All-Purpose NuILX thread for American Politics

yeah as i've said i won't vote for obama and face absolutely no moral quandary in not doing so, thanks electoral college!

if you think there are currently other viable options...

xp

I want Obama to win, & I think I do "get it", & as I've said before, it's as much about identity politics for me as it is about economics & foreign policy.

how do we define "identity politics" in 2011? No snark -- I'm curious!

I mean that he is biracial, & that we can elect such a person president, twice! reaffirms my hope in America. of course there are lots of axes of hope for this "land of opportunity", & this is just one, but I'll take it, since I gather we're all on the same page that on other axes, he's not made much progress over Little Bush.

Fair enough, but we are reducing him to a symbol -- a brand, if you will.

and maybe that's all he'll be remembered for. We'll know in fifteen years.

we already know that America's not really run by the president, & indeed that's what "the founders" wanted. the president's a symbol & that's fine, that's all that person needs to be in a republic like ours. I think maybe that's where I differ from a lot of you, esp. Morbius, who expect more out of the Great Leader: I want a Great Government, but the presidency is just a small part of that.

yay, a biracial man can be Imperial War Criminal. He's proven it!

I expect shit out of the Great Leader, and more out of us.

I expect Obama to make a big show of drawing down troops in Afghanistan within the next 12 months but imho Bin Laden's dead time to cut our losses

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 22:49 (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

this terrible pedantic post is going to be awesome because i get to step into john mccain let's listen to our generals on the ground shoes for a lil minute, but: afghanistan is so complicated, & there are a p diverse range of pro- and anti- opinions re: continuing US involvement from people in afghanistan (or there were around a year ago, idk how things have changed), those being the people who we should be at the service of & considering our decisions based on, having already got so involved in fucking w/their country without a great plan, etc etc etc. i'm not even saying that we should or shouldn't pull out, but framing the decision wrt 'our losses' is nagl i think. like if the best thing - as in safest, I guess, rather than 'thing that inches us closest to something we can put a flag in & call victory' - was to be there in a five hundred year long agonising drawdown then that would be the thing to do.

i'll vote for Obama only if Gingrich somehow manages to win the GOP nomination. but such a vote would be in the spirit of French voters a decade ago voting for Jacques Chirac simply because Jean-Marie Le Pen was that odious (and Newt is also that odious) and not b/c they all of a sudden fell in love w/ Chirac (who certainly didn't deserve it otherwise).

but Newt won't win the nomination.

I promise you this: Newt can't win the nomination without winning the presidency, but he can only win the presidency if America gets back to fundamentals, to what gives our nation its vitality, men like George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, & women like Condi Rice & Sarah Jessica Parker too. This election, this nomination, are the dawn before Morning In America, or at least the night before that Morning, & the presidency depends on someone being the alarm clock waking up the nation for that Bright Morning, an alarm clock I like to call Newt Gingrich.

I expect Obama to make a big show of drawing down troops in Afghanistan within the next 12 months but imho Bin Laden's dead time to cut our losses

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 22:49 (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

this terrible pedantic post is going to be awesome because i get to step into john mccain let's listen to our generals on the ground shoes for a lil minute, but: afghanistan is so complicated, & there are a p diverse range of pro- and anti- opinions re: continuing US involvement from people in afghanistan (or there were around a year ago, idk how things have changed), those being the people who we should be at the service of & considering our decisions based on, having already got so involved in fucking w/their country without a great plan, etc etc etc. i'm not even saying that we should or shouldn't pull out, but framing the decision wrt 'our losses' is nagl i think. like if the best thing - as in safest, I guess, rather than 'thing that inches us closest to something we can put a flag in & call victory' - was to be there in a five hundred year long agonising drawdown then that would be the thing to do.

― Never translate German (schlump), Tuesday, December 6, 2011 8:39 PM (19 minutes ago)

cool can we do this for free though?

we already know that America's not really run by the president, & indeed that's what "the founders" wanted. the president's a symbol & that's fine, that's all that person needs to be in a republic like ours. I think maybe that's where I differ from a lot of you, esp. Morbius, who expect more out of the Great Leader: I want a Great Government, but the presidency is just a small part of that.

― by (mennen), Tuesday, December 6, 2011 8:35 PM (24 minutes ago)

pretttttty sure he's got some important jobs dude, and btw the office of the presidency if you haven't noticed doesn't much resemble what "the founders wanted" these days

http://i.usatoday.net/news/gallery/2010/n100405_whegg/obama1pg-vertical.jpg

cool can we do this for free though?

