In addition to the above video he posted this as his video description.
EDIT: Also, before Happy Cabbie willfully throws women, homosexuals, and the poor under the bus - and then asks us all to follow suit - maybe he should read up on what his choice of candidate actually WANTS to do and what the effect would be. Here's a lovely article on what would happen if Roe was repealed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/opinion/if-roe-v-wade-goes.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1&
HappyCabbie is pretty stupid:
http://happycabbie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/why-i-am-voting-against-obama.html
Basically, his general idea is that he hates Obama because Obama wants to raise taxes on the rich and is mean to pot smokers. Cabbie admits that Romney will be as bad or worse than Obama in virtually every category that he claims to care about (vice taxes on the upper class). So, in response, Happy says he wants to vote for Romn - Excuse me, AGAINST OBAMA - to guarantee another four years of deadlocked government and maybe if we pray hard enough we'll get "better" candidates in 2016.
I'm guessing, to HappyCabbie, a 'better' candidate will be someone like Ron Paul. Furthermore, HC pushes the horribly lame Laffer Curve idea and doesn't even seem to understand that Romney's tax plan would be a miserable failure that would drastically increase military spending and greatly increase the budget deficit. Sorry, HC, but we're not going to get a balanced budget out of the magical tax cut fairies, and I'd think someone in YOUR economic position voting for people who want to make YOUR position *even more untenable* is pretty fucking stupid. Also, as an aside, weren't YOU the one who wanted to find a way to sneak into Canada so you could use their universal healthcare system? Ugh.
He ALSO is super gung-ho about ballot initiatives and think they're this super great democratic thing. Hey, asshole! Remember Proposition 8? I guess we should always listen to the 'will of the people', even when it means we end up throwing homosexuals under the bus, eh?
Also, I find it pretty hilarious that he thinks drones fly out of the range of antiaircraft systems. The Global Hawk has an estimated max altitude of around 65k feet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Hawk) and is the highest-altitude drone the US probably possesses. The Soviets were fielding anti-air equipment in the 1960s that could hit targets flying 130k feet high. Sorry, HC, I'm fairly sure it is possible to shoot down drones, despite what you may think.
The Final Word on Mitt Romney's Tax Plan by Josh Barro
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-12/the-final-word-on-mitt-romney-s-tax-plan.html
P.S. Israel is in Asia.
Ok so let's clarify a few things first. I am going to start with the video description and correct his errors and misquotes. First as CardinalVirtues already knows I am NOT interested in what a candidate says. Both Romney and Obama have a proven history when it comes to Abortion. For Obama we can look to his time as President and for Romney we can look at his time as Governor. As I previously stated, Romney is not the perfect candidate for lining up with my views on Abortion. He was however in favor of Stem Cell research. However, as Cardinal Virtues knows and has chosen to ignore, the President can't just do what he wants. He needs cooperation of the Senate. During the term of George W Bush, even when he had control over the Senate he couldn't get the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act to his desk. Furthermore, Romney can approve any number of nominees to the court that he likes, they still have to be approved by the Senate. The Senate is under Democrat Control and even if the Republican's win the majority they will not have the ability to break a filibuster.
CardinalVirtues then goes on to prove that the truth does not matter to him. My displeasure with Obama has nothing to do with taxes or pot smokers! I want him out of office because of his attacks on liberty, states rights, and for failure to do the job we sent him to Washington to do. His video description completely misrepresents my point. He knows it and doesn't try to hide it.
CardinalVirtues then LIES when he suggests that I probably would support a candidate like Ron Paul. I have to use the word lie, as there is NO other word to describe this. I did three videos against Ron Paul during the Republican Primary. Those videos are still up.
CardinalVirtues then goes on in his video description and demonstrates that he failed 8th grade civics class. The President does NOT write tax laws. However I can not just blame CardinalVirtues as this is a common misconception. Only the House of Representatives is allowed to create tax laws. Then the law is taken to the Senate and only when both houses agree is the bill sent to the President. The President can make suggestions, he can make a wish list, but the President does NOT write tax law. So it is very important to know who is running for the House of Representatives in your district, be an informed voter.
The final points of correction for CardinalVirtues in his video description.
I had no plans of sneaking into Canada. I desire to legally immigrate and become a citizen.
Yes, ballot initiatives are a great democratic thing. Currently half of the states enjoy this freedom and I hope more get to take part in this some day. Let me turn the question on you. Would you be in favor of stripping direct democracy from the people because they may not vote in your favor? Proposition 8 was tragic, however in a system of checks and balances the system worked and that case was overturned.
