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

[Yeti]

They're like cicadas that way. That and the neverending loud, shrill noises they emit.

[fart]

yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa it's goin on here

[pickle]

I thought we were done talking about Teapartiers, but election time is rolling around, and those parasites are crawling back from out of the woodworks, all swollen with Koch money.

They need to hibernate. It's tough work pretending that humans are rational agents, and that behavioural economics isn't a thing.

[Oblivion]

I thought we were done talking about Teapartiers, but election time is rolling around, and those parasites are crawling back from out of the woodworks, all swollen with Koch money.

The tea baggers may have been popular at first, but they're pretty hated now. It's actually a good thing to see them back in the news.

[benjipwns]

They need to hibernate.

Don't think they will. You libruls just took away their medicare or something.

It's tough work pretending that humans are rational agents, and that behavioural economics isn't a thing.

Tea Partiers think this?

[pickle]

They need to hibernate.

Don't think they will. You libruls just took away their medicare or something.

It's tough work pretending that humans are rational agents, and that behavioural economics isn't a thing.

Tea Partiers think this?

Perhaps just I'm talking out of my arse, but I've always been under the impression that Austrian Economics tends to disregard empirical observations about human behaviour?

[benjipwns]

Perhaps just I'm talking out of my arse, but I've always been under the impression that Austrian Economics tends to disregard empirical observations about human behaviour?

No, it's okay, I was snarking about Tea Partiers and their good-weather adherence to the facts that are Austrian Economics.

[pickle]

Perhaps just I'm talking out of my arse, but I've always been under the impression that Austrian Economics tends to disregard empirical observations about human behaviour?

No, it's okay, I was snarking about Tea Partiers and their good-weather adherence to the facts that are Austrian Economics.

I see.

[benjipwns]

SHAME

Shoddy ObamaCare ad:

[Phoenix Dark]

edit: wrong thread

[recursivelyenumerable]

I actually like that ad, I mean the music and design and stuff are nice. I don't really understand why Romney wants to repeal his own health care plan though 

[Joe Molotov]

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Gov-Scott-Says-Fla-Wont-Comply-with-Health-Care-Law-160943495.html

Governor Scott announced that Florida has seceded from the union. Well, good riddance.

[Phoenix Dark]

I doubt he will. How many times do state governments turn down federal monies?

[Human Snorenado]

I wouldn't worry overly much if I lived in Florida; this stuff doesn't go into effect until 2014 and that's when he'll be losing his reelection bid pretty handily.

[Phoenix Dark]

I'm still wondering how the hell FLORIDA elected a guy accused of Medicare fraud.

[Oblivion]

I actually like that ad, I mean the music and design and stuff are nice. I don't really understand why Romney wants to repeal his own health care plan though 

Because nobody told him that it's a million times more socialist than medicare, and so he's trying to amend that mistake.

[Human Snorenado]

I'm still wondering how the hell FLORIDA elected a guy accused of Medicare fraud.

C.R.E.A.M. and ZOMG DEATH PANELS hysteria of 2010

[Himu]

I'm still wondering how the hell FLORIDA elected a guy accused of Medicare fraud.

he's only looking out for the citizens' best interest.

[Oblivion]

Republican math alert: Boehner says Obamacare's $700 free rider penalty is MORE than Romneycare's $1,200 penalty

[Phoenix Dark]

 

Can't wait for the debates

[Human Snorenado]

Like the debates are probably going to be useful to help sway people who generally just don't give a shit and don't spend the time to keep informed, as long as the media will actually tell them, "yup, these fuckers are lying about this shit" in as many words.  But there's a certain percentage of the population who you're just not ever going to convince that Obama ISN'T, in fact, a Kenyan Muslin Soshilust Commie Atheist with a radical preacher mentor that wants to get all of their lily white teenage daughters pregnant, indoctrinate them into satanism/socialism/whatever and then force them to get abortions so he can eat the medical waste.

