48 Comments

• maloney | May 20, 2011, 09:48 PM EDT

  you go ratboy. you would be hell if ya had a brain.

• suzandpej | May 19, 2011, 10:07 AM EDT

  America looks to be hopeless. But one thing some may forget about American people. We may screw up a lot, but we will never fall. There will come a dayi when, indeed, the common people will obtain the country we used to have. When we get back to our Constitution. History often takes a long time to be made.

• Billg99 | May 16, 2011, 10:09 PM EDT

  Right On Socialism and undeserved welfare handouts cripples a peoples' will to work.

• Ratslayer | May 11, 2011, 06:14 PM EDT

  Can we get some REAL ADULT WRITERS on this website??!! Enough of these lizard-brain teabaggers!

• seanomelbourne | May 10, 2011, 07:07 PM EDT

  Mman your sounding like a radio preacher lol.

• charlie0491 | May 10, 2011, 03:04 PM EDT

  Just proves that Pot is legal in Cal.

• Monsoonman | May 10, 2011, 11:49 AM EDT

  Well Perfesser, lets you, Seanmelbourne and I walk the path of enlightenment together. When the Lad first started walking with me he was an avowed communist and atheist. I just heard he was attending a baptist church that is affiliated with the Tea Party. He is speaking in tongues and handling rattlesnakes at the same time.

• TheOldPerfessor | May 10, 2011, 11:38 AM EDT

  Okay, Monsoonman - I respect your opinion even though I think you are wrong.

• Windmaker | May 10, 2011, 11:26 AM EDT

  WalterEllis- here is a fact your class warfare group might like to consider. Given your "instruction" of others, have some of this. The top 5% of earners in the USA pay 63% of all income tax receipts Payroll taxes pay for medicaid and social security only. That means that the richest 5% of americans pay for the government services of the majority of americas' needs you ingrate. Coupled with that, 50% of americans pay no income taxes at all and are net recipients of government subsidies. Is this "fair"? How much more should the "rich" be taxed. Those that believe that the "rich" are an immutable grouping should note that 72% of the richest americans, over 20 years, only appeared in that category once year on year. That means the richest americans are a fluctuating group, not a tribe elevated to a permanent feature of American life. Get over your class warfare instincts and you might become one WalterEllis. 40 million whom the government wont insure? Disingenuity of the highest order. Again, that figure doesnt take into account those between jobs and those who DONT want to pay for health insurance. European citizens are wealthier? Yes, thats a good one. Maybe you should come live in Europe. See how far your euro goes. Your progressive mindset is so evident: us "Europeans can afford to pay more for gasoline"!!. We have no choice you fool. We would wilfully pay less. It is crippling people at the moment. The reason we pay more is we have little if no continental production and dont have the worlds reserve currency in which oil is usefully traded. We can afford to pay more? As for the fact that we have better infrastructure, again, you appear to be talking out of your proverbial. Our infrastructure is crumbling. Our populations are dwindling, we cant replace our deceased so who is going to pay for those pensions and welfare cheques in years to come? Might have to get real and become more like America...

• Monsoonman | May 10, 2011, 11:13 AM EDT

  Perfesser, I have been "poor"/homeless in America and didn't like it. I worked in Mickey D's not walmart, does that qualify? I became "unpoor", and understand what it is like from both sides. Thank you for listening carefully to me from now on and since you are going to hang on my every word, here is my first bit of wisdom thrown your way:....."Obama's administration is like an ice cream sundae. Double-Dip recession and all the nuts are on top".

• kevinhayes | May 10, 2011, 11:04 AM EDT

  What a load of drivel. It's hard to know where to start to refute it and tempting just to ignore it, it is so low level. "Obama leftists", "former Obama confidante" are just plain lies. The old canard about American regulation affecting world energy prices is just economic ignorance - might have been true around 1911, not 2011. If the "over 50%" statistic is true (Farnan gives no source for it) it is an indictment of the right's economic philosophy, which has previaled for the last 30 plus years of increasing inequality, as the Clinton and Obama essentially adopted the right wing meme. The majority of Americans see President Obama as he is, a moderate centrist who is trying to get a modicum of economic fairness for middle class Americans. Any American who earns less than $500,000 and is voting Republican is voting against his own economic interests. There are always useful idiots like Farnan who will try to fool them.

