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Fox Poll: Does Obama Want To Cut Taxes, Or Is He Corrupt Instead?

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Recently, Fox News has declared their intention to crack down on distortions, false statements and other such violations of proper journalistic behavior. They might not be off to the best start, though, with the new Fox News poll, containing an amazingly loaded question.

To be specific, here's what the poll asked: "What do you think President Obama would like to do with the extra bank bailout money -- save it for an emergency, spend it on government programs that might help him politically in 2010 and 2012, or return it to taxpayers?"

The basic assumption here, of course, is that the only reason Obama would want to spend money on the economy is to use the cash as a sort of political slush fund -- not simply saying that one disagrees with spending the money or thinks it's a bad idea, but that it is inherently illegitimate -- while saving the money or cutting taxes have purer motives.

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December 10, 2009 5:43 PM   

What do you think Fox News would like to do? asked loaded questions or allow the country to be taken over by Muslims pretending to be Hawaiins?

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December 11, 2009 9:38 AM    in reply to The Decider

What's the matter? Don't you think seeing how many people hold that view is relevant? Of course it is.

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December 11, 2009 10:05 AM    in reply to shooter242

We already know a large majority of Fox viewers are rubes.

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December 10, 2009 5:52 PM   

Where do I vote?

I vote: ""HE WILL spend it on government programs that might help him politically in 2010 and 2012""

You guys are out of touch, like the victim of satire that doesn't get it.

and, furthermore...
""the only reason Obama would want to spend money on the economy is to use the cash as a sort of political slush fund". I AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY, especially when you throw Dirty Harry, Peelosi and Deadfish into the mix. Something for everyone.

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December 10, 2009 6:00 PM    in reply to tropicgirl

You seem to have come to the wrong website. I think the URL you are looking for is foxnewsisforidiots.com

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jcd

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December 11, 2009 12:46 AM    in reply to farnsworth

You got the URL wrong. Believe it's foxnewsisformorons.com.

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December 10, 2009 6:00 PM    in reply to tropicgirl

Talk about a big steaming pile of elephantshit™.

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December 10, 2009 6:10 PM    in reply to tropicgirl

Well, thing is, little drive-by teabagging troll girl, given that all the money in question was borrowed (or, possibly it was just money they were authorized to borrow and didn't), the question here in rational world would be do we spend it on something else, or just not spend it and thereby reduce the deficit. The idea of using borrowed money to fund tax cuts, we'll that's just plain stupid. Not that your side noticed when it was doing exactly that, borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars and using it to fund tax cuts for rich people.

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December 10, 2009 6:56 PM    in reply to The Commenter Formerly Known as NCSteve

"The idea of using borrowed money to fund tax cuts, we'll that's just plain stupid"

The only thing that could possibly be more stupid than borrowing money for tax cuts for the rich is borrowed money to fund a $1T war with zero added benefit (Iraq).

A close third would be using borrowed money to shift $1T to pharmaceutical companies, with no added benefit (Medicare Part D).

But we're all positive that you were against all of those (~$5T in debt), right tropicgirl you idiot?

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December 10, 2009 6:58 PM    in reply to Shrubbit

Sorry FormerlyNC, that was to you-know-who. Just picked up where you left off in my head.

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December 10, 2009 6:11 PM    in reply to tropicgirl

Wait, are you saying that Fox News is really satire? Like a TV version of The Onion? Because then it would start to make some sense.

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December 10, 2009 6:33 PM    in reply to tropicgirl

Thanks for admitting that Fox is satire and not actual news.

Of course, most of us here already knew that, so good for you for catching up to the rest of the class, Dimwitticus of Borg.

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AJM

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December 10, 2009 6:48 PM    in reply to tropicgirl

....spend it on a program which might help him politically? You mean a program that might help him politically like Medicare helped LBJ? Or the way Social Security helped LBJ?

I certainly hope he does.

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AJM

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December 10, 2009 6:49 PM    in reply to AJM

Typo -- second LBJ should be FDR.

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December 10, 2009 6:54 PM    in reply to tropicgirl

"You guys are out of touch, like the victim of satire that doesn't get it."

Thanks, this is my new favorite way to refer to Republican voters. It's not your fault that the joke's on you.

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December 10, 2009 6:55 PM    in reply to tropicgirl

TripicTrollGirl- u b channeling Wingnutistan radio memes. Who's paying ya?

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December 10, 2009 8:18 PM    in reply to tropicgirl

Poll question for you:

Do you think Fox News would ask such a loaded question, because a) they're basically a bunch of dishonest scumbags, b) it's fun to manipulate their dumbass viewers and defenders and so easy to do, or c) they're petty right-wing jackasses who would rather bring the country to ruin than see any measure of success come to the man they tried so hard and failed to defeat in 2008?

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December 11, 2009 8:48 AM    in reply to chimpale

(d) all of the above.

