Jake

In my experience, the best part of knowing someone from the Dakotas is that they'll tell you about every person of significance from the Dakotas. iViva la Erstad!

Didn't I see it acknowledged that had their request for extra security been meet, they still didn't stand a chance at preventing loss of life?

If they can sell out at higher prices, I can't really fault them for making the price higher.

If they can sell out at higher prices, I can't really fault them for making the price higher.

Clarifying to people that don't understand the concept of non-state commissioned media that we have such a thing is important. As a non-religious government, we don't support the views of those that want to say mean things about Islam. We support positive messages, if anything. These things need clarifying when it might save lives (even if it has nothing to do with the Libya deaths, it still caused a violent reaction generally). We don't have to comment on everything, but it makes sense to clarify that the USA doesn't hate Muslims when much of the Muslim world hears that the USA is releasing movies about how Mohammed is an adulterer and whatever else.

This Libya stuff is so stupid to argue, it is only happening because it is an alternative to finding out the specifics of the Romney tax plan. Both plans will run a deficit, but they know people would rather have some benefits with their deficit rather than cut benefits and retain deficit. What happened in Libya was tragic, it is terrible for people to be murdered. How Mitt Romney could ever have enough information (especially in the moments immediately afterwards) to judge whether the President was acting appropriately using the most sophisticated intelligence organizations in the world is beyond me. He simply has no basis to critique the President beyond his own intuition. He lacks the intelligence data that leads to finding these events to be acts of terror vs random vs both, etc.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 12:19 PM) ^^ QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 12:21 PM) I wish I could say that was some clever word play, but it was a German's bombed pearl harbor moment. lol, to think I gave you that much credit

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 11:55 AM) The problem with that debate is that both VP's need to conform to the parties views. Ryan's policies and voting history are so different than the republican platform for this election. That's certainly a tension, but since Ryan (perhaps reluctantly) articulated the party's views and Biden's views are basically those of his party I still found it much more useful. I saw it noted that the VP debate could be a preview of a presidential debate in 2016 -- I didn't believe it before, but afterwards I can see that happen. I love Biden, but I wonder if the much-maligned from the right aggressiveness would indeed be polarizing. Whether it is their own doing or not, things like the economy are almost certain to get better during an Obama second term so one wonders if any Democrat would have an easy time running on their predecessor's record. For instance, Moody's forecasts that without some sort of new manipulation, 12 million jobs will be created by 2016 (nice promise, Romney! staying the course will produce your jobs promise). If Biden runs and says "we created 12 million jobs in our second term!" how do you beat that?

I found the VP debate to much more constructive in terms of the discussion of policy and after watching last night's debate I really appreciate Biden calling Ryan out constantly for lying or not giving out details. Ryan was generally more detailed and Biden likewise...and it made the BO/JB ticket look better. It particularly made Ryan look bad when in the midst of his details, he awkwardly tried to explain why he would not give details on his tax policy.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 10:52 AM) This Mittens loves mentioning his time as Mass. Gov. and how he worked with Dems, Obama should just flat out ask him why he isn't contesting his state. BTW, when is the last time a former Gov. of a state didn't carry his state in a presidential election? Probably a long time ago I would guess. Not sure, but Al Gore did not win TN where he served as Senator.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 10:26 AM) It's too bad our "democracy" only allows for two candidates. Proportional voting like damn near the rest of the world would allow other parties to get more of a voice. In this case, you could have a libertarian party matter since they could simply cooperate in Congress with Repubs on relevant issues and with Dems on others. I have a feeling libertarians could take up 15%+ in a system that allowed for proportional representation. I've said this before, but our system is not a democracy by any stetch. It is a republic that has (almost) completely democratic voting for representatives. We don't do popular votes on legislation and therefore are not a democracy. QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 10:28 AM) I'm still waiting on Romney's policy specifics for the economy, cant his party put them out today or something since he only said "it will work" again on tv. Doing the math, he's reducing all taxes (his words) increasing spending in key areas and somehow that reduces the deficit? I dont understand how anyone can believe that. I also dont understand how he can say he's a great business-runner with a straight face. You grew up with money, made investments for awhile and then took a bailout. It doesn't make any sense to me, but he's just going up there saying it because people are attracted to the idea of less taxes. He is saying "trickle down economics" without saying it. "How does the budget balance, Mitt?" "More jobs/revenue because I cut taxes...but also, this is not trickle down economics because we know that doesn't work"