• TheOldPerfessor | May 10, 2011, 10:50 AM EDT

  Monsoonman: I will respect your point of view if you would be willing to spend a night in a homeless shelter and a day working for Walmart at minimum wage.

• Monsoonman | May 10, 2011, 10:49 AM EDT

  Looking at THE Bin Laden "mansion" in Pakistan, he would be qualified for all kinds of assistance if he was living in the USA. He didn't even have a flatscreen and NO internet access.

• Monsoonman | May 10, 2011, 10:43 AM EDT

  Lad! The truth doesn't need to be dressed up, doesn't need a clintonesque/lawyerese explanation, real truth is simple.....If America is such a horrible place, why are people flocking here? Answer that one. Then you'll get your answer as to why our poor kick the azz of the rest of the worlds poor. To be "Poor" in America, is to be rich in the rest of the world.

• seanomelbourne | May 10, 2011, 01:54 AM EDT

  Mman "our poor are better than their poor" disappointed Mman surely you can mount a better argument than that.

• Monsoonman | May 09, 2011, 11:57 PM EDT

  Walter: Wouldn't the rest of the worlds poor just love to be the American poor, if they could. They are flooding our country wanting the benefits of American poverty, LOL! I'll put our poor up against any of the worlds poor, we'll kick their azz! Flat screen tv's automobiles, cell phones, laptops.....and EVERYBODY gets healthcare, don't believe the propaganda you read. Your puny european welfare states are so small, they don't need cars to get around, their little lilliputian countries.....What are you the spokesman for the teachers unions? All our schools need is more money, right? Wrong. They need less teacher unions and more educators. Whenever you have charter schools and private schools, students and parents get choices, students blossom. You should watch the movie "Waiting for Superman" then you might get a clue. But I think it is too late you have been drinking the kool aid for too long.

• WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 10:39 PM EDT

  Rainman: Here's a fact you might like. The U.S. ranks 4th in global GDP, yet is 92nd in distribution of wealth. The top 5 per cent of Americans are the world's richest. The bottom 25 per cent (that's 77 million people) are the poorest people of the developed world. The U.S., with the most expensive health system – a system that denies coverage to 40 million of its citizens – is counted as 37th in terms of quality of care by the World Health Organization. The point is, Western Europeans are richer, on average, than typical Americans. They can AFFORD to pay more for gasoline. The infrastructure of their countries is decades ahead of that of the U.S. European students (like Asians) routinely outpace their American counterparts. And, just to make things worse, the gaps are widening. Obama knows this. He knows what needs to be done. Hitler and Marx don't come into it.

• NYCsheridan | May 09, 2011, 09:17 PM EDT

  The Lilliputians have destroyed Journalism. Farnan, get a real job.

• Monsoonman | May 09, 2011, 08:08 PM EDT

  So income tax of 52%, top that off with a vat/sales tax of 20%, plus 10.00 gal fuel/many other "fees"...This is your idea of liberal nirvana? Looks like you might as well give the government all of your money, then let them dole it back to you. What a bunch of sheep, no wonder Hitler rolled through their country with no resistance.

• seanomelbourne | May 09, 2011, 06:53 PM EDT

  Walter Australia has a similar system to Holland although the top marginal rate doesn't kick in 'til earnings break the $100,000(AUS). Self funded retirees pay no income tax or medicare on their pensions regardless of how much they draw. I agree with you if the right wish to call it socialism so be it.The U.S.A. needs a systemic shake up to enrich all of it's citizens.Btw I have had post under the Farnan blog re-written to distort what I was saying.

• WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 05:35 PM EDT

  Just a cotton-pickin' moment. I see that the comment below beginning "I see so many conflicts" was posted by me. It wasn't. It was in response to something else I wrote. So what's going on? WHO'S ACTING THE EEJIT? It has to be someone at Irish Central.

• Ratslayer | May 09, 2011, 04:30 PM EDT

  Attention right-wing losers: Obama got OBL and Bush did not. Period.

• WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 01:36 PM EDT

  I don't know who wrote that last comment. Was it perhaps the Blogger himself? Anyway ... you are right about one thing. European taxation is graduated. The more you earn, the more you pay. It can go wrong. It can be excessive. It can be irritating. But it tends to protect the weak and strives to meet the old criterion, from each according to his means to each according to his needs. Marx has nothing to do with it. The man died in 1883. America, if it is not careful, will become the first great nation to die of capitalism, suffocating on its own ideals. Europe, meanwhile, for all its difficulties, has become a significantly more advanced place than the United States. European education, health cover, infrastructure and social welfare, as well as the general level of income, are streets ahead of what is typical in the U.S. Economists everywhere are coming to realise this. Once the teething problems of the euro (now, incidentally, worth approximately 40 per cent more than the dollar) have been resolved, the entire Continent will be ready for the next step forward. Does the EU have problems? You bet! Not least an aging population and the rising pressure of muslim immigration. But if it's movement towards a fair and just society you're looking for, look East young man.

• WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 12:17 PM EDT

  Walter: I see so many conflicts in the numbers you just put up, something is out of whack. It seems you make a bit more money and you get terribly whacked by the nanny state. Your bit says it all: "but relate directly to ability to pay". Right out of the Karl Marx playbook. Which seems to be where you are coming from.

• WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 12:09 PM EDT

  Monsoonman: your Dutch friends are wrong. The top rate of tax in the Netherlands is 52 per cent, payable on income above €53,860 ($79,860). The bottom rate is just 2.45 per cent (after allowances), rising to 10.7 per cent, then 42 per cent. Pension, health insurance and social security payments are separately accounted but relate directly to ability to pay. The Dutch system was described last year by Melbourne University and financial advisory group Mercer as "the best in the world". It is a fact that the typical standard of living in the Netherlands is higher than in the U.S. The average Dutch person is better off than the average American – by which I mean that they have more money to spend. In the U.S. the great bulk of the nation's wealth is held by multi-millionaires and billionaires and large corporations pay very little tax. this is not true of the Dutch. Gasoline is expensive in the Netherlands, as it is throughout the EU. This is because of a generally understood and approved "green tax". But the country is compact and well-served by reasonably-priced high-speed trains and trams. Health care is complicated. The state health insurance scheme meets 27 per cent of all health care costs; another 41 per cent is covered by regulated private insurance; the taxpayer provides 14 per cent directly; and the individual, subject to ability to pay, is expected to find the rest. No one is left out in the cold. No one receives a bill they cannot pay. The Dutch certainly have their problems, but, on balance, they are in a better position in most areas than most Americans. If this is Socialism (and it isn't), give me Socialism every time.

• Monsoonman | May 09, 2011, 11:13 AM EDT

  Sent to me from a friend, who sees what big liberal government gets you and that's exactly where we are going under obama: Our retired friends from the Netherlands have been visiting us for the last few days. They get taxed 60% on their PENSION, no write-offs. They MUST buy an additional PRIVATE health insurance to suppliment his "free" gubamint healthcare. Their car's retail price is literally DOUBLED by taxes and "fees" (another way to spell taxes). They pay 19% sales tax on everything but food. Their gasoline is nearly $10 USD a gallon with all the taxes and his "use" tax on his little car is nearly a dollar a mile. Their tiny home sits on dirt that cost him $400 a SQUARE FOOT before a building was on it. They marvel at the size of our home and the property it sits on. It would be a multi-million dollar "mansion" in the Netherlands. Move to Europe and live that way and leave us AMERICANS out of your cradle to grave big gubamint system. WE DON'T WANT IT!

