Slashdot Mirror
Hurricane Could Make a Mess of Republican Convention
Hugh Pickens writes "ABC News reports that Hurricane Isaac, currently a tropical storm brewing southeast of Puerto Rico, is on track to hit Florida the same day that Mitt Romney and 50,000 Republican delegates, journalists, protestors and guests descend on Tampa for the Republican National Convention but whether it will skim the east coast near Miami or crash head-on into Tampa, is still up in the air. The worst possible scenario is that Hurricane Isaac stays on the western track, skating over the Caribbean Sea south of Haiti, crossing the primarily flat landscape of western Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico then curving east and hitting Tampa dead-on. 'Tampa is just as vulnerable as New Orleans was in the sense that the water will funnel into the bay area and from the storm surge which will flood completely the whole entire city of Tampa,' says meteorologist Max Golembo. 'It would be a disaster in the Tampa area.' If a hurricane or tropical storm is bearing down on Tampa, the priority of law enforcement is to evacuate residents, leaving GOP officials to make the decision of when to evacuate delegates says Hillsborough County Emergency Management spokeswoman Holly Wade. 'We have to look at a lot of factors, like timing and landfall,' says Wade. 'We provide the weather information, then we take that to the host committee, which decides if the event goes on or if the event gets altered.' A Category 2 hurricane could disrupt convention activities because the Tampa Bay Times Forum, site of the festivities, is within a mandatory evacuation zone for storms of that magnitude."
Good.
Absolutely nothing of value was lost.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
just like the right wingers said there was
This is just an excuse to forgo the brokered convention Paul's delegates will force... They have broke every rule in every state to stop the Paul revolution, and now it looks like they have paid off Isaac to make an appearance to silence Paul's voice.
And if some people's/group's twisted logic is applied this must surely mean that God hates Republicans.
Me? I feel bad for everyone in Florida and hope the convention errr I mean hurricane passes quickly.
If there is a disaster, just watch as the Florida Republicans all demand federal aid.
Mother Nature seems pissed at the Republicans. Might wanta rethink that anti global warming stance. Apparently all the droughts and tornadoes wasn't making the point obviously enough so she decided to take aim at the deniers and try to take out as many as possible in one shot. If I was Exxon and Monsanto I'd be updating your life insurance policies.
People only get killed in cases of "legitimate" hurricanes!
Isaac was Abrahams son wasn't he? Hmmm!
FUCKING YES!
Cold air, meet hot air.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
You're about to see a lot of liberals collectively turn into Pat Robertson.
Weather? Really?
This could be a blessing in disguise (for the GOP), if it happens, as it will drive that other storm that originated in Missouri out of the front pages.
I wonder what Pat Robinson would blame this one on? God punishing the Republicans for nominating a Mormon?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
the priority of law enforcement is to evacuate residents, leaving GOP officials to make the decision of when to evacuate delegates
if its anything like the last time the GOP was involved in a hurricane, GOP leaders will determine delegates should be evacuated to a sports arena, fed MRE's, and largely ignored until theyre all dead.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Ah. But what if it were called Hurricane Ditka?
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
It's only a Republican convention so only half the rats, alas.
I'm not from Florida, but even I know that you don't plan on doing anything down there during hurricane season that you can't back out of.
This is really poor planning. I usually voted for that side, and that kind of not thinking ahead has made me more sad than usual.
http://mediamatters.org/research/2005/09/13/religious-conservatives-claim-katrina-was-gods/133804
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/01/us-televangelist-pat-robertson-links-haiti-earthquake-to-pact-with-devil.html
""Did God have anything to do with Katrina?," people ask. My answer is, he allowed it and perhaps he allowed it to get our attention so that we don't delude ourselves into thinking that all we have to do is put things back the way they were and life will be normal again."
With the first link, the chain is forged.
I get a kick out of the calls for "tolerance", "diversity", and so on everywhere except when conservatives (and any innocent bystanders) stand to suffer.
Stay classy, liberals...
Could Make a Mess of Hurricane.
And the reason nothing passed was the Democrats were attempting to be bi-partisan. You can see how well that worked out for them.
GOP, the party of NO!
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
It's only a Republican convention so only half the rats, alas.
A better rationale for combining the RNC and DNC conventions into a single event, I have yet to see.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
It just has "a wide stance".
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Just another liberal happy to kill for the cause I suppose. There sure are a disturbing number of you around these days, unwilling to debate and only to destroy.
That's some nice projection you've got going on there. I invite you to visit any number of message boards and count the number of death threats vs. liberals vs. death threats against conservatives and see if it supports your assumption.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
I know that Ron Paul's strategy somewhat relied on a second round of balloting in which delegates could vote for him. Anyone have any clue what the storm means in this regard?
God! Tell me which way to vote!
j/k Jesus could come down and pee a rainbow with a name on it and I'd still make up my own mind. Actually, I'd probably vote opposite just to piss Yahweh off.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
My name is Isaac Rabinovitch. I have no connection whatever with this hurricane. Please don't complain to me about it.
