The Politics Thread

[MichaelGL]

I'd like to thank the GOP for reviving the Red Scare.

[Wales2004]

Here's an excerpt of life in the golden state:

So I live in an unincorporated city in Los Angeles county and any time a measure is placed on the ballot to incorporate it I vote no because another layer of government means more waste, inefficiency and more taxes to pay for that waste and inefficiency. Anyway a ban on plastic bags was passed the year before last I think and went into effect last year or maybe I've lost track of time and it was this year. The bottom line is that I can go to certain grocery stores and be charged 10 cents for a paper bag if I don't have my own bag. I can go in the bag it yourself Superior market where they still supply plastic bags despite the ban. My local Vons charges for paper bags but if I drive about 14 miles to the /Vons in the incorporated city which is still in the same county, I get my groceries in free plastic bags. If I go to Walmart down the road, free plastic bags and the same at any Target in the county.

I am sure you understand why I would never want to vote for another layer of government.

[quartermainefan]

That sentiment I can understand. Local governments I think are just busybody people who need to pass things so they can look in the mirror and see how much influence they have. I guess the ban on plastic bags is supposed to be eco-friendly, but I don't understand the charge for paper baga.

[Wales2004]

I don't know what they do with the paper bag fee. I will probably never ever pay for a paper bag unless it's a hidden charge. Maybe they're trying to make up for money they are losing from the mismanaged state budget.

[Eric83]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/coulter-civil-rights-blacks-immigrants-201633682--election.html

[DRW50]

Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann were the worst thing that could have happened to Coulter. Aside from the usual media sycophants and attention whores like Bill Maher, no one cares about her. She is a wig on a stick who lives in a very liberal part of Florida, making big money acting as Andy Kaufman.

[juppiter]

Agreed! Glad I'm not the only one who noticed. Coulter's star has definitely dimmed in the last couple of years. But honestly part of it is just that she can't seem as outrageous as she used to -- she was this superstar who said outrageous things, and now that is the party line for the Republicans. If anything she seems to be to the left of the current Republican party. I do think that if Obama is re-elected the Republicans will move to the center and then maybe Coulter can have a comeback.

She drove me nuts for years but I gotta say I kinda miss Ann. Just like many people in East Germany now miss being oppressed by Communism, I miss Ann's crazy ridiculous interviews.

Edited September 24, 2012 by juppiter

[quartermainefan]

No, they will move farther and farther to the right, pulling the democrats farther to the right with them. The republicans got themselves in trouble when they purged the party of moderates. The party elders surrendered all power to the base, and the tea party kicked out all the adults. To win primaries they must go further and further to the fringe, which is why you have someone like that post a couple of posts ago about the GOP state party leader who openly says with no embarassment he thinks Obama is the child of a secret communist. 40 years ago this would have been a headline in the weekly world news. Now it is the opinion of a member of the republican establishment.

[Sindacco]

It's your close ties with Israel that makes you hated by many in the Middle East. Israel may be your closest ally , but before Israel was created America didn't have so many enemies in the Middle East.

[Sindacco]

They are are still creating wars and conflicts in the ME. The difference is that they aren't sending in american troops. Last year NATO bombed Libya and helped the wahhabists to murder Gaddafi and take power. They destroy old Muslim mausoleums, Christian graves of British and Italian WWII soldiers and murdered all black africans that had immigrated under Gaddafi's rule. Some would say it's karma that the attacks two weeks ago happend in Libya. Then you have the current war in Syria were US allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia pay one-way tickets for terrorists to Syria.

[quartermainefan]

Well the world hates jews. That's why they created Israel in the first place.

Israel isn't a country of saints, they did a lot of crappy things to the Palestinians en route to becoming a country and treat them unfairly today. Whoever came up with the map for Israel and Palestine had to have known it was unworkable. That said, Israelis don't go around knocking down skyscrapers, make videos of decapitations, and generally behave like savages treating their own people like crap. Israelis don't stone you if you want to send your daughter to school, they don't kill you if you are raped. israelis don't behave like mindless animals anytime someone makes an insulting cartoon of Moses, they don't go attacking embassies when someone puts up anti jewish youtube videos, and they don't tell you god is good when someone kills a few dozen people. Israelis don't kill you because you are gay. Israel's jews do not issue fatwas and do not demand that any citizen adhere to jewish orthodoxy lest they suffer the consequences.

All of that is strictly an arab thing, and that the world looks the other way while the Arab world engages in this behavior but is sickened by Israel refusing to give up their country sort of speaks to the hypocrisy of the entire world.

Edited September 24, 2012 by quartermainefan

[Sindacco]

You sound like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer.

No it is not strictly and arab thing. Not all muslims are arabs and not all arabs are muslims. The things you desribed aren't done by normal muslims, the are done by wahhabists. They are a sick, extreme branch of Islam and they hate everyone else. Especially shia-muslims which is why they are now in Syria fighting Bashar al-Assad who is not only an alawite but also a secular arab socialist and nationalist. Things they all hate. If the wahhabists (that the western media calls rebels) win, they will rule Syria the same way the Talibans did in Afghanistan in 1996-2001. But they won't win since the Syrian army are better trained.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Sindacco

[Wales2004]

I was going to say with my rather limited knowledge on the topic that it seems awfully wrong to paint all Arabs with a singe extremist brush considering that they are not all muslims. Not all muslims are extremists so it would be equally unfair to make it all a religious deal as well.

All the muslim extremists are not Arab either.

[quartermainefan]

I call it like I see it. The UN and the entire world is quick to think in broad terms when it comes to Israel. Israel is wrong, Israel is unfair, Israel needs to be sanctioned. Isreal needs to make concessions. Israel is a problem. Israel should never exist. Blah blah blah. Anti semitism by any other name is still anti-semitism. So when someone posts "you know, the world didn't hate you so much until you hooked up with Israel" I agree with them. That's because the world hates Israel and no matter what Israel does the world will still hate Israel all the while turning a blind eye to what goes on in the rest of the middle east. After all, didn't Yassar Aarafat win a Nobel Peace Prize? The same Arafat who stole billions from the Palestinians and obstructed peace at every turn because war was his political power base? What the world thinks is bullshit when it comes to Israel because the world is steeped in hatred of jews. History has shown that for centuries.

[ReddFoxx]

Why don't windows on airplanes roll down?

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/09/24/899441/romney-plane-windows/