Yes drones are the future of our military. They are cheaper to operate, they don't put the pilots life in danger, and yes they are hard to shoot down. We are NOT at war with the Russians. The third world countries we are currently engaged in simply do not possess the means to equal our military drones. Even if they did shoot one of them down, big deal. At least no pilots dies.
Now lets move on to the video. I will correct his misrepresentations, half truths, and flat out lies. It is over 15 minutes long so it will require some thick boots.
First misrepresentation is at 1:02 where he chastises me for quoting Rush Limbaugh and RussiaToday. He fails to explain WHY I included these two sources. I quoted Rush Limbaugh because I was debunking a repeated lie from the Romney Campaign that says that Obama is cutting the Military. While the whole article was aimed mostly at atheist and libertarian readers, I was addressing Republican's in that particular section. Republican's are more than likely to listen to Rush Limbaugh than a more liberal source of news. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I quoted RussiaToday simply because I found their video to be short and to the point. I was searching for a clear explanation of corporations and slave labor in our prison system.
CardinalVirtues seems to be obsessed with convincing me that Isreal is an Asian Nation. At 1:14 and even in the title of the video he can't let this one go. A nation that borders Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and the Medeteranian Sea I would hardly describe this as an Asian Nation. This is clearly in the Middle East. Also it should be noted that the Middle East is NOT on one continent. The Middle East is a geographic region. Some people passed 7th grade Geography, others go on YouTube and make 15 minute long videos.
2:01 Yes Slavery was abolished via amending the Constitution. Many people credit the Emancipation Proclamation which was an Executive Order by Abraham Lincoln, however it may do you some good to read up on the history of the 13th Amendment. The Emancipation Proclamation was done in Lincoln's first term of office and was essentially done under the guise of martial law. The proclamation only applied to states in rebellion and only to the slaves living in those states. Had the 13th Amendment not passed it could have been possible for the Emancipation Proclamation to be in effect only during the time of the civil war and at the war's conclusion slavery was to continue. Thus right after Lincoln's re-election the lame duck session of congress passed the amendment and it was sent to the states for ratification.
At 2:12 CardinalVirtues brings up the case of Dred Scott decision which in essence decreed that black people were not citizens of the United States. A little background on this. About two years ago, the Arizona State Legislature had attempted to limit where and when funeral protests could take place. This was an attempt to protect the grieving families from the Westboro Baptist Church. It is a common saying that your rights end where my nose begins. Here is the video
I based my video on the 6th circuit court of appeals which at the time was the highest court to rule on this. Yes people do and should have the right to protest, however the rights of the people being protested must also be taken into consideration. However the Supreme Court eventually weighed in and I released this video.
I was not happy with the Supreme Court's decision but I respected it. See this is what you do when the courts rule against your favor. You go back to the drawing board and draft laws that will pass a court challenge. This is how our system of checks and balances work.
At 2:26 he states that he doesn't care to go through my blog because it is too long. I guess in his world a 15 minute long video is fine if you don't want to read. Oh well, I am not offended that he finds my blog to long. I just hope that doesn't stop him from picking up a history book now and then.
At 2:43 he attempts to debunk the claim that cutting taxes increases revenue to the treasury. Well let's look at the numbers. When Kennedy cut taxes tax revenues climbed from $94 billion in 1961 to $153 billion in 1968, an increase of 62 percent. Likewise Reagan saw an even bigger increase. When Bush cut taxes so did he. The problem is spending. Government spends too much. Now let's take a look at the Regan Tax increases and see how much CardinalVirtues knows his history.
The first tax increase was the Highway Revenue Act of 1982 which added a 6 cent tax to gasoline to pay for road construction. Also in 1982 was the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 which essentially closed loopholes. In 1983 we had The Social Security Amendments which was an increase designed to shore up Social Security. We do this every few years to keep it solvent.
In 1983 Ronald Reagan also passed the Railroad Retirement Solvency Act. While some of the changes were later repealed it was a tax on benefits for Railroad Workers if they took an early retirement. Like Social Security, these taxes were enacted to ensure solvency. To quote from the Social Security Website. You can read it yourself here.
