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

[Himu]

What about Colorado?

[Human Snorenado]

Gary Johnson will do well in CO.  And by do well, I mean maybe get 3%

[Himu]

[Mandark]

Pretty sure you can get matching funds by meeting certain fundraising criteria as well, without passing the vote threshold.  Johnson's getting matching funds this time, right?

Anyways it doesn't matter that much.  I've heard third party advocates for years talk about 5% and federal funds as if it were an almost magical tipping point, after which support and exposure would just naturally snowball.  Ain't happening.

[Positive Touch]

reality check: most people dont vote for third party candidates because most people do not want third party candidates to represent them

[Himu]

reality check: most people dont vote for third party candidates because most people do not want third party candidates to represent them

I think it's more that they don't vote third party because they don't even hear of third party view points. Third party view points are kind of censored in the media, and it's pretty much a two man show. Most people don't want third party to represent them how? Your argument falls flat on its face because most anti-third party advocates champion the lesser of two evils argument, automatically means that you're acknowledging that both options are bad, but you're more than willing to let the less bad option represent you. So your representation argument is nonsensical at best.

[Mandark]

Himu, how long you been closely following politics on the national level?  Real talk.

[Phoenix Dark]

there's a difference between "censorship" and "not covering candidates no one cares about"

At least Ron Paul has the market share to justify some coverage

[Himu]

Himu, how long you been closely following politics on the national level?  Real talk.

Since 2004 when I could first vote, but I didn't really follow national elections as closely until this election so a lot of these comments are more than likely (and in fact) are steeped in ignorance and wishful thinking. When I was younger, I'd vote straight D on the ballots assuming they kept my interests.

[Mandark]

Well uncle Mandark will sit down and explain the birds and bees to you.

Before that, though...

Bring monetary policy under democratic control by prohibiting private banks from creating money, thus restoring government's Constitutional authority.

Does this mean getting rid of fractional reserve banking?  Dafuq?

[Steve Contra]

reality check: most people dont vote for third party candidates because most people do not want third party candidates to represent them

This is the truth.  Third parties usually have something going against them that excludes a great majority of people.  Even Ron paul knows this, and ran as a Republican candidate, and even then he garners just a fraction of his own party's vote. 

[Himu]

I don't agree with everything on the Green Party platform. And in fact, find a lot of their stances questionable, particularly their hard on for hate fucking on nuclear as energy, and as the GREEN party, they should know better. That too, what you posted. But it's so unlikely that she'll get voted in, that I look past that. Now, if you want real bonkers, look at Gary Johnson's platform.

[Mandark]

I don't agree with everything on the Green Party platform.

So you're just voting for the lesser of 4 evils?

[Steve Contra]

Bring monetary policy under democratic control by prohibiting private banks from creating money, thus restoring government's Constitutional authority.

Does this mean getting rid of fractional reserve banking?  Dafuq?

I can't parse this either.  If it were a libertarian, I would know what they meant.  But this

[Himu]

I don't agree with everything on the Green Party platform.

So you're just voting for the lesser of 4 evils?

I agree with more on the green platform than the democratic party platform, unfortunately.    But yes I acknowledge that. I don't think I implied or said that all parties are perfect or not vested in their own interest, because that's politics, and that's life. But when I look at the Democratic party platform, it's definitely not me especially if we're talking foreign policy.

[Mandark]

I agree with more on the green platform than the democratic party platform, unfortunately. 

Which is the same justification people use when voting the lesser of two evils.

Except you're supporting a ticket you don't agree with and isn't electorally viable!  That's certainly a refreshing approach to electoral politics.

[Himu]

I'm not sure why you're making such a fuss about it since I live in Texas, and it's not like voting for Obama would have any more impact. Also, I didn't say I disagree with the platform, I agree with the majority of it. I mostly supported Jill Stein with my vote because I just think that having more than two viewpoints is an important asset of electoral politics, and I don't understand why I should be berated for doing so.

[Mandark]

You realize you can't argue that your vote was both important for democracy and meaningless, right?

[Steve Contra]

We won't have a third party until we have system that supports coalition government.  We won't have that until never, because coalition governing is just as bad as anything we have here on a good day, and absolutely fucking awful when things go awry.  See Greece for this example, but imagine America trying to pass a multi trillion dollar budget when it would be possible for the Nazi Party of Georgia to take a few seats away.  Seriously, if you want to change shit, trying fighting for campaign finance reform and term limits, don't keep voting for shitty irrelevant parties because you're mad the governing body of the most powerful nation on Earth doesn't agree 100% with you.

