Politics

I was watching the latest republican debates from Thursday night on Youtube, and became more disturbed than usual about the rhetoric coming out of these salesmen. (Not to mention the priceless moment I haven't seen anyone write about yet - Huckabee said, to paraphrase, 'We can not only win the White House, but we can keep the country safe too' - as if keeping the country safe is second in priority to winning the White House - did anyone else catch that? Yeah, keep telling me how Ron Paul is the nutcase...) Romney, particularly, but also Huckabee and Guiliani all seem to be running for president of the world, not America. All of their comments concerning inter…

A lot of talk since the New Hampshire primary has been about whether race is now a factor in the Democratic nomination race. Last week Hillary Clinton got upset over an out-of-context quote in which she was talking about the importance of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (making it sound like she thought it was more important than MLK's efforts). Her husband got into some trouble when he was misquoted over comments about the Obama campaign. And I've also heard some comments from observers of the New Hampshire primary asking whether race might have been a factor there (i.e. people voting against Obama because he's black; NH is overwhelmingly white). I guess it was j…

Just watched this video, another good one by cdk. It kinda made me feel a little guilty and a bit stupid watching it. But it did make me think and gives even more reason as to why our current investment in the Iraq war is just plain stupid. Enjoy....

And time for the irony: Snopes's entry on Obama.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/73372 Fire away, Paulites. The article is mostly about the conspiracy theories surrounding the formation of a "North American Union," parallel to the European Union, and Paul's particular affinity for the notion. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but that notion doesn't particularly frighten me. I haven't seen the numbers crunched, obviously, but I don't see any reason why this is intrinsically a sinister thing. I'm a pretty rabid free-trader, though.

I must say that despite the fact I am not American and live in the UK, I have been enthralled by developments in the American presidential race, and most specifically the campaign of Ron Paul. In fact I think it has turned into an addiction as I have spent shameless hours scouring the internet, especially youtube for coverage of this candidate... In fact part of the reason of making this thread is I fell that talking about my ailment may help me tackle this perhaps, and let me do more useful things with my spare time:embarass: ... Has anyone else felt a fascination with this candidate, and is undergoing a similiar craze, not just in terms of how rare such a politi…

this is incredible! http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=3xdgkays4k this Has to be a setup surely!???

Does this hurt Hillary..........Or Obama?

Here's what it is, in case you don't know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Tax My father's been harping on this to me for a while, and I'm wondering what any of you might think about it. Is it a good idea? Personally, I'm skeptical. It seems like a good idea, but I'm afraid that government would lose the ability to use taxation as a social incentive, and if the 16th Amendment is repealed, might be tempted to raise tariffs if sales taxes come up short. I'm also not sure what effect it would have on the middle class. The system wouldn't be so dissimilar from what we have in Tennessee, except that we pay state estate and gift tax and there is a state corporate…

Is Ron Paul's denial of evolutionary theory relevant to the election?

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr110-888 What do you think? Status of Resolution Apparently, some people question the factual accuracy of some of the statements contained within the resolution.

The debate tonight on ABC was *amazing*. Best debate format yet.

If the election were held today, which of these Iowa winners would you vote for? Barack Obama Mike Huckabee Note: This poll will close on Tuesday (the day of the New Hampshire primary).

First, allow me to start by paying my dearest condolonces to this lady, who heartfully applied democracy in most, if not all of its colors. May God rest her soul in peace, and may He punish those responsible for her assassination. Now we know that democracy is never bound to work in such regions as Pakistan, but in the long-distant solution or end, good will win over evil. Who do you think is responsible for her assassination, and what could be the reasons for that? What do you think about Pakistan's decision of not making an international tribunal for this assassination? How do you see Pakistan after the assassination of former PM Bhutto? How do you see the region…

http://www.slate.com/id/2177249/fr/rss/ Why are we doing this? This country harbors the former head of the international nuclear black market (A.Q. Khan). He supplied nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea, and Al Qaeda, but the exact extent of his activities is unknown because Pakistan refuses to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency or the US to interview him. This country remains a terrorist haven. But hey, throwing money at the problem will solve it. Why exactly are we giving them $10 billion?

