LowerCaseRepublican

I think there should be more parties. However, a lot of people before elections start say "Well the Republicans or Democrats will win so..." instead of mobilizing in an actual party that agrees more with their personal beliefs if the Rep/Dem candidate is a douchebag (which is true in both cases in this 2004 election) The Republican party has been hijacked more and more by neo-conservatives who are pretty much the antithesis to traditional conservatism. The Democrats and Republicans have become beholden to corporate interests (see books like "Pigs at the Trough" or www.opensecrets.org to find out who gives what to candidates and see how they are all beholden to big corporate interests) Given the cleavages that are growing, I think more traditional conservatives will leave to the Libertarian party and disaffected Democrats will join the Greens. I don't think it's throwing away the vote if you vote for a 3rd (or 4th) party because if they get enough votes, they get matching funds in the next election which is a great boost to helping them establish a bigger party. After Perot made it into the debates, the Democrats and Republican National Committees got together and moved the polling threshhold to get into the debate from 5% to 15%. This made it more difficult for 3rd parties to get into the national spectrum. There was a huge media story about Nader just showing up at a Presidential debate in Boston in 2000 just to watch (he had a ticket to the event) and Boston State Troopers barred him from the building. When he was given a press pass, the Troopers continued to ban him from the building. Hell, I won't even get into a lot of the candidates that get to run unopposed for their government seats in many districts around the US so there is no real accountability for them because its not like they can vote for another candidate.

I believe the candidate is Gary Nolan for the LP. Their convention was supposed to be held at the end of May in Atlanta but the LP's national web page does not have who was nominated for President on it yet. I just know that Nolan has been leading the pack.

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1. Outside of my left liberatarian leanings of "We shouldn't have been in there in the first place..." , the presence of US troops in maintaining the illusion of safety. I was talking to a few people I know who have been over there (including Nuke) and in one instant Nuke told me that on his trips in Fallujah (before the Marines went in) they had no real concrete goals for what needed to be done in the post-war. Republican Congressman Ron Paul (he's more of a libertarian conservative) has written a lot about disengagement plans from Iraq on antiwar.com and other sites. He's become one of the bipartisan critics of the PATRIOT Act, the war in Iraq, the idea of endless war against "terror". He's for attacking terrorists where there actually is a conceivable threat against the US rather than turning the US into a global police chief when it does not have the manpower or the feasibility to succeed. Increased diplomacy will take time because the US sorta just said "f*** Saddam. We're taking him out." (Actual George W. Bush quote as seen in Time magazine in a story about the pre-war meetings) but long lasting allegiances to rebuild Iraq can be forged because it is in everyone's interest to see a non-asshat regime built in. Reagan once said something that would apply to the sacked neoconservatives who ultimately helped push this administration into invading Iraq on false pretenses: "Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root." 2. Balanced budgets are a joke. Although Joe Conason does have a lot of evidence in his book "Big Lies: Right Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts Truth" (Which got through pretty cleanly from the wringer of the non-partisan fact checkers at SpinSanity) discusses that there is more growth during Democratic presidencies than Republican, even if you remove Hoover. People want balanced budgets but in an age of corporate welfare, Congressional pork abound and campaign contributions doing the talking, the wants/needs of the average schmoe aren't too high on the political "To Do" list. We could not raise taxes and end the War on Drugs to increase revenues for the government and the states. Not to mention a 15% cut in Pentagon spending would still keep us more than protected but also allow for adequate funding for NCLB, welfare, education, etc. Bush is not even a conservative and that's from Wayne Madsen, who was in the Nat'l Security Agency during the Reagan administration. He has a very interesting article on Bush and the neo-conservatives that inhabit a lot of positions in his administration. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/2624658 If there are conservatives on the board, I strongly suggest voting Libertarian because they would be more closely aligned with your political believes than neo-conservatives.

Say whatever you want about Reagan, there is one thing we can all agree on. We will forever be in his debt. (Read into that whatever you want. )

I just need to know how Bartman gets Bartmanized with his name, job, # etc. coming out and this douche is going off into obscurity. He deserves what Bartman got.

