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posted 02-09-2010 12:41
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I think the Tea Party can only be conceived of as a racist/xenophobic movement of ignorant jingoists, and that it's therefore totally useless to try and ply them with such logic.
They'll insist up and down that's not what they are, i.e. they're cognizant of the criticism. But they are, I believe, partially unaware themselves of what racism and xenophobia actually are. They think if you're not burning crosses in people's yards, you must not be a racist. (Whereas making implicitly derogatory generalizations and such is totally fine.)
Despite their "substantive" rebuttals about big government, you won't find one who doesn't pine for "the way things were" and doesn't view the term "real Americans" with complacency.
I don't think the Tea Party etc is this country's problem, which transcends party politics. The problem seems to be that the economy is being run by nihilist pirates and that government when it isn't aiding them directly is powerless to stop them.
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posted 02-09-2010 12:49
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Perhaps "ruined by" is a better way of putting it than "run by".
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posted 02-09-2010 16:23
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But they are, I believe, partially unaware themselves of what racism and xenophobia actually are. They think if you're not burning crosses in people's yards, you must not be a racist. (Whereas making implicitly derogatory generalizations and such is totally fine.)
Nail on head there.
Are we the only industrialized country left that has a politically relevant religious right? It seems that way.
It's ironic that European countries still have state religions, but nobody seems too bothered either way. We were ahead of the curve in ditching such nonsense and yet have a huge group of people keen to instate religion into law. Those facts aren't unrelated. The fuckwads we have now are the heirs to the witchburners of olde. They fled The rest of the world to come here, because we had religious freedom. Shit.
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posted 02-09-2010 16:34
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One could argue that the Christian Social Union in Bavaria is both religiously right and politically relevant, but only within the context of religion in Germany, which is so far to the left of the nonsense that we have here that the comparison makes no sense.
You can even now say the same about the Opus Dei elements of the PP in Spain.
Which leaves Israel as the best answer to your question.
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posted 02-09-2010 16:48
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Good point on Israel.
Turkey, maybe?
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posted 02-09-2010 16:52
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I'm not that sure. Since Attaturk, the state has been aggressively secular, and even though Motherland/Demorcrats are more religiously conservative than earlier governments, they are absolutely heretical by Saudi standards.
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Last Edit: 02-09-2010 18:29 By Bruno.
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posted 02-09-2010 18:28
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More worrisome to me is the Democrats' lack of spine and purpose, especially when they had the votes to push thru a real healthcare reform instead of the 3 humped camel we're stuck with. And so it goes. The wingnuts make a lot of noise, but it won't amount to a hill of beans unless the economy doesn't improve by 2012 then the Republicans can get chimpanzees to run and they'd win. Deservedly.
I'm really disappointed in Obama. Frankly I wish I'd voted for Hilary.
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posted 02-09-2010 18:31
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It's not Obama's fault, it's (as you say) congress's fault. Obama can't make the Ben Nelsons of the world into Bernie Sanderses.
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posted 03-09-2010 17:37
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Aye. What is it that you think he could or should have done to stop a dysfunctional Senate being held hostage by, successively, Presidents Nelson, Lieberman, Snowe, Collins, Lincoln... ?
They think if you're not burning crosses in people's yards, you must not be a racist. (Whereas making implicitly derogatory generalizations and such is totally fine.)
As Chris Rock put it, the threshold for being racist now is; if you killed Medgar Evers, you are a racist.
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posted 05-09-2010 03:23
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Ghost of Bruno wrote:
It's not Obama's fault, it's (as you say) congress's fault. Obama can't make the Ben Nelsons of the world into Bernie Sanderses.
No, it is not entirely Obama's fault, but he needs to put the squeeze financially on those who go against his wishes. By that matter, wouldn't it be fitting for ANY fed funding to go ONLY to the states and districts whose congressmen supported the bills. States like Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and the like would have ZERO in terms of stimulus, etc. See how the populace would like their 'leaner, deficit-reducing, no-earmark' congressmen. Alas, Obama is just too nice a guy and seems to actually believe that he can work productively w/ the opposition.
November election results could prove very ugly, but much of it is because of the dems own doing.
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posted 15-09-2010 18:31
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As seen on the "anti-religious wankery" thread (together with the rabid attacks on the traitorous Rove from the wingnut right).
Still worthy of as much exposure as possible.
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Last Edit: 15-09-2010 18:31 By ursus arctos.
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posted 15-09-2010 18:36
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Unless there's something else that I don't know about it, it appears her victory will hand Delaware to the Democrats, which is good news. Of course, if Bo Biden had run, they'd have this one in the bag already.
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posted 15-09-2010 18:40
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But replacing someone like him (able, personal vote) isn't easy. Be a good result in most circumstances to hold this with an upopular president.
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posted 16-09-2010 13:20
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Finding holes in a Janet Daly article is pretty much shooting fish in a barrel, but still:it is fundamental to the Constitution which gives individual states much greater sovereignty than the countries of the European Union enjoy
Really? So individual states can conduct foreign policy? Issue their own passports? Control immigration? Mint their own currency? There are certain limited areas where states in practice exercise greater unilateral control than EU member states, but there is no sense in which they are have more sovereignty, let alone "much greater" sovereignty.
Also: Traditionally there is only one nationally imposed tax - federal income tax – which is designed to pay for those functions that must be carried out by national government.
So FICA has been abolished? Excise taxes? The estate tax? "Traditionally" there wasn't a federal income tax.
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posted 16-09-2010 13:34
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Really? So individual states can conduct foreign policy? Issue their own passports? Control immigration? Mint their own currency? There are certain limited areas where states in practice exercise greater unilateral control than EU member states, but there is no sense in which they are have more sovereignty, let alone "much greater" sovereignty.
Don't forget, each state has it's own military.
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posted 16-09-2010 13:43
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I was going to give her a pass on that, on the grounds that the National Guard is at least nominally under the control of the governors, and it kind of falls under foreign policy. But yeah, it's not remotely comparable to the ability of EU states to raise and deploy armies independently.
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