Hard News: Quite the Two-Step
115 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 Newer→ Last
-
PS: And don't forget to vote for the Public Address Word(s) of the Year 2007.
Would a little alphabetical action have hurt too much? Hours I tell you, hours!
-
On the other side of the race, Hilary's in some trouble.
And the failure of Operation Barbarossa was some trouble for the Third Reich. Ok, that's an overwrought analogy but is her campaign loaded with Obama sleeper agents?
And before anyone accuses me of being a partisan Hillary-hater, WTF can I say about the unspeakable fuck-tards that make up the GOP slate that wouldn't get me sent to the (virtual) naughty step for a long time out? Perhaps when the GOP are locked out of the White House and Congressional majorities for a couple of decades, Republican moderates and real conservatives are going to get their spines out of hock, bring the theo-cons to heel, and take their party back.
Believe it or not, if I was American I'd change my voter registration to Democrat just so I could cast a primary vote for Obama. Not a flawless candidate by any stretch of the imagination, but forget all this crap about 'Is America ready for a black President' and ask this one: Is America - and the world - ready for a President who can be mistaken for an adult with the lights on?
-
Believe it or not, if I was American I'd change my voter registration to Democrat just so I could cast a primary vote for Obama. Not a flawless candidate by any stretch of the imagination, but forget all this crap about 'Is America ready for a black President' and ask this one: Is America - and the world - ready for a President who can be mistaken for an adult with the lights on?
Me too. I keep waiting for something to snap me out of it, but I just keep finding him impressive.
His main whoopsie with potential Democrat voters so far has been failing to put sufficient distance between him and a preacher who claims to have been cured of homosexuality.
-
Believe it or not, if I was American I'd change my voter registration to Democrat just so I could cast a primary vote for Obama.
A friend of mine is considering doing just that. She voted for Bush twice, and now can't bring herself to choose any of the current slate of Republican candidates.
-
His main whoopsie with potential Democrat voters so far has been failing to put sufficient distance between him and a preacher who claims to have been cured of homosexuality.
He did get there in the end. In fact, his speech on this made quite an impression with me, as it contains, y'know, policy and stuff. Commitments.
McClurkin is a talented performer and a beloved figure among many African Americans and Christians around the country. At the same time, he espouses beliefs about homosexuality that I completely reject.
-
Is America - and the world - ready for a President who can be mistaken for an adult with the lights on?
well I think Bill Clinton qualified in that category and The World at the time was full of talk about evil America was. So maybe this time round with a Dem pres the world will be ready to ditch all the crap about imperialism.
-
Ha ha. Now answer the bloody question, how do you reconcile being 'pro life' and 'pro death'?
Well, to be fair Emma it isn't only right-wingers trying to position themselves as moderates who start spinning more fudge than Willie Wonka on speed when asked that question. Seriously, what do think would happen to either Clinton or Obama if they stood up and said "I support abortion on demand, and oppose the death penalty because a felon - no matter how heinous - is a human being; a fetus during the first trimester is not." I may be wrong, but it sure seems to me a lot of people who consider themselves moderates or even liberals would consider than excessively candid.
You can deride the late John Paul II as a nasty old Polack reactionary, but at least when he talked about the 'culture of life' he was entirely consistent about it -- abortion, the death penalty and euthanasia were all wrong for the same reason. Life begins at conception, ends at natural death and God doesn't need any assist from you on the latter score.
-
well I think Bill Clinton qualified in that category and The World at the time was full of talk about evil America was. So maybe this time round with a Dem pres the world will be ready to ditch all the crap about imperialism.
I don't think everyone thought that. Clinton was a rock star when he made his APEC visit here, and pretty much everywhere else on that trip. The incumbent doesn't seem to have quite the same touch.
-
Well, to be fair Emma it isn't only right-wingers trying to position themselves as moderates who start spinning more fudge than Willie Wonka on speed ...
Heh. Your best colorful metaphor in ages Craig.
-
... Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman (and new National Party candidate for Wigram) Marc Alexander.
That would be former Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Marc Alexander.
-
Oh, I agree with you, Craig, I just don't think it changes the fact that when Huckabee is asked the question right out, he should answer the fecker, instead of being congratulated for glibly dodging it. And I know, I know, lots of politicians don't answer questions, but when you're going to use your position to seriously affect the lives of other people - as banning abortion would - surely you could be a little bit consistent about it.
Seriously, what do think would happen to either Clinton or Obama if they stood up and said "I support abortion on demand, and oppose the death penalty because a felon - no matter how heinous - is a human being; a fetus during the first trimester is not."
It's only an inherent contradiction if you use the 'culture of life' justification. Perhaps they were only opposed to the death penalty because they didn't like the idea of accidentally executing innocent people.
-
I don't think everyone thought that.
not everyone but it works both ways. If the world wants a more reality based Pres then perhaps the world's criticism of the US should be a bit more reality based - when Clinton was in office a lot of it wasn't.
-
well I think Bill Clinton qualified in that category and The World at the time was full of talk about evil America was. So maybe this time round with a Dem pres the world will be ready to ditch all the crap about imperialism.
I think that very much depends whether they behave like an imperialist or not.
-
On the topic of Black:
Like I said on the Guardian blog, I don't think people like that should go to jail. Jail should be for violent crime, mostly.
Instead, he should be bankrupted for the rest of his life and deprived of all assets and income. The next 10 or so years begging on a street corner should sort him out. In Chicago. In winter.
-
His main whoopsie with potential Democrat voters so far has been failing to put sufficient distance between him and a preacher who claims to have been cured of homosexuality.