The Waco thing was a debocle. If anything, it proves that the US government all the way up to Reno and Clinton were liars and murderers. During the time (and currently on SacredCow.com) there is public access TV footage of US tanks starting the fire by shooting fire into the building BEFORE any firefight began against the Davidians. Also, none of the Davidians said there was any child abuse. This claim was backed up by initial FBI reports. And as Bill Hicks stated "If people are so worried about child molestation, how come we don't see Bradley tanks knocking down Catholic churches?"

It's not tradition unless you count the fact that it was only put in as a knee jerk reactionism result of McCarthyism during the Cold War. Sorry, I'd like my religion to be in a house of worship and not a school. I'd also like the reasoning to be more pure than simply yet another way to distinguish us from the Communists. Washington's comments in the Treaty of Tripoli are almost never uttered by "America was founded on Christianity" people because Washington said "The United States is not founded on Christianity in any sense."

According to MLB.com, Steve Kline autographed a Cardinals shirt for the douchenozzle with "tough guy" and "ball stealer" on it. Unfortunately the guy didn't get the custom shirt because he left the stadium alone (the girl he was with made him leave alone) On Fark.com there were some people discussion how the local Texas feed had sent a field reporter over to beg the guy to give the kid the baseball while everyone around him was chanting "give him the ball." The guy's answer to all the commotion: "I'm not gonna' sit here and be influenced by 40,000 people." If 40,000 people think you're wrong...even if you think you're right...GIVE THE KID THE f***ING BALL. Bartman goes for a foul ball and within a day his job, phone #, name etc. are all public knowledge. Where is the Bartmanization of this asshole who damn near injured a 4 year old?

Michael Moore has been known for editing problems and at times being lax in fact checking and fact citation in his book. One only need to check out SpinSanity to find out the distortions in any political book, liberal or conservative. They also dissect statements made by prominent conservatives and liberals in fact checking. However, Moore does make some interesting points in what he does. In one episode of his TV show "The Awful Truth", he helped a guy get a pancreas transplant. The guy's HMO said it would pay all costs related to his diabetes and then it decided that it would not pay for the transplant which was a necessary operation as a result of his diabetes. If he didn't get the transplant, he'd die. So they went to the corporate HQ and began to ask the guy why they wouldn't cover the costs when the HMO said they would. The guy ended up getting the HMO to pay for the costs of his transplant and changed Humana's policy to cover all pancreas transplants from then on. He's taken on BMW for not putting money into funds for Holocaust survivors (which they did after his confrontation which he brought a Holocaust survivor who was forced to work for BMW during WW II.) The survivor consistently wrote BMW asking for compensation and had copies of the letters he sent to them for years. He's also taken on CR Bard and other corporate criminals. Moore's not the greatest guy around, but there are cases where he does make a good point or a positive impact.

Holding my nose and voting for Kerry.

The media is only as liberal as the conservative editors. Owners have editorial control and decide what is printed. In another thread about the "liberal media", I posted a lot of facts that refute it in print media. There were even quotes of top conservatives stating that the idea of the liberal media was just an excuse for conservative policy failures being exposed. There are asshats, both liberal and conservative. If the newscasters are reporting FACTS, then that is not bias. It's a bit better than the conservative move by Bill O'Reilly saying that the French economy was losing "billions of dollars" and quoting a Paris financial magazine. Only problem is that there is no magazine by that name and the asshat just made it the f*** up. I personally would have liked to see them discuss Reagan's involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal or how he helped to arm, train and fund what would become Al Qaeda etc. etc. Thankfully William Rivers Pitt obliged with a pretty tasteful Reagan obit on Truthout http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/060704A.shtml As for media conglomoration... "The past two decades have seen the number of major corporations which dominate movies, music, cable, radio, newspapers, books, magazines, the Internet and TV dwindle from 50 to less than two dozen, with much of the control concentrated in fewer than ten massive conglomerates. The largest firms today do well over ten times the business of the largest media firms of the late 1980s. The result is a cartel-like arrangement in which a few closely-linked industry giants call the shots to maximize profits by reducing competition and lowering risk. Fueling this shift is corporate-sponsored "deregulation" as well as the government's collapsing commitment to antitrust prosecution. While enriching investors, these changes have impoverished democracy. The public is viewed as consumers by the media rather than informed and engaged citizens." Unfortunately, radio is much the same. The state of radio today is dire: perhaps nothing has devastated the diversity of voices heard on our nation's airwaves than the Telecommunications Act of 1996. With its relaxation of ownership caps, the number of radio station owners decreased by 34 percent even as the number of commercial radio stations increased by 5.4 percent. Dramatic changes have ensued indeed: in 1996, the largest radio-station owning entities owned fewer than 65 stations; today, one Clear Channel owns upwards of 1,200. Proponents of such a policy shift claim this has resulted in more efficient and effective operations by allowing broadcasting companies to take advantage of economies of scale. (source: Free Press Media Reform) It's obvious from the Clear Channel hores*** we've seen with the huge fines/dumping of Howard Stern in areas that media conglomeration is a huge problem that needs to be addressed.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...c_creed_breakup Three former Creed members immediately announced they were forming a new band — minus singer Scott Stapp (news) — but were quick to say it was not "just Creed with a different singer."

