Economy? Iraq? Terrorism? Pardon me, but it's about pardons.
These last couple of weeks I, along with the rest of the world, have been closely monitoring this financial collapse and as a sidebar I’ve been watching how it relates to this Presidential election cycle. My view of this race has been completely schizophrenic this year. I am certain many others out there share my confusion.…
Article comments
26 - Jordan Richardson
Google him, Lisa. He's the nominee of the Constitution Party. Christ, I'm from Canada and I know that...
27 - Lisa Solod Warren
Oh, Jordan, I always secretly knew you were smarter than I.
28 - tax
I am not for the Bailout. Let the markets work this out. I agree that our do nothing Congress is at fault. Does it matter who is President? Who knows! What does matter, families need more of their paycheck put back into their pocket. I am not asking for a free handout. I am saying I am at the brink. I can not work any more hours, I cannot cut back any longer. I am mad with the lot of them. A greater percentage of the people said, "Don't do this Bailout", "Don't put this on our backs". Maybe we were asleep for a long time, but the Giant is awake. Everyone, but everyone is talking about not being able to make ends meet publicly. I predict the person that does make into office has 100 days to turn this around. Were inpatient and we are all sick of the lies, propaganda that is being put infront of the American people. Vote for anyone, but the guy that is in office right now. Anybody, who could do worst. I agree with the Mr. Kain. What's to loose? Do not put the old guys back into Congress no matter what party they belong to. Pick a young kid and change the system, if it can be changed. The World Bank, IMF...who knows whats going on for sure?
29 - Jordan Richardson
Haha, your secret is safe with me! Actually, I just work the Google like everyone else.
30 - Lisa Solod Warren
Hmmm, Jordan, it just didn't seem worth the effort the moment.... trying to deal with kids, the house, an assignment and my ongoing illness and googling to find out who Arch's candidate was.... when I know someone like you would do the work for me:) seemed like too much effort:)
I do, however, greatly appreciate those google guys, although I do think they have made us inordinately lazy in a way, too.
31 - Jordan Richardson
Trust me, I wouldn't waste a good Google on Archie either.
32 - Arch Conservative
"Now I need to ask.
Who the heck is Chuck Baldwin?"
"Hmmm, Jordan, it just didn't seem worth the effort the moment"
Lisa, it would do you well to take a break from "yes we can," climb out of your little blue box, if only for a moment or two and take a look at what's going on in the world.
Oh and you forgot the "at" in the comment I quoted. Normally I don't bust people's chops over such trivial things as typos and grammatical errors because it's something we all do on occasion but I thought I'd mention it in this case because I have seen you do so in the past while lauding your self alleged linguistic erudition over others.
As for you Jordan...I can hardly bring myself to resent a Canuck who knows who Chuck Baldwin is and you may not think that Acorn is "one of the five most dangerous groups" in the US but their actions are hardly something to trivialize. It seems they have a nasty habit of committing voter fraud everywhere they go and then blaming it on "dumb college kids who volunteered for Acorn," a believable excuse if it were to happen once but the instances of Acorn committing voter fraud have become epidemic.
Oh and the ACLU definitely has to be named among the top five in our own little American "axis of evil." That goes without saying though.
33 - Jordan Richardson
As far as I know, voter fraud is epidemic, with or without ACORN. And agreed on the ACLU. I hate civil liberties.
34 - Arch Conservative
Rumors of voter fraud are epidemic. The only group that I'm aware of against which there is actually a wealth of unrefutable evidence to show that voter was committed is Acorn. But since you know that voter fraud is epeidemic you'll have no problem enlighteing me right?
35 - Jordan Richardson
The 2004 Election comes to mind, for a start. Naturally, I'm sure voter fraud only counts as wrong when it doesn't work in your favour.
Acorn ought to be investigated fully. The charges need to be looked into completely, but characterizing the entire organization as "evil" is just more ridiculously fear-mongering. Don't discredit the work of the community organizers and those that actually work for the good of the people because of the actions of the fat cats and corrupt jackasses at the top.
36 - Lisa Solod Warren
Okay, Arch, I will match your knowledge against my knowledge any old day.....
typos are completely different from grammar or erudition, but then you KNEW that, didn't you.
Climb out of your angry conservative box and see what you're missing.... a whole world outside politics: a world that includes literature, art, music, philosophy, spirituality, love, family, travel, people, nature.....things of beauty. I review and write about tons of things. My world is huge and full.
