Kerry supporters, the most vocal ones, seem to think that they're somehow smarter, more informed, more enlightened than Bush supporters. Not to start a war here, but I believe that one of the weirdnesses of the current political situation is that both sides feel this way about the other side. The probl
driven by a profound moral & religious belief in God’s wisdom & grace And what makes you think this? George Bush's claims to deep religious conviction rest upon three things: 1) his kicking of an alcohol problem, b) his flattering of the religious by speak
is this before or after Dan Rather used forged documents in an attempt tp smear the President, and then would not appologize for the hoax after it was revealed An interesting example, you use. CBS was fed forged documents by someone. They were finally proven to be a hoax when the secretary of the supposed wri
The double standard in the media permits kerry to flip & flop at will. What the heck are you talking about? If one thing has come through in election coverage, it is that John Kerry changed his views. Honestly, is there anyone in America who has not heard that? This bit about the left wing media bei
We attacked Iraq which probably didnt have much or anything to do with 9/11, however it was a state that sponsored terrorism and that is reason enough to curb their policiy. My personal point, Moore's aside, is not that poor old Saddam Hussein didn't deserve what he got from us. That would be crazy. M
Look at it this way on any particular dollar that you make as income you pay tax on it. Spend it on say gas or tobacco products and you pay tax yet again on the same dollar. True, but not a problem in my book. I make my income. I pay income tax on it to sta
Mythical Mino,I think I have a very liberal rep around here, but I agree, in general, with you. A member of the clergy should be able to speak his piece on any political issue he/she wishes to, at any time. In my mind, separation of church and state is a matter or protecting religion. No one should ever have his or her religion attacked by the government, to which he pays taxes. No government should ever establish one religion as "the" rel
Is Michael Moore anti-American? Well, he is opposed to the current direction taken by the government of our country. By implication that means he is critical of the many millions of voters who support the direction taken by our government. When you disagree with other voters, you can assume that they know what they are doing but are evil, or you can assume that they know what they are doing but are misguided, or you can assume that they don'
This is my problem. People want to call it a comedy show so it's not a journalistic show held to journalistic standard, and then they want to treat it as journalism. I'm a liberal, but I am with you on this matter. One of the main problems with our country's political system is that the line between pol
What would change my vote? If a good candidate were running for either the Democrats or the Republicans. Given the choices, I will take the mediocre over the unmitigated disaster.
Although I would put none of this past either party, this particular item -- the election day manual -- has fake written all over it.
In general, I would prefer to see personal lives left out of politics. However, there is a relevant point that is important and best made with this particular example. National conservatives have this way of sending signals that they are social conservatives as well as foreign policy and economic conservatives. That is where the wedge issues are, the things that turn a large segment of the electorate towards the Republicans -- yet many of t
Is President Bush a strong leader? I guess that depends on what you mean by strong. He has gotten his way in this country, over the past four years, and that implies strength. Of course, war time presidents are normally followed, and his administration has certainly felt the need to return time and again to the existence of this war, in order to cement his power -- which implies weakness. Kind of hard to imagine any past wartime president r
PolMach Forums
"... What on earth Saudi officials were up to when they helped fund the San Diego sojourn of two of the future hijackers, and why the Bush administration has tried to conceal this episode. This fact, uncovered by the joint House-Seante intelligence committee's September 11 investigation, but later deemed classified by the administration, is at the heart of concerns about Saudi Arabia voiced by Bob Graham, the teiring Senate committee chair, in his ne
PolMach Forums
Very good sources prior to this point to the following: * Saudi Arabia contributed money to the terrorists. It is not clear what Saudi Arabia's intentions were, but a cautious person would attribute their actions to a failed effort to buy moles in a terrorist organization, rather than to support terrorism. * The two men stayed in the home of a San Diego man who was a paid informant of the FBI * The FBI flatly denied the Congressional inves
It is very tough to be honest when the messages to the millions are in sound bites, and the analysis is mostly of the "gotcha" variety, where any line will be taken out of context and tortured far beyond its original meaning. In this atmosphere, if you want to win, you need to look presidential in the sound bite setting, and you need an outstanding staff of image makers who create a persona out of whole cloth, and then try to sell that persona
Why do these shows interview so many spin doctors? I'm with you. I do not want to hear these people. But I think I can answer your question, and I hope that I am right, because I teach the answer to my media class. The media covers
Funny thing, but as a Kerry voter, I have been thinking parallel thoughts -- could Kerry be a Republican mole hired to throw the election to Bush? Actually, I think that these are arguably the worst two candidates for President ever, taken together as a team. Each man is getting worrisomely close to 50% of the voters who say, "Anybody but __________." I would describe myse
JillUser, I am sorry you took offense at my comment, but I think you have misread my intent. I was answering this: The most vocal bleeding heart here I know of gets to sound really compassionate even though I suspect it's been many years since she's worked a full time job. It's easy for her to write from her apartmen
That's a pretty pathetic strawman argument. Actually, no, there is something in there, although it has nothing to do with gambling debts. From my personal experiences with my students over thirty years of teaching: Issue #1: Kid
For all the silly talk about John Kerry cheating by using a pen during the debate, could it be that President Bush was making an inept attempt at higher tech cheating? Link
Your analogy to FDR is a little misleading, in that you have selected the past war that most Americans agree had to be fought. In truth, it is hard to find exceptions to the following generalization: war, at the outset, seems much more attractive to leaders than to citizens. This is true for many reasons, some more reasonable than others, but lurking in the background is the fact that wartime leaders are better positioned to avoid domestic c
Just maybe you should go look at this link. This is a state by state poll that is updated daily. And before being asked, yes Ralph Nader is considered in the poll. It may be updated daily, but very, very few polls have been conducted and released since the debate. In fact, as of this moment, the only one I kno
Take a good look at that wall in Washington DC Mr. Kerry. You helped to make that list even longer and nothing you can say or do now will erase that. The man was a man of action. Although he may have been wrong, and he may have cost his many of his countrymen their lives, he took a clear stand and did what
I never doubted this basic theory, although I had never heard it called by this name before. Many people are opposed to social spending, and not because we cannot afford it. The thing that has changed the political climate is that, in an age of what is called globalization, the larger corporations do not need domestic spending as much. As foreign markets expand, it makes less difference to the economy whether social programs economically emp