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Primary 2012: Romney Wins Debate By Saying Nothing, Having Nice Hair
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But that is already how a lot of federal shit is done.
Edit: God bless insane anti-science Republicans.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romney-draws-early-fire-from-conservatives-over-views-on-climate-change/2011/06/08/AGkUTaMH_print.html
It's, like, meta-weaseling.
Slightly longer answer: Lots of snow.
GT: batshido Hit me up on ME3.
As much as conservatives yammer about it I've found the lower level of government you go to the worse the corruption is. The type of sit that's acceptable at the state level is so much worse that what goes on that the federal level.
I'd put money on the whole "those emails totally prove that it was all fake, because I don't want to understand the explanation and proof that it's just me misreading them out of context"
I'm honestly a little dissapointed. That almost makes some kind of sense, in a 'logic skills of a second grader' kind of way. I was hoping for flat out fucking nutball crazypants here.
k
He doesn't believe it was a hoax at all. Limbaugh is, however, a part of the conspiracy to discredit the notion of man-made climate change, because he is also an agent of the reptilian master race living inside the Earth. Driven below ground after the Cretaceous extinction event, they have been slowly manipulating us into the creatures of industry that we are today. Their goal is simple: return the planet to Pre-Cretaceous temperature levels so they can return to the surface and claim what's theirs; what has always been theirs.
Filthy, unscaled, warm bloods are benefiting.
From what I've seen, it's assumed that liberals want to kill corporations, and are using the hoax of global warming to ... tank their own economies or something? I mean, it just falls apart after "liberals are...", but so do most conspiracy theories.
I suspect that they think the core motivation is derived from some hippie ideal where the economy is based largely around the hemp/soy that we all grow ourselves; and that we don't need industry.
This is the most logical defense I can muster; that they think the GW crowd are being fooled into supporting these misguided idealists.
I'm disappointed because they're trying to establish Romney as a reasonable candidate that doesn't take orders from Limbaugh. It's like Mitt understands the metaplot and knows that Limbaugh's disapproval is actually a positive with sane people. Republican primaries don't result in as many crazypants as we like to think... the winners in the last 15 years have been: Dole (fairly honorable, if sleepy), George W. Bush (the guy you want to have a beer with), and McCain (war hero, hailed for bipartisanship & good relationship with the media).
I think they're crowning Mitt already, trying to insulate him for the general.
I disagree. I think the most damaging sources of corruption we've seen in recent history have all been at the federal level. Off the top of my head:
SEC - Downloading tons of porn instead of regulating the financial industry. Refused to investigate people like Bernie Madoff and John Mack. Contributed to the financial meltdown in 2008.
MMS - Lack of oversight which could have prevented the spill in the Gulf Coast. Is currently being overhauled by Obama?
FDA - A top exec at Monsato submitted a paper on the use of BGH, then joins the FDA and approves the very paper she wrote. I believe BGH is banned in many European countries as researched has linked it to cancer in cows and humans.
DHS - The former head of DHS pushed for the implementation of full-body scanners at airports, and now runs a security consulting group that is a large manufacturer of such scanners.
I think it would do a lot to combat corruption if we moved things more to the model used by the DOT, where states do all of the planning and the majority of the supervision (FHWA oversight is required on projects above a certain size), but roughly 90% of the funding comes from the fed.
FCC chairwoman helps Comcast become even more giganticer, abandons FCC to work for Comcast.
Corruption? I don't know, but that sort of shit definitely raises some eyebrows.
Perhaps corruption is more prevailent at lower levels, but the ability to do some particularly heinous crap/abuse power probably rests most heavily at the top.
Celebrities and Politicians are prime examples of how regularly and tragically humanity fails the "with great power comes great responsibility" test. Sure, we pass it plenty too, but a mix of cash and power really seems to wreck a good portion of those given a taste of either/both.
Those words make an important distinction from what I believe he is saying. Federal fuckups have more reach, and are likely to broader implications by their nature. Since they are also the only sort that apply to everyone, they are also the fuckups you're most likely to actually hear about.
When a county commission conspires to buy an expensive piece of property with the intent of selling it to one of their developer friends for a song; you won't hear about that. They'll even get re-elected. Do that at the federal level and people will actually notice, and this will increase the likelihood that someone will care.
Thus, while not more damaging, corruption at the lower levels is more flagrant; and possibly more widespread.
#FreeScheck
#FreeSKFM
where is my money
The democrat response to the presidential debate. Bullseye.
1) Campaign on failure of government during bad times
2) Appoint massive shit heels to key positions
3) Have massive shit heels be hilariously corrupt
4) Point to massive shit heels as evidence that government is a failure
5) Get elected again
6) Appoint more shit heels!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/bachmann-won-and-other-thoughts-on-the-gop-debate-20110614
Another way to think of this is "Borg Queen."
First Contact made the Borg less scary, by introducing the Borg queen. But it was also somewhat necessary to give the story a clear antagonist for everyone to unite around. Obviously, the Borg queen is far more dangerous than a standard Borg. But everyone on the Enterprise also knows that they can focus all their attention on her, and when the Borg queen is dead, the story is over.
The Gravemind from Halo is another example. If there was no Gravemind, you would have serious doubts on whether or not you managed to stop the flood. But again, the Gravemind gives you a clear goal.
