Just checked out the election results...

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
It's amazing how educational the media crew on that side of the aisle is. Worse thing that ever happened to this country.

 

[Organics North]

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I haven't gotten an answer for this yet, so I asked a few people smarter than myself. I wanted to see if anyone could come up with first world countries running on ideals similar to the Tea Party. I was having trouble, so I asked a couple of my Smart Friends. Here's what we've come up with so far:

Israel
Turkey
Saudi Arabia

Anyone care to add to the list?

 

[Organics North]

Quote:
Sorry spook. Got to disagree with you on one thing. Some people have to be voted against. In 2008 Obama looked pretty good and I voted for him. After the election when he actually had a majority in the Senate and the House I had some hope. That hope has been gone for a while. In 2012 I will be voting against whatever the party of NO puts out there. I know what happens when a Republican is in charge and I don't want any part of it. I wish someone from another party would come along and actually be electable. I hate to hold my nose when I vote. I realize that all the issues that draw voters to the polls are just red herrings. Gay marriage, abortion and stuff like that won't change but when they put them on the ballot it sure brings out the party behind it. While they are there voting against people being able to live like everyone else does they pull the lever for the guy running for office.

Who wins in 2012 will depend on how long the unemployment lines are.

I did not do not expect it to work so fast... The man is intelligent, but it is a huge mess that started even before Bush.. The 90's were the "roaring 20's" we are now in the 30's it took until the 50's before things got better. (I sure hope we do not have to go through another 40's to get there.) World war and all..

I felt big time let down by the "new deal" or what ever it was called Newt Gingrich Republicans in the 90's.. (I hold grudges... I too will vote against the party of NO for some time because of that. (Also my concern that the party of NO is pretty good at starting wars, and I fear the the Apocalypse crowd, with all their destiny garbage big time...

ON

 

[cubalaya]

since turkey and saudi arabia are muslim countries with no real freedoms or liberties, i would have to say that israel would be the closest thing.

 

[RabbitMage]

Quote:
And while I think Israel is a lovely country, it's not a place I'd want to live.

Nor is it a place I'd want my own country to become.

And actually I have to correct this: Turkey is a secular country. While the overwhelming majority of their population identifies as Muslim, they are not generally very devout. They have a defined separation between church and states, they are a parliamentary republic as well. They're struggling in the rights department, but apparently improving.

 

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
Sorry spook. Got to disagree with you on one thing. Some people have to be voted against. In 2008 Obama looked pretty good and I voted for him. After the election when he actually had a majority in the Senate and the House I had some hope. That hope has been gone for a while. In 2012 I will be voting against whatever the party of NO puts out there. I know what happens when a Republican is in charge and I don't want any part of it. I wish someone from another party would come along and actually be electable. I hate to hold my nose when I vote. I realize that all the issues that draw voters to the polls are just red herrings. Gay marriage, abortion and stuff like that won't change but when they put them on the ballot it sure brings out the party behind it. While they are there voting against people being able to live like everyone else does they pull the lever for the guy running for office.

Who wins in 2012 will depend on how long the unemployment lines are.

I did not do not expect it to work so fast... The man is intelligent, but it is a huge mess that started even before Bush.. The 90's were the "roaring 20's" we are now in the 30's it took until the 50's before things got better. (I sure hope we do not have to go through another 40's to get there.) World war and all..

I felt big time let down by the "new deal" or what ever it was called Newt Gingrich Republicans in the 90's.. (I hold grudges... I too will vote against the party of NO for some time because of that. (Also my concern that the party of NO is pretty good at starting wars, and I fear the the Apocalypse crowd, with all their destiny garbage big time...

ON

Another thing they do really well is walk in lock step. They do what the leader of their caucus says or else. Because of that they are more effective at passing legislation that they want.

I see a war with Iran sometime around 2013. Of course they will probably be able to gin up some support for going to Korea again. Iran is more likely though. See what happened to the last big mouth over there. That guy in Iran has a big mouth too and likes to say stupid stuff just like Sadam. Some kind of macho thing. If we get another macho POTUS it could be trouble.

JMO of course.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

First let me give you all a

Despite a few near misses you've managed to keep this thing fairly civil!

Horay for chicken people!!

Having said that: The division in this nation has been this intractable before. And once it led to war. There are two fairly well known sociologists who are predicting that the US will dissolve like the USSR sometime in the next 20 years.