[Phoenix Dark]

Nah I'm looking forward to it because since the media is such a joke, the debates will be the first time Romney is challenged on his bullshit. I'd love to see him accuse Obama of apologizing for America or passing a never seen before health plan...to Obama's face.

[Brehvolution]

This is in the paper today:

[benjipwns]

I'm not sure anyone in the duopoly should be bragging after the gutter they dragged themselves into prior to the ruling last week. BUT THIS IS AMERICA! PARTY ON DUDES!

Best part is they missed the overall win that was this session.

the debates will be the first time Romney is challenged on his bullshit

You can do better than this.

But there's a certain percentage of the population who you're just not ever going to convince that Obama ISN'T, in fact, a Kenyan Muslin Soshilust Commie Atheist with a radical preacher mentor that wants to get all of their lily white teenage daughters pregnant, indoctrinate them into satanism/socialism/whatever and then force them to get abortions so he can eat the medical waste.

It's amazing the contortions you LIBDUHALS go through to ignore the obvious and still yet to be disproven facts.

[Great Rumbler]

Broken record is broken.

"What about *blank*?"

"Don't you worry about *blank*, you let me worry about *blank*."

[benjipwns]

"Don't you worry about *blank*, you let me worry about *blank*."

Which office are you running for again? I don't want to screw up my ballot.

[Phoenix Dark]

I'm not sure anyone in the duopoly should be bragging after the gutter they dragged themselves into prior to the ruling last week. BUT THIS IS AMERICA! PARTY ON DUDES!

Best part is they missed the overall win that was this session.

the debates will be the first time Romney is challenged on his bullshit

You can do better than this.

Show me one interview since Romney won the nomination where he has been challenged or effectively pushed on anything. His CBS interview comes to mind but even that was softball. So much of his campaign is built on pure dishonesty, and he is shielded from any media that might ask tough questions or challenge the narratives he continues to spin

My point is that he won't be able to do that against the actual candidate in a debate. He'll no longer have some abstract "it" to talk shit about

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I figured this was the best thread to post it in but Anderson Cooper finally admits to being gay.  I know we're all stunned here so....

[Boogie]

I figured this was the best thread to post it in but Anderson Cooper finally admits to being gay.  I know we're all stunned here so....

[Himu]

I figured this was the best thread to post it in but Anderson Cooper finally admits to being gay.  I know we're all stunned here so....

Also reported: the sky is blue, chocolate is delicious.

[Joe Molotov]

I wonder if he's gonna add "People Who Thought I Was Straight" to his RedicuList.

[AdmiralViscen]

Why would he even have to announce this?

[Mr. Gundam]

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/07/02/re-the-littlest-pundit

Remember Jonathan Krohn, the barely pubescent boy who became a minor star of the Republican party back in 2009? As I wrote at the time:

    This morning, Republican America is all smitten with this 14-year-old kid, Jonathan Krohn, who's written a book and schmoozes the teevee cameras and talks about what's so great about conservatism.

    Here's the thing: All kids are conservative. They are naturally conservative—I was, you were, we all were—knowing only their small domestic sphere and protective of only their narrow interests. They like the status quo, they like rigid authority structures, they like the illusion of changelessness that a stable household provides.

    The process of becoming an adult liberal is the process of realizing that the world is bigger and weirder and more malleable than you ever imagined, and that there are interests other than one's own to defend.

    This kid, smart and curious as he is, will grow into a liberal. I just hope his parents and press agents let him.

Now, three years later, Politico has interviewed the kid and guess what? He's in favor of gay marriage, Barack Obama, and even Obamacare.

    Now 17, Krohn — who went on to write a book, “Defining Conservatism,” that was blurbed by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Bill Bennett — still watches that speech from time to time, but it mostly makes him cringe because, well, he’s not a conservative anymore.