Right now, politics consumes me because I worry that so much damage has been done over the past eight years that it will take someone with vision to even try and repair it. You may not agree that Obama has vision, but I, and millions upon millions of Americans do. I am not just writing about him but I am working for him, as are thousands of us, putting, so to speak, our money where our mouth is. All to try to make difference in the political climate in our world. If I miss something here or there, so be it. At the least, I am never embarrassed to admit what I don't know, and never reluctant to have someone tell me how to find out what I don't know.
But it is so very hard to take anyone seriously to rails, for example, against the ACLU and who is always and continually angry... as you are. I have said the same thing to some of your compatriots. Why do you seem to shout all the time?
I watch Bill O'Reilly do interviews, and he is so smug, just like McCain was, so smug and ugly, and he and Hannity and Limbaugh yell and scream and name call and tell people to go to hell and get off their show.... How on earth can anyone even take people like that seriously?
Who DO you all talk to? Other yellers? People who shout back at you the same stuff you shout? Do you or David or Andy or the other yellers ever talk in a normal voice?
It would wear me out just to be around you guys.
37 - Arch Conservative
Lisa, what makes you assume that because I write about politics on a politics blog that i'm ignorant to every other aspect of the human experience?
Obama has a vision all right. I never claimed he didn't. It just bothers me greatly that his vision is closer to the ideas of Karl Marx than Thomas Jefferson. Maybe you're a big fan of Marx. I'm not.
For my part, I find it hard to take seriously anyone that would suggest the ACLU doesn't have a deeply ideological agenda and that they are in any way objective in whodr rights that they opt to defend, whose they don't and who they choose to go after through court litigation.
Bill O'reilly and John McCain are smug but Barack Obama isn't? I haven't yet seen anything more smug or condescending during this campaign than Obama insinuating that anyone who opposes him does so for racist reasons. "Did I mention he's black?" Unfortunately for Barry there are many who won't forget that little soundbite when they step into the voting booths this November.
I'm an objective ideologue. You're a close minded partisan. I espouse beliefs of a certain socio-political view of the world (modern American conservative) and act on those beliefs. You carry water for a political party (Democrats) and makes excuses for all of their trangressions regardless of the severity while seizing upon every piece of minutia taht you possibley can to demonize the other side regardless of how irrelevant.
I'd bet good money that if one were to scrutinize all of your political posts on this website they would be extremely hard pressed to point out any instances where you have levelled criticism toward Obama or the Democratic party but they would find your comments rife with attacks on Bush and the gop. On the other hand a quick examination of my posts would reveal criticisms of those across the entire political spectrum.
Lastly, the main reason I have such contempt for you, as I do for staunch McCain supporters is that you obviously value rhetoric more than reality. That anyone could be so enthusiastic about supporting either McCain or Obama when it is quite obvious to anyone with a pulse and two working brain cells that are capable of rubbing together that both men are just the latest two representatives of a broken two party system in which neither party has put the good of the nation before party politics for a long time. So go on and tout your newfound savior and the millions and millions that are supporting him. The Chinese certainly won't be going broke any time soon by underestimating the stupidty of most Americans.
As for me I've decided to vote for someone who doesn't lie and pander every time he opens his mouth. My support for Chuck Baldwin definitely won't see me backing the next president of the United States but at least it doesn't require me to express the rank stupidity of goose stepping party politics that so many seem compelled to exhbit or to sell my soul.
38 - Silas Kain
I have an answer for voter fraud. Terminate Diebold, go to paper ballots, and let an independent board of U.N. appointed monitors count the ballots. Let every registered voter in this nation use paper and ink to cast their respective ballot. And, in the event a voter is illiterate to comprehend what is actually on that ballot, send them home and tell them to come back in two years.
39 - Cindy D
RE# 21
Um Arch,
That was my point, which you responded to. I wasn't defending democrats. Rather, I was asserting that McCain's stunt was not to be admired.
40 - Jordan Richardson
I have an answer for voter fraud. Terminate Diebold, go to paper ballots, and let an independent board of U.N. appointed monitors count the ballots. Let every registered voter in this nation use paper and ink to cast their respective ballot. And, in the event a voter is illiterate to comprehend what is actually on that ballot, send them home and tell them to come back in two years.
This would be a great step in the right direction.
