It’s a good list (at least from my perspective): folks whose politics are all wacky, but who at least can debate them reasonably and respectfully, and from whom I can learn. Y’all do me at least as much good as the eloquent and respectful people on my side of issues, probably more. SimonX and John Mace are also on the list; it’s a pretty good-sized list.
Daniel
[sub]And I’m sure my politics are wacky to you, too; no worries.[/sub]
When has the country been so polarized? I’m not talking about a poll that says Kerry and Bush are tied, I’m talking across the board in every aspect.
1967-75 comes to mind. I haven’t seen an ROTC building burn down lately.
Race riots seem to be a bit rarer, too.
Wasn’t there some unpleasantness a little bit more than a century earlier than that, too?
Daniel
Well, this is fucked up all around.
With the exception of the teens stealing Bush/Cheney signs to spell out “Kerry” on the football field. Yeah, yeah, vandalism is a bad thing that nobody should indulge in, but the level of thought and effort that went into this beats the shit out of spray painting “cock” on the side of the high school.
So, Left Hand of Dorkness, you need not be ashamed at your amusement. Indeed, it’s amusing as hell.
That was my take on it. I’m sure anyone who had a sign stolen could easily get a replacement from the local Republicans/reelect Bush group. The damage to the field is a little bit of cleanup (like the little holes would compare to cleats going up and down the field for an entire game.) Heck, make the kids clean it up. It’s not like they did any damage.
I don’t understand how people manage to be so angry about everything. There was an Onion article along the lines of “Democrats suffer from outrage fatigue.” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I was sick of it when the Republicans did nothing but constantly attack Clinton, and I’m sick of it now when the Democrats do nothing but constantly attack Bush. However great or terrible a President you think of either one, the quickest way to lose my attention is to do nothing but negatively campaign and screech and scream and wail and be continously over the top. The same goes here: whether it was Reeder routinely posting something like four badly-thought-out anti-Bush screeds in one day, or RTFirefly starting threads on “Pitting Bush for stuff that doesn’t seem to rate its own thread” and other things, or (on the other side of the spectrum) trying to deflect whatever Bush has done with attacks on Clinton, name-calling on both sides, hijacking perfectly good threads with partisan invective, and so on. And for the love of God quit bringing up Vietnam.
And yes, I am going to vote (I just need the absentee ballot to get here already) and no, I still don’t know who I’m going to vote for.
Hmm, I wonder how representative I am as a sample of my demographic group.
One curious bit from the story:
Suppose it wasn’t any flavor of wacko; suppose it was a Republican dirty trickster deliberately drumming up sympathy? Could happen, and it is well within the moral standards of the party attack dogs. Just sayin’.
You knew, you just knew, that this thread was going to turn into dueling atrocities with a thick overlay of the outrage of martyrs. Mark Twain has a story in one of his travel books about some unreconstructed Rebel’s incessant stories of Yankee atrocities. It’s been done before and it’s all conjecture at this point. It has no significance and it is just as irrelevant as, for instance, some windbag radio blowhard’s claim that Senator Edwards has been lawfully avoiding Medicare tax.
How about we deal with something significant, like the President’s supporters and allies claiming that as President Senator Kerry will subordinate the interests of the United States to the wishes of some unnamed foreign sovereign, or the Senate Committee’s recent report of cherry picking the intelligence about aluminum tubes, or Paul Bremer’s recent revelation that he told the government that more soldiers were needed for the occupation of Iraq? Why even bother with this sort of junior high school bickering and finger pointing? Do you require a diversion from substance, Mr. Motto?
Way to go, brownshirts.
:mad:
This reminds me of the assholes who screamed obscenities at Repub delegates getting out of theaters on Sunday the 29th. I’m a Democrat and I agree that it’s not 1840 anymore and we need to behave like ladies and gentlemen.
And guess what, folks–it rebounds on us! D’oh!
When someone feels passionately about an issue, it’s hard to keep it under one’s hat. My co-workers are (with the exception of one) complete political opposites to me. We’ve had some mildly heated discussions, and it’s been very hard for me to control myself because I feel so strongly about certain things.
It amazes me, really. I’ve never had such deep feelings about a presidential race before. I’ve pretty much liked all of the presidents that I can remember, back to Ron Reagan, who I confused with both Mr. Rogers and God. (It’s a long story. 
) While I may have disagreed with some of their decisions, it never ripened into complete and utter hatred of a politician until now.
But even as passionately as I feel about it, I simply cannot fathom attempting to harm the “other side’s” campaign workers. What did the shooter hope to accomplish? (Maybe it was a nutty Republican trying to make the Dems look bad! 
)
My co-worker reported to me that twice her lawn signs had been stolen. I guess the instances of such theft in this area are so high that people now put their signs in their windows rather than risk them being snatched. We mused about who was doing the theivery: those who wanted the signs to put in their own yards, or those who wanted to destroy them.
I can’t even imagine doing that. My efforts are pretty much limited to light, non-offensive debate and trying to get others registered to vote.
http://www.news4jax.com/politics/3787122/detail.html
Protestors Ransack Bush/Cheney Headquarters In Orlando
<shaking head>
Strikes me as pretty significant that one party is seizing and ransacking the campaign facilities of the other party. It should bother everybody to no end. It is brownshirt pre-'33 behavior that should be denounced by the DNC ‘leadership’. Drudge is reporting that it happened again, in Milwaukee.
What about the anti-Democratic attacks? Are those also brownshirt pre-'33 behavior that should be denounced by the RNC ‘leadership’?
FWIW, I agree: both sides should issue a specific denunciation. It’s disgusting that such a call is necessary, but I think it is.
Daniel
Well, lets hear it for the end of rational debate in the country. Who says the end of the republic isn’t upon us? :rolleyes:
Now let’s all take deep breaths and remind ourselves that it’s only three more weeks and it’ll all be over.
Unless of course it’s a close election and the recount thing bites us in the ass again…or whichever side loses throws a big ole riot party because of the highly charged shitfest this election has become…or Michael Moore gets a bug up his ass and makes more movies is Bush wins…or if Kerry wins and Rush Limbaugh, etc. get bugs up their asses and blather on about this that and the other thing…or whichever side loses starts posting in GD or BBQ about the thing that the guy did and how it was dumb and sucked and…oh my god this is never going to end 
There’s another one in Milwaukee. (Note, this is not a news story, but a press release from the GOP chairman. I don’t see why he would lie though…it’s easily discredited if it were a lie.)
Jeez, people. Get a grip.
Set aside the late-night attacks by each side. Here we have a blatant case of DNC operatives openly breaking into a GOP campaign facilities and trashing it. Given how some of the board lefties act, I am not exactly suprised at the introduction of brownshirt tactics, but it is a troubling turn of events, no?
Sheesh, talk about ‘intimidation’. On one hand, we have vague accusations by the Dems. On the other hand, we have people storming and trashing the other parties’ facilities.
In other words, no.
Daniel
Since when are protesters DNC operatives? Settle down boy, that propeller on yer beanie is spinning too fast.