    “I think it was naive,” Krohn now says of the speech. “It’s a 13-year-old kid saying stuff that he had heard for a long time...One of the first things that changed was that I stopped being a social conservative,” said Krohn. “It just didn’t seem right to me anymore. From there, it branched into other issues, everything from health care to economic issues.… I think I’ve changed a lot, and it’s not because I’ve become a liberal from being a conservative — it’s just that I thought about it more. The issues are so complex, you can’t just go with some ideological mantra for each substantive issue.”

Ta da! He's grown up, learned some things, and left conservatism—at least the perverse strain of American/Republican conservatism that tries to legislate people's private lives for moral reasons, but balks at actually helping them in any material or meaningful way.

That kind of conservatism is strictly for children.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Due to the insanity of the last 4 years of the GOP, there definitely needs to be a "Where are they now?" for flash in the pan GOP personalities.

Next Up: Carrie Prejean, Joe the Plumber, and Tito the Builder

[Oblivion]

Bill Maher made fun of this kid (and a more recent rising star in Republican circles) a week or two ago. He made a good point: The fact that right wingers think that adolescents thinking like they do some how qualify as being "prodigies" is an incredibly depressing thing.

[Joe Molotov]

Isn't Joe the Plumber running for some office or other?

[Oblivion]

Due to the insanity of the last 4 years of the GOP, there definitely needs to be a "Where are they now?" for flash in the pan GOP personalities.

Next Up: Carrie Prejean, Joe the Plumber, and Tito the Builder

Well, we know what Joe's doing, currently running for a congressional seat in Ohio, and providing Tea Party approved history lessons.

[Joe Molotov]

Reading Jonathan Krohn's Wikipedia:

He attended Christian schools until 2007, when his parents began to home-school him.

HMMMMMM....

[brawndolicious]

I'm not sure anyone in the duopoly should be bragging after the gutter they dragged themselves into prior to the ruling last week. BUT THIS IS AMERICA! PARTY ON DUDES!

Best part is they missed the overall win that was this session.

the debates will be the first time Romney is challenged on his bullshit

You can do better than this.

Show me one interview since Romney won the nomination where he has been challenged or effectively pushed on anything. His CBS interview comes to mind but even that was softball. So much of his campaign is built on pure dishonesty, and he is shielded from any media that might ask tough questions or challenge the narratives he continues to spin

My point is that he won't be able to do that against the actual candidate in a debate. He'll no longer have some abstract "it" to talk shit about

Santorum and Gingrich definitely were not playing softball with him. There was plenty of distrust over what Romney says versus what he believes during the primaries.

The media has to build up a narrative. They need to make it feel like he shifted to the center suddenly. Therefore, they should not focus on his bullshit until we get close to election day. Then with the debates and the ads with sound clips of Romney having two opinions on everything and talking heads asking if everybody remembers when Santorum and Gingrich were walking around with etch-a-sketches, that is when we will see a media orgy that actually pays attention to what Romney's been saying.

They want it to feel close, but for it to eventually turn into a landslide. That keeps people the most attentive. I just want this to affect down ticket voting since the Republicans will probably still be crazy uncooperative for 4 more years.

[Oblivion]

[Eric P]

i can't decide which is worse, conservative message comedy or Cantonese comedy

[Brehvolution]

It's funny cause the ACA did end wage slavery. It's just doesn't fit the narrative.

[Joe Molotov]

The Annual Mandatory Romney Family Vacation sounds positively heart felming. 

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/07/02/the-romney-boathouse-is-a-lot-nicer-than-that-dump-you-live-in/

Each member of the family picks a daily chore from a “chore wheel,” so as to share cleaning tasks evenly. And before anyone departs, everyone poses on the lawn for a portrait for that year’s Romney family Christmas card. The grandchildren coordinate outfits; last summer, the girls wore matching orange and yellow polka-dotted dresses and the boys, blue checkered shirts.

[Joe Molotov]

Romney's Money Labyrinth makes for riveting reading as well. Lots of twists and turns, although the ending is pretty predicable (spoiler: he's rich as hell).