On another front, I'd like to see the Commission on Presidential Debates stop having control over the proceedings so that other party candidates can participate in the debates. Plus the whole format needs an overhaul. It's not the least bit independent or non-partisan and functions more like a news conference than an actual discussion. Baldwin should be allowed to participate, McKinney should be allowed to participate, and so on. The whole "soft supporters" audience thing has to go, too. And other debates between candidates should be able to take place without the sponsorship of the CPD.
What are these candidates and parties afraid of? Competition? Nah, couldn't be!
41 - Cindy D
Arch,
RE my #17
I'll just acknowledge you don't like Reid and weren't arguing with my point in the first place.
42 - Lisa Solod Warren
Arch, that whole Karl Marx thing is such a sham. But you won't listen to anyone argue otherwise, so I won't bother.
As for paper ballots, sure, I'm for that. It sure would have helped the past stolen elections and voter fraud. We think we're so superior to other contries and our voter fraud is rampant, so count me in.
I also think the debates are far from real debates and any viable candidate should be able to participate.
Get off your weird high horse and stop making me your personal villian. You want people to hold responsible? I have a list and I am not on it. Go after those who are truly reponsible for what has happened to this country, don't villify me or a candidate whose political positions you both misrepresent and dislike, nor his followers you happen to loathe.
43 - Daniel Miller
Lisa, in Comment #13 you suggest, Get RID of lobbyists. Leave the congress alone (emphasis added). In Comment # 42, you urge, Go after those who are truly reponsible for what has happened to this country . . . ."
I agree that lobbyists should be got rid of. However, is the Congress not responsible, at least in small part (I think it is in very large measure, because the members of Congress are among those fed by the lobbyists; but then that's possibly just me)?
Is there perhaps a conflict in your views? Just curious.
Dan(Miller)
44 - Arch Conservative
Have the UN oversee our elections?
You're kidding right?
If we can't get our act together and hold a legit election without outside supervision then we might as well just call it a day and let the red Chinese kill us all with a nuke while we sleep.
It would be better that way.
45 - Jordan Richardson
If we can't get our act together and hold a legit election without outside supervision then we might as well just call it a day and let the red Chinese kill us all with a nuke while we sleep.
So when do you start?
The notion that the United States imposes itself in other countries to oversee "democratic process" and the "spread of democracy" and is itself NOT a democracy is one of the more hilarious jokes in the modern world.
46 - Dave Nalle
Out of curiosity, what would be the other four? UNICEF, Amnesty, OXFAM, and the Commies?
The Dominionist Movement, the Patriot Movement, MoveOn.org and EarthFirst. And note how two of those four are on the right and on the left.
Dave
47 - Silas Kain
You're kidding right?
I'm quite serious, Arch. We've no problem imposing our standards on the rest of the world. We're always insinuating our way into monitoring elections. What's good for the goose is good for the Eagle. A friend said it best for me this afternoon, "I love my country, but I do not trust our government." Indeed, I do love my country. But I have no trust or faith in our government in its present composition.
48 - Arxh Conservative
So you're saying that because we meddle others should be allowed to meddle?
We're damned if we do and damned if we don't. If we prop up one leader over another in some nation because we think it's best for us and the world in general but if we don't send troops to darfur we're callous.
You also discount the fact that despite their bitching and bemonaing, many outside our borders WANT us to interfere in their lives.
Although it's not feasible that we withdraw militarily and politically from all of the world's problems beyond our borders I would be quite content if we did and maintained only trade and tourist relations with other nations. Let the israelis and the palestinians/muslims kill each other for all I care. The hustus and tutsis? Not my problem. The only caveat would be that anyone that we would make it known that anyone that even looked at us crosswise would get a nuke droppped on their heads faster than you could say "fuck the UN."
49 - Lisa Solod Warren
You know, Arch, I was looking at blogcritics this a.m., and I realized, you don't write about politics at all, you just post. I mean, you don't write researched opinion articles, you don't take a stand in a piece with your name behind it; you don't take the time to write a real opinion article, your name is not on the list as a contributor. You just get on as a commenter or poster and trash others. I would hardly call that "writing" about politics.
50 - Silas Kain
You also discount the fact that despite their bitching and bemonaing, many outside our borders WANT us to interfere in their lives.
