Indefinite Detention? But I Have Soccer Practice at 4: U.S. Politics 2012

I was joking about naming names. And I do think you can remain a principled person in office, but I sometimes doubt the efficacy of the position. Working in a soup kitchen, feeding people vs. trying to get Federal laws passed to benefit those in soup kitchens. Obviously things often work out for the best, but it doesn't always seem the most efficient means of producing results/change that I believe in.

this is a stupid binary

For sure! Life is a perpetual compromise.

Not that Morbs would ever admit that time he sat through "Vertigo" in pan and scan.

'meaningful change' meaning some large scale, drastic social progress completely due to party politics has - at most - happened a handful of times in american history. and even then you can't isolate it from the social dynamics of the eras, which don't exist today. the overwhelming majority of positive changes have been hard earned incremental gains.

look at Pericles

Pericles was a sell out.

Running for office these days pretty much is selling out.

If, by "selling out" you mean recognizing that you must select a variety of compromise positions for which you will contribute your one vote, out of the MANY votes that will be required for ANY position to become law, then yeah, you're right.

Just becoming a representative or a senator means joining a big group of disparate people with conflicting ideas, who have to figure out a way of agreeing on what to do. That's the system. You have to accept that on the way in, or you're cooked before you even arrive.

politicians are the ppl who actually pass laws and get things done. change doesn't happen if you give up on electoral politics.

Well, yes and no. It is a representative democracy, with voters and constituents. People who pass laws generally aren't doing so without specific pushes and nudges at the ground level. The question is which is more effective: the people doing to pushing, or the people doing the actual voting at their behest.

doing the pushing, sorry.

speaking of "working in the private sector for some progressive cause" - here's what good nebbocrat evan bayh has been up to!

http://pac.progressivesunited.org/blog/caught-in-the-revolving-door

Fightin' the good fight.

oh my god fucking ilx politics compulsiveness. stop arguing w/ morbz about shit he will never change his mind he just likes to argue on the internet.

He doesn't argue

Big Bird vs Pakistanis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yMOzvmgVhc&feature=youtu.be

yesterday bradley manning was 900 days in detention. today the afghan war enters its 12th year.

This weekend is the fourteenth anniversary of my not getting Columbus Day off.

wait it's columbus day?

totally office politics

i propose that we postpone the war on christmas and focus our attention on g-d columbus day, arguably the stupidest of american holidays

Most insulting, maybe. We've got a lot of stupid holidays.

Symmetry requires it!

probably the main obstacle to getting rid of columbus day is federal employee contracts

you'd have to get congress to agree on a new holiday probably

it's the stupidest because it's so thoughtlessly offensive---nat'l accounting day is pretty fucking dumb but at least it doesn't celebrate genocidal conquest

nb i did not know that accounting day existed, i just thought "wouldn't it be moronic for there to be a day for accountants" and lo google provided

apologies to the accountants of ilx of course

at'l accounting day is pretty fucking dumb but at least it doesn't celebrate genocidal conquest

depends on how we define "accounting"

Accounting Day®

the airing of grievances

Thanksgiving is a little more offensive, i think.

At least Columbus day comes right out and says "Yeah imperialism!", Thanksgiving is based pretty much on the goodwill of the people we destroyed.

well yeah but I like pumpkin wine and drinking my family's liquor

haha pumpkin PIE but yeah whatever that too

Thanksgiving is like reading a great novel but skipping the last chapter where everyone dies and the bad guys win.

that's my idea of a great novel!

(Spoiler alert, sorry)

Bookmarkable US Politics Thread v3.1: blah blah Big Bird etc

new thread apparently

No that's really the part III Elections thread.

Greenwald linkage should probably stay in here.

Shouldn't the title of that 3.1 thread say "US Elections" in it and not "US Politics" . Mod should change it.

yeah it should say "Elections"

not that it really matters

The transubstantiation miracle by which the "politics" thread is actually the intended "election" thread is, of course, the ultimate in symmetry.

Republicans were aiming to embarrass the Obama administration over State Department security lapses. But they inadvertently caused a different picture to emerge than the one that has been publicly known: that the victims may have been let down not by the State Department but by the CIA. If the CIA was playing such a major role in these events, which was the unmistakable impression left by Wednesday’s hearing, having a televised probe of the matter was absurd.

The chairman, attempting to close his can of worms, finally suggested that “the entire committee have a classified briefing as to any and all other assets that were not drawn upon but could have been drawn upon” in Benghazi.

Good idea. Too bad he didn’t think of that before putting the CIA on C-SPAN.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-letting-us-in-on-a-secret/2012/10/10/ba3136ca-132b-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_story.html

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/11/wisconsin_goper_some_girls_rape_easy/

I have no coherent words to say about this

“Just remember, Roger, some girls, they rape so easy.

isn't this a Rolling Stones lyric

I think you're confusing it with Mick's line about "some Puerto Rican girls that are just dying to rape you."

It's incredible to contrast the tone of his original quote with that of his official statement.

Rahm Emanuel pretends that Obama didn't speak out against Bush detention/ surveillance policy in 2008:

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/16/rahm_emanuel_takes_liberal_base_bashing_to_a_whole_new_level/

http://nymag.com/news/politics/elections-2012/tea-party-2012-10/

Frank Rich has the blues:

This is a nation that loathes government and always has. Liberals should not be deluded: The Goldwater revolution will ultimately triumph, regardless of what happens in November.

Sorry if this is already been linked to or discussed on one of the many other US politics threads

The Goldwater revolution will ultimately triumph

http://blog.timesunion.com/running/files/2010/08/knight3.jpg

frank rich needs to calm down