The American Presidency: It repeats itself

Elki

Elki wrote: »

Words you are unlikely to see me post in the next pages of this thread: "X is off-topic," because I'm just going to warn you here. This thread is a bitch to keep up with and mod when it's on-topic, and impossible when people use it as a dumping ground for any political news story. If it's not directly related to Obama v. McCain don't post it.

Think it's really important, and still want to post it?



If you quote a youtube video, throwing a spoiler around it would be appreciated.

AND NO BLUE DOTTING!

OK? Glad we got that cleared up.

Medopine wrote: »

here's some stickers for you guys:

Sig:
Av:

They should be transparent so you can actually stick them on things (see my av)

I'm gone for 5 days, and they're still stuck on the socialist thing? Oh well, I'm not complaining. I like attacks to be predictable and totally ineffective.



Courtesy of AHedgie

Robert Heinlein wrote:

I am not going to talk about religious beliefs but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them. I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults, and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults.

Take Father Michael, down our road apiece. I’m not of his creed, but I know that goodness and charity and loving kindness shine in his daily actions. I believe in Father Mike. If I’m in trouble, I’ll go to him. My next door neighbor’s a veterinary doctor. Doc will get out of bed after a hard day to help a stray cat—no fee, no prospect of a fee. I believe in Doc.

I believe in my townspeople. You can knock on any door in our town, say “I’m hungry,” and you’ll be fed. Our town is no exception. I found the same ready charity everywhere. For the one who says, “The heck with you, I’ve got mine,” there are a hundred, a thousand, who will say, “Sure pal, sit down.” I know that despite all warnings against hitchhikers, I can step to the highway, thumb for a ride, and in a few minutes a car or a truck will stop and someone will say, “Climb in, Mack. How far you going?”

I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime. Yet for every criminal, there are ten thousand honest, decent, kindly men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up. Business could not go on from day to day. Decency is not news. It is buried in the obituaries, but it is a force stronger than crime.

I believe in the patient gallantry of nurses, in the tedious sacrifices of teachers. I believe in the unseen and unending fight against desperate odds that goes on quietly in almost every home in the land. I believe in the honest craft of workmen. Take a look around you. There never were enough bosses to check up on all that work. From Independence Hall to the Grand Coulee Dam, these things were built level and square by craftsmen who were honest in their bones.

I believe that almost all politicians are honest. For every bribed alderman, there are hundreds of politicians—low paid or not paid at all—doing their level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were not true, we would never have gotten past the Thirteen Colonies.

I believe in Rodger Young. You and I are free today because of endless unnamed heroes from Valley Forge to the Yalu River. I believe in—I am proud to belong to—the United States. Despite shortcomings—from lynchings, to bad faith in high places—our nation has had the most decent and kindly internal practices and foreign policies to be found anywhere in history.

And finally, I believe in my whole race—yellow, white, black, red, brown—in the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability, and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our teeth—that we always make it just for the skin of our teeth—but that we will always make it, survive, endure.

I believe that this hairless embryo with the aching oversized braincase and the opposable thumb—this animal barely up from the apes—will endure, will endure longer than his home planet, will spread out to the other planets—to the stars and beyond—carrying with him his honesty, his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage, and his noble essential decency. This I believe with all my heart.

Æthelred

Shouldn't that be "Redistributor in Chief" ?

MKR

More like Communist in Chief.

SyphonBrue

New York Times:

“So many precious little babies like that one!” she said after noticing one infant near the stage. “Just completely delicious!”

Drudge:

MICHELLE OBAMA ADMITS TO EATING BABIES

Houn

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/28/1601451.aspx

Barack Obama wrote:

“John McCain’s ridden shotgun as George Bush has driven our economy toward a cliff, and now he wants to take the wheel and step on the gas"

Gosling

I love that lock comic.

Darkchampion3d

It actually resonated with my dad. I just shot him this in my response email:

"The subjects of every state ought to contribute toward the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state ....[As Henry Home (Lord Kames) has written, a goal of taxation should be to] 'remedy inequality of riches as much as possible, by relieving the poor and burdening the rich.'"

Guess who said that dad. No not Marx or some 'socialist'.

Adam Smith
-- AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS (1776)

coffi

From the last thread.

seasleepy wrote: »

The thing is, Alaska is far away. If Palin has the sense to just hide up there for the next couple of years (and can hang on to office), I think it's possible she could basically freeze her reputation where it is. If the party's civil war is still ongoing, a lot of party bigwigs could be too wounded in that fight to be viable for either side. So Palin waltzes in, relatively unscathed except for some old wounds, and people fall all over themselves again.