You don't get debates from liberals because you make stuff up. Dems only had a supermajority in the senate for four months, most of which were in recess. The republicans have used the filibuster (or threatened to fillabuster) nearly every bill, basically negating the majority. http://washingtonindependent.com/74033/the-four-month-supermajority Federal spending rose at anywhere between 3.2-5%, a rate below average, and if you start measuring the rate from October 2009, spending has been the slowest in 60 years http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/us/politics/fact-checking-obama-and-romney.html?pagewanted=all Oil drilling and fraking has been approved at a faster rate under obama than Bush II. (fraking due to technology). http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/03/obama-oil-drilling-up-on-my-watch/1
Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
Democrats had a filibuster-proof majority in the senate for about 17 weeks, far less than the "2 years" you just made up. (The 17 weeks is from Al Franken's confirmation to Ted Kennedy's illness.)
During that time, there seemed to be a lot of internal discussion and compromise within the Democratic party - you know, the kind of give-and-take compromise that is supposed to make our government work. All of that is still alive and well within the Democratic party. It's just the big blog of "NO NO NO IT'S ALL MINE NO" coming from the extreme right that keeps the government from doing anything differently than the overall failed course it's on of late.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
Isn't that the REAL reason for EVERY convention? Did you know that for YEARS, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas coincided with the Adult Entertainment Expo?
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
What bunch of geniuses decided to hold a national convention in Florida in the middle of hurricane season? Oh, wait...
Yeah, some of the strip clubs might have to shut down, then what would they do?
Proverbs 21:19
I am praying for rain,
I am praying for tidal waves,
I want to watch the ground give way.
... they will claim that god spared them because he supports their cause.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Can't let the lies go unanswered, sorry pal. The Democrats did have a majority in the Senate, but they did not have a fillibuster proof majority in the Senate. The Republican minority was therefore able to stop most bills from even coming to the floor of the Senate for a vote. This included not only budget items, like a bill the House passed which would reward companies that bring jobs back here with tax breaks instead of rewarding outsourcing, as well as most judicial appointments and financial accountability and re-regulation of some parts of Wall Street. This is the Republican party whose current Senate minority leader said that his NUMBER ONE goal was to make Obama a one term president. Not fix the economy, not bring jobs back, not fix unemployment, sure as hell not punish the banksters who caused all this, but his number one goal was politics.
BTW, among other things tht make them lying hypocrites is that this is the party of "Let's have a straight up or down vote" on judicial nominees in years past when the tables were reversed. Go look it up. Since facts matter little to Republican voters, they have an easy time getting away with being two faced.
Now, I'm about to do what no Republican will ever do: admit the other side has a point. Sometimes politicians do things they know won't pass to say they did them. So would the House have passed progressive legislation if they knew the other side in the Senate wouldn't be able to stop it? Admittedly unknown. The Republican leaders are batshit crazy, but the Democrats are also beholden to large corporations. But that's what if games. The House passed stuff, the MINORITY party prevented it from being voted on in the Senate a record number of times, and nothing got done, just like was planned because of politics. Meanwhile,we all pay for it.
At long last my brilliant plan comes to fruition!
I would very much to subscribe to your newsletter....
(but you forgot the part about Jesus-riding dinosaurs)
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
And the reason nothing passed was the Democrats were attempting to be bi-partisan. You can see how well that worked out for them.
GOP, the party of NO!
GOP became the party of Filibuster in the Senate. Just because you had a majority, doesn't mean you get things all your own way, a party needs 2/3rds support to end a filibuster. Democrats didn't have that and the GOP effectively stonewalled things, particularly nominations for cabinet and other federal posts.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Oh shut up and let us laugh. After all these were the fuckers who were talking about how God hates Lousiana while doing jack shit about the worst humanitarian crisis the US has seen in a long time.
Mods, why was this allowed through the filters? It ain't tech, it isn't geeky in a technology sense (I will recognize there are hurricane geeks), and it is really just political trolling no matter how you look at it which I am willing to watch meaningful threads degenerate into but having it start off degenerate is a waste at every level.
Timothy, you suck for posting this.
But liberals are supposed to be better than that. They are supposed to be tolerant of alternate lifestyles, alternate marriages, alternate viewpoints, et cetera. Instead they show themselves to not be tolerant at all w/ comments about hoping the Republican delegates die.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
That's because he didn't right them. Dinosaurs aren't real. They're bones were put here to test our faith.
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
And here we have a perfect example of what's wrong with America's election system today. The article mentions something political and most commenters run for their extreme positions, bunker down and start insulting. We're supposed do to that. We're supposed to become extreme and polarized. We're supposed to hate the "enemy". Both parties do this. Both parties are to blame. And we are to blame because we fall for it.
For almost all of the operation of the Federal government, Republicrats and Demublicans are in FULL AGREEMENT. They don't argue about most of the operation. Both parties pretty much want everything to just go along as always -- and deeper and deeper into debt.
They are in a lot of agreement, so there is not much of a reason to choose one over the other. To solve that, they all emphasize, magnify and distort their relatively minor, alleged differences -- but once elected, it's business as usual.
And here we all are, spewing hate because that's what our masters have decided we will do so that they can control us.
A pox on both their houses. No politician will ever do what's good for us, the "little people".
That's because he didn't ride them. Dinosaurs aren't real. Their bones were put here to test our faith.
fuuuuu.jpg
fixed it.
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
...just have another civil war and get it over with already? Please?
