Many corporations, in the course of business, accidentally or through negligence, fleece, poison, kill, and maim their customers. Others destroy the environment and throw people out of work. Lacking corporeal substance, they cannot be imprisoned and may only be punished by taking their money. Making an example of such malefactors is the only deterrent society provides for other corporations not to do likewise.

For this reason, corporations use their inordinate power and immortality to further weaken this limited check on their behavior; demonizing lawyers and whining about juries is the way they bring the credulous along. (That's you, Shooter.)

The buyout firm where Romney made his fortune did so by, in many cases, eliminating American manufacturing jobs. Indeed, this created "wealth" for the already wealthy, but also threw a lot of people out on the street in the process.

I guess "taking" money only means taking it from corporations.

"Making" money is what rich people do when they throw Americans out of work.

Thanks for the Sunday morning economics lesson.

WT- The rouged cheeks at both ends.... how stomach-turningly vivid. My own picture is much more conventional... size 44 Dockers overshadowed by Dunlap's Disease; a pink and vaguely oleaginous complexion dotted with beady eyes and ringed in a halo of chins. Hemmed in by restraining orders, typing to the music of the wingnut Wurlitzer, he comes to us, because we accept him, nay, look forward to him.

Ah, such a symbiotic relationship could only be a product of an Intelligent Designer.

Pedinska, I'm so jealous. You get all the boys. Must be the toenail polish.

Good point, Anonymust. Rarely does government move proactively to protect anyone. That's sissy old Europe precautionary principle baloney.

Lopping off mountaintops and dumping then into streams? A-ok. Pumping livestock full of antibiotics and hormones? No Problem. Leaving nuclear waste lying around everywhere? What the hell? Storing it in a seismically unstable mountain? Why wouldn't ya? Heavily marketing drugs that are addictive or cause heart attacks? Go for it. Arsenic in drinking water? Fine, just don't get carried away. And on and on.

The idea of an overprotective government exists only in wingnut fantasyland.

WT.... You mean the Disney version of the movie.

Iokannon in the well....

That's the trick with rightie logic; it's easy when you get used to it. Because they divide the world into all good vs. all evil, and all of those on their side, time immemorial, were always right and on the side of good, and all of their opponents were always wrong. Therefore, if Roosevelt said the sky was blue, it was really green. And if McCarthy said whiskey was the best breakfast, well, bottom's up.

The problem is they can't understand that normal people don't think that way. Even allies can be wrong. It's a simple concept, but far too deep for a righty.

The neat part is that now that you've embraced this binary logic, add a bit of projection, and your political opposites (read: blood enemies) must defend everything ever done by anyone to the left of Rush Limbaugh. This leads to "winning" lots of arguments, in your own addled brain anyway, facts and logic be damned.

Through in a "heh," every so often for good measure, and it's like you're the captain of the debate team..

We liberals should offer them therapy and understanding, not war.

The cynicism and contempt for democracy of this "unity" crowd is quite stunning when you think about it. Unable to field a suitably corporatist crowd, yet unwilling to do the hard work to actually earn the nomination in the normal way, they seek to bypass the whole tedious process by choosing a rich figurehead halfway through the game.

They've already convinced Shooter, which gives me hope that their little exercise will be laughed off the stage. They'd do well to remember some of Bloomberg's rather insensitive and sexist comments toward a pregnant employee, "Get rid of it," as I recall.

That'll go over as big in the Bible belt as his enormous wealth.

And is he manly and Aqua-Velva-y for Chris Matthews' admittedly uh, eclectic tastes? I think not.

Go ahead and run, Bloomberg. Make my day.

.....the Republicans decided that Reagan gad won the White House for the Republicans for all time and no Democrat could possibly legitimately occupy that residence, and therefore a constitutional coup was called for.

rCnato

That's about the size of it, isn't it? The plutocrats and the military-industrial complex had hit on the perfect Manchurian candidate in Reagan, and set about immediately building a cult around him, so they would never again have to honestly try to sell their self-serving policies.

The Hollywood-trained GE pitchman for unfettered capitalism, selling a muscular, winner-take-all America to the plebes, who simply aren't smart enough to vot the Right Way, and must therefore be scammed and spun relentlessly.

Lowering taxes raises revenue, you've seen one tree, you've seen them all, and welfare queens all drive Cadillacs. More is more, bigger is better, and, as Fawn Hall memorably said, "sometimes you have to go above the law."

Down is up on Uranus. No wonder they're so nostalgic.

I think that the last little detail, the possibilty of impeachment, was still smarting, however, hence the little piece of theatre-verite with Clinton.

If they could de-legitimize that annoying constitutional check, they'd be off to the races, and could safely hand the car keys to a drunken teenager like Dubya. Oops.

Now they've got their Imperial Presidency, but are embarassing short of a possible Emperor.

It would be funny, if it weren't us.