "welfare lifestyle" and "welfare dependent cycle"?

Maybe not as theatrical as I led on, but I don't think it's a coincidence that a clear majority of welfare recipients vote blue. Most people get off welfare in a short time period but there are those who fall into it tbh

while three in five people who were just beginning a spell of poverty came out of it within three years, only one-quarter of people who had already been poor for three years were able to exit poverty within the next two.[9] The probability that a person will be able to exit poverty declines as the spell lengthens. A small but significant group of recipients remained on welfare for much longer, forming the bulk of poverty at any one point in time and requiring the most in government resources. At any one time, if a cross-sectional sample of poor people in the United States was taken, about 60% would be in a spell of poverty that would last at least eight years.

[ElNono]

I do. I think there are some people on welfare who would rather work. I think others just want govt handout.

Well, it's not a black or white proposition. A lot people work AND get foodstamps. Perhaps we need to take a deeper look at why is that.

While I'm sure there's some small amount of people gaming the system (which should be prosecuted), it seems to me that's an oversight problem not a problem with welfare itself.

[spurraider21]

Well, it's not a black or white proposition. A lot people work AND get foodstamps. Perhaps we need to take a deeper look at why is that.

While I'm sure there's some small amount of people gaming the system (which should be prosecuted), it seems to me that's an oversight problem not a problem with welfare itself.

You don't think there is a degree of complacency or dependency coming from it? Even so among those who work and get foodstamps

[ElNono]

Maybe not as theatrical as I led on, but I don't think it's a coincidence that a clear majority of welfare recipients vote blue. Most people get off welfare in a short time period but there are those who fall into it tbh

while three in five people who were just beginning a spell of poverty came out of it within three years, only one-quarter of people who had already been poor for three years were able to exit poverty within the next two.[9] The probability that a person will be able to exit poverty declines as the spell lengthens. A small but significant group of recipients remained on welfare for much longer, forming the bulk of poverty at any one point in time and requiring the most in government resources. At any one time, if a cross-sectional sample of poor people in the United States was taken, about 60% would be in a spell of poverty that would last at least eight years.

What you quoted was exactly what the Welfare Reform that Darrin linked on the video addressed. But putting people to work didn't solve the problem. From the same wiki page you extracted that from:
Despite strong support for the idea that work will provide the income and opportunity to help people become self-sufficient, this approach has not alleviated the need for welfare payments in the first place: In 2005, approximately 52% of TANF recipients lived in a family with at least one working adult.

Maybe we need to start looking why having a job isn't enough. Or why do we need to subsidize Walmart employees with foodstamps? People could say, hey, you don't have to work at Walmart, but when you're on a tight labor market, that might not be an option, plus, somebody gotta work those jobs, right?

It's a difficult problem, that's why the "welfare queen" meme is no better than the "raise the minimum wage" meme, IMO.

[ElNono]

You don't think there is a degree of complacency or dependency coming from it? Even so among those who work and get foodstamps

I don't. I don't think there's anybody turning down a promotion because it would cause them to lose their foodstamps.

[spurraider21]

Are there other underlying issues, of course. I don't think anybody here blames poverty on welfare. I do think it's telling that the longer you are on welfare, the more prone you are to staying on welfare.

[spurraider21]

I don't. I don't think there's anybody turning down a promotion because it would cause them to lose their foodstamps.

Do you think a less lenient welfare plan would light a stronger fire under somebody's ass?

[ElNono]

Are there other underlying issues, of course. I don't think anybody here blames poverty on welfare. I do think it's telling that the longer you are on welfare, the more prone you are to staying on welfare.

I think the disconnect is in thinking that because at any any given time there's a e in recipients (which normally is tied to how the economy is doing), there's more 'dependency'. They're two completely different things.

According to the graph in that wiki page, the dependency rate in '05 was 3.8%, down from 5.9% in '93. Looking at those numbers, is this really a problem that warrants perhaps gutting welfare?

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I don't like Clinton, Gramm, or any of the rest of the government back then. They rode the public implantation of the WWW and the economic windfall. There policies came home to roost in the new millennium.

I know you are too limited to think of anything but bipolar politics but you not understanding is not the basis of reality.

[ElNono]

Do you think a less lenient welfare plan would light a stronger fire under somebody's ass?

I don't know that it matters how strong the fire is... I'm sure those that are working and receiving benefits would like to make more money (which automatically exclude them from benefits). Sometimes, that's not dictated by them but by what opportunities are out there for them. (Opportunities being a lot of things: better jobs, bonuses, overtime, access to training/education, etc).

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Do you think a less lenient welfare plan would light a stronger fire under somebody's ass?

No and there is empirical proof of this both in the Hoover and Clinton administration's policies. Go look up the aftermath of Newt Gingrich's Contract with America.

Darrin has been kind enough to cite several examples of that type of thinking from the era that was used to justify such policies.