Topic: 2012 Presidential Election

[Liz]

Yeah, I've been public-schooled my whole life.  My teachers always told us that they weren't trying to change our beliefs, that they were just teaching the curriculum.   

[shemps#1]

About the evolution thing...I am a deeply religious Catholic, so obviously I think evolution is false.  HOWEVER, I am open to theories.  I'm not one of those Catholics who is so self-absorbed that they can't listen to anyone else.  I'm open to anything.  But I do believe that God created me and all of us.

And Lefty, I'm glad Sanctorum dropped out.  He probably figured out, too, that he needs to reconsider his BS ideals.

The Catholic Doctorine accepts Evolution as true: including Pope Nazi.

[metaldams]

Something a little lighter in tone, this picture and sweatshirt gave me a laugh.  "Ron Paul is my homeboy."

[shemps#1]

The Commander In Chizzle?

[metaldams]

The Commander In Chizzle?

Fo Chizzle

[vomit]

The Catholic Doctorine accepts Evolution as true: including Pope Nazi.

LOL.  Wonder how many know about the pope's Hitler youth past?  As antiquatedas  the catholic church is, it is somewhat surprising that they actually "believe" in evolution.

[Larrington]

It appears Rick Santorum has dropped out of the race.  While I wish his young daughter well, I can't say I'm upset Santorum's gone.

I agree.  The man is an ass clown (though in all fairness, probably not quite as bad as Mr. Gingrich).  Looks like Mr. Romney will get the nomination...I don't think he's the sharpest knife in the drawer either and I don't think he can win. 
He's just on the wrong side of too many issues that really matter to the population at large. 

I think Mr. Obama won the office 4 years ago because after the 8 disastrous years of Mr. Bush II,   Ms. Palin scared the bejeezus out of everyone because  if McCain won, and if at some point his ticker gave out during his term, we'd be stuck with her.  The trepidation is not at the prospect of a woman president, but at the prospect of her as president.  Too bad, because I don't think that a McCain presidency would have been the continuation of the Bush disaster that a lot of voters were fearing.  I do not and never have voted along strict 'party' lines...and I never will.
Even though the Republican party scares me at times with their hypocrisy and loose interpretations of the truth,  I still may have voted for McCain if it were someone other than Ms. Palin on the ticket with him.  But Mr. Bush left such a mess, I end to doubt Mr. McCain would have been any better at cleaning up.

Actually, it's really a shame that Pat Paulsen isn't around anymore.   
Judging from the slate of potential candidates, this would have been the year he probably could actually have won the election.  LOL
He could hardly be worse than the present options. 

[metaldams]

A treat for the Ron Paul supporters here, found on www.dailypaul.com.  A college speech he gave in 1988.  The only difference here is his hair is darker and the crowd is much smaller, but he's saying the same things then as today.  Not one contradiction.  He's stood by his principles and has gotten a lot more people to follow, thank God.  Enjoy.

[ Invalid YouTube link ]

For some reason i had difficulty posting part 2 on this site, so I posted the link instead.

[metaldams]

So I voted today in the primaries, the first time I ever did a primary vote in my life.  It was convienient because the school where my district votes was literally across the street, so I just walked there!

Anyway, I was literally the only person in the entire place.  I live in a blue state (Joe Biden is from my area), so a Republican primary turn out is expected to be low anyway, but I guess now that Romney has this thing "locked up," the turn out's much lower.  Well, I placed my vote anyway, but it was just strange seeing literally nobody there, no signs, no voters, nobody handing out pamphlets, just an empty room with a few booths and employees.

[Larrington]

So I voted today in the primaries, the first time I ever did a primary vote in my life.  It was convienient because the school where my district votes was literally across the street, so I just walked there!

Anyway, I was literally the only person in the entire place.  I live in a blue state (Joe Biden is from my area), so a Republican primary turn out is expected to be low anyway, but I guess now that Romney has this thing "locked up," the turn out's much lower.  Well, I placed my vote anyway, but it was just strange seeing literally nobody there, no signs, no voters, nobody handing out pamphlets, just an empty room with a few booths and employees.

Wow.
Kind of a sad commentary of how totally uninvolved and ambivalent the population can be.
And of course, it is often the uninvolved who complain the loudest about the state of things.
Good on 'ya, metaldams, for getting out and casting your vote.

Gonna be an interesting election.  Even as Mr. Obama has turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, Mr. Romney scares the hell out of me as someone who does not seem to understand some of the basic things this country was founded upon (his pandering to the religious right disgusts me).   
Granted, he's not  the sort of
clueless fools that Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum are, but I'm afraid Mr. Romney could get elected just because people are disenchanted with Mr. Obama (who in all fairness, was left with the messes created by the bonehead that preceded him for eight years).
In any case, neither candidate is going to win by a landslide...and even picking the lesser of two evils is going to be tough. 
It's gonna be an interesting horserace.

[metaldams]

Speaking of Obama and Romney, I'm not telling anybody what to think as far as the issues in this video, but the point is in a lot of very significant ways, they're not much different.

[Dunrobin]

Wow.
Kind of a sad commentary of how totally uninvolved and ambivalent the population can be.
And of course, it is often the uninvolved who complain the loudest about the state of things.

Not really, Larrington.  I suspect that a lot of Americans have given up on the process because they've realized that it is largely just a pointless fraud.  I was a staunch Republican for decades (and by that I mean that I voted in every election, contributed money to campaigns, worked as a volunteer on campaigns, etc.), but I quit voting in the late 90s once I realized that Republicans and Democrats are just two sides of the same bad coin.  For decades it hasn't really mattered which party was in power, as nothing ever really changed except for the worse.

Want proof?  Go look up some videos of the Democrats criticizing Bush's policies when he was in office.  Listen to what Barack Obama had to say during the last campaign, and then compare that to what Obama has actually done over the past 4 years.  Not only has Obama done nothing to reverse any of Bush's policies, he has expanded them and made them even worse.  Obama is Bush on steroids.

I broke my vow to not vote anymore in 2008 and again this year in order to vote for Ron Paul in the primaries, because I wanted to have voted for an honest man at least once in my life, after decades of voting for lying phonies.

Most Americans still get their news from the mainstream media, which has alternately belittled or ignored Dr. Paul, so it doesn't surprise me that there is still a large segment who know nothing about him and still feel there isn't any point in voting.

[metaldams]

I was a staunch Republican for decades (and by that I mean that I voted in every election, contributed money to campaigns, worked as a volunteer on campaigns, etc.), but I quit voting in the late 90s once I realized that Republicans and Democrats are just two sides of the same bad coin. 

I'm curious Rob, did anything in particular change your mind?  The late 90's was when the Internet was becoming more common in households, did alternative media change things for you? 

[Dunrobin]

I'm curious Rob, did anything in particular change your mind?  The late 90's was when the Internet was becoming more common in households, did alternative media change things for you?

The Internet played a HUGE role in changing my mind.  Prior to the Internet I was just as oblivious as everyone else, relying on the mainstream media for pretty much all of my information (which I now know was heavily expurgated.)  I grew up believing in small government, and I thought that Republican politicians sincerely meant it when they claimed to believe in the same thing, but with the Internet I could actually look up and read the bills they were proposing and passing, and it didn't take me very long to see that what they said and what they did were two completely different things.

Bear in mind that most of the mainstream media in this country - broadcast TV, cable channels, radio stations, newspapers and magazines - are owned and controlled by a dozen corporations, all of which are in bed with the political class:

    Among other assets, Disney owns ABC, Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, and ESPN; it is a partner in A&E Networks, which includes History, A&E, and Lifetime.

    CBS Corporation owns CBS, CBS Radio (formerly Infinity Broadcasting), Simon & Schuster editing group, a 50% ownership stake in The CW, etc. Though technically separate companies, CBS and Viacom (owners of MTV Networks and several mostly cable television stations) have a large portion of common ownership through Sumner Redstone's National Amusements.

    Comcast owns a controlling stake in NBC Universal (51%), The Weather Channel, G4, Versus, style., E!, a share of A&E Networks, Comcast SportsNet, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Philadelphia 76ers.

    Time Warner owns CNN, TBS, TNT, Sports Illustrated Time, and a 50% ownership stake in The CW. It previously owned Time Warner Cable, but spun off that company in 2009.

    Bertelsmann owns Arvato, Direct Group, RTL Group (which in turn owns VOX, a part in M6 TV channel, and FremantleMedia North America), and several other companies.

    Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners own Clear Channel Communications, one of the largest radio station ownership groups in the United States, its syndication wing Premiere Networks (which controls several of the most popular U.S. radio programs), and a share in The Weather Channel.

    Rupert Murdoch, the media magnate, a part of News Corp., also owns British News of the World, The Sun, The Times, and The Sunday Times, as well as the Sky Television network, which merged with British Satellite Broadcasting to form BSkyB, and SKY Italia; in the US, he owns the Fox Networks, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. Since 2003, he also owns 34% of DirecTV Group (formerly Hughes Electronics), operator of the largest American satellite TV system, DirecTV, and Intermix Media (creators of myspace.com) since 2005. See also Murdoch Newspaper List.

