"A black sheriff?!": The Official Topic of Obama and New Era American Politics

[Mupepe]

Thank God

[Phoenix Dark]

Obama kills his first American citizen
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2011/09/american_born_al_qaeda_cleric_killed_in_yemen.php

[Positive Touch]

get back to me when they start shooting people

[Brehvolution]

Thank God

My wife is a teacher and says NCLB was awful. But then again it wasn't set up to help kids learn. It was set up to make a lot of people rich.

[Great Rumbler]

Thank God

My wife is a teacher and says NCLB was awful. But then again it wasn't set up to help kids learn. It was set up to make a lot of people rich.

My mom has worked in the school system during the decade of NCLB and her opinion of it is equally low.

As for the article...yeah, does the government do ANYTHING these days that isn't directly related to stuffing $100 bills into the pants of people who are already millionaires and billionaires?

[Mr. Gundam]

Thank God

My wife is a teacher and says NCLB was awful. But then again it wasn't set up to help kids learn. It was set up to make a lot of people rich.

Yep, NCLB is terrible. It meant well but didn't go about things in a realistic fashion.

[Brehvolution]

Yet you would never hear this be called 'wasteful spending'.

[Great Rumbler]

Corporations siphoned away billions of dollars from schools, while providing next to nothing in return, AND school budgets are being slashed year after year. Yet people wonder why are education system isn't working?

[Oblivion]

That the republicans would faster elect Cain than Paul should tell you something.

That they're not racist?

[TakingBackSunday]

The system broken, the schools closed, the prison's open. We ain't got nothing to lose ma'fucker we rollin'

Kanye

[Human Snorenado]

As for the article...yeah, does the government do ANYTHING these days that isn't directly related to stuffing $100 bills into the pants of people who are already millionaires and billionaires?

More than any political position, this is my biggest problem with our government. For the corporations by the corporations.

Obviously, the solution is to then support the candidate that advocates the fewest possible regulations on said corporations, becasue HEY WEED

[Phoenix Dark]

Elizabeth Warren 

[Phoenix Dark]

[youtube=560,345]V6_r7YAImS0[/youtube]

[Human Snorenado]

The difference being, kids overseas actually manage to pass tests.

[Human Snorenado]

Basically, there's a difference between supporting someone who espouses the absolute worst fiscal policy and someone who is essentially the lesser of the two evils.  It's like if you were asked if you wanted to catch gonorrhea or chlamydia and saying no thanks, I'll take the AIDS because I get these awesome prescription drugs.  What you like about Paul is (or should be, if you're not an idiot) a secondary or tertiary concern in deciding who to vote for.  I can only assume that your support for him is predicated on his stances for non-interventionist foreign policy and dope legalization.  While awesome, those are not the biggest problems facing the country/world today- on those issues Ron Paul supports policies that would turn the world into Lord of the Flies, so anybody with half a brain should probably not seriously be supporting him.

[Mupepe]

Wrong thread

[AdmiralViscen]

All we need is 9 9 9!!!

[Barry Egan]

Speaking of politics, Subways is offering "8 for 5" on every footlong sub for the month of October, including the steak and cheese sandwich!

[AdmiralViscen]

Wish it was $9

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Yes, well truth be told I have no more intention of voting for Paul after watching the debates. I wouldn't say my support for him was based on dope at all though, it was however based on misconception. I got swept up in the hype train that he was going to turn the political world in it's head. And now for some reason any time I weigh in on something all anyone has to say is lol you like Paul.

Now I'm probably just not going to vote. There's no candidate that I believe in, and even if I were to find one perfectly aligned with my hippy ass views, there's no way like that would stand a chance.

That is because there is no reason to seriously debate the qualities of Ron Paul.  The dingleberry hired Klansmen to officially run his campaign.  This guy had racist tracts written on his newsletter.  Most importantly, the Ron Paul vision was already experienced over a century ago and it was fucking painful for all except one or two percent of the population.  In a Ron Lawl world, you'd be too busy working your 10 cent an hour job than toking up.  The man is just not a candidate to be taken seriously and the fact that he barely ekes out a double digit result in any poll or primary that isn't a fanboy ballot stuffing opportunity is a sign that nobody else takes him seriously either.

