[HoosierDaddy]

Eric Cantor is a special form of conservative. He'll hold the country hostage to make sure we are all living in 1854.

[Obdigore]

The 2016 White House run has already started

http://www.cnn.com/2....html?hpt=hp_c1

Quote

"It's why the American people hate Congress. Unlike the people in Congress, we have actual responsibilities."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped a bomb on Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Congress for refusing to allow a vote on Hurricane Sandy relief in the final hours of the 112th Congress. It was an instant classic of principled political outrage. It provided a strong dose of what Washington has been missing: blunt, independent leadership.

Christie prosecuted the case by pointing out that hurricane relief had been provided more quickly to others: For victims of Katrina after 10 days and victims of Hurricane Andrew in Florida after 30 days. But residents of the New Jersey and New York coast have been waiting 65 days to date for some relief.

Christie also accurately pointed out that Northeast states such as New Jersey and New York send more to the federal government in taxes than they get back in federal aid, unlike many of the red states represented by conservatives in Congress. The "makers versus takers" narratives fall apart fast when confronted with reality.

This post has been edited by Obdigore: 03 January 2013 - 05:04 AM

[worry]

Yah, I don't trust Peter King as far as I can throw him. I do trust Christie further than I can throw him, but he's heavy and I'm a relatively weak person.

That said, House GOP leadership deserves every bit of push-back it gets, from all quarters. I hope they disintegrate. That includes Darrell Issa too, he slithers by these issues all too often while people just a bit more visible than him get all the flak.

[Obdigore]

worrywort, on 03 January 2013 - 05:16 AM, said:

Yah, I don't trust Peter King as far as I can throw him. I do trust Christie further than I can throw him, but he's heavy and I'm a relatively weak person.

That said, House GOP leadership deserves every bit of push-back it gets, from all quarters. I hope they disintegrate. That includes Darrell Issa too, he slithers by these issues all too often while people just a bit more visible than him get all the flak.

I don't think Boehner is going to be Speaker after the vote today.

[worry]

Also, in the midst of screwing Sandy victims, House Repubs also screwed all women throughout the US simply because they didn't get the special privilege of screwing LGBT, Native, and immigrant women in particular: http://maddowblog.ms...ainst-women-act

[Illuyankas]

Man, I don't even live in the US but FUCK the GOP.

Well, look on the bright side, guys, at least your left centre-right political party leader never favourably compared himself to bloody Thatcher.

[worry]

He does however compare himself to Reagan every so often, and though it's largely rhetorical lip service towards his willingness to work with (theoretically reasonable) Republicans and I'm not super cynical about it, it still kinda makes my skin crawl every time. Regardless of intent, it still reinforces the rightward shift of the past 30+ years and legitimizes from the left a deplorable hell-sent monster.

This post has been edited by worrywort: 04 January 2013 - 07:12 PM

[Defiance]

This has to be the greatest reply to a White House petition that I've ever read:

Build a Death Star

[HoosierDaddy]

Defiance, on 12 January 2013 - 05:59 AM, said:

This has to be the greatest reply to a White House petition that I've ever read:

Build a Death Star

Yeah, I saw that on Reddit.

GLORIOUS! Lol.


</h4>

Quote

<h4>We petition the obama administration to:

Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.
Those who sign here petition the United States government to secure funding and resources, and begin construction on a Death Star by 2016.

By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.

Quote

Official White House Response to Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.
This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For
By Paul Shawcross

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

However, look carefully (here's how) and you'll notice something already floating in the sky -- that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts -- American, Russian, and Canadian -- living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We've also got two robot science labs -- one wielding a laser -- roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo -- and soon, crew -- to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.

Even though the United States doesn't have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

We don't have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

[worry]

A plea for sympathy from the Wall Street Journal:

[HoosierDaddy]

But what about the rich people? Doesn't anybody care about the rich people???????

[Studlock]

http://www.newyorker...ad-country.html


I don't know if this has been posted but could an American please explain what the congressman in the article is going off about? Because I don't understand how this is acceptable behaviour from a policy-maker. This kind of argument wouldn't cut it in a intro philosophy class. Granted the congressman's argument might have been taken out of context.

[worry]

That article (and The Borowitz Report in general) is a satire, in the vein of The Onion. Content is fake but it makes a rhetorical point (as opposed to like The Daily Show, where the content is real but so absurd that they gotta make fun of it).

[Studlock]

Really? I guess that would make a whole lot of sense, I was thrown off because I had thought the New Yorker was a genuine news publisher.

Edit: looking through his previous articles and seeing the keyword: humor, I should have probably guessed is was satire. Now I know how one feels when they fall for an Onion article or video. I have ashamed my family.

This post has been edited by Studlock: 17 January 2013 - 12:28 AM

[worry]

Haha, don't worry about it. I've been seeing that a lot lately with his stuff, for exactly the same reason. I believe he started independent of The New Yorker and then they scooped him up, so it's not something they've always done.

[worry]

http://livewire.talk...ion-reform-will

[worry]

This actually exists. It's not The Onion, it isn't satire. It kinda puts an exclamation point at the end of the election, the Susan Rice/Benghazi thing, and the gun control and Sec. of Defense/Hagel hearings this past week. Maybe a distillation of the past four years.

http://www.nationalr...-eliana-johnson

[LinearPhilosopher]

worrywort, on 01 February 2013 - 09:38 PM, said:

This actually exists. It's not The Onion, it isn't satire. It kinda puts an exclamation point at the end of the election, the Susan Rice/Benghazi thing, and the gun control and Sec. of Defense/Hagel hearings this past week. Maybe a distillation of the past four years.

http://www.nationalr...-eliana-johnson

You can't be serious... This can't be real.

[Illuyankas]

You know when that comedian guy said if Obama came out for fresh air all the Republicans would demand gills, that was a joke, right? Right, internet news guy?

[worry]

Todd Kincannon, former executive director of the South Carolina GOP, went crazy yesterday during the Super Bowl, and he's still at it: https://twitter.com/ToddKincannon

The stuff from yesterday: http://www.dailykos....ervative-Tweets