Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

[geezer]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

This quote from Romney makes me giggle:

"I'm not familiar, precisely, with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was," Romney said.

classic!

Speaking of politicians doing what politicians do best... saw a headline tonight where Obama pumped out some kind of bio 20 years ago claiming to be from Kenya. