GasBandit
Staff member
Fark headline: Obama bravely killed Bin Laden, after bravely setting up a fall guy in case it failed.
Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
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This just in: Obama is the U.S. President and plays politics like almost every president did before him and every president will after him. Film at 11.
GasBandit
Staff member
“Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, prepared statement in case the D-Day invasion failed.
GasBandit
Staff member
And gay used to mean happy and carefree.
GasBandit
Staff member
Heh, I'm starting to get caught up. Not quite to the point where I can do a post full of links every day yet, but enough to start the ball rolling once more, and remind people that they can't stand me.
I like ya. I think you're nuts, but I like ya.
GasBandit
Staff member
A new series of billboards in Colorado compares President Obama to Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Said when he was a general, not commander in chief.
Fair enough, but I also point out your derisive
And your use of nearly seventy year old quotes from a future and then current president seems a little at odds. The nature of politics has changed. The 24 hour news cycle has made every mistake (even one as small as a misstatement in a speech) a front page story. We live in an era where it is acceptable to take out national TV ads and lie about or negatively distort a political opponent's war record because it is politically useful to do so. There was a time when "The Buck Stops Here" was good PR and a solid way of doing business, but today all it does is write your opponents' attack ads for you.
I said "almost every president", and I said in conjunction with "playing politics". Today, that includes insulating yourself from backlash, but it has always included making sure the event plays as well as possible to the masses.
GasBandit
Staff member
True, but it showed his attitude toward leadership. Does a general have less to lose for taking the blame from a colossal, deadly failure than a president?
I'd say The Buck Stops Here would be a powerful selling point if anybody actually ascribed to it. But you are right about times changing - now more than ever we have an elite class of eager career politicians rather than citizen legislators. The federal government grows ever more powerful, thus making it even more important to the power hungry that they gain and retain power at all costs. We don't have an Ike or a Truman any more these days - but maybe that's because we don't hold our elected officials to that standard stringently enough. We say, "oh well, that's politics" and the transgressor gets a free pass. We get the masters we deserve.
The meaning of "the buck stops here" hasn't changed in all these years. What it means to be a good, effective leader hasn't changed much either. "Forward," however, has definitely been co-opted. As linked, it was used in its leftist meaning a great deal by the man Obama called a mentor and implied was virtually a second father to him. Would you say his choice of campaign and platform would be more influenced by his long time mentor, or did he hang out a lot in Wisconsin and I'm just not aware of it?
Selective reading on my part.
Insert necessary level of shame hereYes and no. No, in that it could still derail his career and mark him as incompetent in the public consciousness in spite of his previous record. Yes, in that it matters a lot less how much faith the public has in him since he's not elected by them, nor will his acceptance of a screw up be cherry picked for unflattering soundbites.
I definitely agree that "career congressman" shouldn't be a job and that doing good should come before holding onto power, but that's not going to change in the immediate future. In my life time, it is possible, but it won't happen in the next decade and it can't start at the politician level, it has to come from the people. If Barack Obama announce today that he was adopting "the buck stops here" as his new policy, the Republicans (from Mitt Romney down to Rush Limbaugh) would use it has evidence that Obama feels that his staff is unimportant and that he's going mad with power tomorrow.
I would say that Barack Obama has proven himself to be as close to the center of the political spectrum as our presidents ever get. We do not have mainstream socialist or "far left" politics in the United States. Compared to the rest of the world, we have "right wing" and "slightly more to the center on the right-ish side of things". I would love it if Barack Obama, or any other Democrat, was some kind of dedicated socialist because then it would at least be giving us the choice between two diametrically opposed philosophies. As it is, we can have either the Big Mac or The Whopper.
And he was the only President who history views as being elected unanimously. He didn't play politics, at least in part, because he didn't really have much opposition.
