This administration has already demonstrated that they believe in the power of prayer. From that standpoint, this is clearly a threat.
Of course, they've also said that they believe God is on their side, so theoretically, they shouldn't be worried about this "threat." But...since they sent the SS out to investigate...maybe they're not so certain of their standing with the big guy. Hmmmmmmmmmm...
HOLY CRAP - THIS IS PROOF THAT BUSH LIED ABOUT BELIEVING THAT HE IS DOING GOD'S WORK!
I can see it now - "Godgate." Bush's obvious lack of faith will cause all his uber-Christian supporters to abandon him. LOL!
On a more serious note, no, this was not a threat, but it's the SS's job to check out EVERYTHING. I don't fault them for that. I do think the original post was pretty funny.
"...if you could at least arrange it so that the authorities find his dead body on top of an underage black male prostitute surrounded by a mountain of cocaine and child pornography, that would really be super-awesome."
A real Goth would tell you that nothing really lives until it dies. They're probably celebrating the mass-marketification of "Goth" as the death throes of a subculture. After that's come and gone then the true bleakhearts can return like a dark phoenix.
Now you know why we think American's are loud mouthed morons.
I wouldn't be climbing on the high horse so fast if i were you. I suspect that if a similar study were run covering Europe/Asia/anywhere, there would be a heck of a lot of uninformed people there too. Maybe not as many, maybe misinformed in different (less harmful) ways, but probably a scary number in its own right.
Just because a survey hasn't been done that proves you're a loud-maouhthed moron doesn't mean you aren't one.;-)
If a murderous rapist serial killer is banging down your front door
Not a good analogy.
For future reference, if you want to talk about 9/11, a better analogy would be waking up to find that a mob hitman has broken into your house and shot your child before turning the gun on himself.
If you want to talk about Iraq, you might try using the idea of a known sex-offender living in your neighborhood.
Neither analogy is perfect, but analogies never are.
So what's your response to those analogies? Well, if you're the US you go after the mafia boss who hired the suicidal hitman. You let the boss escape, catch some of his subordinates and hold them without a trial, kill a bunch of his henchmen (along with a few people who happened to live near them) and imprison (without trial) a bunch of Italians and Italian-Americans who happened to be near your house at the time of the murder. Then you go burn down the sex-offender's house after falsely claiming that he was hiding kiddie-porn and was working with the mob.
Every time i see someone make that mistake i imagine the floor of the Senate during a fierce debate, except DeLay and Daschle and all their cronies are dressed in drag.
Just in case you don't feel like rtfa, a couple examples:
53% of Bush supporters think Bush wants us to participate in the International Criminal Court. We do not participate in the ICC and Bush does not think we should. 51% of Bush supporters think Bush wants us to participate in the Kyoto agreement. We do not participate in the Kyoto agreement and Bush does not think we should.
20% of Bush supporters think that Iraq was directly involved in 9/11 and 19% of Bush supporters think that Bush is telling them that.
But hey, the Republicans aren't the only uninformed people out there: 31% of Kerry supporters (36% for Bushies) think we actually do participate in the Kyoto agreement and 34% of them think that Bush supports it. 39% of Kerry supporters (45% for Bushies) think we actually do participate in the ICC and 45% of them think that Bush supports it.
What we can learn from this: one-third to one-half of the people out there don't know what the fuck they're talking about regardless of party affiliation, but Bush supporters are wrong slightly more often.
I'm waiting for some liberal to come refute my facts
What facts? You presented a bunch of opinions and conjectures.
The world looks out for the world. The US needs to look out for the US.
Nonsense. If the world is looking out for the world, then it's looking out for the US too. Unless you'd like to claim that the US is no longer part of the world?
That go-it-alone attitude is precisely why so much of the world dislikes us. Yes, the US must look out for the interests of its citizens first, but that doesn't mean we should flip the bird to everyone else.
The manual is not telling anyone to lie. You seem to be getting hung up on the words "pre-emptive strike." Despite the aggressive language, the strike they are calling for is not an attack on their opponents. The "pre-emptive strike" is putting the media on alert to watch out for these abuses and educating the voters so that they can see through those tactics if someone tries to pull them.
Interesting to note that his definition of a Beowulf Writer is essentially a writer that is supported by what might be described as a Beowulf Cluster of Fans.
1) Those stats are misleading. Not surprising considering the source. Those stats only compared care options given to pregnant women, but Planned Parenthood provides many other services, such as gynecological exams and contraceptive prescriptions.
PP provided 101,000 educational programs to more than 1.4 million people.
Reversible contraception clients: 2,208,483
Emergency contraception clients: 633,756
Abortions: 227,375
HIV testing clients: 175,468
Prenatal care: 15,860
Breast exams: 1,062,727
Adoption referrals: 1,963
Abortion procedures comprise less than 4% of the services Planned Parenthood provides. Consider also the fact that more than 42% of the services Planned Parenthood provides are directly geared towards preventing unplanned pregnancies. Now think about how many more unwanted children/abortions there might be if not for Planned Parenthood.
2) Even if we only look at those stats (i'll use the more recent numbers) and conclude that only 7% of the pregnant women Planned Parenthood treats choose non-abortive options, you cannot conclude that this is because of bias inherent in Planned Parenthood itself. You must take into account the fact that there are far more providers of prenatal care and adoption counseling than there are abortions. In essence, people wanting abortions often have PP as their only option, while those seeking other options have many choices. That suggests that the bias does not exist in Planned Parenthood, but in the clients who come there.
Someone took advantage of a convenient opportunity to register and you think that means they deserve to have their right to vote taken away?
Blame the victim usually comes in the form of, "She was asking for it by wearing that short skirt and flirting." Interesting variation you've got there, please don't ever do jury duty.
Finally we have a fair and unbiased source of information about the evils of Linux and Open Source! It's about time someone stood up to those commie-loving baby-eaters! It's about time a neutral and disinterested third party got involved to counteract all the LIES being spewed by those satan-worshipping child-molesters!
Mark Racicot, chairman of Bush's reselection campaign, was the guest. He says, "This campaign is so focused on being positive," and the audience spontaneously busts out laughing like it was the punchline to a joke.
That's what happens when you try to pawn off bullshit platitudes on an informed audience. They laugh at you. Unfortunately all of America is not so well-informed.
the jobs are being redistributed according to what people are good at
Apparently Asians and Mexicans are really good at manufacturing jobs that pay pennies per day, Indians are good programmers and call-center operators, and Americans are good at being unemployed and at flipping burgers. It's a good thing we finally got that straightened out! And here i thought the jobs were just going to where the labor was cheap! I'm so comforted to know it's really about what we're good at.
because of truckloads of republican votes being destroyed
Yeah, the Man is always trying to keep the Man down! (Kidding aside, i'd love to see a credible source for that one. Got citation?)
Hmm, actually, he inherited an economy that was already in decline, and then, despite of what happened on 9/11 and a subsequent war, turned the economy around which has reduced the unemployment rate to a low 5.4%. Not to shabby.
The economy is about more than jobs. His tax cuts to the rich made it so that our children will have to pay something like $1,500 apiece when it comes time to pay off the deficit. We're back to borrowing from our kids to pay for our own fiscal irresponsibility.
But even if we do look at the jobs, remember that the unemployment rate only counts people who are receiving unemployment benefits, not the ones whose benefits have run out. We're still down 1.1 million jobs from where we were four years ago.
he fucked Iraq
Really? If by "fucked" you mean "improved," alright, I'll give ya that one.
