Letters to the Editor
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Is there a Difference Between a Political Speech and a Thesis?
If footnote attributions this is what it has come to then Hillary is about to go under. So far as I can tell, her argument is "Yeah, it is an established practice and everyone else does it too, but he does it BETTER." Oh my! How dare he!?
Face it, any candidate making this argument has lost. This is a loser's game.
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Lt. Bohica
The conservatives (or possibly the Clinton camp, who knows) has also said:
1) Obama is a Muslim who won't swear on the bible.
2) Obama is a member of a black racist church that wants to turn America into Africa.
I'm really not surprised that there's a sex scandal. The problem is, ofcourse, proving it. And the other problem is did you see Mr. Sinclair? If that creepy minister in Denver could pull a hottie, I'd think Obama could at least get a good looking man with all of his teeth. I mean, c'mon. He's a Harvard lawyer! There's plenty of "Obamabots" (probably even back in 1999 who'd come under the spell of his charm) who'd be happy to service him. I guess maybe it was all that cocaine.
It's obvious though, that there is a whole group of people backing Sinclair, since he got a lawyer to take his slander case (nope) and since you said he's taking a polygraph test (where'd you read that.)
I'm allowed to be sick of the term, on the down low, just like I've gotten sick of a lot of different pop culture expressions in the past, and I really hope it's not here to stay. I hope someday that men in this country, black and white, jew and gentile, protestant and catholic, will be able to fuck each other without any sort of subterfuge...that will be a great day...
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And as for drug use in our canidates
Do you want the president to have to piss in a cup like you did? Because in South Carolina they are considering a law to make every elected official in the state take period drug tests after a representative was arrested on cocaine trafficking charge (or something like that.)
That seems fine to me, even though I think drug tests are ridiculous for most workers and a waste of money.
I don't know though; plenty of kids I went to college with (a Little Ivy BTW) did a shit load of drugs when they were 18 or 19 and now they don't even take cold medicine. They are doctors, budding politicians, one of them is a rabbi. If you want to use recreational drug use as a litmus test, then it's your right as voter. If you see it as hypocritical, (though the person you are at 18 isn't necessarily the person you are at 45, I'm sorry it's true) then that's your right as well.
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AKA Smith
Well, judging the current candidates by how they stack up compared to Bush is setting the bar a might low don't you think? Any of the current candidates, except possibly Huckabee, would clear it with ease, but I expect a lot better of them or anyone else.
But as to your notion that the sexism some people on this thread perceive was unconscious, it frankly seems a bit odd. In the first place, this whole discussion (at least about the sexism issue) has been about a careful parsing of words, i.e. he used certain words like "periodically" and "feeling down" to commuunicate the message without seeming to. How can he be both unconscious of the import of his words and at the same time choose them so carefully? As I've said before, when your attempt to make sense of a person's words or actions gets that complicated, I suggest you find a simpler explanation - like this was not a sexist statement at all.
And what, assuming you're right which I very much doubt, is the practical effect of Obama's being an unconscious sexist? What does that even mean?
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AKA Smith
Oh, one more thing. Doesn't it seem a trifle desperate to conclude that someone as demonstrably intelligent as Obama is so ignorant of his own motivations that he can't see about himself what you can see about him? Frankly that seems to me a real stretch. It looks a lot more like seeing what you want to see than seeing what's there.
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The polygraph part...
...is in the YouTube.
I held my nose and watched it.
A month or so ago the "Senator Obama is a Muslim who hates the flag" email you reference landed in my inbox and I took the time to educate the person who chained it over about reality.
Not that believing in Islam should be a bar to the presidency. I'd vote for a qualified Muslim. Heck -- I'm really waiting for the opportunity to vote for an atheist, but I'm not holding my breath.
Re drugs:
I'd like to stop the whole pissing in the cup ritual.
I think most controlled substances should be treated like alcohol with the exception of the few that cause delayed trips. (An airline pilot having a LSD flashback while working is a scary thought.) An adult's use of these substances should not be considered illegal.
Our political leaders need to stop being such hypocrites and end the war on drugs, setting those hundreds of thousands of drug use/personal possession prisoners free. Guess I can dream.
I read your comment history and found this thought that I agree with completely:
"Most of ya'll know you'll vote for whoever wins the nomination."
Yes, I will vote in November for anyone except McCain, if only because I want us out of Iraq sooner rather than later.
Also -- it is a shame you didn't check Senator Mike Gravel out a little more after the quiz matched you up with him. He stopped the draft single handedly and is a true patriot. Plus he wants to end the war on drugs. Go figure.
PS -- In the Navy, lieutenant is abbreviated LT, not Lt. Lt is the abbreviation for the other services' O-1s and O-2s.
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You're kind of awesome, LT Bohica
It's nice having a civil conversation with someone on this board. I apologize if I misread you. It's only natural to get heated, but I strongly beleive (maybe I'm naive) that if you sit most people down in a room together, after they've exhausted themselves fighting about their politics, religion, etc, they'll end up showing each other pictures of their kids and shooting the shit.
I think from now on I'm going to ignore all articles pertaining either to Obama or Clinton (don't hold me to it) because it makes me crazy. It's like crack, battling trolls, crafting witty responses, etc. I'm spending most of my workday angry; I get enough of a blood pressure work-out reading the editorial page at my newspaper.
I wish I had checked out Mike Gravel (or had the time to do it.) By the time we had the primary down here in Georgia, it was too late.