Karma is a bitch
I campaigned for Gore, dude. Pointing out that a candidate made a mistake doesn’t imply that I don’t or didn’t support that candidate.
And he did no such thing. GWB has pursued policies which directly benefited the private security industry but he didn’t “create the industry”.
Al Gore quote: " I took the initiative in creating the internet"
McCain quote “-” nothing on the Blackberry, actually. Parity non-existent.
Even if it hadn’t been a McCain staffer waving a blackberry, but the man himself, saying: “Telecommunications in the United States, the premiere innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create.” parity is still a ways away, as he’s not claiming to have “taken the initiative in creating”, but claiming he’s helped create “the miracle”
And what, exactly, is that miracle? the actual Pearl model Blackberry, or the environment that alloows it to work relatively free from gov’t interference?
So the - immaterial - event is twisted, misrepresented, and if I call you on it it’s because somehow I’m ok calling Gore on his gaffe, but don’t like it when the shoe is on the other foot. Whereas I couldn’t care less about Gore’s comment, and there is no “other foot” here.
The thing that amazes me is the level of insanity, dishonesty and perception bias associated with this election, which is essentially a Coke vs Pepsi event. My life won’t change regardless of who of these two candidates wins. I doubt many of yours will, either. Palin scares the hell out of me, but I believe odds are better than 95% McCain lives at least 4 more years. Other than that, I don’t much care. The fact that the country appears about evenly divided between these 2 means that clearly there’s not some obvious right and correct way to go forward, so to then assume that the half of the country thaty doesn’t vote your way is clearly stupid, malicious or misguided is itself as stupid as it gets.
err, the enviroment that allowed the blackberry to be developed is “socialist” Canada.
And pretty much every other developed country is doing way better than we are at implementing cellphone technology.
Might want to let this one go, McCainiacs.
What is this, 1999? Jesus Christ I am honestly shocked that after the last 8 years anyone could say anything so fucking stupid anymore. It was stupid when it was said about Gore and Bush, it’s fucking downright retarded to say now.
Yeah. No shit. I mean, just look at everything McCain has accomplished.
First, he voted against the Telcommunications Act of 1996–which passed without his help. And then he introduced the Consumer Broadband Deregulation Act of 2002 which apparently would have severely limited local government–had it passed. Which is did not. But this guy, he’s a Maverick! He was working hard! So hard, in fact, that when the time came to vote on the Internet Tax Freedom Act he bravely joined 96 of his colleagues in casting the deciding vote. He also either opposes net neutrality or doesn’t understand net neutrality. It’s not clear to me. Oh, and he’s not currently sponsoring any legislation concerning the Internet, or “the pipe” as McCain apparently likes to call it.
Clearly, when you’re talking about the Great Miracles–water to wine, walking on water, the invention of the Blackberry device, John McCain is next only to Jesus himself.
As Jon Stewart is fond of saying: You just can’t make up stuff this good.
He GETS to do that. It comes with the Maverick suit. If you don’t wear a Maverick suit, you don’t get to bandy words about loosely. Jeesh–it’s like nobody reads the manual anymore. McCain read the manual–in his POW cell, which, btw, was w/o a kitchen table or a chair.
All of which is about as relevant to the real issues as lipstick on a pig! Yes! got another meme in!
We’re philosopher kings. We know better [than the other half].
Anyway, our half generally doesn’t believe that the world is 6,000 years old, or that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11, or that Obama must be a Muslim because he went to an Islamic school (trust me on this- I went to an Anglican school, and, like, fuck you, Christ), or that being a force for good in the world = not nuking the towelheads, etc.
Yes, that was satirical. Mostly.
Frodo shoots , HE SCORES!
While I’m enjoying watching the McCain campaign trip over Douglas Holtz-Eakin’s tongue yet again, I have to advise the senator to put Holtz-Eakins on a short leash. The man can’t do two consecutive press spots without saying something embarrassing or just plain wrong.