He's about 130 years too late to the party.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/chris-christie-presidential-bid-6498142?click=pp

Thanks for the link.  Good read.

[Van Cruncheon]

the problem with ron paul is that he treats all problems -- social and economic -- as simple, and promises simple solutions couched as dogma. human society and the economic structures that spavine it are anything but. he's a snake oil salesman. anything he croaks from his aged libertarded maw must be factored against that one inescapable truth: NOTHING ABOUT PEOPLE IS SIMPLE.

[Oblivion]

Awesome-o, fix yer link, dog.

the problem with ron paul is that he treats all problems -- social and economic -- as simple, and promises simple solutions couched as dogma. human society and the economic structures that spavine it are anything but. he's a snake oil salesman. anything he croaks from his aged libertarded maw must be factored against that one inescapable truth: NOTHING ABOUT PEOPLE IS SIMPLE.

When his idiot son was on the Daily Show a little while back, there was a pretty amusing/head banging exchange:

Rand: The EPA is killing every industry in America!
Jon: Don't you agree that we need regulations to stop people from polluting our air and water supply?
Rand: But we don't need to worry about such things. The "scientists" talked about how the ozone hole would be expanding forever, and acid rain would be happening all the time, but it didn't.
Jon: But that's because there was legislation that was enacted in the early 1990s that curbed CFC and sulfur emissions and the like.
Rand: Exactly, and now we don't need them anymore!
Jon: But then those things will start happening again.
Rand: But we've just proven that the government didn't need to get involved at all.
Jon: 
Rand:
Jon:  :'(

[Great Rumbler]

Rand: The EPA is killing every industry in America!
Jon: Don't you agree that we need regulations to stop people from polluting our air and water supply?
Rand: But we don't need to worry about such things. The "scientists" talked about how the ozone hole would be expanding forever, and acid rain would be happening all the time, but it didn't.
Jon: But that's because there was legislation that was enacted in the early 1990s that curbed CFC and sulfur emissions and the like.
Rand: Exactly, and now we don't need them anymore!
Jon: But then those things will start happening again.
Rand: But we've just proven that the government didn't need to get involved at all.
Jon: 
Rand:
Jon:  :'(

[Phoenix Dark]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/rick-perry-says-drug-war-may-require-our-military-in-mexico/

[Great Rumbler]

I gotta agree, the current wars are getting a bit stale, need a new one to get things going again.

[Human Snorenado]

Plus, we'll get to rename burritos and tacos and shit.  FREEDOM WRAPS FOR ALL!

[Boogie]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/rick-perry-says-drug-war-may-require-our-military-in-mexico/

Go big or go home, I say.

But, since Mexico is but a middleman for the hard stuff of coke and South American heroin, y'all should invade Colombia, Peru and Bolivia instead.  Go for the source 'n all.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

but seriously, it hurts the head.  Sovereignty?  What's that?  We're Amurrica.  Our troops go where we want them to go.  And they can solve every problem.  Just look at Afghanistan, err, I mean, Iraq, err, what was I saying?

[close]

[Oblivion]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/rick-perry-says-drug-war-may-require-our-military-in-mexico/

Go big or go home, I say.

But, since Mexico is but a middleman for the hard stuff of coke and South American heroin, y'all should invade Colombia, Peru and Bolivia instead.  Go for the source 'n all.

Can't we invade ALL of them?

Pretty pweeeeeeeeeeeeasee?

[AdmiralViscen]

Remember when they called Obama naive/dangerous when he said he would unilaterally send a strike team into Pakistan to kill bin laden in that debate with McCain? They said a candidate shouldn't be planning incursions of allies before taking office

Of course, when he did it they said they would have done it anyways lol

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/rick-perry-says-drug-war-may-require-our-military-in-mexico/

So much wrong it hurts. Looks like I might have to vote Obama again just to help keep the pubs out

This is the same conclusion I reached.

Edit: Fringe candidate Herman Cain news:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/02/cain-tea-party-movement-pushed-black-candidate-to-top-gop-pack/
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h-L2VMxVrU47KDlWeFF0eoVE5HRg?docId=2116cb2b91ab4ee08dd8ecbdcedaf10e

Oh and 700 people were jailed with the Occupy Wall Street protest.  I don't think the protest will actually do anything but whatever:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i_YupXQAzyaIXDv_SWiTtXAXiEXA?docId=CNG.109ada98ca83da06e3e584c9aeb960ba.7e1

[drew]

wow, spencer, really with all this shit? you're really that suggestible to your peers? i honestly thought you were savvier than that.

[Mandark]

Listen I don't know where everyone got this idea that I was Ron Paul's champion.

Me neither. But if I had to guess, it would be all those posts where you were acting like Ron Paul's champion.

[Phoenix Dark]

Cain pulling the race card? Sheeeeeit

[drew]

well, anyways, i implore you to reconsider.  i believe that anybody else in this race will just further the country's downward spiral as well as the agenda of the previous president(s).  it's like coke and pepsi, there's a slight difference but really they are the same thing. oh, and i wouldn't mind the option to opt out of social security

Hell I actually believe the way our society is set up is holding back the healthy evolution of the human species.

are you talking about the stoned ape theory?

[Mandark]

Don't get so huffy, Spence.  You got caught running towards the wrong basket.  It happens.

[Phoenix Dark]

Basket? Wood has no monetary value. Gold pot, please

[Mandark]

Oh dear, we've failed to live up to the high bar Spencer set for respectful, informed discourse the last few weeks.

[Phoenix Dark]

come on bro, this is The Bore

[drew]

cohen, however, has been the only shining beacon in a thread otherwise filled with smug shitcocks. respect.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

If anything I become more and more of a hippy everyday. Hell I actually believe the way our society is set up is holding back the healthy evolution of the human species.

So why are you for Ron Paul then   Ron Paul pretty much stands for the exact opposite of both of your sentences.

[Mandark]

Yep, AWESEOM-O.  That the carping usually is completely hypocritical given the source doesn't help.

the problem with ron paul is that he treats all problems -- social and economic -- as simple, and promises simple solutions couched as dogma. human society and the economic structures that spavine it are anything but. he's a snake oil salesman. anything he croaks from his aged libertarded maw must be factored against that one inescapable truth: NOTHING ABOUT PEOPLE IS SIMPLE.

This.

It's not just oversimplified policy solutions either.  It's oversimplified political solutions to get to that policy: vote for Ron Paul, an honest man, and he'll fix things!  I've yet to see a Ron Paul supporter grapple with the fact of Paul's own unpopularity or those of his ideas, other than to call it a function of media bias or voter stupidity.  Eventually you have to figure out how to win people over and create a sustained constituency for your political program if you want to ever implement it in real life.  If you're on the political fringe, this should take up about 90% of your time.

Luckily, I get the feeling that a bunch of Paulites are satisfied to just bask in their own special rightness, which is a rather easier pursuit.

[Phoenix Dark]

The problem is many libertarians aren't interested with bringing people to their side, and instead seem to revel in smugly listing off the various important social programs and government agencies they want to cut. Programs people like, and others rely on

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

The problem is many libertarians aren't interested with bringing people to their side, and instead seem to revel in smugly listing off the various important social programs and government agencies they want to cut. Programs people like, and others rely on

I don't agree with your first point as Ron Lawl fans and Libertarians alike tend to evangelize on the internet.  Hell, recently I even saw three neckbeards out in front of a nearby community college holding up Ron Paul 2012 signs.

[Phoenix Dark]

The Ron Paul people I run into on campuses are easily the most combative, angry political types I've met. At least the LaRouche people will try to insult you in a passive aggressive, cheerful manner.

