Rex Kickass

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 01:11 PM) Presumably that poll wouldn't show anything officially related to BO's speech. As a telemarketer myself...last night wasn't very good for calling. The official definition I think is the Monday-Monday definition. I didn't say the bounce was over. Tuesday's Gallup tracking showed McCain up by 2.

Echoes of Hillary and PUMA waiting in the wings in Minnesota. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail...uised_feel.html

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 01:14 PM) I'm still waiting for someone to tell me the big bipartisian achievement that Obama has made. You can always ask Richard Lugar whether or not Obama worked together on Nuclear Proliferation issues. Or public health challenges, like a new Influenza epidemic.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 01:11 PM) It seems like one side has 2 people who say they want to work with the other side and stop politics as usual, but have zero record of ever doing just that, much less going against the party line. While the other side featurse 2 people that have been called 'mavericks' who HAVE reached across the aisle and have bucked the politics as usual by taking on their own party. You all know of McCain's issues. For Sarah, Governor Murkowski appointed Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she served from 2003 to 2004 until resigning in protest over what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Alaskan Republican leaders, who ignored her whistleblowing complaints of legal violations and conflicts of interest. After she resigned, she exposed the state Republican party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, one of her fellow Oil & Gas commissioners, who was accused of doing work for the party on public time, and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail. Palin filed formal complaints against both Ruedrich and former Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who both resigned; Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine. Gee, someone who actually DOES take on party corruption. Now THAT is the Change We Need! Oh, she also has challenged the state's Republican leaders, helping to launch a campaign by Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell to unseat U.S. Congressman Don Young and publicly challenged Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the federal investigation into his financial dealings. Has Obama ever said anything about the freezer guy in Loouisanna? I thought not. OK Senator Tom Coburn ® Campaign ad for Sen. Gordon Smith ®

QUOTE (scenario @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 01:01 PM) I find the responses interesting. Pretty easy to tell which parties people support by their comments. Obama fans are finding faults and bashing the pick. What a shock. After a few minutes, I know where she stands on enough issues to know that I wouldn't support her. But I don't know enough about her to judge whether she's a good pick or not. She's not exactly the kind of known quantity that Joe Biden is. That may turn out to be a good thing. The few minutes I did see saw her make a good speech. Of course following someone like John McCain, it's not hard to look good as a public speaker.

Gallup is now showing a 49-41 lead, making a 10 point bounce for the convention.

Stupid work didn't let me see/hear the speech.

Sarah Palin, Vice Presidential nominee, last month.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 11:12 AM) They haven't. Their actions beg to differ.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 10:36 AM) Which is exactly what Republicans have been saying for generations. Then why did they stop?

QUOTE (YASNY @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 11:05 AM) “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” - Joe Biden ""I've had a great relationship [with East Indians in America]. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian Americans - moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking." -- Joe Biden, speaking to Indian-Americans. "At the University of Delaware, Biden was 506th out of 688 classmates, and a history professor said he was "trying to be the complete Joe College." In a recommendation for law school, the teacher called Biden average in "intellectual achievement" but high in "command of English language" and recommended him based "on grounds of personality and general promise." Biden ended up 76th out of 85 in his law school class; the law school dean described him as an academic "disappointment" but praised his "confidence," "general physical appearance" and "general speaking ability" in recommending him as a lawyer. " Don't forget his plagiarism scandal in 1988. Biden has his challenges, but also his qualities. I'm sure Palin has hers.

I don't know much about her, but this does seem like a bit of a gamble. McCain is probably looking at a big loss with women at the moment, and this might be designed to stop that bleeding?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 29, 2008 -> 07:20 AM) I'll tell you - personally, you all can disagree with things but I would NEVER stoop so low and call you "unpatriotic". I will say that I think you're on the wrong side of opinion on Iraq - for example. But so what, that doesn't make you unpatriotic. The whole lapel thing (by the way, did RSO wear one last night? ) - I wouldn't say RSO is unpatriotic, but I'd say to make a big deal of something that is a symbol of what our country stands for is absurd. Just wear the damn thing and not make a big deal about NOT wearing it - again, it's a symbol, and people have died for that symbol. But it doesn't mean RSO's unpatriotic, it just means he's stubborn. I may totally disagree with where some of you get your deranged love for RSO, but hey, it's your choice, and I have to respect it, even if I think you're wrong. Given the ten minutes or so he gave personal responsibility, I actually thought you'd like the speech.