I for one truly hope that this does not happen. War is ugly and painful and usually costs far more than people expect it to. And, I love this country and what it used to stand for. It just really surprises me how little people know about our own history, how quickly they are willing to swallow utter nonsense from a TV station that went to court to win the right to lie on the air AND WON. The quote goes like this, "Just because a news agency calls it programming news does not mean it must be in fact true." If anyone wants it you can find the case, it was decided in FLorida. I can't think of the name now.

I was very excited about the tea party when it started. I truly believe that we need at least one more party to give this mess some balance. But, the Koch brothers really stepped into it and it got skewed when Murdoch decided to throw his support behind it. There are some wonderful intelligent people who have good clear ideas about where this country should be headed. But, they are out-shouted by people who want this to become an American Christian Taliban. Iran was once a very advanced free country. People think it has been a dusty third world repressive backwater forever, it has not. I know a woman who was educated here in the US. Brilliant, lovely woman, she decided to go back to Iran after she finished her PhD. One day she was teaching a class when the police came and hauled her from the room. She was teaching unapproved subject matters in front of a mixed gender class. She was beaten and jailed. When she was freed she discovered the police had beaten her 80 year old mother as well. It took her three years to escape, but she did, with her mother's blessing she got out, leaving her mother behind. It happened quickly. Over the space of a few years when a party got support from the US (we wanted to destabilize the country to get control of their resources) and we helped topple the Shah. All we need is for some country to decide it was time to get control over the US and the same thing could happen here. Don't kid yourself that it could not.

Ten years ago when we had a contested presidential election - remember that? All of my students for my international class vanished. Most of them took off for home so fast they left their belongings behind. They ran for the hills - they expected civil war.

My regular students? Many did not know the election was in question. Some were not clear that we had even had one.

This ignorance and apathy has saved us many times recently. People refuse to believe what is happening so they don't react. That will not last forever.
But, as the two sides disagree both about what is happening and how to stop it it will not be a revolution, it would be civil war.

 

[Spookwriter]

Our newscasters are lying to us???

Say it ain't so.

But it is....the case in question would concern Fox News in the years
2000 through 2003 or so. As I recall, in the first trial Fox lost. Retried
in the Florida appeals court, and won.

Be careful of what you see and hear as the news. It can, and is, a little skewed.

 

[Organics North]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

I was very excited about the tea party when it started. There are some wonderful intelligent people who have good clear ideas about where this country should be headed. But, they are out-shouted by people who want this to become an American Christian Taliban.

Iran was once a very advanced free country. People think it has been a dusty third world repressive backwater forever, it has not.

Persia (Iran) was the center of civilization while we were throwing spears around. Indeed the Iranians are very special people. It is such a shame we had to go and mess with Shaw and put a Religious dictator in his place. Gee we did the same thing in Iraq (Secular dictator), yes the USA was responsible for putting Sadam in power...

Yes I am deeply concerned about the American Christian "taliban" being in power, and getting into a cock fight with Iran.. Say hello to WWIII.
Problem is this time we will have few allies... Israel yes.....

Others??????? I am doubtful, we burned them pretty bad with the Iraq II debacle.

Ah what the heck we won't loose anyway, we have lots of nuclear war heads... And I live rurally no where near missle silos so most likely will survive the initial bombing on America. Also I am used to long winters, so the long nuclear winter following the global nuclear war should not be too bad..

ON​

 

[yomama]

I just wanted to say that I usually have no interest in politics at all. However, I came upon this thread and I am loving it! I think I have learned more about politics here, than I have in a long time...sad, yes I know. It is hard to research something you have no interest in. Not saying I shouldn't, just being honest in saying that I usually don't. If something is really of interest to me, then yes, I will take a little more time to research it. But honestly, a stay at home mom of two young girls, with a mini farm, researching candidates is not something I really want to do in the little spare time I have. I strongly agree that voters should know just who they are voting for and what they stand for, before casting their ballot. That we should make an informed descision, or don't make one at all. I have been very guilty in the past of voting for who I "thought"would be a good candidate, but really knew nothing about them. I will no longer do that. I refuse, to a certain extent, to debate politics with my husband, or family, because I honestly feel I am not educated enough in certain areas to argue one way or another. What kills me, is neither are they, but that doesn't stop them. They are just repeating what they hear on the news, or, -ugh-, their one sided talk radio. I just want to say thanks to all involved for keeping this civil and allowing it to continue. It really is quite educational! Sorry to interupt, please continue.