Hard News: Weekend Warriors
311 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 4 5 6 7 8 … 13 Newer→ Last
-
I thought this opinion on HuffPo was pretty good. Worth a read...
We're Gonna Frickin' Lose this Thing
... This race should be about whether the Republican Party is going to be dismantled or not after the borderline treason of the past eight years. But instead it is about making the word "community organizer" a dirty word and a beauty queen who shoots foxes from a plane. Someone is not in any way doing their job and it's the press...
Probably the worst offenders are the pundits who take the position that it's all just a game and say phrases like "getting a post-convention bump" or "playing to the soccer Moms." This isn't a game of Monopoly or Survivor. There are real truths that exist outside of the spin they are given and have an effect on lives.
The blog also talks about 'voter caging' which is fascinating. The Republicans are sending letters to registered voters in key precincts. The letters are marked 'do not forward' meaning if the person is not at the address (they are registered for) the letter gets returned to sender. The Republicans then take these returned letters to the Voter Board and have the voter's vote disallowed after the election, because they were not living at the address as stated on the Voter Registration.
Evil, but genius.
-
Well, unless Kim Gandy has multiple personality disorder I don't think one column by one woman constitutes a "bunch"; nor are 'feminists' some Borg Collective-ette who think the same way about everything.
I do indeed suggest that the National Organisation of Women (USA) constitutes a bunch of feminist leaders and unless they have relinquished editorial control of their website they are implicitly endorsing Kim Gandy's opinion. And no they are not a Borg collective, because endorsing old white men over young working mothers is not a typical feminist standpoint - that is what makes it funny.
Want to source that, Angus? Because anyone who really wants to argue that Snowe's positions on gays, abortion, the prosecution of the War on Terror and the Iraq War would have been acceptable to the base is either ignorant, or making shit up.
The base is not stupid. The base knows it is not large enough to win on its own and needs to broarden its appeal. If Huckabee (middle aged, social conservative, Baptist minister) were the nominee they would be en-raptured with him and be in dreadful need of a social moderate/liberal VP so the Huckabee ticket is not seen as clone of unpopular Bush. Snowe would be considered because she is as liberal a Republican as exists and she is a woman and even Daily Kos would be hard pressed to publically call her Olympia "Dick Cheney" Snowe.
Of course she would highly piss off the nutjobs in the base, but nutjobs that far gone are few and far between. I mean who is going to go off on a candidate who is almost their ideal because of their running mate being flawed?
Angus: Please go read the Constitution of the United States, and try and be a little more informed on what the Vice President actually does than Palin was.
How many ties in Congress have there been recently? The job is much, much, much less important than the Presidency.
-
* She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States.
No, but her husband was, and it was the AIP that claimed that she was, so it wasn't just a malign invention. And she also recorded a friendly message for the America-haters' convention.
Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. She has said that students should be allowed to "debate both sides" of the evolution question, but she also said creationism "doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."
This is a bit like her stance on sex education. She did say she supported the abstinence-only philosophy, but then several weeks later said she thought kids should be taught about condoms. She possibly tailors her message to her audience.
* She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a "What if?" question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term.
This is very charitable. It seems well established that she asked how she'd go about banning books with offensive language in them, and the librarian demurred. The librarian was also hit with the "loyalty test" resignation demand/sacking twice in a year, although that may also have been because she was the girlfriend of the police chief Palin was warring with. That looks awfully mucky to me.
Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years
The funding increase was part of a bill created by the legislature in response to a taskforce finding the previous year. Palin tried to veto the bill over a minor issue (a PR stunt?) but the legislature told her it would override her veto and she backed down. It seems absurd to award her much credit for this.
So, um, yeah.
-
@RB
Oh, absolutely yeah. I agreeFactCheck only work to the letter of the comment, not anything underlying. If the rumour-mill was saying she tried to cut the funding through use of a veto, they'd confirm it. But the rumour was that she'd cut the funding, and the fact was that funding increased. So they called it.
I think their finding on the librarian is a little naive as well.
The link you posted before led me to have a closer look at The Public Record site. Some excellent stuff on there.
-
If the rumour-mill was saying she tried to cut the funding through use of a veto, they'd confirm it. But the rumour was that she'd cut the funding, and the fact was that funding increased. So they called it.
It's actually weirder than that. She threatened to use her veto because she said one part of the scheme wasn't generous enough. But (I can't find the link right now, so I'm going on memory) it was a tiny issue: $100 vs $200 annually per head for one programme, in very large bill. That's why I thought it looked like a PR stunt.
-
The base is not stupid.
I'm really going to need a source for that. :)
How many ties in Congress have there been recently? The job is much, much, much less important than the Presidency
Well, Angus, if McCain isn't talking out his arse about being a consensus-builder there might be a few more. Who knows? And, for that matter, President McCain could choke on a cocktail weenie at one of the Inaugural Balls and hello President Palin. May it never happen, but I don't think any of the eight Presidents who died in office were planning to. Do you Angus?
And that's why competence and credibility on the bottom of the ticket actually matter. You hope they're never going to get the next bump up the pay-scale (without an intervening election in their own right, naturally), but I'd rather have a Truman or a Roosevelt warming the bench. And Palin's just not in that league.
-
As, in effect, the first insight we get into the kind of decision-making that would come from President McCain I can't say I'm impressed.
