The Politics Thread

[DRW50]

They could just use that to pretend they're diverse.

They love crazy old men attention whores. Look how popular Trump was with the base for no apparent reason other than saying birth certificate every five minutes.

[GoldenDogs]

100% agreement on everything you said... I believe I hesitantly voted to retain the death penalty in California. Very hesitantly...

My problem with the death penalty ANYWHERE in the country is that it is not consistently or fairly enforced. The fact that Manson is alive (I know why, stupid Rose Bird and friends) gives me pause to put anyone else to death. I don't want to rehash all of the old arguments pro and con... I'll just say that what my have you put down in Texas won't have you put down in California or anywhere, etc. That isn't right... I also know it's complicated and touches upon state's rights, etc., but the death penalty, if retained in any form, should really be consistent from state to state.

Having said that, I know that if I vote to retain it as part of California law, it doesn't matter because no one will ever be put to death in this state again. Kind of a moot point, frankly.

We agree on so much here, I have nothing to argue with you about... LOL! I'm sick of the whole state proposition thing. How many rotten ballot measures have passed in California? Too many to count... I'm wary of any measure that will either raise taxes or cost the state more money. It seems the choices are never made in the state legislature anymore... they hang their hats on ballot measures designed to either spend money the state doesn't have or cost the state money it can't afford to lose.

How 'bout a little leadership from Governor Brown? How about starting over with all new legislators? They all suck... the state is broke, overtaxed and overregulated.

[GoldenDogs]

Heh...

I appreciate what you offer, Ann... Reminds me, if I were to ever have doubts, that hate exists on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunate to see it rise from those who supposedly belong to the party of tolerance...

[Wales2004]

John Sununu was born in Cuba to non-American parents so he's ineligible to be President which excludes him as a V.P. candidate.

What amazes (for lack of a more appropriate term) me is that those in the media that concluded John Sununu's motive was to distract people the reasons Colin Powell gave for endorsing Barack Obama, yet they continued to beat the drum.

MSNBC rolled out a number of their guest analysts to give their two cents on the topic. One of them, James Peterson, said that black people are not monolithic then went on to contradict that position with a bunch of "we" this and that. The best was something along the lines of we don't agree with Colin Powell but we respect him which makes it sound as if black people are monolithic with exceptions such as Colin Powell.

Now I'm listening to Ann Coulter claim retard just means loser and that no one uses it to refer to people with disabilities.....sure.

The one tax both Democrat and Republican governors seem to agree on increasing is the sales tax.

Lawrence O'Donnell seemingly lectures people about being responsible then he gets Gray Davis to come on for the last minutes of his show to help him with his ballot. Gray Davis??? Hmm kind of reminds me of Jerry Brown...don't get me started on Jerry Brown.

[marceline]

While Sarah Palin remains notably silent. When it was Rahm Emanuel she couldn't be outraged fast enough.

[DRW50]

I'd almost forgotten about this. Log Cabin Republicans endorsed Romney probably only because they thought he might win and they'd be even more ostracized if they didn't. If nothing else this might have brought back reports of his very ugly behavior in 2003 and 2004.

http://americablog.com/2012/10/romney-gay-birth-certificates.html

Mitt "some are actually having children born to them" Romney. Hell, he should run it in an ad. The true believers would love it.

[Ann_SS]

I forgotten that. This makes Sununu's comment about someone needing to teach the President how to be American even more outrageous.

Palin must now be willing to accept people calling her kid, "retard" throughout his life.

I did not even know that Gray Davis was still around. I thought that he had been banished in complete disgrace from all Democratic circles.

Edited October 27, 2012 by Ann_SS

[marceline]

I can't think of a group more pathetic than the Log Cabin Republicans.

[DRW50]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOProud

[DRW50]

So, on a somewhat sad Youtube trek watching clips of Castiel the fallen angel of Supernatural, I saw the origin story of his "vessel" - a very devout husband and father, Jimmy Novak, who gave up everything when he was asked to let Castiel possess him.

Those angst-ridden, earnest faces:

finally reminded me of everyone's favorite Medicare savior:

Now if they'd said that Paul Ryan, husband and father, had given up his soul to let Ayn Rand possess him, or if they just offered to replace him on the ticket with Misha Collins, I would be very very very very very slightly more tempted to vote for him.

(OK, not really, but they could have at least tried).

[Wales2004]

Well Lawrence O'Donnell saw fit to remind anyone watching his show last night that Gray Davis is still alive. The idea that he was a valued source of voting information is unfathomable. I don't care how smart Gray Davis may or may not be or even how informed he may be--he's not the public model for Californians on how to vote.

Besides I'm not affiliated with either party and my mailbox has been overrun for months with unsolicited advice (mainly from the Democrats) on how to vote. I find it hard to believe that Lawrence O'Donnell didn't receive at least a handful of pamphlets from the Democrats with their suggestions for the propositions and candidates. Even without that, their standard voting advice in California is to vote "yes" on everything that includes a tax increase. Taxes are the solution to every problem and they constantly hold up education as the biggest reason for tax increases, yet I have not seen a report that indicates that this money has been put to the use for which it was intended. Their biggest selling point for the California Lottery was how it was going to benefit schools. I see that some of our state officials still manage to renovate their offices while shutting down or curtailing state services.

Arnold Schwarznegger must love Gray Davis for giving him his big moment in politics.

[Ann_SS]

The NY Times gave the President a well written and thorough endorsement. In case, anyone is truly undecided and has not made a final decision about who to vote for, here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/barack-obama-for-president.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

[Vee]

Pretty much all the legit polling shows Obama pulling out a commanding lead.

Which is why I laughed my ass off when I saw CNN the other night showing Obama up four points in Ohio and Wolf Blitzer staring into the camera calling it "a tie." I've heard Romney may be pulling out of Ohio and trying to peel off Nevada. It can't be done. He cannot win.

[marceline]

Can you point me to the source saying that Romney might be pulling out of Ohio because I'd love to see that in writing.

From what I can see here on the ground, Romney has approximately 40 campaign offices here while Obama has at least twice that. Obama's last rally here on Thursday pulled about 4,000 people. Romney's rallies are pulling hundreds BUT Romney's strategy seems to be to do his events in the rural-ishparts of the state between the urban areas of Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo and to do private events for big donors which doesn't surprise me. However I am surprised to see that he's not trying harder in Cincinnati. That's John Boehner territory and politically is closer to Kentucky and West Virginia. All of this is obviously just my impression but I just thought I'd share.

It looks like we may be getting a real October Surprise in the form of Hurricane Sandy. It will screw with the news cycle and turnout.

[DRW50]

The media is definitely pushing that he still has a great chance in Ohio, and even giving him tips.

http://www.politico....2961.html?hp=l2

I'm also annoyed by the whole "Is Todd Akin still capable of winning?" It feels like a forced narrative, their sudden discovery of close polls, so they can be awed at his comeback. He was never really out of it. Polls showed him competitive from relatively soon after the rape comments. Sadly, many voters won't care.

Edited October 28, 2012 by CarlD2