Jesus

[Positive Touch]

I just think that having more than two viewpoints is an important asset of electoral politics,

please explain why, while remembering that you also argue that most people do not hear what 3rd parties have to say

[Positive Touch]

important note for himu about politics: the real way to create change is to build a coalition that gains enough power to pressure one of the parties to begin advocating your policies and (hopefully) eventually pass legislation. making a small group that claims to have all the solutions IF ONLY [insert unrealistic scenario here] has never EVER worked. also voting for what you most believe as opposed to what will most realistically come to pass is L-O-L college-kid-level shit

[Steve Contra]

important note for himu about politics: the real way to create change is to build a coalition that gains enough power to pressure one of the parties to begin advocating your policies and (hopefully) eventually pass legislation. making a small group that claims to have all the solutions IF ONLY [insert unrealistic scenario here] has never EVER worked. also voting for what you most believe as opposed to what will most realistically come to pass is L-O-L college-kid-level shit

See what the Tea Party manged to do in a few short years.

[Mupepe]

important note for himu about politics: the real way to create change is to build a coalition that gains enough power to pressure one of the parties to begin advocating your policies and (hopefully) eventually pass legislation. making a small group that claims to have all the solutions IF ONLY [insert unrealistic scenario here] has never EVER worked. also voting for what you most believe as opposed to what will most realistically come to pass is L-O-L college-kid-level shit

The truth right here.  I might vote for Jill Stein but if someone asks me who I support I'll say Obama (and I donate to his campaign) because who cares that I support a third party candidate?  It doesn't matter to anyone but me.  But if I lived in a swing state or anywhere else that wasn't so far out of reach for him, I wouldn't be throwing my vote away on a third party candidate. 

[Himu]

important note for himu about politics: the real way to create change is to build a coalition that gains enough power to pressure one of the parties to begin advocating your policies and (hopefully) eventually pass legislation. making a small group that claims to have all the solutions IF ONLY [insert unrealistic scenario here] has never EVER worked. also voting for what you most believe as opposed to what will most realistically come to pass is L-O-L college-kid-level shit

You're preaching to the choir, and I completely agree. You can't change a thing with merely voting. I don't think anyone on this page has indicated you could, either.

[Mandark]

Erhm, he's not preaching to the choir, he's slapping down your argument for greater third party access to the system.

[Phoenix Dark]

At this rate Himu will be a LaRouche-ite by February

[Positive Touch]

himu i can introduce you to some cross-dressing anarchists when you make the transition

[Himu]

Erhm, he's not preaching to the choir, he's slapping down your argument for greater third party access to the system.

He is. Nowhere have I made the argument that wider third party access is the only solution to the two party system.  I don't see how making the statement that Americans deserve a wider access to parties that represent their views more rather than settling is an endorsement for VOTE THIRD PARTY AND WE WILL SEE A REVOLUTION that he so vehemently thinks I'm saying.

Let's just end this here, because assumptions are being made on behalf on both parties (lol) because they're not fitting our own political narrative.

[Mandark]

Himu just has Green Shinobi Syndrome right now: he's started to care about politics, but he's just gotten passionate about a certain aspect, so he has the zeal of the convert without having much exposure to other ideas or to the realities of the process.  So he's very very sure that something's fucked up about the system, but his naive certainty means that all the jaded folks who have wasted years posting in threads like these are inclined to be sarcastic.

So at some point either someone will be patient with him and explain how things work (what happened with me), or he'll keep getting shit and snap (Green Shinobi), or he'll miraculously improve in the face of constant abuse (PD), or he'll find a new hobby/sexual identity and move on (Himu).

[Himu]

Well, I don't say this often, but that post actually hurt my feelings.

[Barry Egan]

A couple big fat Obama +5 OHIO polls came out today

[Boogie]

Mandark:  Shouldn't there be a (Spencer) option in there somewhere?

[Mandark]

Himu: Wasn't trying to be mean.  Just saying you're new to the game and when you start to care and be vocal about this shit there are gonna be growing pains.

Boogie:  I think I've folded Spencer and Green Shinobi into a single goofy, idealistic, drug-using composite character in my mind.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

The biggest reason why a third party won't work yet is because you need hundreds of millions of dollars to run an effective campaign.  The only real option is the Ross Perot route where you're already loaded and you're self financing your run.  So unless Jill Stein is a multi-billionaire, she's not going to get more than 0.3% of the total national vote.

[Himu]

Well, I'm open to taking lumps along the way. I find Spencer/Shinobi too idealistic for my taste, though. Spencer in particular seemed to support Libertarians solely on the legality of drugs. Like, the drug war is a big thing for me as a whole (not just weed) but the main issue?

