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Reply to My newspaper tells me to vote for Kerry. in Politics JoeUser Forums

Anglosesque: In regards to newspaper endorsements, remember that readers expect these opinions (a lot of local elections are decided by this) and it makes one more argument for the 3 people currently undecided in the U.S. As far as media reporting, if you get Newsworld International on cable I highly recommend The National from the CBC and the ITV News from Britain for news. You get world opinion without the American filter.

Reply to Faith Against Reason in the US Election in Politics JoeUser Forums

blogic: I think W is on a "mission" and that he thinks he is doing God's will. The White House has introduced many changes to Washington and has furthered the role of the church in such ways as faith-based initiatives and in the process of governing. However, faith is best when in service, not in words. By this, most of the most faithful people throughout history lived a faith that meant they never tired of serving others, being P

Reply to Institutionalized Bias: the times have indeed changed in Politics JoeUser Forums

historyishere: Well, I guess the thing I don't agree with (and most of it I do) is the concept of personal viewpoints of people living during a time being important. Caesar's history of the Gallic Wars makes the history vibrant and real even if there were errors or contextual bias. Books like April Morning by Howard Fast based on diaries of teenagers at the battle of Lexington and Concord and 1776 the musical make history real.

Reply to So Much for the Children: Bush Policies Cause More Abortions in Politics JoeUser Forums

blogic: Abortion, which is a deeply private issue is influenced more by poverty than anything else IMO. Rising standards of living in the 90's meant people were more secure with raising a child and having a home. We know in the Bush Presidency that more people have slipped below the poverty line and the lack of jobs have forced workers to take lower pay rates and raises than in the 1990's also. The same can be said of crime, malnu

Reply to The Politics Gets Even More Shameful! in Politics JoeUser Forums

little_whip: Thanks for the invite. I think that is a noble purpose. Have you contacted your congressman or senator about it yet? BTW: It's really a vote of no confidence that you are talking about in your post which should be a citizen's right on all money issues (taxes, etc.) and not confined simply to elections. OR that would be my take.

Reply to The Politics Gets Even More Shameful! in Politics JoeUser Forums

T B: We have an old saying in chess that "the threat is worse than the execution" which is to say if he has done this once he probably will do it again. BTW: I wrote e-mails to both parties on this issue explaining my outrage on the activities of both. I'll let you know if I get a response from either.

Reply to Left & Right Interpretations of the Constitution’s Preamble? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Stevendedalus: A very well written article. It's interesting that conservative used to mean "slow to change, with purpose!" and liberal used to mean "change is good, let's do it!" Now there is no meaning to either label so each had taken on all encompasing definitions depending on individual perspective.

Reply to Left & Right Interpretations of the Constitution’s Preamble? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Madine: Liberal equals communist? So, Stalin was a subset of liberal? Conservative equals libertarian? I don't many libertatians who would be comfortable with the that equation either. This is like the issue of "Strict Constructionist that Bush mentioned in the 2nd debate. He isn't going to have a litmus test but strict constructionist IS a litmus test. But then again: Someone define Strict Constructionist!</

Reply to The Politics Gets Even More Shameful! in Politics JoeUser Forums

Daiwa: Well, I would agree that these last 2 weeks will be very bitter but I think the media on it is going to use sound bites that emphasize the negativity and I am not sure it will be any more negative than it was. Remember, for the first 8 weeks (August and September) all we heard from Bush was 1) I kept you safER and 2) Kerry's a flip-flopper. Now that this message is old we hear 1) I kept you safER than Kerry will and 2) Kerry is a libe

Reply to You might be anti-American IF... in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

Draginol: I would agree with the article in general. Howver, I am not sure what the American car has to do with it. I mean, I have bought American and foreign cars and found the foreign ones more reliable. I generally get 8 years out of them versus 5 for an American. I have no bumper stickers on my cars and never have had. Personally, the difference between a patriot and and someone who dislikes America is the attitude. A patri

Reply to The Politics Gets Even More Shameful! in Politics JoeUser Forums

T B: I also have a background in stats and agree. (Wow! 2 Statisticians look at data and come to the same conclusion, hehehe.) The thing is, in states that will decide by less than 2% of the vote, a couple of thousand "influenced" to vote or not vote might be the difference. That's why the issue is so important. Did you come up with the Tobin report? If you did, does it add anything to the N.Y. Times item? Thanks for the info

Reply to The Politics Gets Even More Shameful! in Politics JoeUser Forums

Bungy32: You know, I wish I had a good answer to your question. I don't think "who was more outrageous?" is a good qualification because that's a matter of taste. (Lord knows, we don't want a "taste test"!) I think the thing is that we watch the abuse closely and each of us decide what is outrageous and then tell whichever party we support about our disgust and after the election petition our representatives and congressmen on both the stat

Reply to The Politics Gets Even More Shameful! in Politics JoeUser Forums

Daiwa: Well put! This is non-partisan and in-fact, is really the most non-political of political issues. The debate should be: "how can we clean up this crap?" but instead it seems to be: "Is the crap being done equal on both sides?" That's not to say that those in this thread are saying that. I applaud all of you who are as outraged as myself.

