Politics

Having a bit of a time trying to find both a constitutional and pragmatic answer on this one. Constitutionally, I'm thinking since congress declares war, then that's where the authority comes from, regardless of the opinion of the sitting president. Pragmatically however, as commander-in-chief, he's the commander of the Army, Navy and Air Force. And therefore, without his approval, obviously he could theoretically refuse to mobilize a single piece of equipment or personnel right? Provisions include taking control of state's Guard when "called into federal service" - but I don't know if that means congress commands them or the president. So, is it possib…

For the purposes of this thread, assume that global warming is happening, or at the very least, is likely. If you want to debate whether global warming is actually is happening, there are already threads here, here, and here. Since threads about whether global warming is happening or not tend to get quite heated, I would rather this one keep only about what to do about global warming given that you accept it is happening. There have been several ideas about what to do about global warming. For example: Reduce waste (ie, efficiency) Reduce our carbon output (ie, stop burning fossil fuels) Increase carbon uptake (ie, grow more plants) Sequester carbon dioxide (ie, k…

Now then, lets see where you guys REALLY stand in on the political spectrum. This is how I tested: You can take the test here: http://www.politicalcompass.org/

Joe "I swear I'm a Democrat" Lieberman, 2000 running mate of Al Gore and 2006 "Connecticut for Joe Lieberman Party" victor over both the Democratic and Republican challengers for his Senate seat, has formally endorsed John McCain. I think it will give him a significant boost among independents, but probably not among Republicans. Of course, we can always hope. If the Republican Party grows up and nominates McCain instead of the various crazy ass/sleazeball first tier candidates, my faith in the democratic process will be partially restored.

Hey again guys, First, I'll say it again - I'm not too well versed in American Politics, but I did take a course in Political Science this semester (Politics and Leadership) and we've had a large section about the Federalist Papers, some of the aspects of the Constitution, and the meaning of Separation of Powers in American Politics. I was wondering something, though. This is very different from what I am used to (my country is more of a Parliamentary system), so I'm not sure if my confusion is because of a misunderstanding of the process, or is coming from the fact that I notice things as an "outsider".. you'll be the judge Every time we spoke about the Pres…

How about that awesome story out of Venezuela over the weekend? Is that not amazing or what? If you haven't heard, the country voted on whether or not to grant near-dictatorial powers in a radical change to the country's constitution. The changes would have allowed Hugo "The Democratator" Chavez to remain "president" for life, declare states of emergency at will, and permanently silence already-muffled criticism from the media. Chavez has overwhelming popular support, mainly due to his sweaping, oil-revenue-driven social programs, and has never lost an election. Most observers gave the "no" side absolutely no chance of success. But in what may be one of th…

For someone not raising that much money, he's certainly getting a lot of support in the polls. I, personally, would never support him, but I'm not interested in personal politics in this thread. I just want to know why you guys think he'll polling so high and where this support is coming from. He's grassroots support is pretty big (second to probably only Ron Paul). He got an impressive endorsement from Chuck Norris. Maybe that made him attention on the net (Where he's an internet meme ) He's an ordained minister, so he probably has some evangelical support (he's endorsed by Falwell's son). Also he's got a pretty voice, so maybe people like that too. I…

The stupefyingly influential Oprah has endorsed Barak Obama, saying, among other things, that he is the best choice for feminists. I'm beginning to think he's the candidate to beat now, replacing Clinton. NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/us/politics/02women.html?hp http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/fashion/02oprah.html?hp

We generally give greater credence to the opinion of a group than that of any individual. We assign greater authority or status to an idea or theory that a group agrees with, rather than accepting without question any individual's theories or observations. This seems to be contrary to the idea of elected leadership and military authoritism and heirarchy. So how come we accept both of the latter, but still question (our own) individual observation or conclusion?

Did Morgan Spurlock find Osama Bin Laden? How could he do it if the US Military can't? There's a certain bit of humor, IMO, if he really did find him.

...again. http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/11/news/economy/fed_rates/index.htm Wall Street cries as the decrease was lower than expected. Well, that's certainly not in the spirit of Laissez Faire capitalism. If you buy mortgage backed bonds, and they turn out to be worthless, isn't that sucks to be you? Apparently not in America. Here the federal government bails out the rich, and the common joe eats the bill. Suck it, America.

Same rules as with the Democratic Primaries, except I have excluded one Presidential candidate, Mark Klein, to keep the options under 15 and because I've never heard of him and because he hasn't actually announced. If you really feel like you want to vote for him, make a comment and a moderator might add him on. Select the one candidate you you would support as nominee for President of the United States from the Republican Party. Vote for the candidate you could honestly support. I back McCain. Post who you support if you wish.