Improved? Saddam is gone. That's one big step forward. Violence is rampant and much of the country is controlled by islamist radicals. One giant step backwards. The infrastructure of the country is shattered - electricity, water, food - all scarce because the violence has disrupted rebuilding efforts. Another big step backwards. The country with the second-largest oil reserves in the world has been moved back into third-world status and it's not showing any sign of getting better. Still moving backwards. But hey, that Saddam thing is pretty good. That must be why all those Iraqis are so grateful to us and happy we're there, right?
It's the right war for the wrong reasons, conducted in the wrong way. 1 out of 3 ain't good.
he fucked our international relations
I would argue that our own media fucked our international relations. They're the ones that constantly criticized, insulted, and generally belittled him. And the main reason France and Germany didn't join us in Iraq is because they were in bed with Saddam, with multi-billion dollar oil deals. Not to mention they were both involved in the corruption of the Oil For Food program.
A small minority of the media thought that he was a moron and that he was following bad policies and they half-heartedly called him on it. They're not supposed to be a squad of fucking cheerleaders, they're supposed to be the watchdogs who help prevent our government from degenerating into tyranny. This administration has taken government secrecy to new heights, aided by media outlets that are blatantly biased in their favor. Every president would love to have the media "problems this administration has had.
Right, Germany and France were just opposed to the Iraq invasion because of the money. Not because the administration was clearly lying/grossly misinformed about the WMDs. Not because it would divert resources away from tracking down and eliminating Al Qaeda and the other real threats. Not because waging war on Iraq would do nothing to make the world safer, in fact it has bred more hatred of the west in general and more terrorists.
he fucked our intelligence services
The Clinton administration is, in part, responsible for that. Specifically, it was Jamie Gorelick that wrote the memo that helped block communication between the intelligence agencies.
Bush has been busy improving inter-agency communication and collaboration. I admit they may have gone a little too far with some components of the Patriot Act.
Right, because that memo, which Bush's own people endorsed and reinforced, which was just a clarification of policies that had been in place since the Reagan years, was what kept Bush from sitting up and taking notice when a briefing that said "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US," came to him. That memo is what's responsible for his people picking out and puffing up the intelligence that supports their goals and downplaying or ignoring the intelligence that says they
Is sex the only thing that can get you into trouble?
Even sex wouldn't stop Bush. After all, he already fucked the economy, he fucked Iraq, he fucked our international relations, he fucked our intelligence services, he fucked our civil liberties, and he fucked our electoral system. Kinda puts a blowjob from an intern into perspective, doesn't it?
He's either a liar or he's grossly incompetent - which of those options is more comforting?
His administration has been wrong on so many things and yet it's always someone else's fault. Just once, i'd like to hear them say, "We acted on bad intelligence and we take responsibility for the results. We should have had it double-checked. We should have required a minority position report. We've learned from that mistake and we'll do better in the future."
They can't even admit that they have ever made a mistake, much less take reponsibility for the repercussions.
To Bush & Co, saying the same thing over and over again, even if it's wrong, is better than acknowledging a mistake and changing your position. The concept of learning from one's mistakes is unknown to them. In their world, it's called flip-flopping.
Someone else is responsible for claiming that Iraq tried to buy Uranium from Nigeria. Someone else is responsible for saying that Saddam had lots of WMD's and that we knew right where they were. Someone else leaked the identity of an undercover CIA operative. Someone else is responsible for the mistaken assumption that Iraqis would welcome us with open arms and thank us for invading their country. Someone else is responsible for "Mission Accomplished." Someone else allowed prisoners to be tortured. Someone else is turning this election into the sleaziest, dirtiest mud-slinging campaign ever.
If "someone else" really is responsible for all that, then i still blame Bush for not checking to see if "someone else" was full of shit. Where does the buck stop?
Slashdot Mirror
This administration has already demonstrated that they believe in the power of prayer. From that standpoint, this is clearly a threat.
Of course, they've also said that they believe God is on their side, so theoretically, they shouldn't be worried about this "threat." But...since they sent the SS out to investigate...maybe they're not so certain of their standing with the big guy. Hmmmmmmmmmm...