[Van Cruncheon]

on the OTHER other hand, newly-converted libertardians seem to think that we haven't seen their same facile arguments in countless incarnations since the ARPAnet first let socially disenfranchised and emotionally decrepit beardy virgins spew their reductivist political "philosophies" as 7-bit ANSI streams and that two-plus decades later we should STILL treat their earnest revelations as something new and insightful and worth addressing with more than a eyeroll and a one-liner

[Mandark]

PD:  To be fair, lots of people across the political spectrum (including liberals, and none so much as the apolitical), spend more time and energy telling everyone else how enlightened they are than they do proselytizing effectively.  It's way more fun.

But liberals/progressives tend towards activism generally.  There's a background of organizing for a ton causes that may or may not involve lobbying the government, but which naturally feeds into building a coalition.  Social conservatives have a similar thing going.  So there's a lot of people out there working explicitly or tangentially to keep growing those movements.  But libertarians?

Even stipulating that they care a lot about things which they think aren't the government's business, and that they could all be generous to a fault, there's no connection.  Volunteering for Habitat for Humanity or a local soup kitchen isn't going to help you network with other libbies or make people more aware of the main concerns of political libertarianism.  By its nature, it's a pretty bloodless movement.

[Van Cruncheon]

blah blah blah talkin' what never made a man rich

9 9 9

[Mandark]

Okay, you made me look that up finally and wtf?

That plan sure looks 1) designed to benefit the rich, 2) dumb, and 3) like it was ripped off a deal from some pizza delivery chain.  Waitaminute...

[Van Cruncheon]

give herman cain this: he knows how to sell middle americans terrible, ruinous shit and make them pay for it -- and love it

[Oblivion]

That 9-9-9 thing would have been a better gimmick if this was a few years earlier. His slogan could have been some combination of 999 and 911.


Btw, what the hell is right wing populism?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/opinion/sunday/douthat-missing-the-populist-moment.html?_r=1

[Mandark]

*Searches for answer that isn't "racist".*

I got nothing.

[Mandark]

Rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I honestly think this will never stop as long people value money more than their species. Aka forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stein%27s_Law

[drew]

Rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I honestly think this will never stop as long people value money more than their species. Aka forever.

http://www.cpusa.org/

[Himu]

Rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I honestly think this will never stop as long people value money more than their species. Aka forever.

http://www.cpusa.org/

thank america for options!

* Stringer Bell donates

[Mandark]

drew, the rebel, the iconoclast, the marcher for whom there's a different drum, stooging for rich folks?  Say it ain't so!


Spencer:  There have been periods in many countries where society evened out, money-wise.  This, for example.  So it's possible to successfully push for equality using the normal political processes of a liberal democracy with a mixed economy, without changing the basic tenets of human nature (which, as Van C said, are complicated).

It helps to not get unrealistic expectations of a utopia, and to avoid freaking out and jumping to the next big hope when that utopia doesn't immediately materialize.

[Mandark]

Nothing's permanent in politics.  Everything is subject to negotiation at a later date.  That's why political activism needs to be constant.

Look, if you find yourself caring about and spending time discussing politics, read up.  Go to A Plain Blog About Politics and read all the archives, for a start.  Having vague concerns about society is the beginning point for pretty much everyone, but talking about them like they're well-formed ideas will get you made fun of, and we've established that you don't much care for that.

[Human Snorenado]

oh, and i wouldn't mind the option to opt out of social security

Of course you wouldn't, you're going to die before you get anything from it.

[Phoenix Dark]

Okay, you made me look that up finally and wtf?

That plan sure looks 1) designed to benefit the rich, 2) dumb, and 3) like it was ripped off a deal from some pizza delivery chain.  Waitaminute...

[youtube=560,345]qqvASawpkEg[/youtube]

[Phoenix Dark]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/restrictions_could_keep_five_million_traditionally_democratic_voters_from_the_polls_in_2012.php?ref=fpblg

14 months to get people photo IDs. Given how impressive OFA's grass roots efforts are, I think they can combat this effectively

[MrAngryFace]

http://www.tnr.com/blog/timothy-noah/95680/gop-harvard-dump-warren - stay classy GOP