XJ wrote: You too with the "Paying the Protestors" Really Johnny? You really don't have more basic common sense than that? Of course they dismissed it -- did the "Source Within The Group" come forward with credible proof? Nah -- these are the same people who claim that George Soros pays people like me to post on TH. And Hipster Beatniks? Those "Hipster Beatniks" are in their 60's and 70's now and they're still more hip than you'll ever be. Most of the occupiers are about 30-40 years younger. I'm guessing Ransom, you were the kid in school who was always the target of bullies, right?- in response to Protest This: Occupy Whatever and ACORN Search for a Few Fools
Dear XJ,
Man, I love it when liberals pop a cork like you have. Nothing does it like an Occupy Wall Street column.
Look, it’s pretty clear that the union tried to muscle their way into the Occupy protest with money. You think the NYCC just happened to be run by the people from ACORN and just happened to occupy the same address as ACORN and when confronted just happened to start the process of shredding documents?
Even Eric Holder would laugh at that defense.
The left wing has been very active spending money for ground troops over the last ten years. You can’t walk down the street in downtown Denver without some left-wing, dreadlock-wearing, white kid from the suburbs sticking a PETA or Greenpeace petition in your hand, an act for which they get paid.
They have been doing the same thing all around the country.
That’s fine and legal and all that.
But to pretend that you represent the 99 percent, when in fact you can’t get to 1 percent even when you offer to pay people during the worst economic recession in 100 years just shows how little people really embrace your lefty politics.
If you guys were really in sympathy with average people, you’d have huge crowds.
Like the Tea Party does.
Nothing gives you guys away worse than your bi-polar relationship with the Tea Party. On the one hand your excoriate it; on the other you are always trying to copy it.
Wow. It’s great to be a conservative right now.
As to the bully thing: No, never had a problem with bullies.
You?
Shazza wrote: Dear John, Seems to me you are a tad too obsessed with OWS. Getting under your skin a bit maybe! - in response to Protest This: Occupy Whatever and ACORN Search for a Few Fools
Dear Shazza,
No, nothing really gets under my skin.
I have to write about something everyday. It has to be newsworthy. It has to be a little different than what others a writing. It has to include information or a point of view that they aren’t getting elsewhere. It has to be something my readers want to read about. It has to be entertaining. It has to make readers want to come back.
Unlike liberals, I can’t afford to indulge just my personal preferences.
OWS is a good topic that readers like, although I think the topic is about played out. Even OWS doesn’t seem to care much about itself.
It reminds me of a scene from the Simpsons:
Ned’s Dad: We don’t believe in rules, like, we gave them up when we started livin’ like freaky beatniks!
Dr. Foster: You don’t believe in rules, yet you want to control Ned’s anger.
Ned’s Mom: Yeah. You gotta help us, Doc. We’ve tried nothin’ and we’re all out of ideas.
OWS has tried nothing at all constructive and they are all out of ideas.
Were it not for the new ACORN info, I probably wouldn't have written about it.
It’s not personal; it’s strictly business.
Bear Trax wrote: Notice: The drug cartels pay a hefty premium for money laundering. Any questions as to why the administration is doing it? – in response to Eric Holder: Largest Money-Launderer in the Drug Business
Dear Bear,
That’s really my biggest concern here.
Remember when law enforcement was seizing property over drug violations like finding a marijuana seed in someone’s car? Soon some law enforcement officials were looking for reasons to seize property because it was a profit center for them. It stopped being about enforcing the law and it started being about making money.
While I understand that the feds have been involved in money-laundering stings before there are two areas that cause me grave concern: 1) I don’t trust this administration. They’ve lied about everything and they’ve used WHATEVER means that they have available to both enrich themselves and hang on to power; 2) The source suggests that the money laundering operation is so large as to make it possibly the biggest out there. I would have questions about the efficacy and wisdom of that under any administration.
There is a lot that goes into money-laundering.
Are banks being seconded into the operation in the same way gun dealers are? By virtual force? A secret operation that has become the largest money-laundering scheme out there can’t end well. For some it has already costs them their lives.
This is something that needs to be shut down immediately.
Just an old soldier wrote: Awesome! Our government launders money and provides guns for the Mexican drug cartels. I am absolutely ashamed of my government right now.
I guess elections matter. – in response to Eric Holder: Largest Money-Launderer in the Drug Business
Dear Soldier,
Thanks for your service to our country in making sure that elections do matter.