HOLY CRAP - THIS IS PROOF THAT BUSH LIED ABOUT BELIEVING THAT HE IS DOING GOD'S WORK!
I can see it now - "Godgate." Bush's obvious lack of faith will cause all his uber-Christian supporters to abandon him. LOL!
On a more serious note, no, this was not a threat, but it's the SS's job to check out EVERYTHING. I don't fault them for that. I do think the original post was pretty funny.
"...if you could at least arrange it so that the authorities find his dead body on top of an underage black male prostitute surrounded by a mountain of cocaine and child pornography, that would really be super-awesome."
A real Goth would tell you that nothing really lives until it dies. They're probably celebrating the mass-marketification of "Goth" as the death throes of a subculture. After that's come and gone then the true bleakhearts can return like a dark phoenix.
Or maybe not.
Now you know why we think American's are loud mouthed morons.
;-)
I wouldn't be climbing on the high horse so fast if i were you. I suspect that if a similar study were run covering Europe/Asia/anywhere, there would be a heck of a lot of uninformed people there too. Maybe not as many, maybe misinformed in different (less harmful) ways, but probably a scary number in its own right.
Just because a survey hasn't been done that proves you're a loud-maouhthed moron doesn't mean you aren't one.
If a murderous rapist serial killer is banging down your front door
Not a good analogy.
For future reference, if you want to talk about 9/11, a better analogy would be waking up to find that a mob hitman has broken into your house and shot your child before turning the gun on himself.
If you want to talk about Iraq, you might try using the idea of a known sex-offender living in your neighborhood.
Neither analogy is perfect, but analogies never are.
So what's your response to those analogies?
Well, if you're the US you go after the mafia boss who hired the suicidal hitman. You let the boss escape, catch some of his subordinates and hold them without a trial, kill a bunch of his henchmen (along with a few people who happened to live near them) and imprison (without trial) a bunch of Italians and Italian-Americans who happened to be near your house at the time of the murder. Then you go burn down the sex-offender's house after falsely claiming that he was hiding kiddie-porn and was working with the mob.
a rouge regime
Every time i see someone make that mistake i imagine the floor of the Senate during a fierce debate, except DeLay and Daschle and all their cronies are dressed in drag.
rouge
rogue
What i find really amazing is how many people who identify themselves as Bush supporters don't know what his positions are.
The results from the survey, broken out by question.
Just in case you don't feel like rtfa, a couple examples:
53% of Bush supporters think Bush wants us to participate in the International Criminal Court. We do not participate in the ICC and Bush does not think we should.
51% of Bush supporters think Bush wants us to participate in the Kyoto agreement. We do not participate in the Kyoto agreement and Bush does not think we should.
20% of Bush supporters think that Iraq was directly involved in 9/11 and 19% of Bush supporters think that Bush is telling them that.
But hey, the Republicans aren't the only uninformed people out there: 31% of Kerry supporters (36% for Bushies) think we actually do participate in the Kyoto agreement and 34% of them think that Bush supports it.
39% of Kerry supporters (45% for Bushies) think we actually do participate in the ICC and 45% of them think that Bush supports it.
What we can learn from this: one-third to one-half of the people out there don't know what the fuck they're talking about regardless of party affiliation, but Bush supporters are wrong slightly more often.
I'm waiting for some liberal to come refute my facts
What facts? You presented a bunch of opinions and conjectures.
The world looks out for the world. The US needs to look out for the US.
Nonsense. If the world is looking out for the world, then it's looking out for the US too. Unless you'd like to claim that the US is no longer part of the world?
That go-it-alone attitude is precisely why so much of the world dislikes us. Yes, the US must look out for the interests of its citizens first, but that doesn't mean we should flip the bird to everyone else.
They're saying to LIE about something!
The manual is not telling anyone to lie. You seem to be getting hung up on the words "pre-emptive strike." Despite the aggressive language, the strike they are calling for is not an attack on their opponents. The "pre-emptive strike" is putting the media on alert to watch out for these abuses and educating the voters so that they can see through those tactics if someone tries to pull them.