The Railroad Retirement Solvency Act of 1983 was enacted to deal with the crisis and was in many ways similar to contemporary legislation for Social Security, which faced its own severe financial difficulties (RRB 2006d). The act included provisions making Tier II benefits subject to the same federal income tax rules that applied to private pensions, reducing Tier I benefits for certain workers if retirement occurred between ages 60 and 62 (this was later repealed by 2001 legislation), establishing a 5-month waiting period for disability benefits, and limiting the retroactivity of retirement benefits to 6 months (RRB 2006d). Additionally, as a result of the Social Security legislation passed at the same time, Tier I benefits became subject to federal income tax under the same rules that applied to Social Security benefits.
In 1984 we had the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 which again closed loopholes and also extended a tax on telephones. In 1985 we had Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 aka COBRA. This is the law that allows you to keep your health insurance (provided you pay for it) if you lose your job. It also limits the ability of an employer to deduct the cost of insurance unless it meets government standards. Yet, revisionists love to cite things like this as a tax increase because this bill also raised taxes on tobacco.
In 1986 we have the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986. The tax was on oil and chemical industries. It created a fund to pay for hazmat spills. Ideally the party at fault would be charged for the clean up, in the event that a party could not be found, the fund would be used. Yet, because it taxes industry and some high item imports this is counted as one of the many tax increases Reagan enacted.
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 is often referred to as a tax increase. This is because it raised the lowest tax rate from 11% to 15%. However the top tax rate was cut from 50% to 28% and tax brackets were merged from 15 to just four. It also added a one cent tax to motor fuel (diesel and gasoline) to pay for clean up of underground storage tanks that had leaked. It also taxed crude oil however a heavier tax was placed on imported oil. Some tax deductions such as interest on credit cards was also phased out.
In 1987 we had Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 which brought about standards for nursing home training and rights of the patients. It also extended taxes on telephones and limited employer deductions.
In short the tax cuts enacted by Reagan were real tax cuts. The tax increases were things such as user tax on oil, cigarettes, telephones ect. The end result was a growing economy and more money to spend, which sadly was overspent.
Back to the video, at 3:35 CardinalVirtues misrepresents my position. I don't know if this is intentional or if it is simply because he didn't go through it all. Remember he said my blog was rather long and he didn't go through it. Go back to 2:26. The point of my blog was to be as honest with my readers as I can. While I was encouraging people to vote against Obama I could not let this one lie repeatedly told by the Romney campaign to go unchallenged. Obama is NOT cutting the military. In fact under Obama's plan the military spending will continue to go up. This is about the practice of baseline budgeting. What is being cut is a reduction in the rate of spending growth. Obama has more ships in his Navy than Bush did in 2007. The only thing that is being reduced is our number of active duty soldiers and that is because we are finally starting to bring our troops home.
At 3:50 CardinalVirtues tries to disprove my claim that Romney will not be able to get his Supreme Court nominees rubber stamped onto the court. Any nominee will have to be approved by the Senate. Both Ronald Reagan and George W Bush had control over the Senate for most of their terms and were the most pro-choice candidates we have ever had. Neither of them was able to stack the court they way they wanted to. They had to select someone who will pass the Senate and Mitt Romney will have to do this as well. It is predicted he will have a Democrat run Senate. He will NOT have the same opportunities that Reagan and Bush had.
At 8:57 CardinalVirtues demonstrates his unwillingness to read up on my position before attempting to debunk it by either ignoring what I wrote about marriage equality or he was ignorant of the fact that I covered it at all. By his own words he did not go through my entire blog, yet felt enlightened enough to debunk it. Instead he referenced Mitt Romney's website and read text from a screen. Assuming CardinalVirtues is capable of reading down to this line of text I will chose not to respond to his point but rather ask him to finish reading my blog where I discussed marriage equality.
At 10:50 CardinalVirtues reads from the Mitt Romney website where he says on day one he will issue an executive order giving waivers to all 50 states. There are currently 28 states suing the federal government to get out of Obamacare. So first it is unlikely that all 50 states would make use of this waiver. However we live in a system of checks and balances. The President can not just do whatever he wants, despite how hard Obama tries. This is the problem I have with Obama. He has made great attempts to broaden the powers of the federal government and to trump the rights of the citizens. Remember when he promised to shut down Guantanomo Bay? Under the laws Obama now enforces anyone can be sent to Gitmo and held forever without trial based soley on an accusation.
Obamacare was never a fix to the health problems in this country. Universal Healthcare is. However, I know that all politians lie. CardinalVirtues reading from Mitt Romney's promises is laughable at best but frankly makes me sad that people like him claim to be educated voters. Don't look at what a politician says, look at what they do. What did Mitt Romney do as Governor, he signed into law a program very similar to what Obamacare is today.