There's also the whole subtext about whether he's 'black' enough, but that's the kind of political pathology I can only handle in small and infrequent doses.
But I digress... The Donnie McClurkin affair didn't impress me much either, but Democrats and teh gays? Oy, talk about the political equivalent of battered spouse syndrome - write the checks and host the fundraisers, spend three years getting kicked in the guts when its politically expedient, rise and repeat. At least with the Republican establishment you know exactly where you are. On hot button 'culture war' issues like so-called gay marriage & DADT, it's fun (in a blackly comic kind of way) watching Obama and Clinton sweat fudge. I can see the political calculus - the gays are owned by our party, but there's not enough of them to risk offending anyone else - but it's still depressing.
-
On the topic of Black:
Like I said on the Guardian blog
I haven't checked today, but would it be fair to see there's a healthy element of glee there at the moment?
-
Russ, the link to mine is dead...
Its supposed to be.
Also, its moved down from 22, to number 28 on the order paper - Banderton must be stewing.
The Correct link is:
also heres some good quotes:
“It breeds disrespect for the law when - and usually we are talking about young people - end up with a conviction for doing something that most others around them are doing and it wipes their prospects.”
Helen Clark, 16 March 2000, Evening Post.
“You can’t have prohibition. The law is broken every minute of the day… We have to look at harm minimisation from a health perspective, and containment from a policing perspective.”
Health Minister Annette King, The Press, 23 June 2000.
"I don't want to frighten my colleagues too much, but the next challenge really is about drug policy. What I know is the current law in terms of drugs does exactly what the prostitution law has done until now, which is to drive people who are vulnerable anyway into more harm. So there has to be a better model."Tim Barnett, Weekend Herald 28-29 June 2003.
-
-
Russ, the link to mine is dead...
Arrggh. Sorry. There was a stray space in there. Fixed now.
-
When asked what Jesus would do about the death penalty
Sorting out the SNAG Jesus from the hell fire and brimstone Jesus is a tricky task. On the one hand he exhorts his flock to adhere to existing laws - which included the death penalty - but on the other you have the "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" approach.
I think some of it may be due to biblical rewrites suiting those in power, especially at the time Christians were in power and dropping books from the bible left right and centre. You see the trend in modern translations where "the poor" conveniently become "the poor in spirit".
Finally, on the subject of existing laws, was Judas the first recorded version of "its our fcuking money" when Jesus made his "render unto Caesar" sermon?
-
Well, to be fair Emma it isn't only right-wingers trying to position themselves as moderates who start spinning more fudge than Willie Wonka on speed when asked that question. Seriously, what do think would happen to either Clinton or Obama if they stood up and said "I support abortion on demand, and oppose the death penalty because a felon - no matter how heinous - is a human being; a fetus during the first trimester is not." I may be wrong, but it sure seems to me a lot of people who consider themselves moderates or even liberals would consider than excessively candid.
Those are indeed the most difficult questions to answer, particularly if you tie it back to a philosophy. There's probably a lot of people out there who are pro-abortion, pro-assisted suicide, but anti-death penalty. And anti-suicide in a more general sense.
As a person who normally (eventually) finds a moral philosophy/reason to back up how I feel about things, I've never been able to find that on life/death - at least consistently across the whole spectrum. The best I've ever come up with is "this feels right/wrong", which isn't exactly the vote winning line.
Luckily it's not a question I have to answer to a few million voters whose strong feelings on both sides make it the classic 'lose/lose' issue.
-
If the world wants a more reality based Pres then perhaps the world's criticism of the US should be a bit more reality based - when Clinton was in office a lot of it wasn't.
Fair comment. We didn't hear the same level of noise in the 90's when US policy on Iraq occassioned as many deaths there as current US policy has.
What a difference a 'nice' chap makes.
-
His main whoopsie with potential Democrat voters so far has been failing to put sufficient distance between him and a preacher who claims to have been cured of homosexuality.
For what it's worth, Obama has made a couple of real woopsies:
1. Buying into untrue conservative talking points on Social Security.
and
2. A health care plan with a fatal flaw.
All this means that, purely in terms of policy on offer, I'm conflicted. Obama is better than Clinton on foreign policy. Clinton, for the most part, is better on domestic stuff. Edwards is better than both of them, but he won't win the primaries.
And then, of course, there is the fact that, above and beyond policy, as much as anything else I want a Democrat who can win. And this is somewhere where Obama seems to have the edge.
-
As a person who normally (eventually) finds a moral philosophy/reason to back up how I feel about things, I've never been able to find that on life/death - at least consistently across the whole spectrum. The best I've ever come up with is "this feels right/wrong", which isn't exactly the vote winning line.
I don't think there's too many people who don't ultimately derive all of their moral intuitions that way, so "it just feels right/wrong" isn't a vote loser, necessarily. For everyone who feels the same intuitions it's a powerful argument.
-
I had a good read through everyone's stances at On The Issues, and it seems that the only Democratic candidate who is against the death penalty is Kucinich. Who has not a hope in hell, but can at least be comforted by his disturbingly hot wife. You can do a cute little quiz there to see who's most allied to your political convictions, too.
Edwards, who also doesn't suck policy-wise, won't win because of that bloody haircut. I am therefore hoping for Obama, because this whole political dynasty thing with Clinton rather squicks me out.
As a dual-citizenship-holder, I get to vote! Which would be really cool if I didn't get to vote in my last state of residence, which is fucking *Texas*. What a waste of paper first-past-the-post is...
Post your response…
This topic is closed.