Gallup has shown an 8 point swing in the last two days. Tuesday McCain - 46, Obama - 44 Wednesday McCain - 45, Obama - 45 Today McCain - 42, Obama - 48

The visuals on this were absolutely amazing.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 28, 2008 -> 09:50 PM) - Beijing - RSO's revenge... Apparently the line to get into the stadium this afternoon was six miles long. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/28/inv...=rss_topstories

You can kind of figure that out from exit polling actually. Democrats tend to vote earlier in the day than Republicans. Which is why the first wave of exits in PA were 60-40 Kerry in 2004 and Kerry won the state by less than two points.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 26, 2008 -> 11:20 PM) Yep. She beats Obama if she had given speeches with that kind of tone to them on the campaign trail. No doubt in my mind. She'll run again in 2012 or 2016 depending on who wins in November, and it'll be interesting to see if she learned some things this time around. Sure looked like she did tonight, and I have to admit the dems are having a pretty good convention so far, although whether or not the party actually is united remains to be seen. The vaunted "Hillary for President" protesters had a rally and attracted I believe 60 whole people. The "disunity" thing is a bit overblown, I'd wager.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 26, 2008 -> 08:03 AM) There are like two things here that McCain hasn't also talked about. This is one of the most loaded posts I have seen a while. Most Americans want to pay less in taxes- so does McCain Most Americans believe government is too big- so does McCain Most Americans don't want 9-11 to happen again- so does McCain Most Americans want babies not to have their lollipops taken- so does McCain Most Americans want puppies to be safe from kicking- so does McCain Can you now see how easy and meaningless a post like that is? You clearly forgot that McCain was part of the Lollipop 6, the group of Senators that were rumored to have stolen candy from babies to help maintain subsidies for Big Oil! I wouldn't call Obama's tax position to be particularly leftist, rather than populist. In fact, with a few exceptions, I wouldn't classify either candidate as particularly extreme in one way or another. We are not dealing with ideologues in any way here.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Aug 23, 2008 -> 12:48 PM) See, that is what I am saying. The US went out of thier way to avoid civilian casualties, sometimes to their own detriment. I didn't see Russia going to the UN trying to get a diplomatic resolution before invading. I didn't see Russia get together a coalition of other countries to help them liberate the poor city that wanted Russia back. I also didn't see Russia give two s***s about the poor Ossetians before Georgia seperated either. America going to the UN has a lot more to do with domestic policy concerns than it does about what any other nation's concerns about what the US does in Iraq.

I am not a huge Biden fan. I think he has some baggage (plagiarism, bankruptcy bill) but by and large he makes sense as a good pick. Can't attack Biden on family values, can't attack Biden on experience, and Biden adds the same level of foreign policy expertise that Dick Cheney did to a Bush nomination in 2000.

AP and CNN report Biden is the nominee.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Aug 22, 2008 -> 11:30 PM) Funny. Don't quit your day job. Are you suggesting that Iraq and georgia are morally equivalent to each other? But if you can put away your America hatred for a moment, what do you thik of the idea that China may use the events in georia to thier advantage in thier struggle against Tiawan? Or is snark about the maximum difficulty for your thought process? You could make a moral equivalency argument to Russia's behavior with Georgia, absolutely. South Ossetia has been a troublesome but accepted province of Georgia for most of recent history, and Russia alleges systematic oppression of the Russian minority that makes up the bulk of this province's population. Whether or not this pretext is true, it was pretext enough to justify an invasion of Georgian soil. This is the extension of the Bush doctrine that we never wanted to see, frankly. Before you go and say I'm blaming America, I'm not. This is just an opportunity for Russia to take some degree of diplomatic cover for an act it would have done regardless of our involvement in Iraq. The problem is that our involvement in Iraq not only gives Russia an excuse that is difficult for us to wash away (since its the same one we used five years ago), but also renders us much weaker in being able to take the international leadership role that we should be able to take to defuse this situation.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 22, 2008 -> 12:51 PM) Amtrak has been doing huge business lately (not surprising given the cost of driving and flying). Problem is, they can't add capacity or renovate equipment, because they don't have the budget for it. I'd really like to see the US adopt a system similar to what the Brits did recently... treat the rails like utility lines, but open to competition and new businesses. Those businesses share costs of upkeep and maintenance of the infrastructure based on usage. This would create an opening for new rail carriers to jump into the fray, running only profitable routes at first, then expanding. The current system is such that the rail companies own the rails - UP, BNSF, etc. And since they are making a good buck on freight right now, and aren't expert in passenger service, and don't want the traffic issues, they have zero motivation to start offerring passenger rail. Something has to give, if you want the intercity passenger rail system in the US to be anything other than its current state of awfulness. Two words could solve this problem: Eminent Domain.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 22, 2008 -> 01:06 PM) Well, I personally don't think the tax structure (in terms of income tax rates) should change at all, except for annual slot bumps based on COLA. But if it were to change... one, I don't like the idea of giving new tax breaks to the uber-rich, as McCain is planning. When the government is running huge deficits, we are waging 2 wars, and we are in dire straights in energy policy, I see that as an assinine move. Two, I don't like that Obama is putting huge (and those are huge) tax INCREASES on the rich either. That takes money out of the capital markets, ultimately (people in those top two tiers spend what the spend regardless, but any money lost to taxes will be taken away from their investments, IMO). And that helps no one. This federal government needs to balance its budget, get the hell out of Iraq, and go moon-shot towards alternative energy. It can't do that with EITHER of those tax plans, IMO. If I'm not mistaken, those tax increases are basically just a roll back of the taxcuts to the wealthiest 1% in the last 8 years.