He wants to win an election so seeks to broarden his appeal amoung conservative christians and female independents. Yes it is cynical, however when it comes to politicians smart cynicism* beats forthright stupidity.
* Also seen when a fresh faced candidate advocating "change" picks a veteran career politician as his running mate.
-
because endorsing old white men over young working mothers is not a typical feminist standpoint - that is what makes it funny
For those who have difficulty understanding what feminism actually means in this context: it is not, repeat, NOT the blanket endorsement of people with vaginas over people with penises for all high-ranking offices. Feminism means deciding who is the most qualified person for the job, *regardless* of whether they have a vagina or a penis. Or neither. Or both.
-
Latest talking point: in Wasilla, the town police charged rape victims for their own forensic examinations.
The police chief Palin hired after sacking the insufficiently-loyal one then opposed a law drafted by the Democratic Governor to end the practice, because "I just don't want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer."
Eeeew.
-
Feminism means deciding who is the most qualified person for the job, *regardless* of whether they have a vagina or a penis.
Yes there is a deeper debate which I think goes like the following.
The decision endorsed by the NOW revolves around their perception that a pro-life/pro-marriage choice is inhibiting upon a female's advancement and thus endorse an old white male who disfavours those beliefs. The NOW feel that a female holding to that set of beliefs is not qualified to be President of the United States of America*.
The counter-argument is that a female holding to those beliefs who achieves the Presidency* has so obviously not been inhibited it makes the NOW argument is totally baseless. And the fact that NOW are continuing to make it anyway stems not from any interests in females per see, but more in securing their place at a Democatic victory party.
(* one heart beat away from)
-
Angus:
I've run out of whiteboard and coloured pens trying to parse that one. English translation, perhaps?
-
__Angus: Please go read the Constitution of the United States, and try and be a little more informed on what the Vice President actually does than Palin was.__
How many ties in Congress have there been recently?
I think you need to read it again Angus. Congress doesn't vote together, so it can't tie. The House and Senate vote separately.
The VP is the President of the Senate.
-
With ref to "executive expeiernce" , Punditkitchen has a nice image"
-
a female holding to those beliefs who achieves the Presidency* has so obviously not been inhibited it makes the NOW argument totally baseless
One anti-choice woman plucked from semi-obscurity to serve as a pandering token on a presidential ticket does not in any way make pro-choice feminist theory 'totally baseless'. How, exactly, does this one person negate an entire political movement?
-
@RB
Eeewww indeed! -
"apologising" to those Asians "who are not engaged in criminal activity"
Maybe I should apologise to those ACT MPs that are not engaged in criminal activity? (In the Parliament Coddington was an MP in, that was 11%, or about 12 times the rate of criminality amongst Asian New Zealanders).
-
How, exactly, does this one person negate an entire political movement?
'Cause it's convenient I suspect.
I do think Palin's gender would inform her performance as VP, just as I think McCain's gender would his as President. That being the case, I can understand why women, but not just women, would see advantage in having a different gendered-perspective in the White House. But her gender isn't the sole or even determinative factor, for me at least - and I understand this could be a variation on your point Danielle. I know just as many women as I do men with whom I disagree and who I would not support for high office.
-
Maybe I should apologise to those ACT MPs that are not engaged in criminal activity? (In the Parliament Coddington was an MP in, that was 11%, or about 12 times the rate of criminality amongst Asian New Zealanders).
Score! At present, that's higher than NZF rate!
-
Slightly off topic, but can someone please explain the Win Percentage on this site? (2nd graph, on left). http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
I get the electoral college bit, and the popular vote bit, but how can the win percentage be that much higher than either of them?
-
Presumedly is the percentage of states he'll win?
-
You doubt someone like John McCain has a chance of securing the GOP nomination? Interesting.
That was pretty much my point. McCain had to change, turn up the old time religion and associated bullshit to pander to the party base to be taken seriously as a candidate.
-
How, exactly, does this one person negate an entire political movement?
When that woman is President of the United States it doesn't negate the movement, but it makes the core argument less convincing. It is a big, shining exception to the feminist theory that carrying through all pregnancies is inhibiting upon a woman's advancement. There is no higher level of office and therefore her pro-life choices cause no drag* on her ambitions.
* apart from obviously the opposition represented by the Democratic Party and associated lobby groups.
-
My thought, watching McCain at the RNC, was that he looked really, really uncomfortable, and quite hesitant.
-
It is a big, shining exception to the feminist theory that carrying through all pregnancies is inhibiting upon a woman's advancement. There is no higher level of office and therefore her pro-life choices cause no drag* on her ambitions.
* apart from obviously the opposition represented by the Democratic Party and associated lobby groups.
That straw woman went down without a fight, didn't it?
-
There is no higher level of office and therefore her pro-life choices cause no drag* on her ambitions.
Excuse the lack of methodological rigour, but the mums I hang out with along with my wife would beg to differ. So too would a number of my colleagues who've taken many years off to be the primary care giver for their family's kids.
Besides which, Palin's complete and utter lack of experience negates your argument. If she had half the experience of any of the other candidates, you might have had a point, but she doesn't - she was selected last minute, is grossly under-qualified and appears to be entirely unsuited to a job that requires judgment and discretion. The only element of her candidacy that suits your thesis is that she's got a fair number of kids - now if you'd nominated her for hocky-mom of the year...
Post your response…
This topic is closed.