"And I want a political leadership that can do America’s business without having to sate the populist passions of folks unacquainted with economic realities or the art of compromise."

Poor Froma and her Progressive leftist friends. Are liberals mathematically challenged or do they operate in some alternate reality? Is there a clinical term for chronic, unabated denial?

Does this mean she wants to exclude the Left from the process? Because the Democrats and other libtards are the ones who are "unacquainted with economic realities or the art of compromise."

Freudian slip, Frobama?

"The Democratic Leadership Council, the iconic centrist organization..."

Centrist: An elected official representing a balance between the full range of opinion... from GE to GM.

Four years of participation here at Anchor Rising has taken me from (I hate labels, but when in Rome...) conservative Democrat to where I'm at now, liberal Democrat. Real world experience as opposed to reading and watching other people's opinions and reactions to current events pushed me toward that end as well.

I used to believe in the old saying when you are young and think with your heart you are more liberal, when you grow up and think with your brain you learn to be conservative.

If the brain trust here, (contributors and very few commentators excluded) is any example of the modern conservative, I want to be as far away from any official conservative group as I can get.

Fromma makes more sense to me.

Michael-aside from the union oriented discussions here,I haven't noticed that you sound all that liberal.Just my two cents on that.

The definition of liberal is so convoluted the term is now useless. There is some real suffering going on out here, and a lot of fraud as well, but people truly need some help, and if that makes me a liberal by today's standards and definitions, so be it.

Liberalism versus conservativism is a false dichotomy based upon an arbitrary hodge-podge of unrelated contemporary political positions.

Authoritarianism (statism) versus libertarianism is a more meaningful dichotomy. It can be combined with a liberalism versus conservativism axis in a double-axis spectrum if desired.

Considering that GE and GM are both in bed with Obama like a couple of hookers, Russ has stumbled upon a true statement.

Even a blind pig...

Bob seems to have mistaken me for an Obama supporter. fwiw, I've voted 3rd party in every presidential election including for Ron Paul in '88. Oh, and if you're interested, that's a paraphrase of a quote from Jeff Cohen...
multinationalmonitor.org/mm2001/01july-august/julyaug01interviewcohen.html

Like other corporations that give big donations to both political parties in Washington because they want to narrow the range of policy debate, when you see GE giving so much money and sponsorship to pundit shows that have very small viewership, you have to think they’re sponsoring these shows because they also want to narrow the range of policy debates on television and the radio.

I think it’s telling that there is no major pundit on television day after day who agrees with the American people that there’s too much power in American society vested in too few corporations. That would be considered a mainstream view in working America, but you just don’t have pundits who have that view. I think the sponsorship of punditry by two corporations in particular — General Electric and the agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) — is part of the reason the debate is so narrow. You have a spectrum of debate that extends from GE to GM.

And Dan is spot on... see the political compass (my politics fall libertarian left).
www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008

Definition of liberal/progressive/socialist/communist, etc:
One who believes America can keep borrowing $5 billion a day and somehow avoid economic collapse; one who thinks a sustainable pension system is one that allows cops and firemen to "retire" at 40 years old with a full pension, lifetime COLA's, free gold plated health care plus survivorship rights to any sex partner they may acquire be it man, woman or animal.

I am in agreement with Michael on being liberal. The leftist talk here borders on ridiculous. I never knew who Saul Alinsky was until reading this FAR RIGHT( shut in the basement conspiracy theory far right) blog. Liberal to me means an open mindedness to changing times and conservative as protection of tradition and status quo. to me both views have a place in this country's political discussion and debate. Michael is claiming the liberal tag with all his real world experience- when are some of you "conservatives" going to accept that and get back into the discussion?

You gotta love the way Harrop throws out those little head fakes to try and disguise the fact that she's a left wing crackhead. I guess that's what you do when you have her clinical thought disorder. Talk about living the lie. The broad really thinks she's fooling people. Do they really pay her for that garbage she produces?