I am from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Plain not asking for Stevens to step down, among some other really dumb shit she did will make sure that she never gets anywhere.

See us Alaskans have this funny thing about a handshake and our words as our bonds. Some have called it almost old west. It is just they way it is up here, Your Word is all that matters.

"Hold me Accountable." "I will be interviewed by the panel." "Running for VP will not forgo my job in Alaska."

All this shit is piling up quick. Mix in almost every other major Alaskan republican being investigated or found guilty of some form of abuse, and Palin is dead in the water.

My parents are voting Barr. I don't even know if he is on the ticket, but my dad one of the most republican men I have ever known is voting Barr, because of Palin. That speaks volumes to me.

moniker

Æthelred wrote: »

Shouldn't that be redistributor...?

What's that? The sheriff is near?

Armored Gorilla

Quoting from last thread because Jesus Christ, McCain ...

Screamline wrote:

McCain supporters kicked out of rally.

Bonus points: A McCain rally.

“I saw a couple that had been escorted out and they were confused as well, and the girl was crying, so I said ‘Why are you crying? and she said ‘I already voted for McCain, I’m a Republican, and they said we had to leave because we didn’t look right,’” Elborno said. “They were handpicking these people and they had nothing to go off of, besides the way the people looked.”

enlightenedbum

I got the link wrong in the previous thread and don't want to hunt it back down, but 50-40 in Nevada. Woo. Suffolk poll, so not great.

Cabezone

Armored Gorilla wrote: »

Quoting from last thread because Jesus Christ, McCain ...

Screamline wrote:

McCain supporters kicked out of rally.

Bonus points: A McCain rally.

“I saw a couple that had been escorted out and they were confused as well, and the girl was crying, so I said ‘Why are you crying? and she said ‘I already voted for McCain, I’m a Republican, and they said we had to leave because we didn’t look right,’” Elborno said. “They were handpicking these people and they had nothing to go off of, besides the way the people looked.”

At least one of those people was an admitted previous protester.

kildy

The only way any of this election season makes any sense is if tomorrow on every national network, the Obama campaign rolls out McCain's endorsement of Obama for President.

enlightenedbum

More polls:

Insider Advantage (conducted 10/26):
PA - Obama 51, McCain 42
CO - Obama 53, McCain 45

Strategic Vision (conducted 10/24-10/26):
WI - Obama 50, McCain 41
NJ - Obama 53, McCain 38

Gosling

We have a couple challengers that are SO sure of their election that they're taking some of their excess warchest and handing it to other candidates. This normally happens with people who end up with the "rising star" term attached to their names (Bobby Jindal and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz did this too when they first broke in), so it's probably a good idea to keep an eye on these guys:

*Jared Polis, D-CO (Mark Udall's seat)
*Aaron Schock, R-IL (Ray Lahood's seat)
*Gregg Harper, R-MS (Chip Pickering's seat)

Tofystedeth

Man, that Hey Sarah Palin video I posted got no love.

Preacher

7 days to go, this thing has been madness. I just pray that everything works out and John McCain is elected president.

Armored Gorilla

Cabezone wrote: »

Armored Gorilla wrote: »

Quoting from last thread because Jesus Christ, McCain ...

Screamline wrote:

McCain supporters kicked out of rally.

Bonus points: A McCain rally.

“I saw a couple that had been escorted out and they were confused as well, and the girl was crying, so I said ‘Why are you crying? and she said ‘I already voted for McCain, I’m a Republican, and they said we had to leave because we didn’t look right,’” Elborno said. “They were handpicking these people and they had nothing to go off of, besides the way the people looked.”

At least one of those people was an admitted previous protester.

Filing that under "Even a broken clock is right twice a day."

enlightenedbum

Polls! R2K Indiana, 48-47 Obama. Indiana has a Republican Secretary of State, he's prosecuting ACORN for registrations in Lake County (Gary).

kildy

Preacher wrote: »

7 days to go, this thing has been madness. I just pray that everything works out and John McCain is elected president.

I'm doing my part to deliver Cambridge to the republicans this year.

Thanatos

coffi wrote: »

From the last thread.

seasleepy wrote: »

The thing is, Alaska is far away. If Palin has the sense to just hide up there for the next couple of years (and can hang on to office), I think it's possible she could basically freeze her reputation where it is. If the party's civil war is still ongoing, a lot of party bigwigs could be too wounded in that fight to be viable for either side. So Palin waltzes in, relatively unscathed except for some old wounds, and people fall all over themselves again.

I am from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Plain not asking for Stevens to step down, among some other really dumb shit she did will make sure that she never gets anywhere.