[Great Rumbler]

Wouldn't a third party President also need to chip away a huge portion of both Democratic and Republican Senators/House members? Because I see them getting even less done with Congress than Obama is right now without that support. Or else they hitch their wagon to one of the two parties and you end up with a situation that's not much different from what we already have.

[MIMIC]

Obama's coming to my town tomorrow. My mom got tickets....but I can't really bring myself to get excited enough to even go 

[Phoenix Dark]

Anyway, thoughts on this

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Linking welfare payments to school absences is intended to “take a bite out of generational poverty” through education, according to a state agency.

Starting Monday, parents applying for some welfare benefits through the state Human Services Department will have to prove their children are regularly attending class.

The move is being cheered by school districts, though some advocates say truancy affects families of all incomes and the policy unfairly focuses those who are struggling.

But Human Services Department spokesman Dave Akerly said the goal is to make sure children are getting the education they need.

“We’re trying to take a bite out of generational poverty, and one way to do that is get kids to stay in class and finish school,” he said.

The policy goes into effect on Monday, and affects new applicants others as they work through an annual review. The state has about 60,000 cases, and the average family in the program receives about $468 a month, he said.

Parents must provide a form completed by their schools indicating children are complying with the attendance policy. The state also has a plan for parents who are homeschooling their children.

Akerly said there are provisions for special circumstances, such as an extended sickness.

The state also has plans to embed social workers in some high-need districts “to help families and catch little problems before they turn into big problems,” he said.

Gov. Rick Snyder called for the change in March as part of his special message on public safety, delivered in Flint, one of four cities to get special assistance.

Grand Rapids educators called the new policy “one more tool in our toolbox to help children get the education they need.”

District spokesman John Helmholdt said 21 percent of the district’s students are considered chronically absent.

RELATED: Educators say linking welfare to school attendance could be effective tool against truancy

But advocates for people in need said the policy might be hurt some families without helping solve the overall problems with school attendance.

Judy Putnam, spokeswoman for the Michigan League of Human Services, said there is no doubt that children need to be in school. But she said it’s hard to tell what percentage of chronically absent students come from homes receiving cash assistance.

http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2012/09/new_michigan_policy_linking_we.html

or the TLDR version

(unless you want to be pissed off by stupidity, I suggest you turn the video off around the 4:20 mark. That guy is a self hating piece of shit)

[Brehvolution]

Obama's coming to my town tomorrow. My mom got tickets....but I can't really bring myself to get excited enough to even go 

#firstworldproblems

[Atramental]

edit: Can't wait to see what my best friend's dad says after Nov. the 6th.

[Joe Molotov]

I just found out I can vote for Roseanne Barr for president in CA. Since Obama's gonna win the state handily, maybe I should take a chance on the Peace and Love candidate.

Don't do it. That last season suuuuuuuuuuuuucked!

[Stoney Mason]

Voting for Third Parties. 

I'm as down for the revolution as any other secret communist but America ain't likely to generate a serious third party soon and if it did, I'd have a fear that it would be bankrolled by some single agenda crazy person. Which is not to say that the two major parties aren't currently funded by a number of single agenda crazy people.

[Human Snorenado]

Himu: Wasn't trying to be mean.  Just saying you're new to the game and when you start to care and be vocal about this shit there are gonna be growing pains.

Yeah.  I might even know someone who voted for Nader... twice.   

On the topic of 3rd parties, I think a lot of people (not necessarily directed at you, Himumu) will say they're a 3rd partier so that a) they can be different or b) they can throw their hands up at the whole thing and say "well I didn't vote for either of these assholes".  I personally know a bunch of libertarians that are basically Republicans but claim to be libertarians because they like weed or whatever.  And, god bless him, I also know a very confused straight edge punk anarchist dude who is a libertarian because RON PAUL. 

This also never gets old.

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2008/02/25/your-mumia-sweatshirt-wont-get-you-into-heaven-anymore/

Every year in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land all of the sprites and elves and woodland creatures gather together to pick the Rainbow Sunshine Queen. Everyone is there: the Lollipop Guild, the Star-Twinkle Toddlers, the Sparkly Unicorns, the Cookie Baking Apple-cheeked Grandmothers, the Fluffy Bunny Bund, the Rumbly-Tumbly Pupperoos, the Snowflake Princesses, the Baby Duckies All-In-A-Row, the Laughing Babies, and the Dykes on Bikes. They have a big picnic with cupcakes and gumdrops and pudding pops, stopping only to cast their votes by throwing Magic Wishing Rocks into the Well of Laughter, Comity, and Good Intentions. Afterward they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing and waving glow sticks until dawn when they tumble sleepy-eyed into beds made of the purest and whitest goose down where they dream of angels and clouds of spun sugar.