― k3vin k., Wednesday, 7 December 2011 01:59 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

yeah but c'mon i just- like i am not practical with this but i sorta feel like our obligation began when we got involved, rather than expired when we had problems - obviously that's part of a larger conversation about how we need to work out what we need to pay for & then raise the appropriate funds, rather than just work out that we don't really wanna spend money and argue over what we're gonna cut, &c.

but yes, i feel like if i come & smash up your house then i am obliged to either split, if being there is just gonna annoy you further, or clear up what i did, having trashed the place. i am dumb w/this & not pragmatic but i just feel like the money issue is that it should have been financed not we can't finance it

sorry i feel like an asshole making this point, i know it isn't like either of y'all are looking for a satisfying exit, i just think it's a weird obligation thing. wasn't the us obliged to pay vietnam a gazillion dollars, after the war, only to renege a year later & be all 'we're not gonna do that', leaving it the poorest country on earth? we are invested there in a lot of ways, leaving and cutting ties just feels so unconscionable to me, like equal investment in rebuilding would ~morally~ be the appropriate coda to being engaged in warfare. but yeah i know that doesn't exactly fit with how things are

I'll give'em credit for this move.

re: payroll tax cut extension

House leaders are hoping to entice conservative support by packaging the payroll tax extension with other priorities, such as a provision that would make it more likely that construction would begin soon on a controversial oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

hahah oh fuck off you idiots

leaving and cutting ties just feels so unconscionable to me, like equal investment in rebuilding would ~morally~ be the appropriate coda to being engaged in warfare

the problem is no amount of imperial meddling is going to make Afghanistan a better to place to live. I dunno if you could even say we're leaving it WORSE off than it was before, it's pretty much the same as far as I can tell - riven with sectarian conflict and aggro nutjobs who want to fight among themselves indefinitely, with no interest in being anything resembling a modern nation.

Presidents often outlive us, study shows.

it's the socialist healthcare they get

They all need to eat more pretzels.

Adams lost teeth but not brains.

14 years for blogojevich.

14 years of explaining his complete innocence to the prison guards.

well, he said at sentencing that he was sorry for his "made terrible mistakes," but that he "never intended to break the law." the judge said, "the jury didn't believe you and neither do i."

a provision that would make it more likely that construction would begin soon on a controversial oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, they're so transparently servants of the oil industry

Well, why not? Do you believe this climate change twaddle?

totally. it was in the 50s around here recently. you see? it's C-O-L-D-E-R than expected, not h-o-t-t-e-r.

with that alone, you can ignore what you hear from egghead "scientists."

when time magazine sums up the twenty first century it will just be the word scientists in sarcastic quote marks

I like the implication that TIME magazine is run by and written for cockroaches

TIME 2100: They blinded us with "Science."

Maybe it is!

http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/hitler/sources/40s/414-141HitlerTime.jpg

dude! ugh.

blast from the past: 90s icon Mumia taken off death row

woah really, I thought he'd already been executed

blago's wife is my landlord -- thankfully my rent being four days late this month is prob the least of her worries now

haha that's awesome jord

I really need to figure out who's who in this here sandbox.

oh god:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the scientists at the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday and refused to allow emergency contraceptives to be sold as freely as aspirin, setting up just the kind of clash between politics and science that President Obama had promised to avoid.

Under the law, Ms. Sebelius has the authority to overrule the agency, according to an F.D.A. spokeswoman, but no health secretary has ever done so before. Her decision continues a history of political meddling in the agency’s decisions regarding emergency contraceptives that tarnished the drug administration’s credibility during the Bush administration. Ms. Sibelius’s decision to overrule a recommendation by government scientists will also almost certainly reverberate in this presidential election season.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/health/policy/sebelius-overrules-fda-on-freer-sale-of-emergency-contraceptives.html?ref=politics

rust belt catholics, thumbs up to u

weak. i kinda haven't heard a lot about her since she's been in the admin but sorta remember feeling like she was one of the good guys, blarg

This is such bullshit, but it doesn't surprise me.

Catholic bishops for Obama 2012

wow what the fuck at that hhs ruling, fucking shameful

otoh mumia!

What devotees of sadomasochism do to their bodies is nothing compared to the torments that those addicted to the news and political commentary inflict on their minds almost every hour of the day.

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/dec/05/goodbye-serenity/

Just noticed these details on this...

The drug, Plan B One-Step, has been sold for several years over the counter to women age 17 and older, but girls under that age need a prescription.

“I have concluded that the data … do not conclusively establish that Plan B One-Step should be made available over the counter for all girls of reproductive age,”

loved that, kinda a perfect halfway between a newspaper letter & a sobering memoir
xp