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 10:14 AM) 1. Obama won, almost as handily as Romney won the first one. 2. Candy Crowley was clearly in the bag for Obama and Romney did in fact get screwed by the moderator multiple times. Although really, Obama would have won anyway. 3. This town hall format is obviously much better for Obama than Romney. 4. For all the general perception that Romney is a results-oriented business guy and Obama is a big talker... Obama provided a heck of a lot more specifics for policy in the debate than Romney has. Mitt needs to add a lot more details to his plans if he plans to make a better case. 5. Neither candidate provided a real or useful answer to the questions about Benghazi. Obama got angry at the end, for good reason I suppose, but that didn't answer the original question whatsoever. Obama didn't answer to the failure in the agency's decision making, and Romney did nothing more than try to make it seem like Obama didn't care. Those are both loser arguments. I think some of the snap polling bore this out, but the town hall plays up the perception that BO relates to people better. It is one thing to relate through a TV camera, but I certainly get a sense that seeing BO talk to the question-askers makes him look much more like he cares about them than Romney. Whether one actually cares more than the other....who knows, it really doesn't matter. I believe Romney is going to continue to be vague so no one gets scared of his plans. When you have no specifics, there are no specific people that are going to get disenchanted. This goes perfectly with his general anti- campaign, just stand there and be a general alternative to the incumbent. The Benghazi question could have been a good one for Romney, but like you said he totally went at it the wrong way and it made Obama look good. He looked like a good leader with true concern for his decisions (especially when they might result in loss of life)...while true IMO, Romney could have prevented that from coming through if he had framed his response in a way that was far more specific and instead made Obama look incompetent instead of just trying to make him look careless/without remorse.

Who cares about OBL, didn't you guys know that 9/11 was an inside job? /libertarianfriends

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 17, 2012 -> 07:49 AM) "I mean we have a lot of plays, it’s a new system, and the defense, you know,’’ Marco Belinelli said. "Everything is new for me, and I don’t want to use that as an excuse, but it’s maybe two weeks that we’ve played all together." Through four preseason games, Belinelli is struggling with averages of 5.5 points and 1.5 steals on 30.4 percent shooting. I particularly adore this quote, because Sly Belinelli is basically saying that playing defense sucks. Yep, it's different. Now he has to play offense while very tired because he can't rest on defense. My favorite basketball coaches always preached that you blow it all out on defense and rest on offense. It's brilliant because no one wants to rest on offense, they want to score! If they can't rest on D, and they won't rest on O.....people are working hard.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 11:32 PM) It's the T-Wolves. What did you expect? Besides, that was just your way of saying "look at this awesome guy I just picked up in fantasy basketball" without coming right out and saying it. Nate Robinson > all ....?

I think we can say our bench players benefit from Luol, but you can't say Luol is a bench player. That would imply that we have yet another player at his position that is enough better than him to start in his place.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 10:18 PM) You have to imagine there's some unspoken agreement that if Obama wont talk about Mass. too much Romney wont talk about Chicago. I've been wondering the same thing from both of them. Chicago's an embarrassment to the western world right now and Romney just lets it slide. Care to explain? I'm not from there so I'm not sure what you're referring to. The violence?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 10:02 PM) Disagree, Obama saying it could be written off as "he said, she said, who knows!" while the moderator stating that you are factually incorrect is more persuasive so long as the moderator is perceived as fair. I suppose the question is whether people are listening to the moderator that closely

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 08:43 PM) Obama makes a statement that Romney wont tell anyone his plan, that his math doesnt add up. Romney gets up and says, yeah it adds up, but you have a deficit. And thats it. Zero plan. What is your plan dude, what IS IT???? Conservative fiscal policy would interest me, but I see no evidence that it is anything other than pure BS that will f*** the budget, benefits, and the non-upper middle class QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 09:21 PM) Romney on guns: we need two-parent families! lol, he did this because he is really close to the President on this issue but still wanted to appeal to his base QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 09:22 PM) she correctly pointed out that one of the debaters was unequivocally wrong with his charge. the moderator should try to keep debaters from lying and thus straying off of the topic -- when the moderator calls you out, it is very gentle and doesn't score political points the way it does when your competitor does QUOTE (mr_genius @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 09:30 PM) no one believes Romney when he says he's against outsourcing. it's a losing issue for him. loyal voters will believe it QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 09:36 PM) 99.99% of Americans care that Bin Laden was killed under his watch and could care less about embassy security. It's a dead end issue so I'm not sure why the conservatives keep talking about it. It's not resonating with anyone. There are a good deal of people that won't believe he's done anything right. In general, being critical will raise doubts in people's minds about the candidate even if they don't believe the specific issue is worthy of critcism QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 09:40 PM) I'm glad we had a debate just to see what was on the mind of Jews. That was a farce. lol QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Oct 16, 2012 -> 09:42 PM) Wow Obamas final answer was a complete dick move, really didnt answer and just railed Romney. lol it was awesome

I think we can all accept that a disproportionate amount of racists identify as Republicans. It can be funny to see them flaunting their stuff, for sure. I don't find any back and forth beyond that to be constructive

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Oct 14, 2012 -> 08:05 PM) I just want to let you guys know that i have flip-flopped and will probably vote for Obama. racist

I would like to make a living on this site

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Oct 14, 2012 -> 12:29 AM) I like how Jeter is literally writing in pain on the ground and the TBS commentators are saying "Oh, he's fine". Like wtf. He popped his head up for a second with a smile on his face before going back into pain mode...it was weird and it fooled me too

QUOTE (chw42 @ Oct 13, 2012 -> 10:50 PM) Argo f*** yourself. Didn't enjoy it? I'm finally getting out to the movies tomorrow and I was thinking of seeing it after seeing all the positive reviews.