Oh, you'ld. like that, wouldn't you? Actually there is some chatter in the news today that there'll be another civil war if Obama wins again (yawn). As for the hurricane, also in the news are stories aboit strppers and hookers descending on Tampa. They know that these God fearing, family oriented, moral Republicans are going to be raining lots of money on them!
Republicans will make the convention a mess, not the hurricane.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
the mess that hurricane could end making if they survive.
me too. Some politicians have done and some still do what is good for us-- but they are the freaks who manage to get past the two party filter that keeps their kind out of office and usually running in the 3rd party penalty box where they are constantly reminded how "fringe" and unimportant they are.
I see it as a good cop and bad cop routine. Most people fight over which one is the bad cop and are proud of their choice of the good cop. Both are against YOU and they need not like each other to do their jobs.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
That works both ways you know. Around 2003-4 the Republicans became aware that the mortgage lending market was "too hot" and they needed to act to slowdown the exuberance. But that time it was the Democrats who filibustered and stopped mortgage/banking laws from being rewritten & made tougher. The Democrats wanted mortgages to be easy to get, even for people too poor to pay them back.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
And I hope Obama wins not because I like him but because I want 4 more years of his policies. When he starts a war with Iran and Libya it will destroy the perception that he is a "peace prize" winner. I want Obama to leave in 2016 with the same bad reputation as Bush had in 2008. He may be democrat but he is nowhere near as good as our last democrat president Clinton.
I guess crazy is out in force tonight. So what's the idea here? To create some sort of destructive feedback where increasingly worse candidates are elected?
That's ok. Because nobody believed him except a few low information voters who needed to be duped.
So what you are saying is, you prefer to vote for people who explicitly deceive other people. Because you yourself couldn't possibly be fooled! No sir.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I guess the one thing they just cannot tolerate is intolerance...
I hate when I forget to log in ;(
i have no sig
>> One vote shy of a supermajority is still a solid majority.
No, it means that without *unanimous* agreement among Democrats, nothing will get passed -- because not ONE Republican is willing to vote for legislation proposed by a Democrat, regardless of the virtue, pragmatism, and philosophical compromise embodied in the bill. (Meanwhile, Democrats use their own brains, and vote independently, supporting legislation when it makes sense.)
I invite you to visit any number of message boards and count the number of death threats vs. liberals vs. death threats against conservatives and see if it supports your assumption.
I invite you to actually do that. First, I think you'll find that almost no one actually makes death threats. And a good portion of those that do are weapon-grade crazy with little to no identifiable political leaning.
For those advocating some sort of societal violence or collective punishment, though generally those fall far short of death threats, I wager they tend to be more left than right. There's been a lot of advocates for imprisonment for holding the wrong beliefs in the AGW debate, for example. OTOH, there's a lot of people unnaturally ticked off about Muslims and I've run into a couple of advocates for deliberate nuclear war and genocide. That's pretty hardcore as these things go.
Haven't you heard? All the conservative Christians have since redefined Christian to include Mormons! So anybody who doesn't accept Mormons as Christian simply because modern Mormons changed their minds is an intolerant Christian and probably racist against white people!
I know an evangelical couple who 4 years ago would have protested against a "cultist" (their word) being nominated. My what a difference 4 years of propaganda and a black man can make... some conservatives.
I wonder what they can get them to believe next? Scientology when Tom Cruise runs?
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
There is no reason to tolerate intolerance. Absolutes are for fools.
Of course, not all conservatives are assholes, but the GOP panders to these assholes, along with the stupid and selfish to form their base of support. That is fine, but it is hardly cricket to simultaneously pretend that the GOP has any credibility, either effectively or morally.
They intentionally bent over for these loons, and earned the reputation themselves.
Looks they are preparing for either a hurricane or vortex of some serious protest: http://www.abcactionnews.com//dpp/news/region_hillsborough/orient-road-jail-cleared-out-to-handle-rnc-arrests -- They have transferred inmates out of an entire facility in expectation of filling it with protesters. Odd.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
>> Around 2003-4 the Republicans became aware that the mortgage lending market was "too hot" and they needed to act to slowdown the exuberance. But that time it was the Democrats who filibustered and stopped mortgage/banking laws from being rewritten & made tougher.
Republicans had the Presidency, the House, and the Senate from 2003 to 2007 -- a ridiculously convenient opportunity to address the mortgage lending market problems. Democrats can't filibuster for four solid years!
http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/l/bl_party_division_2.htm
Interesting how propaganda works. It's not clear whether the original poster thought that filibuster proof is a "solid majority" or not. But three repliers did and they all characterize the first poster as either lying or making something up. That's an interesting though unhealthy uniformity of thought.
Democrats had a filibuster-proof majority in the senate for about 17 weeks, far less than the "2 years" you just made up.
What's made up is the notion Democrats were not in full control of the government for two years.
Otherwise Obamacare would not have passed.
But back to that short window of even greater control, the filibuster proof majority. Do you need a filibuster proof majority to pass a budget? Or even to TRY?
Another way to put 17 weeks into perspective is to say FOUR MONTHS. Are you seriously saying that even in a four month window Democrats were incapable of producing a budget, or any other meaningful legislation? I guess so. How does a window of four months with total control over the U.S. excuse ANYTHING they have done (or not done!).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
maybe they could all be locked in a stadium for a week or so without sufficient food or water.
optionally shoot any who try to leave just in case they're up to no good.