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Harold and Maude Pulp Fiction Reservoir Dogs Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 Akira Beavis and Butthead Do America Romero

This is a little odd but does anybody know if they still make Hamm's beer? A close friend of mine used to drink it a lot and she can't find it anymore. Her birthday is coming up so I was thinking about picking her up some if I can find a local place that carries it (if it is even produced anymore.) Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

George W. Bush said Iraqi oil would pay for the war effort. Oops. There's another lie. An MrEye, I guess I missed the memo where Saddam had any WMD and was even slightly able to attack the US. Or how about the memo where he was working with Al Qaeda. If anything, this war has made us less safe because Al Qaeda has had over 18,000+ new applicants according to a new non-partisan research project.

WOO! Top 12 here we come!

Shingo induces the GIDP. Runner on 3rd and 2 out now. Nice job Shingo!

wwwwww

Sideshow Bob and Apu were two of my favorite Simpsons characters and were an old screen name that I've used a lot of places.

I dunno how many people have seen the movie Bulworth, but this totally reminds me of when they are in a debate and Bulworth is like "Well, we've got 2 rich guys answering questions on a network owned by a bunch of really rich guys and the people asking questions are a bunch of really rich guys." Kerry is ultra rich. I just love playing off that he's the Texas good old boy who spent his childhood in the Texas town of Andover in New England.

Happy Birthday!

And FYI, Mike has gone after Democrats and their ilk before to on his TV show "The Awful Truth". He's gone after them when he brought a pimp to Congress and demanded that these "b****es and ho's" start working on behalf of the pimp. They went to the Dem. and Republican National Committees, interviewed Congressmen etc. It's some pretty hilarious stuff. And also, on his TV show which is most of his work, he's gone after corporate criminals that most people refuse to prosecute or companies that have been found criminally guilty yet have not had the guilty parties within the company serve any time in jail. That's the one thing you can't fault him for. Most people are ready to throw the guy who steals $60 out of a woman's purse in prison for years yet a guy who steals $60 million in an executive suite gets a slap on the wrist (maybe) and gets treated like he walks on water.

I guess I missed the day of school where they said "Two wrongs make a right." Moore is an asshat when it comes to a lot of things. He's sort of like the Washington Times (although his stuff is not owned by a S. Korean cult leader who wants to believe that he is the messiah)...take it with a grain of salt. Actually the biggest reason for starvation pre-invasion in my discussions with a lot of people from Voices in the Wilderness (a humanitarian group who defied sanctions and brought in food and medical supplies to Iraq) was the destruction of the refrigeration plants, water purification plants etc. so any food the Iraqis did have was destroyed because they could not keep it. Bi-weekly bombing campaigns by US and UK forces from 1991-right before this war didn't help things either. And if you paid attention the UN sanctions in Iraq actually sparked a cavalcade of resignations (most resignations in UN history citing a single cause) saying that the fact that nobody (US, France, Germany et al.) gave a f*** about the Iraqi people.

Yes, CK...the board of the jury was chaired by Quentin Tarantino and had a bunch of UK and Americans on it and not many French at all. But obviously it was a French move against the United States. Facts...they make or break an argument.