• Fran Connor | May 09, 2011, 10:35 AM EDT

  You really believe Obama is a moderate? What are you smoking? (Or shooting up?)

• WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 10:05 AM EDT

  That's it! It's time that Ed Farnan was shown the door. I have nothing against conservative commentators. It's often interesting and illuminating to hear their views, and the right of free speech is an important one. My feeling, however, is that Mr Farnan is out of control. He is certainly beyond a joke. His philosophy is a simple one: the Right is right about everything and the Left (such as it is in America) is wrong about everything. I am reminded of Stephen Colbert's inspired observation about George W. Bush – "he is a man who believes on Wednesday what he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday". The idea that Barack Obama is a Marxist is preposterous. To believe that America is in thrall to the proponents of a Green Revolution is laughable. To aver that capitalism, capitalism and more capitalism is the answer to this country's long-term decline is not just myopic, it's insane. We need intelligent debate, not nonsense on these pages. Mr Farnan, sadly, does not provide this. He is the Tea Party on legs. I echo the question posed by the surprisingly-named hollabackgurl: where did you find him?

• seanomelbourne | May 09, 2011, 03:00 AM EDT

  J Swift most memorable piece of prose is "burn everything English except their coal" an environmentally friendly quote if ever I heard one.Leave Lilliput alone Farnan.

• LilPaddy | May 08, 2011, 11:47 PM EDT

  Having read the comments below.... It is my guess that 90% of the commenters ARE ALSO AMONG THE 50% RECEIVING HANDOUTS FROM "The Government"... (a.k.a "The Taxpayers)..... useless, braindead freeloading Fn. feeders!!

• hollabackgurl | May 08, 2011, 11:38 PM EDT

  It would help if the person who wrote this - stuff - actually read or newspaper or turned on his TV this week, or indeed any week. Where did you find him?

• jmchrystal | May 08, 2011, 07:16 PM EDT

  Has Ed been to a doctor lately, he is showing signs of a stroke!

• seanomelbourne | May 08, 2011, 07:01 PM EDT

  The oil price is set by an international cartel and all countries suffer from high oil prices(with few exceptions).Obama has no control over prices if the president tried to freeze or lower oil prices the Fox/GOPers would cry communist. That's the fun thing about the right they want their cake and eat it,no practicality and all bluster.

• seagreen | May 08, 2011, 07:00 PM EDT

  zzzzzzzzzzzzz

• docmikey | May 08, 2011, 05:25 PM EDT

  Blah, blah, blah!

• cillowen | May 08, 2011, 04:42 PM EDT

  a mix of the isms is what needed to monitor the shark feeders.

• jamthecat | May 08, 2011, 03:16 PM EDT

  Talk about divorced from reality and blinded by your ideology...this is absolutely the most laughable commentary you've ever made, Ed. Congratulations, you have become an absolute fool incapable of facing facts. What's sad is, some people think you know what you're talking about...which absolutely makes this a case of the blind leading the blind straight into the ditch.

• Jamieos | May 08, 2011, 02:31 PM EDT

  Good article!

• terryrn2 | May 08, 2011, 02:04 PM EDT

  Since when is Obama a leftist? He is considered a moderate. That's what happens when our country is run by religious conservative zealouts for so long. People start to believe moderation is now liberal or left! By the way unmonitored capitalism and greed is what got us in trouble in the first place! No government is not the answer and should not be the answer! How about some common sense for a change and allowing the majority to rule as opposed to the wealthiest minority running the country? Untill something is done that doesn't allow wealthy lobbyists to get their way, we are all in the "shitter"!

• Monsoonman | May 08, 2011, 12:03 PM EDT

  Hitler’s Green Killing Machine http://bit.ly/debdnD ..used green rationalization based on animal rights for destruction of Jews. Funny how todays "green movement" parallels Germanys under Hitler. I suppose it's a winning formula to use on the gullible.

