What is Digg?Sponsored by Best Buy
The camera starts rolling on Best Buy holiday campaign. view!
www.youtube.com/bestbuy - A behind the scenes look at one employee's singing debut.
54 Comments
- justguessing, on 10/21/2008, -1/+36I presume someone needs to tell her what socialism is.
- inactive, on 10/21/2008, -2/+31Not to mention the fact that her state receives more federal spending per capita than any other.
- freedomjoe, on 10/21/2008, -1/+22yeah, anyone who makes this allegation is simply deluded and ignorant about socialism. chalk this up as more proof she isn't ready to lead us...or even small children...out of a paper bag.
- dorkulon, on 10/21/2008, -0/+13The accusations of socialism against Obama are stupid, and only reveal how incredibly ignorant people are. It's called progressive taxation, it's been around forever, and it's as American as apple pie. Unless you're in favor of a flat tax--which McCain is NOT--then STFU nimrods.
- Ymeg, on 10/21/2008, -1/+13I fail to see how she is not.
- holesome, on 10/21/2008, -1/+11Leaving aside the clear technical definition of socialism, which it's fair to consider, the fact that Bush & McCain were the point-people on the GOP rush to nationalize the banks means that even if she's NOT, somehow, confused about what that definition is (I suspect she's just parroting remarks/talking points) she's the VP on a ticket living in a glass (express) house on that basis alone.
Sure, Dems went along, but that doesn't change the facts. Nationalizing banks is clearly one of the hallmarks of socialism. - jamesalfaro, on 10/21/2008, -2/+12Alaska calls it a "clear and equitable share" tax.
- Echota, on 01/05/2009, -1/+10Excellent point!
- SmelFactor, on 10/21/2008, -4/+13but she can see Russia from her house :)
- dafoe, on 10/21/2008, -1/+9Gosh, darn it, betcha socialism. wink ;) wink ;)
- inactive, on 10/21/2008, -0/+7Ok then why don't you tell us how McCain is not Bush and how he is better than Obama. Obama is good because he will stop the uncontrolled spending on the war, and impose controls wall street to stop the bleeding of the America taxpayer by big business.
- inactive, on 10/21/2008, -0/+7by the mccain campaign's assessments, all politicians are socialists, cause the middle class needs help, and politicians need to lend a hand. way to go, mcshame! name-calling is super effective in bringing people together, ain't it??
- joand315, on 10/21/2008, -0/+7I don't believe she really cares.
- Homerr, on 10/21/2008, -0/+6I've often wondered why Alaskans get those oil money checks AND all the pork that Ted Stevens brought them. I say cut off the money spigot and let them feel how the rest of the country has to deal with it.
- inactive, on 10/21/2008, -1/+7Whats the difference between spending the money and taxing you for it or running a deficit and taxing you later? Bush has put us in the poor house and McCain will put us in the grave!
- EarthernJar, on 10/21/2008, -0/+5"Why does the left insist on defending their candidate by pointing out the flaws in the opposition?" Uh. Isn't that *exactly* what McCain and Palin are doing? To boil it down even further, they're name calling. "Socialist" has some pejorative value, so they're trying to pin it on their opposition. In actuality, there are many socialist programs here in the US that you yourself (presumably) benefit from: free K-12 education, Federal highway system, etc. AND now the US government--with, oh yes, even help from John McCain--has just socialized the banks! (or rather socialized the losses... the profits are still private in the pockets of CEOs and others of their ilk). So, just because you support some socialist-type programs, doesn't mean your'e a socialist.
Methinks you need some education: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism - Hillsfar, on 10/21/2008, -1/+6Social Security
Medicare
Alaska Dividend Fund Payments
$700 Billion Bail-out
$300 Billion McCain Home Mortgage Purchase Bail-out Proposal
Public Education
All forms of Socialism. - FemaCampBoy, on 10/21/2008, -2/+6the oil companies don't own the oil.. they have leases with the state. giving people back their own money due to oil windfalls is not socialism. the oil compaines are oligopolies and need to be broken up due to antitrust laws.