Thanks for all the time that you spent away from your family; thanks for all the boredom and standing around time you had to endure as a soldier; thanks for giving up some of your basic rights as a citizen in order to serve in the military; thanks for putting up with the inconvenience of living with government-sponsored paperwork and other government foul-ups you were likely subjected to; thanks for doing without basic comforts like running water and indoor plumbing too often; thanks for spending your life not knowing what you were going to do next; thanks for putting up with the harassing, sometimes funny, but often just mindless rules that all soldiers, sailors and airmen live with; thanks for subordinating your own wants and needs to the needs of the service; thanks for standing in lots and lots of lines; thanks for enduring the slate-gray cruise ships and airplanes; thanks for being willing to give up your life for that of a friend.
You are rightly ashamed of our government. But we are all proud of you.
Thanks. Really, really, thanks.
Mike wrote: "calls your leadership into question". Not that you are a lying weasel, but one with questionable leadership. I cannot imagine why Ransom can't say it like it is, i.e. Holder is a crook. – in response to Eric Holder: Largest Money-Launderer in the Drug Business
Dear Mike,
That was Rep. Issa who you quoted, not me. I called Holder a crook earlier in the week. All crook and no play makes Johnny a dull boy.
In defense of Issa, he was writing a formal letter to Holder on behalf of the oversight committee and calling Holder a crook in that letter might be seen as a little prejudicial.
Art wrote: Impeach Holder? If we are talking impeach perhaps a better start might be the brilliant Clarence Thomas, his outrageous conflicts of interest and some of his other buddies on the SCOTUS that brought us the corporations as human beings atrocity. – in response to Eric Holder Impeached is a Good First Start
Dear Art,
A tad theatrical, are we?
Corporations are not human beings and have never been recognized as such. If they were, they could vote and ACORN and Obama would set up billions of them just to swamp the vote for Obama and the Democrats. Then all those corporate human beings could apply for food stamps and liberals like you would be happy, while you drive around in your Chevy Volts getting 33 miles between 12 hour charges- that is when the Volts aren’t spontaneously catching fire. When they are catching fire, then you could sue the Volts as corporate human beings for denying you your right to not be on fire while driving to your gender studies seminars.
But alas you are wrong and confused like most liberals, and here’s why:
The confusion seems to be about corporate “personhood”- not human beings- whereby corporations are granted legal standing to make and enforce contracts.
Corporations have been chartered for at least 600 years in this, the modern sense. It was the use of the corporation that made the colonization of America possible. You probably deplore the colonization of America, but I celebrate it as one of the great turning points in history- for the good.
Without the corporation, you probably wouldn’t exist in fact. While that’s a pretty strong argument against the corporation, it’s trumped by the fact that neither would I exist nor would the United States of America.
Good luck with your Chevy Volt.
Lon wrote: Scooter Libby's "mistake" was to say things under oath that he knew were not true. This crew does not seem to have done that. The e-mail trove the Republicans have make clear that the Justice officials in Washington were misled by ATF officials in Arizona. But that means they believed the things they said to be true. – in response to Eric Holder Impeached is a Good First Start
Dear Lon,
That’s not true.
Holder has lied about when he knew about Fast and Furious and what he knew about it.
Don’t take my word for it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/04/eric-holder-investigation_n_994429.html
The HuffPo article cites sources from CBSNew and CNN, hardly right-wing mouthpieces.
Holder lied and the DOJ has been stonewalling for some time.
Scooter Libby was convicted of a felony for the same thing, sentenced to 30 months in prison and lost his law license. His prison sentence was commuted by the president under the condition that he not appeal the verdict.
You guys try to pretend that the GOP never holds it’s own accountable. We do.
You guys promote people who break the law.
Lon wrote (again): Actually the taxes were prompted by debt that was run up fighting the French and Indian wars to the benefit of the colonies at a time when the colonies were already richer than England in per capita terms. – in response to Eric Holder Impeached is a Good First Start
Dear Lon,
You've been reading history books with Read-Out-Loud Rosie O'Donnell.
So now you’re taking the part of the British in the Revolutionary War citing more of your class-warfare nonsense? The British Empire was part of the 99 percent? Ha!
The war was about preserving the right of self-government, not about taxes and debt. Unfortunately we still have to fight that war against liberals like you, who like King George III, believe that because we are are successful by our own efforts, we owe you tribute.
To misquote Eric Holder misquoting Army attorney Joseph Welch during the McCarthy hearings: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?
Makir wrote: Your ghost writer is at it again, handing you disinformation garbage for the ignorant to gulp up at the trough of deception. Obama is working for the shadow government ruled by the Rothschilds. The presidents who didn't cooperate with the crooks had assassination attempts or successful assassinations made on them for wanting a U.S. government federal banking system or currency in place like section 8 of the Constitution directed. Your ghost writers from our shadow government/world banking/media oligarchy only want to attempt to confuse very media brainwashed citizens who are scrambling to survive and blindly listen and absorb the faux news. I wouldn't vote for anyone who wasn't willing to abolish the Unfederal Reserve and the I.R.S. Ron Paul appears to be saying most of the things that relate to our country being bankrupt.