The track and strength of this storm are way too uncertain at this time to project where and when landfall will occur and what kind of damage will be done. The computer model runs have had it hitting everywhere from New Orleans to the East Coast over the past few days and still haven't locked onto a repeatable solution. Another sign of the times when an over-hyped storm forecast gets hijacked into a quasi-political/religious argument.
Can you name the critical Obama policy bills the GOP successfully filibustered? After successfully filibustering said bills, what attempts did Obama make to lobby moderate Republicans to vote for cloture to end the filibuster OR what changes did Obama and the Democrats make to the bills to make them palatable to all parties and bi-partisan?
Harry Reid did change the generally accepted method of introducing bills for a vote practically eliminating the ability to debate and amend the bills. This action changed the Senate from a deliberative body that could compromise to one that could only vote up or down on any particular bill. What surprising result sprang up from this? Oh, yeah, the minority party had enough votes (41) to prevent cloture and, therefore, a vote on the bill.
It takes too sides to reach a compromise. Introducing bills in a manner where debate and amendments are disallowed doesn't exactly create a playing field where compromise and bi-partisanship can occur.
For noncontroversial issues the Democrat majority didn't have any problem ramming-through TARP in two weeks.
Signed by Bush, voted for by Sen. McCain. At the time it was voted on, TARP was bipartisan.
The National Hurricane Center shows the 3 and 5 day prediction cones. The 3 day cone is just now touching the tip of Florida. Miami is well inside the 5 day cone, and Miami will definitely be inside the 3 day cone shortly. 5 day cones are somewhat speculative, but once an area is within the 3-day cone, assume it will get hit. The NWS says that they have two hurricane hunter planes up taking observations, and the data from those will feed into the prediction computation for 0000 UTC, in less than 2 hours. So check back then.
If Miami is in the 3-day cone after the next update, it's going to get hit. Remember, hurricanes are typically about 300 miles across. The question is then how bad things will get. Current prediction is it hitting as a Category 1 hurricane, which is not too bad. It might reach Category 2.
The convention starts a day after the hurricane hits, so many people will be arriving just as the storm hits on Sunday. Flight cancellations are likely. The "Welcome event" at the ballpark, scheduled for Sunday, will probably be cancelled. (It's a domed ballpark, so maybe not. But attendance will be down.) Probably by Tuesday or Wednesday, Tampa will be cleaned up and running again. The convention schedule, though, calls for the official vote on the Republican presidential nomination to be made Monday evening. Don't be surprised if that slips to Tuesday.
The convention center is right on the waterfront ("awesome waterfront views"), so flooding from storm surges is a strong possibility. There are probably crews placing sandbags right now.
Tell me you've really never heard of the filibuster. It's very possible for the minority to obstruct the majority.
Go crack open an American Government textbook while the adults are talking.
I am currently working with the City of Tampa, preparing for the RNC. All I really have to say is that this exact scenario has been expected for over a year now. Tampa in late August? You can almost expect a hurricane, and the emergency management involved is highly prepared for such a situation.
The real disaster will be in the outskirts of Tampa, not as much prepared as the city center. Tampa has not had a direct hit in a very long time, and our electrical infrastructure will be destroyed in some areas (think Charlie, Frances, Gene). Usually yearly storms will take out the weak trees, but our lack of a big storm in decades will cause much more damage to the Tampa area than it would to Miami or West Palm for example.
We could maybe get back to actually governing this country.
The Democrats had solid majorities in every branch of government for two full years.
During that time, not a single budget was passed. Nothing changed from when Bush was president except that spending skyrocketed and energy production in America was subdued or stopped whenever possible.
So exactly what are we all to look forward to when you get "back" to governing? Drone strikes on any Republicans that survived the storm?
Just another liberal happy to kill for the cause I suppose. There sure are a disturbing number of you around these days, unwilling to debate and only to destroy.
Osama Bin Laden was killed.
The recession is over.
General Motors and Chrysler, and the industrial heartland of the country, were saved from a catastrophe that would make the dust bowl look like nothing.
An end has come to the era of people being condemned to death by for-profit insurance companies using the excuse of "pre-existing conditions" to deny people their basic human right to health care coverage.
Colonel Gadaffi was ousted from power without a single American soldier being deployed on the ground, and without adding countless billions to the deficit.
That god-awful war in Iraq, the biggest foreign policy blunder since Napoleon invaded Russia, has ended.
Since Obama took office, oil imports have dropped by an average of 1.1 million barrels per day and in 2010 domestic crude oil production reached its highest level since 2003.
How you got an "insightful" mod I do not know.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Good thing for Mitt that "Heck of a Job Brownie" doesn't still run FEMA. Either way Tampa will be in the eye of the hurricane. But take heart.
... the priority of law enforcement is to evacuate residents, leaving GOP officials to make the decision of when to evacuate delegates...
I'll bet that if they're own butts are on the line, they move faster than when it's only the 99.9%.
They can debate the economics of deficit spending, and perhaps, if they're 'conservative' or Republican enough, even a woman's obligation to follow a religious tenet. It's a bit harder to snow a tropical storm.