We've talked around this before, I think, but there has been no concerted discussion on the topic. In all realism, what do you actually think the "Ron Paul Revolution" is actually going to amount to in the election cycle? Personally, I think he's going to be a blip in Iowa, and then rock the ticket somewhat in the more libertarian New Hampshire. New Hampshire is an open primary, so what Paul is probably going to end up doing is drawing some Democratic votes, especially of younger first-time voters. My most unconservative prediction: Paul will make a surprise 4th or even 3rd place showing in New Hampshire, hurt Obama because he's drawing the young voters and whate…

Check out this little bit of history. To read more about it, check out Operation Ajax. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax All over oil.

Dr. James Corbett, a history teacher at Capistrano Valley High School in California, has been sued by Chad Farnan, one of his students, over what he claims is an ongoing, daily assault on religion that takes place for 20-30 minutes at the beginning of every AP History class. The student recorded Corbett, who has been known amongst students for many years for this behavior, saying the following things: One thing I have to say, having heard the tape on BOR last night, is that the quotes don't really do the tirade justice. The guy was frothing at the mouth, big time. I mean seriously *angry* about religion. Totally platforming his case. After hearing it I …

One of the fascinating things about politics is the ongoing ebb and flow of political parties and their oft-changing positions over time. The Green Party is ostensibly an environmentalist movement, but at the moment their leading candidate for president is Cynthia McKinney, a 9/11 conspiracy theorist and former congresswoman from Georgia, who is most likely using the Greens as a sympathetic base for her disestablishment agenda. McKinney is a fascinating case, and as a native Georgian I've been following stories about her for years. I see her as a kind of mutant relic of the civil rights era. An extreme, closed-minded, uncompromising version of Jesse Jackson (who'…

A recently released top ten politicians list includes Hilary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, and Barack Obama. Being on this list is not an honor: The list is Judicial Watch's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians for 2007". http://www.judicialwatch.org/judicial-watch-announces-list-washington-s-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-2007 The list also includes top Democrats Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. (The list is void of Republican congresscritters this year only because Republicans are currently out of power in congress. Last year's list was chock-full of Republicans.)

In the spirit of non-partisanship in a particularly wacky election year, tell me: who in the political realm, despite having very different views from your own, do you find yourself respecting anyway? For myself, I always pay close attention to what Pat Buchanan says (despite being what he would likely characterize as an enemy in the Culture War*), because he's not only very smart but also one of the very few politicians who (usually) refuses to play the political bullshit game. Antonin Scalia is one of my favorite SCOTUS justices despite consistently pushing a legal philosophy I disagree with, because he argues for the philosophy with rare wit and intelligence that d…

According to a report tonight on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, the first issue of Consumer Reports -- from 1936! -- warns of the dangers of lead in paint. And so does the December issue, 71 years later. Wow. I put this in politics because, doggone it, if that doesn't say something about the importance of government safety oversight and the ultimate irrelevence of consumer awareness, I don't know what does. (BTW, I started watching Lehrer again a few days ago when they began broadcasting in stunning 1080i HD. Not that HD really matters a whole lot with news shows, but the notice caught my eye, and I have to say I'd forgotten how thorough and absorbi…

There's still time for the "November 5th" campaign to get more money, because the day is not over on the West coast, even though most were counting from East coast time. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071106/ap_on_el_pr/paul_fundraising;_ylt=AniaDIkzFEHghCC68re.2Ues0NUE http://www.ronpaulgraphs.com/directory.html I donated a small bit to this campaign, but I only predicted that he'd raise about half of this amount. Very impressive to say the least. Hopefully, Ron Paul will get more serious media coverage after this event.

FINALLY Congress gets something done. The new bill calls for a raise in MPG to 35 by 2013, and includes a whole bunch of other measures (such as regulation on incandescent light bulbs) aimed at decreasing foreign dependency for oil. It also included 9,000 earmarks totaling a whopping $14 billion. I wonder how Ron ("Dr. No") Paul voted.