See us Alaskans have this funny thing about a handshake and our words as our bonds. Some have called it almost old west. It is just they way it is up here, Your Word is all that matters.

"Hold me Accountable." "I will be interviewed by the panel." "Running for VP will not forgo my job in Alaska."

All this shit is piling up quick. Mix in almost every other major Alaskan republican being investigated or found guilty of some form of abuse, and Palin is dead in the water.

My parents are voting Barr. I don't even know if he is on the ticket, but my dad one of the most republican men I have ever known is voting Barr, because of Palin. That speaks volumes to me.

Just so you know, when Ted Stevens wins re-election in a week, I'm going to try to remember this and throw it back in your face.

Darkchampion3d

enlightenedbum wrote: »

Polls! R2K Indiana, 48-47 Obama. Indiana has a Republican Secretary of State, he's prosecuting ACORN for registrations in Lake County (Gary).

God damn poor people trying to vote. What the hell is wrong with this country. Back in the good ole days only white male landowners could vote, as god and the forefathers intended.

Houn

Malingering Layabout Scumbag wrote: »

coffi wrote: »

From the last thread.

seasleepy wrote: »

The thing is, Alaska is far away. If Palin has the sense to just hide up there for the next couple of years (and can hang on to office), I think it's possible she could basically freeze her reputation where it is. If the party's civil war is still ongoing, a lot of party bigwigs could be too wounded in that fight to be viable for either side. So Palin waltzes in, relatively unscathed except for some old wounds, and people fall all over themselves again.

I am from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Plain not asking for Stevens to step down, among some other really dumb shit she did will make sure that she never gets anywhere.

See us Alaskans have this funny thing about a handshake and our words as our bonds. Some have called it almost old west. It is just they way it is up here, Your Word is all that matters.

"Hold me Accountable." "I will be interviewed by the panel." "Running for VP will not forgo my job in Alaska."

All this shit is piling up quick. Mix in almost every other major Alaskan republican being investigated or found guilty of some form of abuse, and Palin is dead in the water.

My parents are voting Barr. I don't even know if he is on the ticket, but my dad one of the most republican men I have ever known is voting Barr, because of Palin. That speaks volumes to me.

Just so you know, when Ted Stevens wins re-election in a week, I'm going to try to remember this and throw it back in your face.

So, convicted felons lose the right to vote, correct? Does this also include your vote in the Senate? ;-)

moniker

Preacher wrote: »

7 days to go, this thing has been madness.

This Is America!!!!!!!!!

enlightenedbum

Houn wrote: »

Malingering Layabout Scumbag wrote: »

coffi wrote: »

From the last thread.

seasleepy wrote: »

The thing is, Alaska is far away. If Palin has the sense to just hide up there for the next couple of years (and can hang on to office), I think it's possible she could basically freeze her reputation where it is. If the party's civil war is still ongoing, a lot of party bigwigs could be too wounded in that fight to be viable for either side. So Palin waltzes in, relatively unscathed except for some old wounds, and people fall all over themselves again.

I am from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Plain not asking for Stevens to step down, among some other really dumb shit she did will make sure that she never gets anywhere.

See us Alaskans have this funny thing about a handshake and our words as our bonds. Some have called it almost old west. It is just they way it is up here, Your Word is all that matters.

"Hold me Accountable." "I will be interviewed by the panel." "Running for VP will not forgo my job in Alaska."

All this shit is piling up quick. Mix in almost every other major Alaskan republican being investigated or found guilty of some form of abuse, and Palin is dead in the water.

My parents are voting Barr. I don't even know if he is on the ticket, but my dad one of the most republican men I have ever known is voting Barr, because of Palin. That speaks volumes to me.

Just so you know, when Ted Stevens wins re-election in a week, I'm going to try to remember this and throw it back in your face.

So, convicted felons lose the right to vote, correct? Does this also include your vote in the Senate? ;-)

Stevens can't vote for himself next week.

moniker

Houn wrote: »

Malingering Layabout Scumbag wrote: »

coffi wrote: »

From the last thread.

seasleepy wrote: »

The thing is, Alaska is far away. If Palin has the sense to just hide up there for the next couple of years (and can hang on to office), I think it's possible she could basically freeze her reputation where it is. If the party's civil war is still ongoing, a lot of party bigwigs could be too wounded in that fight to be viable for either side. So Palin waltzes in, relatively unscathed except for some old wounds, and people fall all over themselves again.

I am from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Plain not asking for Stevens to step down, among some other really dumb shit she did will make sure that she never gets anywhere.