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December 11, 2009 9:42 AM    in reply to loria

co-sign. I also like the steamin pile of shit comment from another poster.

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December 11, 2009 2:06 AM    in reply to tropicgirl

So what you're saying is that you are a stupid person.

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December 11, 2009 7:17 AM    in reply to tropicgirl

The heat's gone to your head, tropicgirl. You sound *exactly* like a right-wing nut! Save yourself while you still can. Move to where it's cooler.

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December 11, 2009 8:38 AM    in reply to tropicgirl

Wow, speaking of satire victims who don't get when the joke is on them...

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December 11, 2009 10:09 AM    in reply to tropicgirl

"You're out of touch", said the Creationist and Climate Change denier.

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December 10, 2009 6:00 PM   

At least Obama's approval rating increased in this new FOX POLL.

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December 10, 2009 6:01 PM   

What do you think President Obama would like to do with the extra bank bailout money -- save it for an emergency, return it to taxpayers or use it to facilitate his ongoing ritualistic consumption of babies?

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December 10, 2009 6:23 PM    in reply to whitenoise100

No, the babies are Dick Cheney's plan. :)

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December 10, 2009 6:48 PM   

Who said Fox isn't bias?

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December 10, 2009 6:55 PM    in reply to ru4862

Fox News did.

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December 11, 2009 1:59 AM    in reply to ru4862

OT's rhetoric tip:

Don't use "Fox is biased". That's the trolls' line, followed by "Just like all the other networks are."

Fox is propaganda. This "poll" is a good example of classic propaganda. Just trying to be helpful here. Good luck and good cheer.

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December 10, 2009 7:05 PM   

"She's a witch! BURN!"

"And how do you know she's a witch?"

"She looks like one!"

"I'm not a witch, they put these clothes on me!"

"Well... we did do the nose... and the hat... but she's got a wart!"

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December 10, 2009 7:56 PM   

Standard FOX News/right wingnut mindset -- if you don't agree with their ideology, then you are obviously an unpatriotic socialist fascist elitist parasite on society.

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December 10, 2009 7:58 PM   

Fox have created a those most bizarre circular feeding fenzy America has EVER seen.
They actually have no need of a reporter on the ground anywhere - not Washington, not NY, not anywhere. Their opinion has become both the news, justification for the news, and ammunition for the audience to repeat back to Fox as if it came from eslewhere.
They scaremonger that Obama's a muslim, he's kenyan, he's a black christian extremist, he's a commie, he's a nazi, he's a fascist, he's an athiest, he's a socialist, he's a terrorist lover, he's corrupt, and on and on. They never ever offer any proof, but the opinions are so loud and so rioghteous, that their own opinion becomes a part of their news. Then, their audience laps it up, and get angrier and angrier. Which Fox reports on, and take as encouragement that they're on the right track. So they go even further, The crowds get angrier. Fox reports it again as news and confirmation that they are right. and on and on it goes.
They actually have no need for ANY outside influence - the circular firing squad Murdoich adn Ailes has created is quite the money spinner - and the gold merchants are REALLY happy.
It most certainly is a big money spinner for Murdoch and the gold folk, but the depths of ignorance and seething, vicious anger, the exponential hatred for anything outside of their echo chamber, is looking more and more frightening. Not in an electoral sense, in a sense that I see BIG violence coming. They have convinced themselves that Obama is a traitor - muslim terrorist in a suit intentionally owkring to bring their America down. They really believe that. They have convinced themselves Obama is a combination of Bin Laden, Stalin and Hitler. If that were truly that case, I would most certainly join in an effort to assainate him. That is why I am convinced these people, who happen to have a hell of a lot of money, really are planning something big. Terrorism on a massive scale. I'm sure of it. They have accepted the proof-free lies of Beck, O'Reilly, Kelly, Hannity - well all the guys at Fox, really - and now the ever increasing EXTREME McCarthyism from the top people at the GOP, to the point where evidence coming from anywhere but the depths of those few shallow minds is nothing but corrupt, anti-Ameriocan propaganda designed to provide comfort to our enemies.
Their reasoning is gone, their sociopathy & agression is evidently at maximum, and they consider themselves the only people able and willing to 'free America from tyranny'.
This really nees to be addressed - somehow.
It';s not as if Obama is doping anything all that radical! All this is nothing but the repoublicans responding desperately - they have ratched up the fear levels to a point where they know themselves they can no longer control it. And when the violence comes from the mionster they have created, they, too will pay.
And like Cheney/Bush and the destruction they wrought on America, they will undoubtedly get away with it scott free.

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December 10, 2009 8:07 PM    in reply to cinesimon

Excuse my spelling please - haven't found a decent universal spell checker for my newly installed OS(went back to reliable XP).
Any suggestions? Nothing facetious pretty please!