- youliveinfear, on 10/21/2008, -0/+4"Why does the left insist on defending their candidate by pointing out the flaws in the opposition? Candidates should succeed because of their own merits, not because they aren't like Bush. Your ideas aren't good simply because it is not what your opponent would do."
Dear BuryHuffPost, I went through your last 60 comments and noticed that the majority were attacks on Obama and I was unable to find one that spoke highly of a John Sidney McCain III plan. I believe this is referred to in the psychology circles as "projection". - rockwithme000, on 10/21/2008, -1/+5Has anyone seen Palin?
Because he's awesome. - uncajoe, on 10/21/2008, -1/+5Isn't that someone who has a social disease?
- nycjap, on 10/21/2008, -0/+4Forget socialism. Just explain to her how the Senate works. Or how to read a newspaper. Walk before you can pageant walk.
- somegeologist, on 10/21/2008, -1/+5Socialism in the pro-america areas is ok.
- Lhandroval, on 10/21/2008, -0/+4The word socialist is being thrown around so much it's as if we're all socialists. Next week we're going to be looking for socialists in our alphabet soup.
- rhabd0mancer, on 10/21/2008, -0/+4That makes her a Communist!
Get her! - oldhick, on 10/21/2008, -0/+3I could take a swipe at it for you.
"explain why Obama's tax increases and tax credits are not socialist", raising taxes is NOT socialist. It just means you're taking more money into the government. George Bush Sr. raised taxes. When you're looking at massive budget deficits and spiraling debt, raising taxes is one option to take on the path back to fiscal responsibility.
Again, tax credits are a recognition of partial payment already made towards taxes due. The McCain/Palin health-care plan relies on tax credits. Further, he has stated publicly and repeatedly, that he would support tax credits for electric vehicles. I would agree that tax credits are a socialist vehicle, but McCain/Palin plan on implementing them as well. So we can agree that both Obama and McCain have socialist tendencies in regards to tax credits.
Now as for Palin and redistributing wealth from oil companies to citizens, well, here we go. The oil companies lease the right to drill for oil from the state. The lease price is supposed to be based on what citizens of Alaska think is a fair market value for drilling their oil. However, as profits began to rise among oil companies, it became popular in Alaska to tax those profits and redistribute the profits to the citizens. A more capitalist approach to this situation would have been to re-negotiate lease rates as opposed to wealth redistribution.
Does that help at all? - inactive, on 10/21/2008, -2/+5Whats the difference between spending the money and taxing you for it or running a deficit and taxing you later? Bush has put us in the poor house and McCain will put us in the grave!
- Hillsfar, on 10/21/2008, -1/+4Alaska Dividend Fund payments from Sarah Palin's government to Alaskan citizens: "Spreading the wealth." Where else do you get collective ownership of public resources? :)
- scottknick, on 10/21/2008, -1/+4She's not a socialist. She's a separatist. They _sound_ the same. . .
- inactive, on 10/21/2008, -0/+2Probably because their economy is ground to a halt for six months out of the year.
I love all the people that bash Alaska on digg as being worthless, yet find it unthinkable to let them have the vote promised to them in '58 to determine their status as a state. - inactive, on 10/21/2008, -0/+2Sweet, abolish taxes. Then we can get rid of our social programs, bridge and highway maintenance, and the military.
- Olon97, on 10/21/2008, -1/+3All of this talk about mutated shadows of socialist policies like "corporate socialism" is a slander on the more mainstream Socialist policies that have long been in place and working well in Canada, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, and many other western allied countries.
"Socialism" is only a dirty word in the U.S. because of all the years of fear based campaigning conflating socialism and communism into a single concept. - ldkronos, on 10/21/2008, -0/+2Finally, someone else who has been thinking the same thing. They keep calling this socialism because Obama wants to tax the rich more than the poor, but so does McCain. He just disagrees on how much more to tax the rich. So I guess Obama is a liberal socialist, and McCain is a conservative socialist....or something like that. Right?
- oldhick, on 10/21/2008, -0/+2I don't see how those two are related... So because they produce oil, they should get Federal money? Please explain. Thanks.
- justguessing, on 10/22/2008, -0/+1And add "persecution complex".