Dear Makir,
Your ghostwriter forgot the part that says: “Paid for by Ron Paul Presidential Campaign Committee www.ronpaul2012.com.”
Ross wrote: By this time next year both will be gone from the congress. That’s OK by me. If the Republicans do not self destruct (which they are fully capable of doing) Obama will be within a month of going as well. Asking for jail time would put us in the same league as the jerks over at the daily Kos, who are always demanding prison for those they don't like and sometimes their deaths.- in response to Jail Cells for Corzine, Soros, Waters, Paulson, Frank, Pelosi, No One
Dear Ross,
I’m not calling for a death sentence. But I am concerned that we return to the rule of law under both the GOP and the Dems. If you think things are going to change just because the GOP wins, you’re crazy. Having the right kind of GOP is important.
The easiest way to create a dictatorship is by selective enforcement of the law. We are there now.
You might notice that I included Republican Hank Paulson in the article pretty prominently. If John Corzine were a Republican I would take the same position: How do you misplace a billion dollars at a brokerage firm, unless you are raiding client accounts?
I thought it was pretty sick to hear Holder and Corzine both say to Congress in the same week that they never intended to hurt anyone. That’s something you tell your mom, as our own Bob Beauprez points out. It’s not a legal defense.
Isn’t it disturbing to you that firms like MF Global and AIG go down the rat hole and George Soros and Warren Buffett just happen to be around to benefit?
Nonpartisan wrote: The kind of unfocused, un-conservative drivel that spills from the mouth of Gingrich and this foolish writer are why conservative governance will be rejected in 2012. At least Gingrich's worst excesses are off-the-cuff remarks but there is no excuse for the writer of this lame diatribe. Gingrich did not say that Dodd and Frank should be jailed for their authorship of Dodd-Frank. In fact, he did not say at all why they should be jailed, though he made some veiled references to deals and lobbyists. True Conservatives believe that you go to jail for breaking laws, not for having the wrong views. Then Author Ransom claims that the housing sector hasn't recovered since 2008 because of Dodd-Frank. Which was signed into law in 2010. Fail. - in response to Jail Cells for Corzine, Soros, Waters, Paulson, Frank, Pelosi, No One
Dear Nonsomething,
I didn’t say that Gingrich said that. I said he suggested it. And here’s a transcript to prove my point. From Real Clear Politics:
"If you want to put people in jail, I want to second what Michele said, you ought to start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. And let's look at the politicians who created the environment, the politicians who profited from the environment and the politicians who put this country in trouble," Newt Gingrich said at the Bloomberg/Washington Post Republican debate on Tuesday.
If you think that you can look at the quote mentioning Barney Frank and Chris Dodd without suggesting that Dodd-Frank is part of the equation, have at it. Because Gingrich goes on to say AND let's look at the politicians who created the environment, etc.
Clearly, it is suggestive of Dodd-Frank.
Nowhere in my article do I call for jail time for anyone for their political beliefs or for simply writing legislation. I am saying though that there is quite a bit of inside dealing and profiteering going on that should be illegal.
Larry in Texas wrote: Yes, Mr. Ransom, we know its time to get the elite, ladeedah schools, clubs, central banks and mob out of the seats of power. Quite obvious. And make no mistake, I like your columns, your politics and thinking, but we need concrete ideas IMPLEMENTED to stop this non-stop thieving, lying and buffoonery. The country simply cannot take much more of this. - in response to A Confederacy of Dunces
Dear Larry,
I agree, but I’m not a candidate.
However I do have some ideas.
First it starts with reforming how Congress does business.
In 2010 I worked for a Senate candidate who said that they way to reform Congress is: 1) Term Limits; 2) Sunset legislation so that Congress has to renew it from time to time; 3) Single-subject rule to stop pork from being hidden in bills; 4) Limit bills to 100 pages; 5) Balanced Budget and TABOR requirement for federal government; and 6) Make vote trading illegal.
I agree with these.
That’s it for this week,
V/r,
JR
___
For Christmas this year, my family is buying some goats, some fruit trees, a bicycle and clothes for needy children through Worldvision.
We let our kids pick out the gift they want to give for Christmas and they pay for it with money they have saved through the year. Our kids really get a lot out of the experience.
I hope readers will consider doing the same according to their ability.
Merry Christmas!
---
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