Just a few days ago the story was that intelligence officials were contradicting the White House on the subject of Iran. Nobody seemed to have any trouble believing that those intelligence officials MUST be correct, because, after all, it was contrary to the White House position. Thank goodness for the objectivity of our inspiring intelligence network, so thoughtfully and carefully placed outside of executive control! And yet just a few days later we get the story about CIA documents being shredded, and suddenly the White House is right back in the supervisory role. An ABC News story on Saturday ended with the reporter stating that Harriet Myers' claim to hav…

ABC News' 20/20 magazine show ran an interesting piece on Friday night that provides an interesting angle on the question of Internet freedom. Here's the print version: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3872556&page=1 In a nutshell, a young woman died after taking her father's Porsche for a joyride. The accident was extremely graphic, involving partial decapitation. From a geek perspective, it seemed to combine a number of compelling elements. A drop-dead gorgeous teenage girl, a beautiful, expensive automobile, and a uniquely flashy and violent death. For the typical teen-angster, what's not to like? The California Highway Patrol took photograp…

So, Michael Moore's new film Sicko is out in theaters. I saw it an greatly enjoyed it. I've been an advocate of Universal Single-Payer Healthcare for quite some time, and find it refreshing that someone is finally thrusting it into the public spotlight. So, two questions: 1) For those of you outside the US who do have universal healthcare, what do you think of your system and what do you think of the USes? Generally people in America are under the impression that they are receiving the best care available (if you go to an in-network provider!) and are generally quite wary about the idea of a universal single-payer system. 2) For those of you in the US, what…

Gee. He went on to "clarify" his remarks, finding plenty of things to criticize, particularly in the lack of political solidity in the government. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ibDeMEMDEYv4V-eqfWH0lbqZe6RwD8T8CL702 He's quite right, of course. But I suspect he will now feel the wrath of the far-left portion of the blogosphere, which he so pandered to earlier. ABC News reported last night that in the month of November Iraq was actually safer for troops, by twice, than Afghanistan.

Iran No Nukes Looks like the carrot/stick approach works with Iran. Maybe there is hope in that region after all.

Excuse the Le Tigre inspired thread title... A man recently called Rudy Giuliani on the failures of his "workfare" program... and called him literally, on a radio program. Under the program his access to food stamps and medicare had been cut off. Giuliani laughed him off and questioned his mental health: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMzPvSpJ1Z8 After 27 years of being a working member of society, he developed Parkinsons, which rendered him wheelchair bound and incapable of performing his job. This is sickening. To quote Le Tigre again: F*ck Giuliani. He's such a f*cking jerk...

This thing has been amusing to me, the notion that Hollywood writers, who make a LOT of money (hundreds of thousands per year or more), would go on strike over money. It's akin to the baseball players going on strike a few years ago. Oddly enough, it hasn't generated the same adverse reaction in the media. I guess entertainment writers are more politically correct than steroid-chomping baseball jocks. But now the strike is starting to cost much-lower-paid-entertainment workers their jobs. This article talks about NBC workers getting laid off. The article linked above headlines the fact that the laid-off workers are mad at Jay Leno, because he promised them…

For those of you who don't know, it's the republican debate tonight, at 8 o'clock EDT... I recommend everyone watch it, at least in part. My problem is that I don't have anywhere to watch it Does anyone know if it'll be streamed live onto the internet anywhere? I briefly looked through the CNN website, but I couldn't find it.

Judge Andrew Napolitano proceeds to issue a rather nasty diatribe on the Patriot Act and its usurpation of our Constitutionally guaranteed liberties. "Is it time to become wolves and fight for our rights?" he asks. The facts, according to him: if the FBI shows up with a self-written search warrant to seize items from your home, the Patriot Act stipulates that you are not legally allowed to tell anyone about it. And... well... the guy is outraged, and so am I! Isn't writing search warrants the Judicial branch's responsibility, not the Executive's, and how the hell can they unconstitutionally silence you after your home has been unconstitutionally searched?! …

Joseph Ellis wrote the fabulous 2002 book "Founding Brothers", which took the unusual approach of pairing off famous figures from the American revolutionary period and showing their differences. It was interesting in the way it challenged the standard, high-school-history-class belief that the founding fathers were perfect people with perfect goals and perfect arguments. His new book is called "American Creation", and it just came out a couple of weeks ago. I haven't read it yet (darned holiday -- I have to actually wait to see if someone buys it for me! What a nuissance!), but the "buzz" on it is really interesting. Take this New York Times review, for example, …

Anybody heard of Real ID. Pretty much, this is another proposition by the US government to give it 1 more excuse to strip away and intrude on someones privacy. It is intended to be required to go in any facility ranging from government buildings to national parks. In addition, the information is required to be kept in massive data banks. Needless to say, many states are already revolting against this. Here is some info on it right here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/16/real.id/index.html So, what do you Americans think? Coming soon in 2013, Big Brother I mean, if we really are that paranoid about terrorists, why not just start bar-coding our citize…

Surprise surprise... the war on terror is f*cked http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2215380,00.html Why is it we're drumming up war with Iran when the Saudis are and have always been the problem? Oh right, oil...

I just finished watching "Hell House" - a documentary about the Evangelical play "Hell House": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_house And I am still quite in shock. I wasn't raised in America, so the concept of widely-available "pushed-to-the-public" Evangelical stuff is new to me. This, however, seems to be worse than anything else I've seen. They're more than ignorant, they're teaching their children that questions would get them into hell (and show it quite vividly, what hell is). They're building a very vivid settings of what hell should be like, building scenes that are supposed to "represent" the lives of nonbelievers. Just a few "facts": 1. Date…