2008 USP(G)ET pt. II: counting the days to 2012 primary thread 1

Yes, Lawrence v. Texas (I didn't want to get into the details for the sake of our foreign friend). It overturns Bowers v. Hardwick and leaves no clear ground AFAICT for any criminalization of homosexual sodomy to remain on the books. For the purposes of this discussion what more do you want it to do?

and by "legislation" here I'm reading your use of that word to mean a law which has been proposed by a legislative body but has not been enacted upon rather than a "statute" which is enacted law. Lawrence wiped clean the sodomy statutes. so to speak.

sorry xpost--i was mainly referring to your use of the word "legislation."

Re: Europe being more leftwing than us -- I'll buy it. As long as Europeans also admit that their rightwingers are much more rightwing than us. We don't have Prime Minister's who express admiration for fascist governments (Berlusconi), nor do we have serious Nazi-sympathetic parties. Part of this is obviously due to the fact we have a two party system (and not parliamentary) but we also don't have the national myths/mysticism that seem to show up in Europe every few years.

(We obviously do have a myth of American exceptionalism, but that's also related to our myth of pluralism and the Great Melting Pot.)

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/11/politics/fromtheroad/entry4515246.shtml

After Palin finished her remarks this morning, the man holding the stuffed monkey seemed to notice that a video camera was pointed at him, at which point he removed the Obama sticker from the doll’s head and crumpling it up in his hand. He then handed the doll to a young boy who was watching the rally from his father’s shoulders. The boy’s parents later told CBS News that they weren’t acquainted with the man who gave their son the stuffed monkey.

― eman, Sunday, October 12, 2008 2:33 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark

...

We obviously do have a myth of American exceptionalism

Palin frequently references this approvingly but removes the "myth" part.

xpost god what a gutless fat piece of shit that monkey doll guy is

he looks hilarious
im not hating those crowds are scary

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Rick_Davis_plays_POW_card_to_1012.html

fuck this dude

haha everyone's favorite gutless fat piece of shit was videotaped before the rally proudly holding the monkey doll with obama sticker, calling it "little hussein"

snl thursday thing was on fire

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk4/iemenvr/5993646.jpg

America has a lot of national myths, and its leaders seem much more explicitly in hock to the myth or myths of America than British leaders do. They also say 'God Bless America' and apparently have to be, or appear to be, devoutly religious to achieve high office.

There are reactionaries and progressive in America; there are reactionaries and progressives elsewhere.

Suzy, it sounds like you don't like your friends in London much.

That's why American literature is so awesome.

I like where this thread is going.

Pinefox, America has lots of religion, but outside Mormonism, not a lot of National religious mythology.

I'm not sure what that means. It remains a fact that one must be not merely tacitly or silently religious, but very stridently christian and constantly invoking and celebrating one's faith, to achieve the highest office (maybe not lower offices) in the US. I don't think that this is a good thing. It is not the case in the UK. The situation in other countries, perhaps others can describe, if they care to, though I expect they don't.

bulllllllllllllllshitttttttttttttttttttttt

it's ya boyyyy dan lacey

http://www.faithmouse.com/barack_obama_cartoon.jpg

lol

racist monkey dude looks like that creature they had selling six flags great america

It remains a fact that one must be not merely tacitly or silently religious, but very stridently christian and constantly invoking and celebrating one's faith, to achieve the highest office (maybe not lower offices) in the US.

Paying lip service and showing up at the occasional "prayer breakfast" =/= strident christianity.

obama loves pie

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/12/on-the-trail-obama-finds-nothings-as-easy-aspie/

politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/12/on-the-trail-obama-finds-nothings-as-easy-aspie/

I like my friends in London just fine, pinefox. You know that.

Perhaps I'm not explaining well enough, but a friend raised the issue last week and I reminded her that 10 years ago all kinds of pieces ran about David Lammy one day being the first viable black Labour candidate for PM and wondered why he hadn't gone up the chain of command as fast as certain promising American politicians. OTOH Muslim MPs are not a huge news event here and the public is protected from excessive religiosity by a state-sanctioned church symbolically headed by a constitutional monarch.

the public is protected from excessive religiosity by a state-sanctioned church symbolically headed by a constitutional monarch.

Correlation does not imply causation.

caek, that's a great retort but it lacks a substantive explanation. Sorry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation

"protection from excessive religiosity" has very little to do with the fact that the Church is formally established or we have a constitutional monarchy. Neither is true of France or many other European countries where politicians' faith is a private matter. We do all use the metric system though, so maybe that's the reason.

I know what that MEANS, but I just don't AGREE. Tch.

nsfw gif

^^post this whenever this thread gets derailed

I am so sick of seeing what some MORAN concocted while thinking about Sarah Palin's cooter.

yes

OK so you won't mind if a mod switches it to a link as it's NSFW.

http://apudgeisasandwich.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/akafishtaco.jpg

that link is SFW

http://fast.livecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/dztob9jpg.gif

OK so you won't mind if a mod switches it to a link as it's NSFW.

― jane hussein lane (suzy), Sunday, October 12, 2008 6:44 PM

suzy disapproves != nsfw

OY! Settle down in here! This is supposed to be the politics thread, not somewhere where people disagree rudely!

eman, that's a false equivalency and you know it. Please to send your resume to FOX.

Kos diarists trying to advance Palin's militia/AIP links in piggyback of Troopergate.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/12/13228/301/977/627523

i think you are the only one so far who finds that gif offensive

maybe you should send it to your mom and ask her what she thinks of it

Why the hostile? You seem like such a sweet little boy.

ha

http://fast.livecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/dztob9jpg.gif

(What's funny about that gif is Biden's expression, but it's pretty juvenile, really... even though I lolled...)

Anyway, someone help me out here. I was watching Meet The Press earlier, and in one segment they mentioned the debate question that asked the candidates whether, in the light of the economic downturn, they would have to "prioritize" aspects of their plans if elected president. Now I watched the debate itself at the time, but here also showed a clip of McCain saying he could work on them simultaneously whereas the clip of Obama showed him clearly prioritizing, even going as far as to enumerate them, bullet-point fashion (1. energy, 2. health care 3. education, I think). Cut to Tom Brokaw and he seems to imply that neither candidate answered the question, and the Democrat in the studio didn't even protest, while the Republican just said McCain was telling the truth and that of course he could work on all of them at once, etc.

Now, did I miss something? This wasn't FOX News, this was a (as far as I know) fairly respected political show and yet it seemed that again and again, in some kind of excruciating attempt to appear neutral and somehow objective, to bend over backwards in not highlighting the clear differences between the candidates, and indeed the campaigns (at another point, it again implied that the Obama campaign was equally responsible for the hateful rhetoric even though it clearly hasn't engaged in race-baiting or ugly smears). I mean, isn't the right complaining about the gutlessness of the MSM at the moment? Between giving the Palins a pass on their ties to some kind of Alaskan secessionist group and the above type of faux nonpartisanship, it seems to me that the MSM is pretty much at the same lapdog level it was while the Neocons ran amok in Washington. With the exception of Katie Couric, maybe? ;)

http://fast.livecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/dztob9jpg.gif

http://i35.tinypic.com/o9raxv.gif

xposts Not to sound all Chomskyish, but until the media ceases to be a kajillion-dollar industry, in which a presidential race is a goldmine of a news event, it's hard to expect anything but 'encouragement' of a close race.