Tsukiyumi wrote:
FFS, do guns and/or capital punishment have to come up in every discussion of what's wrong with the US? I can think of a number of greater issues off the top of my head, like: the current mired condition of the military, lack of funding for important scientific research, energy production and costs, utter disregard for education in this country, homelessness and the rapidly increasing number of families facing unemployment and poverty...
Why not? They are a symptom of the overall problem in the US of poor education and religious lunacy. Seriously the OT is littered with examples of how you should kill x or stone y. IS it the over riding issue? No, just a symptom.
They just executed a foreign national (about forty miles north of me) for the proven gang rape and murder of two teenage girls during a gang initiation; honestly, the big outcry about this excecution, and most others, is very low on the list of issues I'm concerned with in this election.
People should be far more concerned about reversing the abortion that Bush has caused with the budget and getting out of Iraq than killing criminals. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that.
For the record, I'm voting Obama. I spotted McCain's lunacy a year ago; no way I'm voting for someone who wants to continue the status quo, or move backwards.
One of the (few) nice things about the US's extended caimpaigns is it lets intelligent people look deeper into the candidates platforms.
About the capital punishment issue; it's like fixing a leaky faucet on a sinking ship. If you don't fix the main problems first, the faucet will be at the bottom of the ocean anyways. It's just not something I consider a priority, until more pressing issues are solved.
Oh, and I forgot to add religion's sinister takeover of the legal system as another major issue.
There is only one way of avoiding the war – that is the overthrow of this society. However, as we are too weak for this task, the war is inevitable. -L. Trotsky, 1939
Mikey wrote:Hopefully ( ) that'll be a symptom of the current administration which leaves with King George.
It might lessen but it'll take a while to ditch all the BS laws and programs that got shoved in and purge the Supreme Court. I fully expect half the stuff in place currently to be in when Obama leaves in 2016 (lets hope).
My problem isn't with capital punishment. It is that the voters who want to kill human beings are the ones who are always going on about "the sanctity of life." They're the ones fueling the McCain run. If you're going to push a pro-Christian agenda on Americans at least be consistent when you want to protect life. The goddamned hypocrisy kills me, and America, and Iraq, and probably someone else's country soon.
Instead we have warrior Christians who believe that George W. Bush is a general in a religious war against Islam. I am not joking. I watch the prayer channel with my mother. A "Reverend" talks about the encroachment of Islam, mentions that they want to destroy us and Israel then follows that up with, "I thank God that George W. Bush is our President." These same cretins who support capital punishment also support the Bush-war on poor Muslims. They don't give a damn about children being riddled with bullets because they are just brown Islamic children. It's those kinds of hypocrites that represent the staunchest Bush supporter, the Bushites. And so it's those kinds of people that John McCain appeals to when he's singing, "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb-bomb Iran." It's these kind of people in power now.
That's how McCain got this far. He appeals to hypocrites. Mitt Romney said all the right things but he was a Mormon. He wasn't Christian enough to be chosen by the core of the Republican party. Mike Huckabee was a freaking religious scholar. There are a lot of people falling on their knees for him. However he didn't get the Fox News bump. Huckabee's record as Governor of Arkansas was a little bit liberal, according to Fox News. Huckabee didn't place the religious right in places of power, like George W. Bush did. Tom Tancredo was the most war-like of the bunch. However he small potatoes. Not big enough to fight Hillary. Ron Paul wanted change everything Bush. No way do the core Republicans (the Bushites) approve that.
However John McCain promised to continue the Bush way of governing. Inflation, weak dollar, increasing deficit, high oil & gas prices, all of it. He will appoint unqualified people to the Justice Department if they attended/graduated from Pat Robertson University aka Regent University. McCain has promised to lead America down the Bush path, taking away the search warrants and the privacy. He has promised to continue the Bush way of life, as he will oppose the right of human beings to join in marriage. He has promised to kill more Muslims, he has vowed to keep more Americans stuck in Iraq, and thereby promising the war-profiteers more of our tax dollars. He has promised to never talk to our enemies because that's appeasement, even though we are currently paying our former enemies to not kill American soldiers. That is how John McCain got this far. He promises to follow in the footsteps of a man he hated eight years ago. McCain became as hypocritical as the "sanctity of life" hypocrites. And birds of a feather...
"Bible, Wrath of Khan, what's the difference?"
Stan - South Park
McCain is NOT where he is now by appealing to those that loved Bush. Actually he's sort of got a problem with them. As many/some are saying that they'd rather see McCain lose so that in four years we can get a proper conservative candidate. I think Limbough and Coulter both said that.
No, McCain won the Republican primary because of his appeal to moderates, and willingness to work with Democrats to get stuff done. He rode in on a mix of traditional conservative positions but also the support for things like stem cell research and, by letting states decide, having a soft line on the whole gay issue.
But yes his lack of pop star skills will hurt him. Bush somehow managed it, but I think the GOP may need to go back to getting their candidates from the screen actors guild. As I think that's getting to be a more central issue.
Cpl Kendall wrote:At least we'd know that the guy had two faces in advance.
*rimshot*
The problem I have with McCain is that yes - he comes from a background of moderatism, even going against the GOP... UNTIL he needs to appeal to the core Republicans, like now.
I can't stand nothing dull
I got the high gloss luster
I'll massacre your ass as fast
as Bull offed Custer
My point was just that McCain isn't where he is by support of the real Bush lovers. The people a lot of you don't like don't like McCain either for not backing Federal bans on gay marriage etc etc.
Mikey wrote:
The problem I have with McCain is that yes - he comes from a background of moderatism, even going against the GOP... UNTIL he needs to appeal to the core Republicans, like now.
He's been making friendly sounds at the more conservative groups. Same as Obama makes occasional cooing noises at rural moderates. But the only position I can think of where McCain shifted significantly has been on gun control. And, really, I can't blame him for that one. If you insist he makes a presidential run as a GOP candidate in this environment without the NRA you might as will criticize him for not jumping off a bridge.
McCain has been trying to walk the bridges he was once proud to burn. Do you honestly think he would co-author a bill with Feingold in the midst of this campaign?
I can't stand nothing dull
I got the high gloss luster
I'll massacre your ass as fast
as Bull offed Custer
Mikey wrote:McCain has been trying to walk the bridges he was once proud to burn. Do you honestly think he would co-author a bill with Feingold in the midst of this campaign?
I believe they agree on being anti pork. I could see McCain getting together with him on something regarding that.
And I wouldn't say he'd burned the NRA bridge. He just had a mixed voting record, and now he's coming down squarely on their side.
Heh. I totally didn't see that. Anyway you know what I mean.
Mikey wrote:
sunnyside wrote:And I wouldn't say he'd burned the NRA bridge. He just had a mixed voting record, and now he's coming down squarely on their side.
Yep - because now they're a voting bloc he can use.
More like "desperatly needs if he's to have a snowballs chance in hell". Of course Obama is pretty solidly anti-gun. So McCain might have been able to coast without them.
Though again it isn't like McCain was solidly anti-gun or anything. He's just shifting a couple steps closer to the NRA.
) that'll be a symptom of the current administration which leaves with King George.