However even if Obamacare is to be scrapped on day one, it is worth it to me, to get the abuse of power that the Obama Administration has put the country through to an end. Sometimes an educated voter has to chose the lesser of two evils. In my opinion Mitt Romney is the lesser of two evils.
At 11:46 CardinalVirtues says quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever heard in a long long time. "Why not vote for people you actually want to win?" LOL He can't be serious right. Did I not dedicate a third of my previous blog to why a third party candidate is a wasted vote? I know he admits to not going through it all, but come on this was one of the first topics I covered. It actually takes effort to be this clueless.
Well perhaps he is referring to the primaries where each party nominates their candidate. Well I took part in that and I voted for Newt Gingrich. I based my vote on his tenure as Speaker of the House and how he was able to cut government spending. However, CardinalVirtues suggestion that I vote for people who I actually want to win, demonstrates a clear lack of reading comprehension on his part. Under the current Electoral College third party candidates can NOT win. In order to win the President a candidate must get 270 votes. In the event that this does not happen it goes to the House of Representatives. Third Party Candidates can NOT win and voting for one is a wasted vote. You have two choices Romney or Obama. Pick the one you like or pick the one you hate the least.
At 12:58 CardinalVirtues again misrepresents me when he claims that I said that protesting at funerals was not a free speech issue. What I actually said was it wasn't because the courts (at that time) had ruled it wasn't. Again, we live in a system of checks and balances. The legislature makes the law, the executive branch (in this case the Governor of Arizona) enforces the law, and the courts rule if a law is constitutional. Saying that protesting funerals is a free speech issue is like me claiming that murder is protected by the first amendment because I belong to a religion that practices human sacrifice to the sun. Just like you claim (and rightly so) that the Dred Scott case was a bad decision by the Supreme Court, I say this Supreme Court decision is bad.
You see CardinalVirtues we both can point to SupremeCourt cases that we disagree with. However as someone who comes from a military family I can only imagine how painful it would be to have someone protest at a funeral of a loved one. You want to know the law that CardinalVirtues has an issue with? Here. The bill does not outlaw protests. It simply puts reasonable limits on it. You are restricted to 300 feet and that restriction only occurs one hour before, during, and one hour after the protest. Under this law once the body is dropped in the ground and an hour has passed you can dance on that grave. Do you know how far 300 feet is? In many cases it would still be in plain view and earshot of the funeral. All the law says is that you can't be close and disrupt the funeral. Like Dred Scott the Supreme Court got it wrong. That is okay, new laws are being drafted. That is how government works.
At 14:10 Prisons are slave labor camps. This is the crux of my issue. Not only are we locking up non-violent offenders and charging them with felonies but we are sending them to forced labor under the threat of solitary confinement to undercut American Workers. Learn about how much paint, furniture, and other household goods are made with prison labor. These prisons are run by for profit corporations that lobby our leaders for tougher laws on non-violent crimes. Why? Simple, non-violent offenders make the best workers. Government run prisons are being bought by corporations as a way to bail out the state governments and then they charge the government a fee to house these prisoners, fair enough. However, it hurts our economy when factories have to close down because they can not afford to compete with slave labor.
Obama failed to close Gitmo.
Obama failed to reform our drug laws, instead he went even further than Bush ever did.
Obama failed to cut the deficit.
Obama failed on immigration reform.
Why should we re-elect someone who has such a poor track record of getting things done. Let's get someone else in there and give them a shot. If they don't work out we will get someone else. However with a deadlocked Senate Mitt Romney won't be able to do much but for him that is a good thing. If we can at least roll back the attack on freedom that we had before Obama took office it will be worth it.
Final note to CardinalVirtues misrepresentation at 14:56. I did try to get people through when I voted in the primary. Likewise I will try to get people through when I vote for congress and my local elections. However voting third party is a wasted vote, and when you consider that you never addressed that point despite it being a third of my blog that you supposedly are responding to, you seemed to be perfectly willing to ignore the facts. However unlike you, I am willing to go through a person's argument before I attempt to deconstruct it. Perhaps it is time for you to close your YouTube account again. As for me I do not have any plans to return to YouTube, other than the occasional video here and there. I mostly use my computer to watch movies on Hulu and websites like that. I had a good run and accomplished more than most ever will on this site.