What,pray tell is David S.'s real world experience?
I stated mine,Michael his,and so has Phil among others.
It's too bad david was ignorant of Saul Alinsky-both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama found his writings influential.
I guess Gramci,Cloward,and Piven are also not in David's knowledge bank.
This reference to "shut in conspiracy theorists"is bullcrap.
I see very little of that here.Actually,Russ kind of goes there sometimes and he's sure no conservative.
I do think David's definitions were accurate for the period I grew up in but have morphed somewhat nowadays.

I will say it: Liberalism is a mental disorder.

<< Poor Froma and her Progressive leftist friends. Are liberals mathematically challenged or do they operate in some alternate reality? Is there a clinical term for chronic, unabated denial?>>

"I will say it: Liberalism is a mental disorder."

Well, if we're going to go there...
www.alternet.org/books/145819/ayn_rand,_hugely_popular_author_and_inspiration_to_right-wing_leaders,_was_a_big_admirer_of_serial_killers

One reason most countries don't find the time to embrace Ayn Rand's thinking is that she is a textbook sociopath. In her notebooks Ayn Rand worshiped a notorious serial murderer-dismemberer, and used this killer as an early model for the type of "ideal man" she promoted in her more famous books...

The best way to get to the bottom of Ayn Rand's beliefs is to take a look at how she developed the superhero of her novel, Atlas Shrugged, John Galt. Back in the late 1920s, as Ayn Rand was working out her philosophy, she became enthralled by a real-life American serial killer, William Edward Hickman, whose gruesome, sadistic dismemberment of 12-year-old girl named Marion Parker in 1927 shocked the nation. Rand filled her early notebooks with worshipful praise of Hickman. According to biographer Jennifer Burns, author of Goddess of the Market, Rand was so smitten with Hickman that she modeled her first literary creation -- Danny Renahan, the protagonist of her unfinished first novel, The Little Street -- on him.

What did Rand admire so much about Hickman? His sociopathic qualities: "Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should," she wrote, gushing that Hickman had "no regard whatsoever for all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. He has the true, innate psychology of a Superman. He can never realize and feel 'other people.'"

Yes, for some liberalism seems to be a mental disorder, a "disorder" most folks call empathy (granted, all of this is kind of silly).

"What,pray tell is David S.'s real world experience?" Joe Berntein

I grew up in this state.
I worked as a firefighter for 22 years.
I own and operate a small business in RI
I have 2 children - adult now- but I have the scars to prove it.
I have worked as a builder and carpenter since 1979.
I have suffered the loss of both my parents.
I have lived my life with both liberal and conservative ideals, and realize I have not always lived up to them.
I have lived hard and made plenty of mistakes and learned from them and forgotten them.

David, our resume's are remarkably similar.

OK David S-we aren't that remarkably different.
I spent 4 1/2 years on active duty in the military and served in Vietnam in 1968-69.
i am disabled as a result from AO exposure.
I spent a little under 5 years as a NY State Court Officer and 21 years and a Border patrolman and Special Agent with the INS.
I have two adult children and two grandaughters.
I f++ked up more times than I care to mention,but my wife of 40 years seems to want to hang on to me for reasons I can't fathom.
I've had three bouts with cancer,ehart stents,diabetes,ulcers,hyperkalemia,and an extremely aggravated incisional hernia.
I also worked as a freight handler in a railyard,a clerk in a wholesale company, a security officer at a casino and for a jewelry company,and for a construction company,although my mechanical skills suck.
Which is why they made me a mechanic in the service.Go figure.
I've always been conservative,but never got interested in politics until a few years ago.
Actually,I voted for Clinton in 1992 because I detest the Bush family.
I grew up in Brooklyn and have only been in RI for about 27 years,which I guess makes me a newcomer.
I never achieved my desire in life to be a locomotive engineer.
well,thanks for sharing because I like to know who I'm going back and forth with.

<<"And I want a political leadership that can do America’s business without having to sate the populist passions of folks unacquainted with economic realities or the art of compromise."

Poor Froma and her Progressive leftist friends. Are liberals mathematically challenged or do they operate in some alternate reality? Is there a clinical term for chronic, unabated denial?
Posted by MadMom at February 8, 2011 12:17 PM >>

That's from the self appointed Tea Party leader in RI. The next is from from Projo.com that appeared in yesterday's newspaper.