- heystoopid, on 10/21/2008, -1/+2I love how the right wing trolls are so speechless when caught out red handed by their own lying game of dealing red herrings and jokers low from the bottom of the deck . :)
- zedkitty, on 10/23/2008, -0/+1It is redistributing the oil company's wealth...to use the logic they apply...
- freedomjoe, on 10/26/2008, -0/+1"I lived in Alaska for 13 years. Alaska is more dependent upon government spending and subsidies than any state in the Union. This includes the vast federal government subsidies, as well as the state government spending. According to the State of Alaska Legislative Finance Division's own "Fiscal Summary," Palin's state budget request for fiscal year 2009 was $12,680 per person. As detailed recently by the Los Angles Times, the AP and others, this includes a plethora of state subsidies to well connected businesses, from politically active Dairy farmers and strip mall speculators to foreign owned pipeline companies. One of the reasons for Palin's high approval ratings in Alaska was her support for hiking taxes on the oil companies and distributing some of the money to citizens."
from a recent article....kind of fitting. too bad none of their base know what a socialist is, versus socialism and communism -- they are all operating from fear and acting as brilliantly as they did during the McCarthy years. No sense of internal discernment, no ability to make a sane judgment on their own. Dare I say, the most dangerous kind of citizens. The kind who do whatever they are told and then point fingers later. "they told me to do it". No internal device for shame, moral correctness, etc. SCARY. - oldhick, on 10/22/2008, -0/+1I'm no fan of Obama's plan, but his attempts to address the budget deficit and national debt. McCain's does not and McCain's plan is based on simply growing the deficit and national debt. That is unacceptable to me. Luckily there are candidates like Barr and Baldwin who demand that the deficit and debt be addressed.
I guess my point about each candidate having "socialist" leanings, depending on the issue, was to try and point out that is difficult to objectively classify someone as a "socialist." And if all candidates are leaning "socialist" than the distinction begins to lack relevance, at least in the context of the two parties.
I can not stand socialism and therefor can not in good conscience vote for McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden. - inactive, on 10/21/2008, -2/+3Exactly.
Why would you not tax someone to use your backyard?
It's the people who have to deal with seeing a drill every day and the destruction of their land. Why shouldn't the people be the one's to benefit? - inactive, on 10/22/2008, -1/+1Firstly, thank you.
Agreed, raising taxes is not socialism. But Obama's tax plan attempts to directly tax the high end of the spectrum and give directly to the low end, essentially creating just a middle class. An attempt at egalitarianism, which is a cornerstone of socialism. Distribution of wealth.
Both candidates have a clean car tax credit with intent to create a larger clean car market. So we have 1 new tax credit each. Both McCain and Obama's health care plans center around tax credits, 2 new tax credits each.
This is where Obama changes the game.
7 new tax credits on top of the previous 2 mentioned.
All not accessible to the rich, all refundable.
"Again, tax credits are a recognition of partial payment already made towards taxes due." Barrack Obama's tax credits are all refundable. So if you are in the lower brackets and end up owning negative taxes, you get a check from the IRS. Barrack Obama's new taxes are directed at the higher brackets. He takes directly from the high brackets and gives directly to the lower.
Literally, the lower brackets receive the upper brackets cash, with no rules regarding how they spend it. Not just a benefit for the less fortunate, a straight up transfer of cash.
Obama's system is clearly a distribution of wealth. The rich cut a check to the IRS, who cuts a check to the poor, who can spend it on the same things that keep them poor: gambling, drugs, alcohol, etc...
And distribution of wealth is most definitely a core component of socialism.
Once again. Sarah Palin being a socialist does not make Obama not a socialist. - inactive, on 10/21/2008, -2/+2Both McCain and Obama are socialists. It baffles me that McCain thinks that he is the free market capitalist running for president when they both voted for the bailout and both don't understand the market. McCain is with Obama in bailing out failed corporations and the redistribution of wealth. But we wouldn't expect the average American to catch that, would we?