Fore-warned is fore-armed.
Interesting to note that his definition of a Beowulf Writer is essentially a writer that is supported by what might be described as a Beowulf Cluster of Fans.
Some stats for 2002 from Planned Parenthood:
Abortion procedures comprise less than 4% of the services Planned Parenthood provides. Consider also the fact that more than 42% of the services Planned Parenthood provides are directly geared towards preventing unplanned pregnancies. Now think about how many more unwanted children/abortions there might be if not for Planned Parenthood.
2) Even if we only look at those stats (i'll use the more recent numbers) and conclude that only 7% of the pregnant women Planned Parenthood treats choose non-abortive options, you cannot conclude that this is because of bias inherent in Planned Parenthood itself. You must take into account the fact that there are far more providers of prenatal care and adoption counseling than there are abortions. In essence, people wanting abortions often have PP as their only option, while those seeking other options have many choices. That suggests that the bias does not exist in Planned Parenthood, but in the clients who come there.
Someone took advantage of a convenient opportunity to register and you think that means they deserve to have their right to vote taken away?
Blame the victim usually comes in the form of, "She was asking for it by wearing that short skirt and flirting." Interesting variation you've got there, please don't ever do jury duty.
Finally we have a fair and unbiased source of information about the evils of Linux and Open Source! It's about time someone stood up to those commie-loving baby-eaters! It's about time a neutral and disinterested third party got involved to counteract all the LIES being spewed by those satan-worshipping child-molesters!
Team America's theme song.
Would that be, "America! Fuck Yeah!"?
The name alone deserves an Oscar.
The answer is not to tell them to stay home, it's to encourage them to become informed voters.
I, for one, welcome our new virtual machine overlord.
What? It's funny right? Simpsons? Someone always posts one of these!
Do you really want to argue that the Bush campaign has been focused on running with positive message?
You could do that, but then i'd have to laugh at you.
Mark Racicot, chairman of Bush's reselection campaign, was the guest. He says, "This campaign is so focused on being positive," and the audience spontaneously busts out laughing like it was the punchline to a joke.
That's what happens when you try to pawn off bullshit platitudes on an informed audience. They laugh at you. Unfortunately all of America is not so well-informed.
That's precisely why it ought to be asked again.
A shitty, self-serving answer tells you just as much about the person giving it as an honest, deeply-considered one does.
Just because the question is posted here does not mean that it was not also submitted there. In other words...
Settle down, Beavis!
What is the biggest mistake you made in the last four years? What were the negative repercussions of that mistake and what have you done to fix it?
the jobs are being redistributed according to what people are good at
Apparently Asians and Mexicans are really good at manufacturing jobs that pay pennies per day, Indians are good programmers and call-center operators, and Americans are good at being unemployed and at flipping burgers. It's a good thing we finally got that straightened out! And here i thought the jobs were just going to where the labor was cheap! I'm so comforted to know it's really about what we're good at.
because of truckloads of republican votes being destroyed
Yeah, the Man is always trying to keep the Man down! (Kidding aside, i'd love to see a credible source for that one. Got citation?)
Some people just can't handle humor.
But, since i'm a sucker for naive people...
After all, he already fucked the economy
Hmm, actually, he inherited an economy that was already in decline, and then, despite of what happened on 9/11 and a subsequent war, turned the economy around which has reduced the unemployment rate to a low 5.4%. Not to shabby.
The economy is about more than jobs. His tax cuts to the rich made it so that our children will have to pay something like $1,500 apiece when it comes time to pay off the deficit. We're back to borrowing from our kids to pay for our own fiscal irresponsibility.
But even if we do look at the jobs, remember that the unemployment rate only counts people who are receiving unemployment benefits, not the ones whose benefits have run out. We're still down 1.1 million jobs from where we were four years ago.
he fucked Iraq
Really? If by "fucked" you mean "improved," alright, I'll give ya that one.