Don't get too excited now. Later projections keep moving the eye track West. And it's not even a full hurricane, so far, and won't be for quite a while if it follows current projections and gets torn up moving over the mountains of Haiti and Cuba. While having God's Wrath (so to speak) descend on the Republican Convention would be sweet irony for some, I'd actually lay better odds on it skirting Tampa, building up in the Gulf, then slamming New Orleans. Now THAT'S irony.
Good thing for Mitt that "Heck of a Job Brownie" doesn't still run FEMA.
RNC Host Committee CEO Ken Jones said, "I have full faith and confident with the state of Florida, with FEMA, the local emergency management that if there is a bad weather incident, we will get people out, we will make sure they're safe and get on their way and out of harms way."
So...wait a second? Is he saying that he's depending on the Federal Government to rescue them? I thought Republicans were all about self-sufficiency...
Can we please get a Democrat to say it was an act of G-d? Wouldn't it be funny to see the republicans say "not-uh" (in Cartman's voice).
Back in the late 80's I wrote a hurricane tracking program called Hurricane (what else) and released it as shareware. I also obtained hurricane data back to 1886 from NOAH and by overlapping every storm track and summing the affected area with wind speed, I found that a section of Florida from Tampa, south to Sarasota, had the least cumulative wind speed. Actually that is the safest area in the southern U.S. when it comes to hurricanes.
But here's hoping for some change on that
Your example: supposed message boards (of course you ignore years of message boards seeking the assassination of GWB).
There's no ignoring. That's a figment of your imagination. People were far too busy finding photos of chimpanzee dopplegangers to be making death threats.
Liberals: Shooting up Sikh temples, and faking attacks on Democratic HQ's. Even Gifford's shooter, while unhinged, was unhappy because she was not a "pure" enough liberal.
Um... the Sikh shooter was a white supremacist ex-military dude. That group tends to skew Republican. CNN speculated he was a registered Democrat, but I don't think there was any responsible journalism on the topic. Could be though.
Gifford's shooter was registered Independent. His roommate claimed he was liberal, but his paranoia about the government has Tea Party echos, and law enforcement hasn't really determined anything about his motives.
I'll agree with you on most points, but we would still be in Iraq to a small degree if Iraq hadn't refused to agree to a new Status of Forces agreement that would extend immunity from Iraq prosecution. Baghdad wouldn't budge, and so the complete withdrawal happened, save for some Marines at the embassy.
I'm not taking sides on this, just pointing out that things could have been different had the Obama administration had its way.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Gosh, it's like a parody of leftist beliefs from a newscast from the 80s. Diversity. It's not just a catchphrase, it's a reality. Tolerate opposing viewpoints - unless those disagree with our own.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
There is no reason to tolerate intolerance. Absolutes are for fools.
Absolutely!
Of course, not all conservatives are assholes, but the GOP panders to these assholes, along with the stupid and selfish to form their base of support.
Well, without making a partisan remark which will surely be questionable, let me say that in the US we've fallen into the habit of identifying "conservative" with "Republican" and "liberal" with "Democrat". We've bought the brand messages. The GOP is a radical party now. This doesn't mean they're *wrong*, they want to remake the country according to a grand vision. They all that grand vision "conservatism", but it's not conservatism in the Burkean sense.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Now c'mon... that is a completely reasonable and perfectly logical post.
You know better than that, and besides, it doesn't make good airplay on MSNBC or CNN, yanno?
Unless a story can be drawn as an 'Us versus Them' dogfight, it'll never make the newscasts.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Without a filibuster-proof majority, the "majority" can't do anything. Thus the OP's claim that they had a "solid majority" implying they could have gotten work done (but didn't) was disingenuous.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
*ahem*:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/gary-k-owen-eileen-qutub-washington-state-emails_n_1773555.html
--and the point where it goes from HuffPo's "alleged" to the actual news where "Man admits [sending] death threat"--
http://www.kgw.com/news/Man-arrested-for-death-threat-against-WA-candidate-165745706.html
Yeah, dude's nuts. OTOH, the target of his death threat has an "(R)" after her name whenever it appears on the newscasts.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
For a definition of "solid majority" which includes a majority to thin to actually pass any substantive measure through the Senate given the existence of the filibuster, which requires a 60-vote supermajority to cut-off debate and proceed to a vote.
Well, except for the budgets passed for FY 2010 in 2009 and FY 2011 in 2010.
Here are some bits that are a lot more solid than figments:
http://michellemalkin.com/category/unhinged/assassination-chic/
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
GOP is the christian conservative party. Bush said that he was on a mission from god. When it comes to religion, there is no debate or compromise. Only way politics works is with compromise, so what do we get, a non working government.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
instead of pretending you are man enough to accept responsibility for your failures. Just how many years does it take for something like you to reach maturity anyway?
I take it you haven't pulled your head out of your ass in awhile. By all means, stick around though. Listening to you babble on is kind of like watching a raccoon with his head stuck in a jam jar.
Osama Bin Laden was killed.
Courtesy of US Military intelligence, lasting over eight years or more. Unless you can point to an image of Obama holding an M-16 in one hand and Bin Laden's severed head in the other, he (nor you) can't claim that one.