Discount? Hardly. Arch, I'm a Conservative. I believe that it is incumbent upon us as a society to start paying attention to what's going on within our own borders. To hell with the rest of the world, it is time for us to put our affairs in order. If another country looks to us for our involvement, it's time for us to say, "thanks, but no thanks." If we cannot organize our own affairs how can we be expected to involve ourselves in everyone else's problems? We are not a theocracy.
At the core of Conservatism is respecting the basic human rights of the individual. And, like it or not, Arch, that's at the core of liberalism as well. Those self righteous Conservatives who try to impose their oppressive, archaic beliefs upon the rest of society are NOT Conservatives. I call them what they really are: Christian Taliban.
51 - bliffle
Pray tell, Dave, how do you do that google search?
ACORN Convictions:
3 in Kansas, 2 in Colorado, 4 in Wisconsin, 5 in Washington state - that's in the last 2 years without doing more than a quick google search.
I tried things like "ACORN conviction" , "ACORN convicted", etc., and all I got was stories about ex-employees who were convicted.
I couldn't find one story where the organization was convicted.
Maybe you could supply a citation, since you seem to be on top of this stuff because you talk about it so much.
52 - Silas Kain
At this point I'm really not concerned about ACORN. Nor am I concerned about a lot of the associates of McCain or Obama. I am, however, remaining steadfast on the core issue of pardons. There was some talk of pardons today on the Hill which I found quite enlightening and I hope members on both sides of the aisle pass resolutions which urge the President to be very stingy in issuing reams of pardons as he exits the Oval Office.
I also hope that we'll hear from Obama and McCain on who they are considering to fill key cabinet posts. I think in this age of gross misinformation we're entitled to get to know the teams each are considering. Though the buck does stop at the President's desk, I think we really need to get a sense of who these candidates are considering. After all the hiring debacles of the Bush Administration it's clear to me that the American people are entitled to know a little bit about the support staff a prospective President has in mind. If we're going to hire the right guy for the job let's insure that he, in turn, will hire the right people to carry out his vision.
53 - handyguy
But Silas, didn't you know? Upon Obama's election, Acorn takes over. They form a Matrix and take us all into an alternate universe of leftist horror.
Unless this kid named Neo [NeoConservative?] can be convinced to accept his chosen role as the One to deliver us from Community Organizers.
Honestly, Dave's obsession with Acorn would be funny if it weren't so sad.
54 - Arch Conservative
The first pardons that either Obama or McCain should give as president would be Ramos and Compean. Neither will though as they are both open border hacks that should rot in hell.
55 - bliffle
I'm hoping that Dave has something more than a few deadbeats who cheated on their own. After all, if we convicted every political outfit for the crimes it's members commited, we'd have to indict the whole republican party for Larry Craigs crimes, etc.
Dave, where are those citations of ACORN convictions?
56 - Cannonshop
Um, Bliffle, Larry Craig went cruising for a blowjob. He didn't participate in vote fraud, nor is it alleged that he participated in a conspiracy to get a blowjob or a conspiracy to commit voter fraud.
ACORN, however, has (allegedly) done both. Vote Fraud is a Felony. Getting a blowjob (or soliciting one) isn't even a class b misdemeanor. He can't even be claimed to have abused his position to GET the blow-job. The worst part of what he did was the crime of self-humiliation, for which he will likely lose his position. That's a FAR cry from submitting fraudulent registrations in an attempt to fraudulently alter elections.
57 - Silas Kain
... Larry Craig went cruising for a blowjob...
Damn Barney Frank. If he would have only shared a page or two, Larry wouldn't have been caught. Another example of polarization in Washington.
58 - Cannonshop
Nah, that wouldn't have helped, Craig wanted a BJ without strings attached, Frank's too quick a pol not to demand something in return for sharing his stash.
59 - bliffle
Cannon sez:
"ACORN, however, has (allegedly) done both. Vote Fraud is a Felony."
"Allegedly"! What a great word. You're off the hook. But so is ACORN.
I asked for evidence of a conviction and what I get is "allegedly".
You and Dave aren't mounting an innuendo campaign, are you?
60 - Silas Kain
"Inuendo" is what we've been getting from Congress throughout this whole mess. Frankly (sorry Barney, I know how sensitive you are to "innuendo") I'm tired of getting pounded by Congress, sans the lube. Insofar as voter fraud goes, I am begging the United Nations to send in election monitors. For the love of our democracy and preservation of the Republic, send us election monitors from Uganda! And, last but not least, when you vote November 4th, PUT IT ON PAPER! Ask for a paper ballot!