    The estate of William Randolph Hearst, doing business as Hearst Corporation, owns minority shares in ESPN Inc. and A&E Networks, King Features Syndicate, and fifteen newspapers along with 29 local television stations.

    Oaktree Capital Management's Triton Media Group owns Dial Global, Waitt Radio Networks, Westwood One and Jones Radio Networks, three major satellite music radio providers; they also own Townsquare Media (itself a consolidation of Regent Communications, Double O Radio and Gap Broadcasting, the last of which has mainly bought radio stations away from Clear Channel Communications).

    Companies tied to the Dolan family and Cablevision (either AMC Networks or Madison Square Garden, Inc.) own AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel, WE tv, News 12 Networks, MSG Network, Fuse TV, SportsTime Ohio, the New York Rangers, the New York Knicks, and the Cleveland Indians

    E. W. Scripps Company owns fourteen newspapers, nine broadcast television stations, Travel Channel, HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Cooking Channel, GAC, and the National Spelling Bee.

    Gannett Company owns USA Today and a large number of local newspapers and television stations.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership

[metaldams]

Thanks for that list, Rob.  Some of them such as Rupert Murdoch and Time Warner, I was aware of, others not so much.  I will favorite that Wikipedia page, but the one that blew my mind the most was the ESTATE of William Randolph Hearst still owns newspapers.  I had no clue.

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

I just found this thread and read through it quickly. I am sorely disappointed to see the members of this site writing at such lengths about frivolous topics like the presidency and the future of this country when the truly important question before us is surely: how should the Three Stooges be cast from among the US presidential candidates? And I think that candidates who were formerly in the race but have dropped out should be included in the consideration. My nominations are as follows:

First, the two permanent Stooges:

Moe: Herman Cain. He's the only one whom I can see dealing out the slaps, eye-pokes, nose-honkings, and head-conks to the others.

Larry: Mitt Romney. The Stooge in the middle.

Next, the changing role of Third Stooge:

Curly: Ron Paul. He's just crazy enough. "Woo-woo-woo-woo!"

Shemp: Rick Perry. He's got the low brow; though maybe he comes across as too dim to be a Stooge?

Joe: Rick Santorum. I can see him making ineffectual downward slaps at Moe and whining "Not so LOUD!"

Curly Joe: I don't know . . . Tim Pawlenty?

[Dunrobin]

Curly Joe: I don't know . . . Tim Pawlenty?

Dude, seriously?  That obviously should be Newt Gingrich in the "Curly Joe" role. 

[metaldams]

I just found this thread and read through it quickly. I am sorely disappointed to see the members of this site writing at such lengths about frivolous topics like the presidency and the future of this country when the truly important question before us is surely: how should the Three Stooges be cast from among the US presidential candidates? And I think that candidates who were formerly in the race but have dropped out should be included in the consideration. My nominations are as follows:

First, the two permanent Stooges:

Moe: Herman Cain. He's the only one whom I can see dealing out the slaps, eye-pokes, nose-honkings, and head-conks to the others.

Larry: Mitt Romney. The Stooge in the middle.

Next, the changing role of Third Stooge:

Curly: Ron Paul. He's just crazy enough. "Woo-woo-woo-woo!"

Shemp: Rick Perry. He's got the low brow; though maybe he comes across as too dim to be a Stooge?

Joe: Rick Santorum. I can see him making ineffectual downward slaps at Moe and whining "Not so LOUD!"

Curly Joe: I don't know . . . Tim Pawlenty?

Moe - Ron Paul:  Has every right to slap, poke, and bonk all the other candidates

Larry - Rick Perry: Because Perry and Larry rhyme, got a better reason?

Curly - Herman Cain: Because 9-9-9 and Woo-woo-woo have a similar ring, plus he likes the ladies

Shemp - Barack Obama:  Confusion with both concerning the details of their birth

Joe - Rick Santorum:  For the pure comic value of seeing the "gay" Stooge  (not according to me, but search past threads, some people believe this) being portrayed by the biggest homophobe of them all

Curly Joe - Mitt Romney: No originality or personality, but is somehow linked to people with a lot of money who get ahead in life

Emil Sitka - Gary Johnson:  Only the most hardcore supporters know who the hell he is


Classic comic exchange:

Perry:  ....and I tell ya, it's three agencies of governemnt when I get there that are gone.  Commerce, education, and the....the...uhh, what's the third one there, let's see......

Paul:  No, you only get get two

(gives Perry an eye poke)

Paul:  ...and I'll make it five

(slaps Perry in the face)

[metaldams]

First off, somebody else has to have the wit to come up with comparisons between the candidates and Stooges.  Hugo had a good idea, so let's not let it go to waste.

Second, Rob, Newt Gingrich is his own brand of Stooge.