See us Alaskans have this funny thing about a handshake and our words as our bonds. Some have called it almost old west. It is just they way it is up here, Your Word is all that matters.

"Hold me Accountable." "I will be interviewed by the panel." "Running for VP will not forgo my job in Alaska."

All this shit is piling up quick. Mix in almost every other major Alaskan republican being investigated or found guilty of some form of abuse, and Palin is dead in the water.

My parents are voting Barr. I don't even know if he is on the ticket, but my dad one of the most republican men I have ever known is voting Barr, because of Palin. That speaks volumes to me.

Just so you know, when Ted Stevens wins re-election in a week, I'm going to try to remember this and throw it back in your face.

So, convicted felons lose the right to vote, correct? Does this also include your vote in the Senate? ;-)

It depends on the state. A felon can vote in Illinois provided they are not presently incarcerated on those felony charges.

Preacher

enlightenedbum wrote: »

Stevens can't vote for himself next week.

I fully believe Alaska will do the right thing and Elect Stevens so that that golly gosh darn smart governor can put her straight shooting husband in as Senator You betcha.

WMain00

WAH THE POLLS! WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THE POLLS?!







ABANDON SHIP!

Malyonsus

I heard on NPR that Alaska requires special elections for vacated Senate seats, so Palin can't just appoint the successor. I may have misunderstood, though.

Taramoor

DON'T CROSS THE STREAMS!

coffi

Just so you know, when Ted Stevens wins re-election in a week, I'm going to try to remember this and throw it back in your face.

Ted Stevens might win, but remember this. He didn't lie outright to the Alaskan people. He lied to some high and mighty mucky-muckys in Washington.

As you can tell from the the AIP, Palin, and the news around, most Alaskans don't cotton the Feds much.

But the difference between him and Palin is, Palin made statements straight to Alaskans about what she was going to do then didn't.

That is how I see it going on the ground here. People dislike Palin's lack of integrity and honesty, and love Stevens as the cash cow/good ole' boy he is.

moniker

The straight lines! They're slightly not as straight as they were, though still pretty damn straight!!!

SyphonBrue

WMain00 wrote: »

WAH THE POLLS! WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THE POLLS?!







ABANDON SHIP!

SHIT I BETTER VOTE FOR MCCAIN NOW

TL DR

State laws on felons voting.

Unsurprising.

Litejedi

Gosling wrote: »

We have a couple challengers that are SO sure of their election that they're taking some of their excess warchest and handing it to other candidates. This normally happens with people who end up with the "rising star" term attached to their names (Bobby Jindal and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz did this too when they first broke in), so it's probably a good idea to keep an eye on these guys:

*Jared Polis, D-CO (Mark Udall's seat)
*Aaron Schock, R-IL (Ray Lahood's seat)
*Gregg Harper, R-MS (Chip Pickering's seat)

I don't like Polis' policy ideas much, he might go somewhere but that's not really great to me.

moniker

Taramoor wrote: »

DON'T CROSS THE STREAMS!

The Destroyer votes Republican. And he'll make it to the polls before they close regardless of traffic.

Thanatos

coffi wrote: »

Ted Stevens might win, but remember this. He didn't lie outright to the Alaskan people. He lied to some high and mighty mucky-muckys in Washington.

As you can tell from the the AIP, Palin, and the news around, most Alaskans don't cotton the Feds much.

But the difference between him and Palin is, Palin made statements straight to Alaskans about what she was going to do then didn't.

That is how I see it going on the ground here. People dislike Palin's lack of integrity and honesty, and love Stevens as the cash cow/good ole' boy he is.

I really need to make this re-post in November of 2010 somehow when Palin wins re-election.

Preacher

All going according to the McCain Plan. So who will be governor when emperess Palin is sworn in?

Sal

I don't think this page is crazy enough.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122515067227674187.html

Obamas Redistribution' Constitution wrote:

One of the great unappreciated stories of the past eight years is how thoroughly Senate Democrats thwarted efforts by President Bush to appoint judges to the lower federal courts.


Consider the most important lower federal court in the country: the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In his two terms as president, Ronald Reagan appointed eight judges, an average of one a year, to this court. They included Robert Bork, Antonin Scalia, Kenneth Starr, Larry Silberman, Stephen Williams, James Buckley, Douglas Ginsburg and David Sentelle. In his two terms, George W. Bush was able to name only four: John Roberts, Janice Rogers Brown, Thomas Griffith and Brett Kavanaugh.