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/08/investigating-mitt-romney-offshore-accounts

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

I just recently learned that Ann Romney has MS, does that possibly mean that Mitt is off the reservation and sensible on at least the issue of stem cell research, or is he thoroughly disingenuous on everything?

[tiesto]

Best Romney article I've seen yet:

Romney Invested in Medical-Waste Firm That Disposed of Aborted Fetuses, Government Documents Show:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/romney-bain-abortion-stericycle-sec

[Himu]

Taxes are the closest thing America has done nearly as bad as slavery. Highways, and services, and fire departments? WHO NEEDS EM. I value my freedom, and I value my gun.

[Great Rumbler]

"Corporations are people, my friend!"

[Joe Molotov]

Best Romney article I've seen yet:

Romney Invested in Medical-Waste Firm That Disposed of Aborted Fetuses, Government Documents Show:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/romney-bain-abortion-stericycle-sec

I read that this morning, but I didn't want to post 3 Romney articles back to back.

[AdmiralViscen]

The fetal corpses were probably trucked to his church for baptism. The Jewish ones anyway

[Oblivion]

Is it really?

 His argument is stupid and the sad result of a man forced to spit on and deny his own legacy due to a lack of personal backbone and a perceived political GOP reality.

CRAWFORD: “But does that mean that the mandate in the state of Massachusetts under your health care law also is a tax? I mean, you raised taxes as governor.”

ROMNEY: “Actually, the chief justice in his opinion made it very clear that at the state level, states have the power to put in place mandates. They don’t need to require them to be called taxes in order for them to be constitutional. And as a result, Massachusetts’ mandate was a mandate, was a penalty, was described that way by the Legislature and by me, and so it stays as it was.”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/07/romney-shifts-says-mandates-a-tax-128026.html

[Phoenix Dark]

[Great Rumbler]

Yep.

[Phoenix Dark]

[benjipwns]

Even though we all know who we'd vote for these can still be fun timewasters.

This quiz thing has been updated this with more/nominated candidates (Jill Stein who was missing before and they also added the Constitution Party) and they changed some of the answers, especially the "more answers" options, along with a new "processing" screen rather than instant display of the results:
http://www.isidewith.com/presidential-election-quiz

I set everything to MAXIMUM IMPORTANCE to increase the standard deviations:
96% Gary Johnson
95% Ron Paul
43% Virgil Goode
27% Mitt Romney
21% Kent Mesplay
13% Jimmy McMillan
12% Jill Stein
9% Barack Obama
7% Fred Karger

96% Libertarian
43% Constitution
17% Republican
9% Democratic
http://www.isidewith.com/results/10899087

If you can track down a link from before it will "update" with the new candidates, but won't change based on the new/changed answer choices obviously.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

We'll see if anyone can hit this projection:
75% Barack Obama
70% Kent Mesplay
68% Jill Stein
30% Ron Paul
30% Fred Karger
24% Gary Johnson
10% Jimmy McMillan
7% Mitt Romney
0% Virgil Goode

[close]

[Van Cruncheon]

91% Barack Obama

86% Kent Mesplay

86% Jill Stein

34% Ron Paul

16% Mitt Romney

72% Washington Voters

58% American Voters


91% Democratic


86% Green


28% Libertarian


16% Republican


GEE SO SURPRISING. actually, this whole quiz smells of paultard bullshit. obama should NOT be the leftmost candidate by ANY stretch. if it gives full weight to obama when selecting "nationalize the banks" and i'm now almost 100% sure it does, it's a treacherous sack of shit.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I got about a -7/-7 on the Political Compass a few years ago

That is pretty much the only political quiz I bothered to take.  This one sucks.

[Oblivion]

[Joe Molotov]

If only we had a representative form of government like our forefathers fought for, instead of a socialist regime.

[Himu]

(Image removed from quote.)

Our forefathers fought against taxes.

Why do we have taxes?! Taxes are as un-American as Poutine.