I’m in the process of trying to find out if the bolded words below were actually spoken by Holtz-Eakin or if they are the Journal’s turn of phrase:
It’s not in quotes, but it’s attributed to Holtz-Eakin. I don’t know which way that goes.
Note, please, that I’m not saying that Holtz-Eakin was dogwhistling with that…the phrase is really sufficiently divorced from its origins that it’s not actually racist, but a smart politico would not use it just to prevent the appearance of dogwhistling. If it IS directly from Holtz-Eakin instead of a WSJ embellishment, then it’s one more example of Holtz-Eakin’s ham-handedness and misspokenness.
"… Levin pointed out that McCain actually voted against the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA ‘93) that “authorized the spectrum auctions that created the competitive wireless market that gave rise to companies like Research in Motion [the creator of Blackberry].”
Edit: Fixed title
It’s spelled “Follieri,” not “Madonna”
Actually, it was not. Neither of the two supporting cites actually point out the place where Senator Gore really, truly delivered the Internet to us.
The development of the Internet was funded through DARPA, and control was later transferred to the National Science Foundation. NSF saw the increasing commercial use of the Internet and decided that it no longer needed to continue using it’s budget to pay for the data lines that formed the backbone of the Internet at the time. At that point, with the NSF funding cut-off, the entire Internet was going to go dark. Senators Gore and Gingrich co-sponsored a bill to:
Create the commercial Internet.
Which was exactly what Gore claimed. All this was documented at the time in Boardwatch magazine, published by Jack Rickard, a Hummer-driving right-wing Coloradan. Sadly, Boardwatch was bought by another publisher and it’s on-line archives disappeared. I remember it because I first got on the Internet in 1988 via the first commercial ISP, Software Tool and Die (aka “The World”).
Ooopsy, looks like McCain and friends have misunderemembered again:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/16/hundt-mccain-blackberry/
Palin invented that (not karma)
Well, your eloquence and persuasive arguments have convinced me. Clearly my comment was fucking downright retarded. I know this now because - Well, doesn’t matter. Clearly the current election is of such monumental importance it justifies every numbnut to vomit all over the internet, making us all better people in the process. Still, I’m not real sure how my life will change under Obama vs McCain.
Even for the rest of the world, I’m a little vague on the outcome - We’ll be largely out of Iraq in 2011 either way, we’ll completely ignore the suffering of Haiti less than 800 miles from Miami, FL either way, we’ll get sucked into a renewed cold war as a direct if delayed consequence of trying to do the right thing in the former Yugoslav republic a few admidistrations ago. Et cetera. Reading through the programs as well as soundbites offered by both campaigns, it’s clear they want to be a friend to me and everyone I know, but exactly what they’re going to do, let alone how, is a little vague - to me. Not to mention that despite the plans, the U.S.’ system of governance is one where action on anything important is tempered by the need to arrive at some sort of compromise in congress, so it’s not entirely up to them now is it.
eta: comma
Exactly right.
Won’t penetrate anyone who’s gone off the deep end, and truly believes their opposition is malevolently evil simply by opposing Obama, but perhaps the not-so-insane will benefit.
Obama is a great man and would be a fine President, although not one who moved forward in policies I support. McCain is a great man and would be a fine President.
People said the same about Gore and Bush, that they were voting between six of one and half dozen of the other. One misled us into a war in Iraq, while the other…well, we can’t say what would have been, but the probability is extremely high that at most Gore would have confined military activity to Afghanistan and kept his sights on bin Laden instead of haring off after Hussein. It’s a safe bet that we wouldn’t be in the situation we are now if Gore had been in charge. They were very much not alike.
McCain? I can’t say what will or won’t happen, but he’s military-minded. He’s running to be Commander in Chief. We might find ourselves attacking Iran or Russia with him in charge. Obama’s about the furthest from a military mindset as you can get.
Hell, even if you think Bush did the right thing and you like having a gung-ho military man for President, there’s no way they’re alike in that regard. And that’s just one issue, albeit a very large one.
So yeah, it is fucking retarded to act like they’re no different.