Although two seats on this court are vacant, Bush nominee Peter Keisler has been denied even a committee vote for two years. If Barack Obama wins the presidency, he will almost certainly fill those two vacant seats, the seats of two older Clinton appointees who will retire, and most likely the seats of four older Reagan and George H.W. Bush appointees who may retire as well.

The net result is that the legal left will once again have a majority on the nation's most important regulatory court of appeals.

The balance will shift as well on almost all of the 12 other federal appeals courts. Nine of the 13 will probably swing to the left if Mr. Obama is elected (not counting the Ninth Circuit, which the left solidly controls today). Circuit majorities are likely at stake in this presidential election for the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeal. That includes the federal appeals courts for New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and virtually every other major center of finance in the country.

On the Supreme Court, six of the current nine justices will be 70 years old or older on January 20, 2009. There is a widespread expectation that the next president could make four appointments in just his first term, with maybe two more in a second term. Here too we are poised for heavy change.

These numbers ought to raise serious concern because of Mr. Obama's extreme left-wing views about the role of judges. He believes -- and he is quite open about this -- that judges ought to decide cases in light of the empathy they ought to feel for the little guy in any lawsuit.

Speaking in July 2007 at a conference of Planned Parenthood, he said: "[W]e need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."

On this view, plaintiffs should usually win against defendants in civil cases; criminals in cases against the police; consumers, employees and stockholders in suits brought against corporations; and citizens in suits brought against the government. Empathy, not justice, ought to be the mission of the federal courts, and the redistribution of wealth should be their mantra.

In a Sept. 6, 2001, interview with Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ-FM, Mr. Obama noted that the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren "never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society," and "to that extent as radical as I think people tried to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical."

He also noted that the Court "didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it has been interpreted." That is to say, he noted that the U.S. Constitution as written is only a guarantee of negative liberties from government -- and not an entitlement to a right to welfare or economic justice.

This raises the question of whether Mr. Obama can in good faith take the presidential oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution" as he must do if he is to take office. Does Mr. Obama support the Constitution as it is written, or does he support amendments to guarantee welfare? Is his provision of a "tax cut" to millions of Americans who currently pay no taxes merely a foreshadowing of constitutional rights to welfare, health care, Social Security, vacation time and the redistribution of wealth? Perhaps the candidate ought to be asked to answer these questions before the election rather than after.

Every new federal judge has been required by federal law to take an oath of office in which he swears that he will "administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich." Mr. Obama's emphasis on empathy in essence requires the appointment of judges committed in advance to violating this oath. To the traditional view of justice as a blindfolded person weighing legal claims fairly on a scale, he wants to tear the blindfold off, so the judge can rule for the party he empathizes with most.

The legal left wants Americans to imagine that the federal courts are very right-wing now, and that Mr. Obama will merely stem some great right-wing federal judicial tide. The reality is completely different. The federal courts hang in the balance, and it is the left which is poised to capture them.

A whole generation of Americans has come of age since the nation experienced the bad judicial appointments and foolish economic and regulatory policy of the Johnson and Carter administrations. If Mr. Obama wins we could possibly see any or all of the following: a federal constitutional right to welfare; a federal constitutional mandate of affirmative action wherever there are racial disparities, without regard to proof of discriminatory intent; a right for government-financed abortions through the third trimester of pregnancy; the abolition of capital punishment and the mass freeing of criminal defendants; ruinous shareholder suits against corporate officers and directors; and approval of huge punitive damage awards, like those imposed against tobacco companies, against many legitimate businesses such as those selling fattening food.

Nothing less than the very idea of liberty and the rule of law are at stake in this election. We should not let Mr. Obama replace justice with empathy in our nation's courtrooms.

Mr. Calabresi is a co-founder of the Federalist Society and a professor of law at Northwestern University.

Rectified!

enlightenedbum

moniker wrote: »

The straight lines! They're slightly not as straight as they were, though still pretty damn straight!!!

And now in line with all the other trackers that have it at a seven point race. Oh the humanity!

Darkchampion3d

coffi wrote: »

Just so you know, when Ted Stevens wins re-election in a week, I'm going to try to remember this and throw it back in your face.

Ted Stevens might win, but remember this. He didn't lie outright to the Alaskan people. He lied to some high and mighty mucky-muckys in Washington.

As you can tell from the the AIP, Palin, and the news around, most Alaskans don't cotton the Feds much.

But the difference between him and Palin is, Palin made statements straight to Alaskans about what she was going to do then didn't.

That is how I see it going on the ground here. People dislike Palin's lack of integrity and honesty, and love Stevens as the cash cow/good ole' boy he is.

They should let Alaska secede then. Srsly. Just eats tax dollars from the rest of the US