You don’t live there.

Grow the fuck up.

[Phoenix Dark]

Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!

[Human Snorenado]

Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!

Dude.  Drops are so much better now.  I got two legendaries in one play session earlier today, and am drowning in quality rings and amulets.  1.0.5 is like finally giving everyone 40 acres and a mule.  REPARATIONS, BITCHES.

[Great Rumbler]

Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!

Dude.  Drops are so much better now.  I got two legendaries in one play session earlier today, and am drowning in quality rings and amulets.  1.0.5 is like finally giving everyone 40 acres and a mule.  REPARATIONS, BITCHES.

I SPENT TWO HOURS AND DIDN'T GET ANYTHING

[Human Snorenado]

More and more polls keep saying the same thing about Ohio- Obama and Romney are tied for people who haven't voted yet, but Obama is crushing Romney by about 25-30 points among people who've already voted.  If this keeps up I'm feeling way better about shit.

[Human Snorenado]

Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!

Dude.  Drops are so much better now.  I got two legendaries in one play session earlier today, and am drowning in quality rings and amulets.  1.0.5 is like finally giving everyone 40 acres and a mule.  REPARATIONS, BITCHES.

I SPENT TWO HOURS AND DIDN'T GET ANYTHING

What's your MF bro?   I've got about 230ish on my gear, 45 from paragon levels and have Monster Power set at 1.

[Stoney Mason]

On the topic of 3rd parties, I think a lot of people (not necessarily directed at you, Himumu) will say they're a 3rd partier so that a) they can be different or b) they can throw their hands up at the whole thing and say "well I didn't vote for either of these assholes".

This is also my problem with people who vote for third parties. It just seems like a way to be a hipster when it comes to politics instead of understanding the nature of power and politics. I mean I get it if somebody just views voting in general as a wasted exercise because both parties are so big tent it makes them take on positions you don't necessarily like or agree with. I find that action almost more morally correct even though it isn't mine instead of voting for people who literally have no chance of effecting things. It's like vote trolling or something. I'm also not a fan of one issue voters generally speaking.

[Great Rumbler]

Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!

Dude.  Drops are so much better now.  I got two legendaries in one play session earlier today, and am drowning in quality rings and amulets.  1.0.5 is like finally giving everyone 40 acres and a mule.  REPARATIONS, BITCHES.

I SPENT TWO HOURS AND DIDN'T GET ANYTHING

What's your MF bro?   I've got about 230ish on my gear, 45 from paragon levels and have Monster Power set at 1.

Not particularly high, maybe 80 with everything maxed.

[Phoenix Dark]

Sounds like Diablo 3 to me!

Dude.  Drops are so much better now.  I got two legendaries in one play session earlier today, and am drowning in quality rings and amulets.  1.0.5 is like finally giving everyone 40 acres and a mule.  REPARATIONS, BITCHES.

nah bro I was making fun of the "diablo 3 graphix looks like MLP fairy land" meme

Now I had to explain myself dammit

[Yeti]

That moment when you find out your entire family is voting for a different presidential candidate than you. 

[Phoenix Dark]

[Howard Alan Treesong]

More and more polls keep saying the same thing about Ohio- Obama and Romney are tied for people who haven't voted yet, but Obama is crushing Romney by about 25-30 points among people who've already voted.  If this keeps up I'm feeling way better about shit.

the record will show that I have long put my faith in Ohio's TACHYON-BASED TIME TRAVEL VOTES, absolved total

[Howard Alan Treesong]

(Image removed from quote.)

:lenowned

[TakingBackSunday]

goddamn I love those obama smileys

[Stoney Mason]

When does Conan get the Presidential candidates on his show?


 

[Human Snorenado]

When does Conan get the Presidential candidates on his show?


 

Jill Stein isn't doing much.  Well, she might be in jail occasionally but other than that.

[Dickie Dee]

When does Conan get the Presidential candidates on his show?


 

Jill Stein isn't doing much.  Well, she might be in jail occasionally but other than that.

I think they normally just use a staffer to fill the Masterbating Bear suit

[Dickie Dee]

More and more polls keep saying the same thing about Ohio- Obama and Romney are tied for people who haven't voted yet, but Obama is crushing Romney by about 25-30 points among people who've already voted.  If this keeps up I'm feeling way better about shit.

Best of both worlds - keep it tied and maintain a sense of urgency while still having a hard to overtake lead