Now look at the standard zombie movie. You can kill all the zombies around you, but you still can't sleep at night, because you have no idea how many more zombies are out there.
What federal level government gives you is the power to frame the debate. It gives you narrative for your movement.
It has nothing to do with state vs. federal in this specific case. Federal regulatory corruption is not the same as your local sherrif not sending anyone out on a DV call because it's his drinking buddy's house, or your local county commissioner re-zoning some property to make it easier for a campaign donor to build a new industrial park over the objections of the neighbors. That doesn't mean they aren't both corruption.
Also, have you interacted with your local city or county elected officials? If you live in a rural area, you'll have a hard time finding slower or more small minded people to deal with. They're only there in the first place because they lack the skills to get the better analagous jobs at the state or federal level. They may not be corrupt, but in my experience they're often incompetent and/or cronyish to almost comical levels.
the hell was up wit that anyway
If faith is just a silent tribute, mine is just a desperate act.
They should hire trolls and cynics to be regulators. There would be nothing greater than telling some asshole that makes 10 times the amount you do that what they are doing is illegal and shutting them down.
Most racist/sexist campaign ad ever?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ3B8WvVjL4
I think so.
NSFW.
Not to rain on your parade but weren't most of those people installed by Republicans? That's kind of their thing, make government not work -> claim government doesn't work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vey7GKNpl4Q
You can pick a handful of people currently in Obama's cabinet that are through and through corporate men. Geithner being the biggest and most reprehensible.
I like to think he was trying to get them to actually answer the questions they were asked or keep to the time limit or he was just trying to keep himself from interjecting.
It seemed more like he needed a lozenge.
This is where you'll have different libertarian schools of thought react differently. Left libertarians (libertarian democrats also) believe that the government has a place to play in protecting people from corporations. Does discrimination of minorities come in to play regarding fiscal or tax policy for how those corporations are treated? Not really. It can still be compatible from a left libertarian view point. It would just be seen as one of the intrinsic services necessary for the government to do. There are a lot more socially left issues than drugs though. Gay marriage, free speech, homeland security, voter access, freedom of association (unions as well,) abortion, and equal protection under the law by the government are all issues I fall firmly in the left side. Most libertarians I know that aren't paleoconservatives (like Ron Paul,) tend to do the same.
I wrote a whole reaction to this, but I feel like I should know which think tanks, specifically, you're talking about, and who, exactly, is paying them off, and how you know they're being paid off to angle their content?
Also, the center of what? Libertarianism? As a libertarian, I have no idea what the center of libertarianism is. I know there are various libertarian groups that are interested in various things. You'll see a vastly different point of view from Lew Rockwell than you will from Brink Lindsey. Brink Lindsey said all libertarians should vote democrat after all, and he was Vice President with the Cato Institute. I mean, they did a whole policy study on the marriage amendment.
SteamID: devCharles
twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesewise
A. Non profit
B. Supported by endowments
Let's take this one step further. How is a think tank based on government policy and action supposed to profit? Support government policy that gives more money to think tanks?
By selling publications and ad space.
You know, free market.
What the ... jesus, wtf?1!!?!?
This applies to all think tanks. I mean, unless you're saying newspapers are now think tanks, blogs are think tanks, etc etc. in which case I think that's pretty ridiculous semantics.
Also, you don't think that procurement of donations is a market in itself? The way you use free market is kind of haphazard.
Is this like some kind of obtuse way of trying to say that libertarian non-profits are a paradox within libertarian ideology? I'm pretty sure that freely giving your money to whoever you want and not giving your money to people you don't want is pretty much the most ideal state of libertarianism.
I really don't think this is a partisan issue. Sure many of those people were installed by Republicans, but let's see what Obama's done about it.
SEC - I'm not aware of any major staffing changes.
MMS - Renamed BOEMRE. The new guy in charge is a Senator who has voted against tax breaks for oil companies and voted for offshore drilling (source Wikipedia). More from Wikipedia:
"After the Deepwater accident occurred, Salazar said he would delay granting any further drilling permits, but barely three weeks later, he had issued at least five more permits."
FDA - Margaret Miller (the woman who approved her own BGH paper) still has her job at the FDA.
DHS - The implementation of body scanners by the TSA happened just this past year. I think it's fair to pin this one on Obama.
My point is, I don't think the solution to corruptioin at the federal level is to vote in a Democrat, because it really doesn't appear to be working. Hell, remember all the outrage over GE not paying any taxes (and sending jobs overseas by moving money overseas)? Obama's response was to appoint the GE CEO to run his new jobs focused panel.
Like I outlined before, I think a more state-focused distribution of power similar to the model employed by the DOT/FHWA would be best. Leave the money at the federal level and put the oversight/accountability at the local level. It's hard to find empirical evidence of my next statement, but I believe that local officials are held to a higher standard of accountability because their constituents are more directly impacted by their actions, they don't have a large war chest to buy public opinion and they don't tend to have friends in high places to protect them from investigation.
And to the poster that made the sweeping generalization that rural people are slow and small-minded, you should be ashamed of yourself.
They used South Park's "Let's see you dance, sucka" for their song
amazing
Yeeeah, I'm not sure what that was going for.
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