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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Taro who wrote (750210)	10/29/2013 4:38:24 PM
From: THE WATSONYOUTH	1 Recommendation Recommended By TideGlider Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574848

just amazing how ANY Democrat makes Bloomberg look good. 'Mayor' De Blasio: Bad for New Yorkers Monday, 28 Oct 2013 11:23 AM By George J. Marlin The New York City mayoral candidacy of Bill de Blasio has been driven by two issues: First he wants to handcuff the police by ending stop-and-frisk practices. Second, he wants to raise taxes on the so-called 1 percent. These are his public positions. God only knows what other deep-rooted, extreme left-wing ideological schemes he has in mind. Let’s face it, the man who championed and happily spent time with the leaders of the oppressive Sandinistas regime in Nicaragua and freely chose to spend his honeymoon in Cuba — a Marxist totalitarian state that has imprisoned and executed tens of thousands of innocent political prisoners, has driven out over 2 million people from a population of 11 million, and whose people earn, on average, $19 a month — isn’t a mainstream politician. Despite this background and his radical views, public opinion polls indicate that de Blasio is running away with the election. My explanation for this phenomenon: no historical memory. Few members of the general public remember how the city went downhill when John Vliet Lindsay, the 1960s darling of the left, was mayor of New York. Lindsay’s tax and spend and social justice policies turned the city into the welfare capital of the nation and unleashed the worst crime wave in New York history. Even leftist journalist Jack Newfield quipped that Lindsay “gave good intentions a bad name.” Lindsay proved that big, expensive, activist government not only failed to achieve expected social and financial equality but also created a permanent underclass — and bankrupted the nation’s largest city. The Lindsay debacle haunted New Yorkers until the 1990s when the Giuliani administration tackled the fiscal mess and successfully implemented social philosopher James Q. Wilson’s “Broken Window” theory which holds “that maintenance and monitoring urban environments in a well-ordered condition may stop further vandalism and escalation into more serious crime.” Because of the precipitous drop in crime during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations, New York experienced an economic and real estate boom. Housing in Brooklyn and Bronx neighborhoods that couldn’t be given away in the '70s and '80s is now selling at exorbitant prices because people felt it was safe to move back to these areas. Here’s what could go wrong in a de Blasio administration: If he emasculates the police department and crime begins to spike in the City’s revitalized communities, people who have paid high six and seven figures for homes and apartments will watch the values of their real estate drop like a rock. Their equity will be wiped out and they will be stuck with upside-down mortgages. Crime epidemics also spread, so expect the suburban counties surrounding the city to be impacted. If de Blasio raises taxes on the 19,000 people who earn over $1 million and presently pay 41 percent of the city’s income taxes, a significant subset will move to tax-friendly states like Florida. Others could move to neighboring Connecticut, where the top income tax rate is 6.5 percent. Compare that to combined New York state and city income tax rates, which would hit 13.23 percent if de Blasio gets his way. Wealthy entrepreneurs who vote with their feet will not only take their families with them but their businesses, too. This means some people who live in the NYC metropolitan region will lose their jobs and others will relocate with their employers. The number of young people who are leaving Long Island in search of employment opportunities, which is already high, will escalate. Bill de Blasio’s Marxist wealth redistributionist agenda will be a nightmare for all New Yorkers. If implemented, it will further bolster the Empire State’s reputation as the nation’s tax capital. George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of N.Y. and N.J., is the author of The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact. He also is a columnist for TheCatholicThing.org and the Long Island Business News. Read more reports from George J. Marlin

To: Taro who wrote (750210)	10/29/2013 9:23:53 PM
From: RetiredNow	1 Recommendation Recommended By tonto Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1574848

Just curious if there are any Libertarians on this thread? I'm beginning to think I'm more of a Libertarian than anything else, although mostly I'm an Independent. -------------- Most U.S. libertarians do not identify with Tea Party: survey By Mary Wisniewski \| Reuters – 20 hours ago By Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO (Reuters) - Most American libertarians do not consider themselves part of the conservative Tea Party movement despite a public perception that the two political groups are linked, according to a national survey released on Tuesday. Libertarians, who generally support maximizing individual rights and minimizing the role of government, differ sharply with the Tea Party and religious conservatives on issues such as abortion and decriminalization of marijuana, according to the survey by the non-partisan Public Religion Research Institute. Sixty-one percent of libertarians do not identify themselves as part of the Tea Party, the survey showed. About 7 percent of the adult population is consistently libertarian and that includes 12 percent of those who describe themselves as Republicans. "There's largely agreement on economic issues - the gap is in how libertarians approach social issues, " said Robert P. Jones, CEO of PRRI, which conducts an annual "American Values Survey" on political and social issues. While the survey showed that libertarians tend to favor Republicans, they are a swing group that can turn away from the party if it starts to favor too much government spending or interference with individual liberties, said Brink Lindsey of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington. "Libertarians are not part of the Democratic Party's base, that's for sure, but they're not a reliable part of the Republican Party's vote," said Lindsey, who saw the survey. "Republicans can scare away libertarian voters." He noted that the libertarian vote swung against Republicans in the 1992 presidential election, which included third party candidate Ross Perot, a businessman who favored a balanced budget and abortion rights. Both Perot and Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush lost to Democrat Bill Clinton. In the current Virginia governor's race, Robert Sarvis, a libertarian who supports gun rights and same-sex unions, has the support of 11 percent of Republicans and 2 percent of Democrats, taking potential votes from front-running Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of likely voters released last week. The PRRI survey identified libertarians through questions about their views on taxes and other policies, and by self-identification. A total of 13 percent of those surveyed called themselves libertarians - while 7 percent were inferred as consistent libertarians by how they answered certain questions. An additional 15 percent were seen as leaning libertarian. Jones said it was crucial to understand libertarians since they will be an important part of conservative coalitions going forward. Most are under 50 and slightly more likely to vote in primaries than Republicans overall. More than two-thirds are men and nearly all are non-Hispanic whites. Libertarians are more opposed to government involvement in economic policies than those affiliated with the Tea Party and Republicans overall, the survey found. For instance, 65 percent of libertarians were opposed to increasing the minimum wage, while 57 percent of Republicans overall supported it, the survey found. Ninety-six percent of libertarians oppose President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare restructuring compared to 89 percent of Republicans. But nearly 60 percent of libertarians oppose making it more difficult for a woman to get an abortion, while 58 percent of Republicans and those affiliated with the Tea Party favor such restrictions, according to the survey. More than 70 percent of libertarians favored legalizing marijuana, while about 60 percent of Republicans and Tea Party members opposed such a move, the survey found. Among libertarian voters who favor Republicans, U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was the favorite potential presidential candidate with 26 percent support, while 18 percent preferred Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Among Tea Party voters, Cruz was the favored candidate at 22 percent, with Paul at 13 percent. The survey interviewed 2,317 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.