The recession is over.
Even the New York Times isn't letting that bit of propaganda slip by unchallenged: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/us/recession-officially-over-us-incomes-kept-falling.html
General Motors and Chrysler, and the industrial heartland of the country, were saved from a catastrophe that would make the dust bowl look like nothing.
They were 'saved' by a loan that was given them when TARP was passed... in 2008. Signed into law by that guy you likely loathe to the core of your soul.
An end has come to the era of people being condemned to death by for-profit insurance companies using the excuse of "pre-existing conditions" to deny people their basic human right to health care coverage.
So Medicare and Medicaid didn't exist before 2009 then?
Colonel Gadaffi was ousted from power without a single American soldier being deployed on the ground, and without adding countless billions to the deficit.
...thanks to the "Arab Spring", certainly. Same with Egypt, Tunisia, and hopefully Syria. Contrary to popular belief, the rest of the world is perfectly capable of fixing itself on occasion without a US president or military helping out.
That god-awful war in Iraq, the biggest foreign policy blunder since Napoleon invaded Russia, has ended.
...on schedule, no less. A schedule that was set years before Obama took office.
Since Obama took office, oil imports have dropped by an average of 1.1 million barrels per day and in 2010 domestic crude oil production reached its highest level since 2003.
...recent massive spikes in fuel costs had a lot more to do with it than any US governmental policy. Unless of course you can point us to one. You can do that, right?
How you got an "insightful" mod I do not know.
...because he actually used a bit of logic in his post, instead of blindly praising some politician for things that he obviously had little-to-no (mostly "no") hand in shaping.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
what you consider reasonable is what any thinking person would consider batshit crazy. Remember, while you would like to consider yourself a rational person, the grownups here know better.
They have no more reason to tolerate you than the Taliban. although, the damage caused by them was somewhat less.
That continuous lying does not change reality, it only shows how bankrupt your positions are.
the minorities and poor. Anything to deflect responsibility from the guilty parties. After all, if self centered greed and contempt for others are your main reasons for existing, they must be good.
Osama Bin Laden was killed.
Courtesy of US Military intelligence, lasting over eight years or more. Unless you can point to an image of Obama holding an M-16 in one hand and Bin Laden's severed head in the other, he (nor you) can't claim that one.
Going into the right country was kind of a prerequisite for getting the guy. There was plenty of US intelligence that was ignored by Dubya's administration because it didn't fit with their neo-con objective of stealing Iraq's oil. John McCain campaigned on the basis that he would not use force on Pakistani territory without the permission of the government. Obama was proved right on this one, because if he had gotten the government's permission it's a good bet that someone would have tipped Bin Laden's handlers off and he'd still be hiding somewhere. Fact is, the President made all the right calls and has as much right to take the credit for what goes right as he has to take the blame for what goes wrong.
And contrary to the lies spewing out of Fox News who were appalled by Bin Laden's death, Obama gave plenty of credit to the intelligence community and the personnel involved. If he wanted to take all the credit he could have done something really outlandish and obnoxious, like, say... I don't know ... dressing up in some sort of flight suit and getting a Navy pilot to land him on the deck of an aircraft carrier before making a triumphant speech about it? Nah, that'd be crazy.
The recession is over.
Even the New York Times isn't letting that bit of propaganda slip by unchallenged: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/us/recession-officially-over-us-incomes-kept-falling.html
Educate yourself. A recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. We're no longer in negative growth. This is not "propaganda". This is fact. (I know that conservatives have a hard time with facts but I'll try my best to use them on you in the vain hope that they'll sink in eventually.)
General Motors and Chrysler, and the industrial heartland of the country, were saved from a catastrophe that would make the dust bowl look like nothing.
They were 'saved' by a loan that was given them when TARP was passed... in 2008. Signed into law by that guy you likely loathe to the core of your soul.
Maybe you missed the bit where Romney said he'd let Detroit go bust. He was opposed to saving the motor industry, Obama was for it. Fact.
An end has come to the era of people being condemned to death by for-profit insurance companies using the excuse of "pre-existing conditions" to deny people their basic human right to health care coverage.
So Medicare and Medicaid didn't exist before 2009 then?
Oh, so if you can't afford health insurance then you automatically qualify for Medicaid? So we do have universal health care after all?
Colonel Gadaffi was ousted from power without a single American soldier being deployed on the ground, and without adding countless billions to the deficit.
...thanks to the "Arab Spring", certainly. Same with Egypt, Tunisia, and hopefully Syria. Contrary to popular belief, the rest of the world is perfectly capable of fixing itself on occasion without a US president or military helping out.
The Libyan rebels were taking a pounding until NATO came in with air strikes to back them up. They could not have taken Gadaffi out by force without outside support. Fact.
That god-awful war in Iraq, the biggest foreign policy blunder since Napoleon invaded Russia, has ended.