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December 10, 2009 11:58 PM    in reply to cinesimon

Firefox

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December 10, 2009 9:48 PM    in reply to cinesimon

I don't think they are that organized. It's all sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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December 10, 2009 8:47 PM   

Yet another FAKE NEWS moment!

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December 10, 2009 9:18 PM   

I actually got called fro this poll and i had to tell the pollster that the questions were super loaded and he was like don't yell at me dude i'm just reading them off the screen.

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December 11, 2009 8:41 AM    in reply to Iamtheocean

Heh. It's true. Call center work is brutal. If you don't want to be polite, just hang up, don't them a hard time.

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December 10, 2009 11:31 PM   

"What do you think President Obama would like to do with the extra bank bailout money -- save it for an emergency, spend it on government programs that might help him politically in 2010 and 2012, or return it to taxpayers?"

Doesn't that question contain too many words for a typical Fox viewer?

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December 11, 2009 2:05 AM    in reply to NotFooledByDistractions

If you asked Fox viewers whether Obama wanted to return it to taxpayers or give it to Al Qaeda for them to strike U.S. targets, how many Fox jackass viewers would pick Al Qaeda?

40%? 30? 50?

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December 11, 2009 5:05 AM    in reply to Overreach THIS!

130%.

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December 10, 2009 11:32 PM   

"Return" borrowed money to taxpayers? Shouldn't that be "divert"?

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December 11, 2009 6:19 AM   

This is hilarious...it's a push poll! Fox is actually push-polling their own viewers. Presumably they don't need much pushing...still funny though.

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December 11, 2009 7:27 AM   

What we should do with the money is help Americans that are suffering from the effects of Voodoo Economics. Economic Royalists are served by Fox News.

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December 11, 2009 8:37 AM   

Orwellian doublespeak has become the hallmark of the Republican Party (of which FOX-News is the propaganda unit). Accuse the other person of what you are doing. Name things the opposite of what they are. Tell the Big Lies over and over until they take root. The Right Wing tactics are well-known if not clearly understood. The question is how best to combat it: I think it must be serious Democratic leaders boldly calling out specific Republicans. Rep. Grayson has the right idea but he is abrasive and needs help. I would start with Cheney who should be a Democratic pinada. He should be attacked, demonized and ostracized. As a bonus, Cheney might even wind up in prison where he belongs. But it can't be just Cheney. Bonior. McCain. McConnell. Etc. Attack. Attack. Attack. Keep attacking until the Orwellian tactics are obvious and ridiculed. Then, maybe, we can start making progress on real issues. As long as the Republicans are living comfortably in their alternate universe (hello, Michelle Bachmann), they will do nothing but obfuscate and obstruct.

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December 11, 2009 9:37 AM   


My Poll:

1- Was the Bush/Cheney Administration the worst in our History?

2- Was the Bush/Cheney Administration the Second worst in our History?

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December 11, 2009 9:43 AM   

More importantly is why is this steamin pile of shit story on TPM. Who cares about Fox polls?

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December 11, 2009 9:46 AM   

What the anti-tax zealots always miss is that services *are* returning the money to the people. But to selfish rich wingnuts, they just don't want money spent for the public good -- schools, roads, programs, that might make the country a better place to live.

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December 11, 2009 10:04 AM   

For feds, more get 6-figure salaries
Average pay $30,000 over private sector

By Dennis Cauchon
USA TODAY

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.

When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.

The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.

"There's no way to justify this to the American people. It's ridiculous," says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker who is on the House's federal workforce subcommittee.

Jessica Klement, government affairs director for the Federal Managers Association, says the federal workforce is highly paid because the government employs skilled people such as scientists, physicians and lawyers. She says federal employees make 26% less than private workers for comparable jobs.

USA TODAY analyzed the Office of Personnel Management's database that tracks salaries of more than 2 million federal workers. Excluded from OPM's data: the White House, Congress, the Postal Service, intelligence agencies and uniformed military personnel.

The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.

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December 11, 2009 10:12 AM    in reply to Silence

Nice to see someone pays a fair wage these days.

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December 11, 2009 10:16 AM    in reply to Dorn76

How long do you think this can continue? They produce nothing.

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December 11, 2009 11:36 AM    in reply to Silence

Exactly. Let's eliminate the DoD budget and cap salaries for the highest-paid employees in other departments. Sounds grand.

>They produce nothing.

Are we supposed to be thinking about bureaucracy as industry? Maybe they can make little commemorative purses or belt buckles for the gift shop.

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December 11, 2009 2:46 PM    in reply to jason

From it's previous posts, I have no doubt Silence believes Diplomacy ought to have some kind of material output.

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December 11, 2009 1:25 PM   

Wait a minute; look at question 11 on the poll. Does that say that in December of 2008, after the election, 27% of Republicans believed Obama would be a good president and 40% beleived he would be average? That's not what I remembered. I don't think public perception ever rose that high from the Republicans. I think they are fiddling again to make it appear Obama's popularity has dropped .

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