Funny. I do not recall that.

Dave posted:

Bad Policy

* Eliminates fees on loans from the Small Business Administration, thus pushing private capital toward unproductive businesses and away from productive businesses.

So yeah…

Oh, very well. Joe the Plumber* was, in fact, in arrears in his taxes and Mr. “Shanty Minister” commented that this put him in “scofflaw status.” I agree that one could reasonably interpret this as a judgment on Joe the Plumber’s integrity.

I am not familiar with Mr. Minister. He’s not a regular around here. But for the sake of logical consistency:

Bad Shanty Minister! Bad! Bad!

Happy?

Quibbie- See my above post to Unenlightened Liberal. Tax scofflaw, I believe, is synonymous with tax cheat. Honest people may disagree, but that’s how I interpreted the word. Scofflaw is not a term I ever use, so please pardon me if I took a too liberal interpretation in equating the two.

Unenlightened Libbie, this was from just the third post in Oliver’s previous blog post I linked to:

“But alas, dumbass Joe, because you so CLEARLY don’t understand NOR follow US Tax Law (as evidenced by your tax scofflaw status…”

If scofflaw does not mean cheat, then you may have a point, but my understanding is that a tax scofflaw is synonymous with a tax cheat.

Now if you’ll please pardon me, I’m a bit busy. Unless you care to graciously apologize for your false accusation, would you mind if I ignore you some other time?

Well, let us know when you find some. In OW’s post about JTP’s tax troubles, neither he nor any commenter referred to JTP as a “tax cheat.” JTP was not called a tax cheat in the article OW linked.

Carry on.

Coal plants aren’t run by robots. The funding will allow for expansion, and people are needed to run and maintain said expansion, which equals to more jobs.

* $650 million for the digital television (DTV) converter box coupon program

Are you actually arguing that investing in future technology is a BAD idea?

* $448 million for constructing the Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters

1. The Bush administration is the one that created that department in the 1st place.

2. Again, planning and construction require people, who will be compensated for their work with money.

* $248 million for furniture at the new Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters

Home Depot or whoever they contract for this stuff gets money for providing the furniture, which they use to pay their workers and even hire more workers.

* $1.4 billion for a rural waste disposal programs

People run waste management facilities, see above.

* $125 million for the Washington, D.C. sewer system

Sewer workers, see above.

* $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges

The computers are bought from companies, see above.

Ok, enough of this crap. Do you really believe that when they were talking about stimulating the economy, they were going to give money to some tangible entity known as “the economy”.

Apparently, there are a significant number of economists who disagree with you on that point.

There are a bunch of economists that thought that the housing bubble was a good idea. What’s your point?

Listen, we tried it your way for 8 years, and now we’re in this mess. The same tactics aren’t going to get us out.

Yes, it’s true that some of us lefties hold a fascination with Joe the Plumber*. Over the last eight years, we have watched while the conservative movement has devolved into a series of sensations and freak shows: Limbaugh, Savage, Coulter, Glenn Beck, Hannity, the Teri Schiavo debacle, the “Mission Accomplished” carrier landing, Sarah Palin.

But even as jaded and cynical as we had become about the state of conservatism, we were totally unprepared for Joe the Plumber*. I mean, this is literally some guy plucked off the street! He was just standing around when Barack Obama happened to come by and answer his question. And that is his entire qualification for everything he has done since.

If we take a certain morbid delight in this, it’s not our fault. He’s your monkey.

Actually, I don’t enjoy pointing out liberal hypocrisy, Quibbie, but someone’s got to do it.

We’re not just blue states and red states, we’re the United States.

Don’t feel like it. Anything else?

You checked!

I’ve been working on my ability to see the future. Not there yet.

No, but thanks, that’s a good reply. I think I’ll use that one when Mister ed asks why I never provided a hundred links to support an irrelevant and tangential point I made two weeks ago.

Are you arguing, like Congressional Republicans, that some spending is stimulative but other spending is not? Or are you agreeing with the Cato gang that government spending is not stimulative ever?

If it’s the former, then Mr. Coburn’s list has some problems. Just about all of those programs involve hiring people or private sector companies to do work and provide goods and services. That’s what “stimulative” means.

If it’s the latter, well, I can’t help you. All you’ve done is show that some conservative economists agree with each other. There are others who disagree with them. Appeal to authority arguments tend to have that problem.

“Nuance, or am I being obtuse?”

Obtuse, perhaps. Dumbass, definitely.

Apparently, there are a significant number of economists who disagree with you on that point.

President Obama says that “economists from across the political spectrum agree” on the need for massive government spending to stimulate the economy. In fact, many economists disagree. Hundreds of them, including Nobel laureates and other prominent scholars, have signed the statement that appears in the Cato Institute’s ad in the New York Times, Washington Post, and in other national publications.

But I’m sure you know better than all of them combined.

Didn’t feel like it. Anything else?