Reply to The Politics Gets Even More Shameful! in Politics JoeUser Forums

Peter the great: I don't think anyone knows how common or uncommon it is. We don't hear about it enough to judge. As I said in the article, finding this story was not easy.

Reply to The Politics Gets Even More Shameful! in Politics JoeUser Forums

drmiler: You know, I am not sure if we should "tally" incidents as a measure of their severity. The real issue is whether both campaigns have done it (yes) and how we should react. I would hate to see the reaction be: Since both do it, then it's ok. That's like "you shoot someone, I shoot someone, so we are both exonerated by the equality of the criminal act."

Reply to The Politics Gets Even More Shameful! in Politics JoeUser Forums

T B: I tried to make sure it was obvious that I was including both sides in the dirty tricks department. I choose the story I did because it was the most recent I could find. There was another Republican story about a campaigner in South Dakota who was disgraced by his actions and then rehired in Cleveland a day later but I figured that was overkill. The bottom line question are 1)when do such actions as we are seeing actually cau

The Politics Gets Even More Shameful! in Politics JoeUser Forums

BUSH CAMPAIGN OFFICIAL RESIGNS President Bush's New England campaign chairman stepped down Friday after the Democrats accused him of taking part in the jamming of their telephone lines in New Hampshire on Election Day 2002. "The Democrats' allegations against me are without merit," the official, James Tobin, said in a statement. "But to avoid any harm to the campai

Reply to $7.4 Trillion Ceiling Reached in Politics JoeUser Forums

stevendedalus: Do you think the next limit should be raised to $10 or $12 trillion just to save time when the debt gets there? I mean, we want to be expedient in doing this, it increases the time we have to spend the money in the first place. The CBOT said yesterday that $75 per barrel for oil was possible in the next several months, which they claimed would be "absorbable" by the American economy. So, since they are in Chicago, I

Reply to Left & Right & Patriotism in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

Draginol: "Most Americans" are capitalists, favor economic growth and want the opportunities for their children that are better than the ones they had. What distinguishes one side for the other is often the method for achieving that. For example, an international coalition and concensus rather than what we are doing now. The biggest problem we have (right versus left) is the polarization of extremes where a Christian is told if he

Reply to Reasonable bloggers. in Politics JoeUser Forums

Everyone: For those who would include me I thank you for the honor. I am a great believer in the idea that every person is worthwhile, has a purpose and is worth respect. A person has to go out of his/her way to make me think otherwise. A few have done that but even those may have acted for other reasons than spite or nastiness. So keep up the great blogs! You are appreciated.

Reply to Tell the dead children in International JoeUser Forums

d3adzOmbie: Well, the counter-argument would run something like: How about Darfur? What do you say about the U.S. lack of response? If you say "well, we can't be the world's policeman" what were you doing in Iraq? If you say, "not our problem" what were you doing in Iraq? The thing is that there are lots of bullies in the world. Many have a government address. But if we are going to be selective in our choices, then no

Reply to Why is Left Unpatriotic? in Politics JoeUser Forums

SameOldRat: Well, I've been accused of being on both sides. The main issue is that people resort to name calling when they run out of arguments about their ideas on an issue. The Left is very patriotic to be so determined to move the country in a different direction than the one we are headed in. the Right is very patriotic to believe that what we are doing now is the path we should be on. The voters decide which is best for the

Reply to JoeUser feature needed in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Peter the great: I agree. Not sure what it would take to do it considering the number of users and everything. We are lucky to have a site that functions as well as this one, too. Many that I've visited work much worse with more hassles.

Reply to Mystery Science Theater 3000 in Politics JoeUser Forums

geser nart: While not a student of Prechter (his analysis is too esoteric for a guy trading every day) I follow his logic and agree with some of the principles he espouses. The main point of economics that many miss is that macroeconomics follows certain patterns because the operations of the economy run in cycles and always has. What that means is that there is no such thing as "the new economy" or the "new economic model." Many

Reply to Kerry victory in November in Politics JoeUser Forums

Draginol: Not that I don't appreciate the model but I would be remiss if I didn't say that the election within 30 electoral votes or 4% (the usual margin of error for election polls) is "too close to call." I think we are still too far away to even make a choice of candidates. Even this morning, new information on Bush's Guard Service came out. I would caution people not to rush to either candidate until we get to the last weekend