The "conservative" Republicans are pulling the same tricks again. They claim to be the fiscal conservatives, but are not. They're just as bad if not worse than the Democrats in terms of spending and taxation of the middle class. Bush is a socialist. These so called "conservatives" believe in socialism for the rich, but smaller government for the lower to middle class. How can these so called professed conservatives claim to be conservative when they advocate raising the defense budget, more police, more prisons, the expansion of the Drug war, and bailouts of corporations. How the ***** is that small government?
***** McCain and Palin. Both are corporate socialists. - webXL, on 10/21/2008, -1/+1Uh, how is taxing corporations being a "corporate socialist"?
And don't you know that taxing corporations is really a tax on consumers? They just pass along the tax cost in the price they set. Why not if every other corporation has to pay it? That's why we have a capital gains and dividend tax, so owners get taxed on the profit.
And why not ***** Democrats? They never tried to stop Bush from spending the way he did. They never tightened lending standards of the GSEs ($1 Trillion of subprime!) that caused this financial meltdown! They never opposed the deregulation that many Democrats are blaming the meltdown on.
***** all politicians, but whatever you do, don't give one party a super-majority. I vote Republican only because Democrats scare the hell out of me (I would vote Libertarian in an ideal world), but I would never give them as much power (still not a super majority) as they did under Bush. Maybe if it was a libertarian-leaning republican, but the Democratic party as a whole believes in socialist policies. Why do you want to give them all the power?? - ThinkOutTheBox, on 10/21/2008, -1/+1Alaska is in a completely different situation than the rest of the states. Also seeing as how I watched her speech the people in the state get a kick back on the profit left after the taxes are taken out.
I don't really see how it is socialism when the residents in Alaska also have the lowest tax burden in the whole country. The don't pay state income tax or sales tax. So they aren't taxing the rich to give to the poor. I think the profits after the taxes are taken out could go to pay down the national debit, but the government doesn't know how to spend what they have now so why not give the profits to the residents. - inactive, on 10/21/2008, -2/+1Dear Tool,
The reason you find attacks on Obama is because all the Diggs are bias and pro-Obama. If all the Diggs had biases for McCain, I would be attacking him instead. In the psychology world, this is what we call "likes to argue." - FemaCampBoy, on 10/21/2008, -2/+1when you learn that the taxes don't even cover the interest payments to the federal reserve you have to wonder why we even bother. the fed is a middleman that serves no purpose except to skim off the top.. and i say skim loosely. couple that with fractal reserve lending and this is the biggest scam ever perpetuated on the american people. the fed is criminal and needs to be seized.
- webXL, on 10/21/2008, -2/+1Social Security, Medicare - about a $53 TRILLION unfunded obligation. Democratic FEDERAL policies.
Alaska Dividend Fund Payments - about a $3 BILLION funded dividend. Moderate Republican STATE policy. If you don't like it there are other states you can move to.
$700 Billion Bail-out - Broad BIPARTISAN support to correct previous government interference (CRA type policies, interest rate deductions) in the housing market. It was my understanding that the $300 Billion was to a part of the $700 Billion Bail-out. Either way, the huge ***** was caused by the government, and now the only way to get the economy rolling again is making it easier for banks to lend.
Public Education - A public good started by a Republican Horace Mann. Not a serious budget issue for the country. But, we spend more on education than any other nation, but we have some of the worst education performance of any industrialized nation.
So looking at your examples, it appears that Republican socialism isn't as risky as Democratic socialism. In any case, much of socialism is for the sole propose of securing votes. There is very little the government does that the private sector can't handle itself! Chiefly, police, courts, and military. Need money for retirement? Save! Need your kids to get smarter? Save and find a private school you can afford. Might get sick in the future? SAVE!
Believe me, if the government wasn't taking such a huge chunk out of your paycheck for all this stuff, you would be able to afford it yourself. The more money you allow to be handed over to the government, the more ***** it will do (like start wars and grow public debt). - fractalman, on 10/21/2008, -2/+1If the person in question is a member of the CFR, then that person is a socialist, even if he/she is to dumb to recognize it.
- cptshamrock, on 10/21/2008, -3/+2Both of the two main parties are socialists.
-
Show 51 - 55 of 55 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is