Improved? Saddam is gone. That's one big step forward. Violence is rampant and much of the country is controlled by islamist radicals. One giant step backwards. The infrastructure of the country is shattered - electricity, water, food - all scarce because the violence has disrupted rebuilding efforts. Another big step backwards. The country with the second-largest oil reserves in the world has been moved back into third-world status and it's not showing any sign of getting better. Still moving backwards. But hey, that Saddam thing is pretty good. That must be why all those Iraqis are so grateful to us and happy we're there, right?
It's the right war for the wrong reasons, conducted in the wrong way. 1 out of 3 ain't good.
he fucked our international relations
I would argue that our own media fucked our international relations. They're the ones that constantly criticized, insulted, and generally belittled him. And the main reason France and Germany didn't join us in Iraq is because they were in bed with Saddam, with multi-billion dollar oil deals. Not to mention they were both involved in the corruption of the Oil For Food program.
A small minority of the media thought that he was a moron and that he was following bad policies and they half-heartedly called him on it. They're not supposed to be a squad of fucking cheerleaders, they're supposed to be the watchdogs who help prevent our government from degenerating into tyranny. This administration has taken government secrecy to new heights, aided by media outlets that are blatantly biased in their favor. Every president would love to have the media "problems this administration has had.
Right, Germany and France were just opposed to the Iraq invasion because of the money. Not because the administration was clearly lying/grossly misinformed about the WMDs. Not because it would divert resources away from tracking down and eliminating Al Qaeda and the other real threats. Not because waging war on Iraq would do nothing to make the world safer, in fact it has bred more hatred of the west in general and more terrorists.
he fucked our intelligence services
The Clinton administration is, in part, responsible for that. Specifically, it was Jamie Gorelick that wrote the memo that helped block communication between the intelligence agencies.
Bush has been busy improving inter-agency communication and collaboration. I admit they may have gone a little too far with some components of the Patriot Act.
Right, because that memo, which Bush's own people endorsed and reinforced, which was just a clarification of policies that had been in place since the Reagan years, was what kept Bush from sitting up and taking notice when a briefing that said "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US," came to him. That memo is what's responsible for his people picking out and puffing up the intelligence that supports their goals and downplaying or ignoring the intelligence that says they
Is sex the only thing that can get you into trouble?
Even sex wouldn't stop Bush. After all, he already fucked the economy, he fucked Iraq, he fucked our international relations, he fucked our intelligence services, he fucked our civil liberties, and he fucked our electoral system. Kinda puts a blowjob from an intern into perspective, doesn't it?
He's either a liar or he's grossly incompetent - which of those options is more comforting?
His administration has been wrong on so many things and yet it's always someone else's fault. Just once, i'd like to hear them say, "We acted on bad intelligence and we take responsibility for the results. We should have had it double-checked. We should have required a minority position report. We've learned from that mistake and we'll do better in the future."
They can't even admit that they have ever made a mistake, much less take reponsibility for the repercussions.
To Bush & Co, saying the same thing over and over again, even if it's wrong, is better than acknowledging a mistake and changing your position. The concept of learning from one's mistakes is unknown to them. In their world, it's called flip-flopping.
Someone else is responsible for claiming that Iraq tried to buy Uranium from Nigeria. Someone else is responsible for saying that Saddam had lots of WMD's and that we knew right where they were. Someone else leaked the identity of an undercover CIA operative. Someone else is responsible for the mistaken assumption that Iraqis would welcome us with open arms and thank us for invading their country. Someone else is responsible for "Mission Accomplished." Someone else allowed prisoners to be tortured. Someone else is turning this election into the sleaziest, dirtiest mud-slinging campaign ever.
If "someone else" really is responsible for all that, then i still blame Bush for not checking to see if "someone else" was full of shit. Where does the buck stop?