<

In an e-mail before the hearing, freshman Sen. Nicholas D. Kettle urged Tea Party supporters to question homeless advocates and “fill up the room before the homeless folks! Help me ask why this homeless person has better clothes than I,” he said.

Kettle promised to ask tough questions and called Tassoni’s hearings a “dog-and-pony show.”

But during the hearing, Kettle apologized for the message, after homeless advocate John Joyce read it aloud and asked why Kettle hated the homeless and the poor.

Kettle said he didn’t hate the homeless, but that he sent the e-mail “out of frustration” and because he thought the hearing was one-sided.

“Don’t apologize to me,” said Joyce, who was once homeless. “Apologize to the homeless people of the state.”

pdavis@projo.com>>

I'd like to know if the Tea Party claims this Rep. Kettle and what they think of this latest performance. This young tea party man lives with his parents. That makes this question all the more pertinent.

< Posted by David S at February 8, 2011 7:09 PM>>

Somehow the quote I intended to use went missing.

I'd like to know if the Tea Party claims this Rep. Kettle and what they think of this latest performance. This young tea party man lives with his parents. That makes this question all the more pertinent.

"Michael is claiming the liberal tag with all his real world experience- when are some of you "conservatives" going to accept that and get back into the discussion?"

I guess you are faaultingMr.Kettle for being a yung kid living at home while being a State Senator with big responsibilities.He is kind of young,but how many kids his age can get elected to office?It's not common.
Not being in the Tea Party,I wouldn'rt know for sure if he is,but I think he had their support.
I pesonally was offended by David Segal making pronouncements about how we should live without ever having had to shoulder any serious responsibility in his life.
More or less the same about Matt Jerzyk getting all preachy from his Brown University aerie years ago.
Your use of quotes around conservatives indicates a dismissive attitude,so why would that invite anyone to have a serious conversation with you?
Your point of view here is about as predictable as the monsoon.It almost seems like you feel compelled to assert the politically correct position on virtually every subject.
Also,I can tell when from the level of personal abuse when I made a point that is uncomfortable to challenge-it's a good barometer.
The constant default position you take of discounting anything I say because I call into Cianci's show is a case in point.You don't like Cianci-that's your choice.
I don't think the "who" I call invalidates what I say.
If you ever think you can factually disprove my non-opinion positions have at it.
I separate opinion from fact,which is why I may get repetitive on issues like immigration and criminal justice,because I iknow the facts to a pretty good degree.
When I take off on a diatribe against Chafee or Whitehouse it's different-facts become secondary to attitude.
I am honest enough to say that.
I also avoid the numerous topics here,mainly economic,about which I know virtually nothing-as long as I was able to support my family and have a reasonably good quality of life and avoid debt,I never was much concerned with money.I've seen people obsessed with money and they wind up miserable.
Anyhow,I don't have to worry about getting really old.That's a relief.

Joe

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here. Young Kettle's performance as Senator is of note because of his tea party support. It bears watching how this band of constitution carrying right wing funded people actually behave when elected to office and have to govern. It is much easier to rail against healthcare reforms than come up with solutions. The reason I mentioned where the Senator lived was because he was mentioned in a newspaper story about increasing funds for a homeless shelter. He ended up apologizing for an email he had sent to his admirers in which he is critical of homeless people. He seems to have had his Marie Antoinette moment..If they do not have a home, let them live with their parents.
The purpose of the post was to elicit a response from Colleen Conley of RI Tea Party fame who writes here as MadMom. But I'll also try to answer you , joe. In fact I am planning to wait a bit longer this morning before facing the cold work day that awaits.

Personally, I don't care where Mr. Kettle lives or goes to school.
It's nice to see Omega House from Faber College represented on Smith Hill, though I'm not if Mr. Kettle is an accurate representation of Greg Marmalard or Douglas C. Niedermayer.

Phil-wear gloves.I also went to work on many,many cold mornings.Not anymore,though-LOL.
bella-grow up.