GasBandit
Staff member
Norris I agree that the two parties are largely indistinguishable in results. Both grow government and consolidate power. But I disagree that is a right wing practice. The Republican party is just as Statist as the Democrat party. The only difference is who each side wants to reward with the spoils. I posit that (broken record alert) the actual right wing is ridiculed and marginalized in this country - the Libertarians. So many people who think they are republicans because it's the only non-democrat choice actually hold libertarian views if you quiz them about them one by one. More than half of the nation, according to polling, favors gay marriage and the legalization of marijuana. More than 60% oppose federally mandated health care, and want a smaller, leaner government. If people stopped worrying about "who can win" and really started voting "who supports my views," I suspect we'd see a 3, possibly even 5 party split.
But "left" and "right" compared to other things is a subjective measure and I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree on that.
But "left" and "right" compared to other things is a subjective measure and I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree on that.
Hell yes. All systems that are bipartite by the people's votes rely on the voters thinking there are no other options. It's pretty obvious that no party could hold views that agreed with ~50% of a nation.
EDIT: Also, a system with more parties that are actual options allows for less hypocrisy and political maneuvering, both because you don't need to agree with half the country (which is impossible) and because if you disappoint people they can vote someone else without going to the other end of the ideological spectrum.
EDIT: Also, a system with more parties that are actual options allows for less hypocrisy and political maneuvering, both because you don't need to agree with half the country (which is impossible) and because if you disappoint people they can vote someone else without going to the other end of the ideological spectrum.
I think the only way we'll ever see a viable third party rise up is to have a successful President switch parties while in office. It's the only way the third party would get enough recognition to reach the uninformed public at large.
M
makare
A lot of my views would probably align with libertarian views but there is no way in hell that i would personally align myself with Libertarianism.
Blame strategic voting.
I blame people not knowing they will miss something until it is gone.
You should blame strategic voting.
Hey, if a progressive candidate was ever on the ballot, I'd be all over that. Libertarian isn't really it for me. Right now the closest thing to my views are Democrats, despite how far they are from where I stand.
Let me add that people don't get a third party because they allow them to be co-opted by the two large parties, not because the people don't vote for other candidates. We saw that quite clearly with the Tea Party events.
Easy to say, but when it is a close race between Democrat guy and Republican guy and Progressive guy might steal votes from Democrat guy, giving Republican guy the victory, you'll think twice about who you vote for. It boils down to a lesser of two evils choice, and then you don't get any Progressive or Libertarian or any other party seriously in the race, if at all.
If Russ Feingold was running for Governor, yes, I'd vote for him over Obama. Democracy is never easy.
Probably not. I think actually having a political background would have tempered the crazy a bit.
GasBandit
Staff member
50 year old Fabio Borsatti didn’t want to become the mayor of Cimolais, a very small town in Italy (pop. 465), but sometimes we don’t always get what we want, Fabio.
Borsatti originally entered his name into the mayoral race simply so his friend, Gino Bertolo, would have some sort of opposition. Bertolo insisted that he wanted the election to have some merit and didn’t wish to run unopposed.
Borsatti won 160 votes, while Bertolo only gained 117.
Bertolo said, through gritted teeth, that it was an honor to be a part of the election. And when asked if Borsatti had any plans for his new mayorship, he said that maybe they’ll start to promote some tourism or something.
Borsatti originally entered his name into the mayoral race simply so his friend, Gino Bertolo, would have some sort of opposition. Bertolo insisted that he wanted the election to have some merit and didn’t wish to run unopposed.
Borsatti won 160 votes, while Bertolo only gained 117.
Bertolo said, through gritted teeth, that it was an honor to be a part of the election. And when asked if Borsatti had any plans for his new mayorship, he said that maybe they’ll start to promote some tourism or something.
There's a lot of sick fucking people in this country.
GasBandit
Staff member
GasBandit
Staff member
Rev. Jeremiah Wright claims the Obama campaign attempted to pay him $150,000 to not speak in public during the 2008 campaign.