• Trealach | May 08, 2011, 11:56 AM EDT

  @Pittsburghkid - WHAT has energy got to do with 'Constitutional' rights? The worthless constitution you quote and misinterpret does not mean that 'all men are equal' only an ignorant and arrogant 'framer of the constitution' would think that. It merely means that 'all men/women' have the right to be TREATED EQUALLY. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with Energy ...sheeeeshhhh!

• Monsoonman | May 08, 2011, 11:42 AM EDT

  Reading most of the comments below show what a complete lack of education youngsters get these days from the public edjukashun system. None of you has a clue as to how a vibrant free market economy runs. You think "capitalism" is an evil word. It is not the govt. that generates your income, it is the private sector that the govt. extracts the money from....Oh and if you want to blame the evil speculators for rising fuel prices, they just reflect what the obama administration is doing/planning to our energy production. They reflect the adage of investment, "buy on rumor sell on news".

• odonnell521 | May 08, 2011, 11:18 AM EDT

  The National Black Chamber of Commerce was incorporated in 1993 by Harry Alford and Kay DeBow, who continue as President/CEO and Executive Vice President, respectively. Harry Alford is also a Board member of the United States Chamber of Commerce. So a USCC front group attacks Obama's politics - what a surprise!!!!! "50% of the population is receiving some sort of income or assistance from the government." Thanks Fox News Mini Me - it's called Social Security, Medicare, and extended unemployment benefits. "Time for real adult leadership in Washington DC." - you're right, vote Democrat.

• Pittsburghkid | May 08, 2011, 11:11 AM EDT

  Thank you. The American Constitution states that all men are created equal. Congress creates exceptions to this concept, that are Unconstitutional. Why should green engery get tax breaks while normal energy has to suffer?

• TheOldPerfessor | May 08, 2011, 11:05 AM EDT

  So we're anti-business? I guess that is why every market crash since 1890 has happened when a Republican was in the White House. Always for the same reason - "Let business alone and things will be fine." Sure, until they self-destruct. I agree with your headline. Lilputians have corrupted this country beyond all recognition. People who think there was a massive conspiracy in Hawaii to fraudulently announce the birth of a little brown baby. People who shout their love for the constitution and then want to rewrite it. People who scream communism whenever anyone wants to just improve the lives of citizens, People who voted for Congressmen who promised jobs and now are fighting to replace Big Bird with Rupert Murdoch. Real adult leadership - Donald Trump is still tanned and rested.

• SeamusM | May 08, 2011, 10:44 AM EDT

  This is deranged. Gas and energy prices skyrocketed not because of cap and trade -- it doesn't even exist --or because of investments in green technology, but because commodity markets have responded to uncertainty driven by a civil war in Libya and unrest elsewhere in the oil-producing regions. The country does have big financial problems, but is insurance from Medicare (to 20% of the population) or food stamps for military families really a Marxist revolution. It was magical thinking to run two wars and put them on a credit card. The most interventionist moves made by the government involve the banking and financial sector, which were engineered not by the left, but by President Bush in the fall of 2008. President Obama did invest public funds in the bailout of the car companies. It only saved the American automotive industry.

• seanomelbourne | May 07, 2011, 09:45 PM EDT

  "Farnan the whinger" rejigging the facts to suit his right wing agenda.Piegiaine if the lord can change the economy why did 9/11 happen?why have thousand died in Iraq/Afghanistan get a life you sanctimonious hypocrite.

• PEIGIAINE | May 07, 2011, 08:47 PM EDT

  Warren Buffet is strong and powerful, but even he got something wrong. It wasn't capitalism per se that made America the greatest country in the world, now will capitalism ever have power any power to to get us out of our "economic morass", but only The Lord Jesus Christ, who was the original inspiration, and the one to whom we refer to when we say,"God Bless America".