US Election 2008

[Sirgin]

Yea, but how can you beat the Governator!  Just having that nickname should make you more than qualified to be president (baring the fact that he was not US born...)

LOL

But all jokes aside: If you'd seriously think Arnold Schwarzenegger is qualified to be president, then I don't see why one shouldn't say the same about Obama.

[Tan]

than a state that I personally feel the US could have done without, but to each his own.

I'll tell you what, we'll take Alaska off your hands and give her a good home.

According to the Energy Information Administration, Alaska ranks second in the nation in crude oil production. Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope is the highest yielding oil field in the United States typically producing about 400,000 barrels per day (64,000 m³/d). The Trans-Alaska Pipeline can pump up to 2.1 million barrels (330,000 m3) of crude oil per day, more than any other crude oil pipeline in the United States. Additionally, substantial coal deposits are found in Alaska’s bituminous, sub-bituminous, and lignite coal basins. Alaska also offers some of the highest hydroelectric power potential in the country from its numerous rivers. Large swaths of the Alaskan coastline offer wind and geothermal energy potential as well.

Sure you can do without it?

[tholly]

than a state that I personally feel the US could have done without, but to each his own.

I'll tell you what, we'll take Alaska off your hands and give her a good home.

According to the Energy Information Administration, Alaska ranks second in the nation in crude oil production. Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope is the highest yielding oil field in the United States typically producing about 400,000 barrels per day (64,000 m³/d). The Trans-Alaska Pipeline can pump up to 2.1 million barrels (330,000 m3) of crude oil per day, more than any other crude oil pipeline in the United States. Additionally, substantial coal deposits are found in Alaska’s bituminous, sub-bituminous, and lignite coal basins. Alaska also offers some of the highest hydroelectric power potential in the country from its numerous rivers. Large swaths of the Alaskan coastline offer wind and geothermal energy potential as well.

Sure you can do without it?

She does fit in very nicely with Canada's geography, doesn't she?  Almost like she is attached.


I would prefer if the US didn't need her.  I am an advocate of reducing our dependence on oil, period, not just foreign oil.  If I worked closer to home, I would buy a bike immediately.  I try to reduce waste where possible, turn off items when not in use, walk to local destinations, and recycle. 

I wish the US were not the energy hog that is is (we produce, alone as a country, over 30% of all CO2 emissions.)

[tholly]

Just thought this might go along nicely with the current discussion:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....



* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."

* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers,  a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor,  spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of  13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl,  4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650, 000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're no t a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of soc iety.

* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.


* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude",  with at least one DWI conviction and no colle ge education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
Also…..
 
 
For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are
constantly looking for some easy-to-under stand examples of it, perhaps
this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol
Palin and every one is quick to insist that your life and that of your
family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or
your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and
Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as
irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like
Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with
you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "sh
oot sh it" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy
(and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six
years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then
returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and
no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a
person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and
probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative
action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller
than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about
the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan,
makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on
themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state
Senator, and con stitut ional law scholar, means you're "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under
God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the
founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately
disqualified from holding office - since, after all, the pledge was
written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the
1950s - while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists
their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach
at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea
only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people
immediately scared of you.

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an
extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union,
and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one quest ions y our patriotism
or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails
to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first
day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the
work they do - like, among other things, fight for the right of women to
vote, or for civil rights, or the 8- hour workday, or an end to child
labor - and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely
question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with
no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college - you're
somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree
with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate
anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired
confidence in these same whit e wome n, and made them give your party a
"second look."

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your
political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a
typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely
knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means
you must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose
pasto rs say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize Georg
e W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian
nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological
principles into government , and who bring in speakers who say the
conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting
Jesus, and every one can still think you're just a good church-going
Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has
noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that
terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who
talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're
an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a
reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a
"trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word
answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question,
or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has
anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black
and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light"
burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow
someo ne to become president when he has voted with Georg e W. Bush 90
percent of th e time , even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are
losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly
isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about
that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined,
unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and
certain.






Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in
the U.S., and has been called, "One of the most brilliant, articulate and
courageous critics of white privilege in the nation," by best-selling
author and professor Michael Eric Dyson, of Georgetown University. Wise
has spoken in 48 states, and on over 400 college campuses, including
Harvard, Stanford, and the Law Schools at Yale and Columbia, and has
spoken to community groups around the nation. Wise has provided
anti-racism training to teachers nationwide, and has trained physicians
and medical industry professionals on how to combat racial inequities in
health care. He has also trained corporate, government, entertainment,
military and law enforcement officials on methods for dismantling racism
in their institutions, and has served as a consultant for plaintiff's
attorneys in federal discrimination cases in New York and Washin gton
State.

[Sirgin]

Pfew, I gave up reading about halfway through the text-part. There were some interesting comparisons. I think people should not forget that Palin is Mccain's running mate, not running for president herself. So the "achievements" of Obama and Mccain should be compared, not those of Obama and Palin.

Yesterday I saw on CNN that Palin did some mud-slinging towards Obama in a speech. I find that rather low and hope that the US voters will see through those lame statements of the past.

But more importantly: It'd be best if a staff member moved all of the last posts about the election to a new topic in Idle Chatter or maybe to the US Election Question topic that already exists.

EDIT: Thanks Tan

[tholly]

Yea, I would love to see some sort of comparison like that between both Obama and McCain as well as Palin to Biden.

[phoenix1967]

So who's watching the debate tonight?

[tholly]

Yup, I am. Should be interesting with both candidates decisions to use smear tactics against each other.  I'm curious to see how McCain will try to get the focus back on an Obama vs McCain election instead of the Obama vs Palin election it has become.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

I'll probably put it on while I write a paper, although I don't know why.

[Sirgin]

I'll probably put it on while I write a paper, although I don't know why.

Maybe because you're subconsciously interested in what they have to say.

[phoenix1967]

I'll be watching.

Since I missed the 1st one and my other plans fell through for tonight, I'll definitely plan on tuning in.

[Haoie]

Why are elections such a farce?

[tholly]

Why are elections such a farce?

Because 1/2 of the election involves Republicans.

[Ghost Soldier]

Why are elections such a farce?

Because 1/2 of the election involves Republicans.

Nice one

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Why are elections such a farce?

Because 1/2 of the election involves Republicans.

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