...on schedule, no less. A schedule that was set years before Obama took of
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Sorry bud, the facts don't line up behind your argument. The Republicans filibustered far more during each of the last six years than the dems did each year when they were the minority from 2000-2006. In fact, if you look at this on a graph, you'll see the it stays pretty steady when dems are minority, but usually increases a great deal when reps are the minority. You can see a ton of charts that show this in different ways if you google image search "republican filibuster chart", but here's a pretty good one: http://assets.thefiscaltimes.com/TFT2_20101228/App_Data/MediaFiles/3/2/4/%7B32460E0F-8033-4BB9-AC50-4E29BEE8DBC1%7Dfilibuster%20chart.jpg?w=587&h=549&as=1
You don't get debates from liberals because you make stuff up. Dems only had a supermajority in the senate for four months, most of which were in recess.
Obviously they cared more about having long recesses than getting things done....
Republicans had the Presidency, the House, and the Senate from 2003 to 2007 -- a ridiculously convenient opportunity to address the mortgage lending market problems. Democrats can't filibuster for four solid years!
Well, yes, the democrats can filibuster repeatedly. And the Senate has a heck of a lot of other important business to do as well; the republicans couldn't bring up one particular matter for four solid years.
A Category 2 hurricane could disrupt convention activities because the Tampa Bay Times Forum, site of the festivities, is within a mandatory evacuation zone for storms of that magnitude.
In other words: "This city cannot withstand a hurricane of that magnitude!"
There is no one true dictionary any more than there is one true god.
How can you claim that there is only one true dictionary when humanity has not spoken a single language since the tower of Babel?!
...queue Pat Robertson.
"You have been smitten because of your sinful behavior and..."
Oh. Sorry. Wrong party.
I just realized that is who the Dems are missing. They don't have some pompous, self-righteous guy to condemn people after disasters.
An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
I wouldn't worry about it. If it's a legitimate hurricane, the Republican party has ways to try and shut that whole thing down.
Where are the filibusters? They're right here you dishonest prick: http://politicalirony.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/senate-gridlock1.jpg
More than double than the democrats under Bush. Let me guess, now you're going to justify it by saying it was a good thing they stopped so many bills and they were within their rights to prevent tyranny of the majority. That's you being dishonest again because you're retreating from your first position without admitting anything.
You ever wonder why it's hard to get anything positive done? It's people like you.
"The Democrats had solid majorities in every branch of government for two full years."
Every bank run and financial collapse has occurred during a republican administration. Not one ever under a democratic administration.
But I'm sure that's just a continuous 200 year long coincidence.
Need Mercedes parts ?
Either a bunch of mean spirited batshit insane republicans die or our daughters do.
I know which choice I'd make.
Need Mercedes parts ?
Why don't you try backup up some of these assertions?
Need Mercedes parts ?
Just get the one damn vote you need to get that filibuster proof majority. It's sheer incompetence that the Democrats couldn't overcome the Republican filibuster. I agree with the original poster. They were given opportunity on a golden plate and they fucked it up.
God's punishment for subscribing to creationism.
So long, and thanks for all the Phish
If you can't look at Congress now and see anyone better suited to be President than the current candidates
Since they're not running, then they aren't better suited.
...increasingly worse candidates are elected?
That has been the trend over the last 50 years.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
We should stop pretending that the republicans are in opposition to the democrats. It's a very old game. Diffuse the blame and stay in office.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
... the biggest climate protester of them all !
There is no reason to tolerate intolerance. Absolutes are for fools.
I'm sorry but you can't handle that level of rank hypocrisy. Give it to me and I'll make sure it gets a good home.
"Republicans" and "reasonable" in the same sentence are oxymoron.
Just get the one damn vote you need to get that filibuster proof majority. It's sheer incompetence that the Democrats couldn't overcome the Republican filibuster. I agree with the original poster. They were given opportunity on a golden plate and they fucked it up.
So they "fucked up" by ending up following Republican policies? Yet they're the bad guys and the people whose policies they're following are the good guys.
Wow.
The stupid it hurts and the goggles zey do nothing.
God hates...
Source please?
If only the Ron Paul supporters were able to make it to the convention. If his delegates aren't at the convention, they can't vote for Romney.
who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
be still my beating heart
hurricane schmirricane
DO YOU REALIZE that because hurrricanes make everyone take cover and keep the idiots off the roads, there are far fewer deaths from the hurricane than would have been traffic fatalities during that period. HURRICANES SAVE LIVES. they treat potential for disaster as disaster
shows a short circuit in the risk assessment
misdirected erudition with emotional angst
Katrina: "It's a hurricane, this things goona get us!"
SHOULD HAVE BEEN: "Look Marge, the City is below sea level. This is gonna get us."
Fukushima: "Evil radiation meltdown sub-Denver levels bad bad bad fear doom Nature hates us!"
SHOULD HAVE BEEN: "Look Marge, all the backup generators are in the basement not protected by a watertight door. This is dumb in a way that has nothing to do with radiation."
brains are broke
cannot think
call it like it is
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Do you really think that's how it works?!
Some "opposing view points" do not deserve tolerance. Nazism* for example, if I may Godwin this thread.
*Well, as long as they stick to words and not actions, I frankly don't give a fuck. It's when they cross the line into actions that they do not deserve tolerance for their "opposing view points".
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
unwilling to debate and only to destroy.
Bwahaha! Are you for real?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-history-of-the-filibuster-in-one-graph/2012/05/15/gIQAVHf0RU_blog.html
It's getting to the point where NOTHING gets done by ANYBODY. You know who's unwilling to debate and only to destroy? Every-fucking-one in congress. Lately, the republicans have been spearheading the initiative, but I have no doubt that if (and it's a BIG if) Romney's elected, the Dem's will do the same damn thing.
All these people saying "but your party does it tooooo!11!!1" are either blind or stupid; when you get kicked in the balls, and kick the guy who kicked you in the balls on the way down, all that's left is a writhing mess of retards. --- Congress.
So...wait a second? Is he saying that he's depending on the Federal Government to rescue them? I thought Republicans were all about self-sufficiency...
I don't see any Republicans arguing with you!
THINK! It's patriotic
>>>At the time it was voted on, TARP was bipartisan.
At the time it was voted on, TARP failed to pass. The democrats loved the idea but the republicans rejected it, so it failed with only ~40% in favor. So they made a second bill (call it TARP 2) that was filled with lots of pork. That bill did eventually pass but only just barely. The majority of republicans still voted nay to it, but were outnumbered by the Democrat Congress.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
>>>And the reason nothing passed was the Democrats were attempting to be bi-partisan.
False. The Democrats are a single party but not a single mind. Obamacare could have swept through without a single republidick vote, but the "blue dog" Democrats were opposed to it. There Democrat party was split over the bill.
In order to winover their votes Obama had to promise to use a signing statement to block abortion funding. That's the only reason it passed with a slim 50.5% majority.
For noncontroversial issues the Democrat majority didn't have any problem ramming-through the Stimulus Bill in four weeks. Or the DTV Transition in just a few days (they pushed it back from February to June). Like my own Maryland legislature the Republicans could have stayed home from 2009 to 10, and it would have made no difference in what was passed because the Dems were in control.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
What is it with conservatives and their inability to get plain facts into their thick conservative skulls?
A recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. We're now in positive growth and it's been that way for quite some time. Fact.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
OMG so much bull in there I can't even be bothered refuting all of it. Let me just congratulate you on flip-flopping back to the "Bin Laden was no big deal anyway" default position beloved of GW Bush. If Bush had gotten OBL (yeah, big "if" since that would have involved having enough of a brain to send troops to the right fucking country) then you'd have been praising Bush as the greatest president since Lincoln.
Fucking conservative dickhead.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
>>>Republicans had the Presidency, the House, and the Senate from 2003 to 2007 -- a ridiculously convenient opportunity to address the mortgage lending market problems. Democrats can't filibuster for four solid years!
Agree 100%.
Now apply that SAME logic to the years 2007-10 (when the Democrats held a congressional majority plus the presidency for 2 years) and stop giving them excuses for why the country is in a shambles now. They have no one to blame but themselves.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
It's probably only half true.
/. included...
The trivial news of the day issues don;t even remotely brush the real, serious problems and dirty backroom deals that are important.
Turn on the TV and the radio, go on your favorite sites, and enjoy the deafening bleating of the ignorant masses.
*radio voice*
The percentile for Romney is now over 80 because of his show of bravery earlier this month. Romney was brave enough to ride out a hurricane in Florida while the "other candidates" were all wimps living under safe rooftops.
I can hear it now.
Only four months? Do your realize how much you can pass in four months? Do you remember the first four months of Obama's presidency? A great deal of legislation got passed, including one gigantic stimulus bill. If they wasted the supermajority period, it's their own fault for doing so.
Conveniently skipping the drunken orgy of spending that went on in the first half of 2009?
The Dems won the Congress in 2006. It's part of the reason Bush's last two years were effectively "lame duck". It's also the only reason TARP ever saw the light of day.
A task achieved by on intelligence community, supported by the bloated defense budget Obama is trying to cut. Attribute Osama's death to Obama simply because he said "sure, go ahead" when presented with actionable intelligence is stupid.
Which technically started and ended on Obama's watch (2008): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late-2000s_recession
The first quarter of negative GDP was Q1 2008: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth
Particularly damning is that the sharpest downturn was in September of 2008 after the spending of ungodly amounts of stimulus money.
Failures of companies deserve to fail. Fuck corporatism.
Fixing that loophole without the additional 999 pages of expensive budget-breaking cruft would have been far preferable.
Not exactly attributable to actions of the US...
We still have people on the ground over there, and it was already winding down at the end of Bush's term.
Global commodities dynamics are not a function of government. Or do you believe the resurgence of natural gas (and shift away from coal power) is also because of the government? (rather than regular market forces...)
You know you're on a loser if your evidence is the blog of the insane Michelle Malkin.
Hey why didn't anyone tell me Fox went into the business of providing internet connections?
Yes. There are historical cases where people who weren't running managed to get nominated, but those are quite infrequent and none has occurred in recent memory.
But that's not going to happen in this election cycle. First, Romney has enough delegates to win outright. Second, some portion of those delegates were won what I see as apparent manipulation of primary/caucus vote tabulation. Which indicates to me that he also has the support from any shadow powers in or behind the Republican party as well.
So they "fucked up" by ending up following Republican policies?
Why do you expect the answer to this question to be anything but "Yes"?
Yet they're the bad guys and the people whose policies they're following are the good guys.
The problem is that in this case, health care policy, the resulting bill was both grossly unconstitutional and a really bad idea to boot. No need to reduce things to white hat/black hat.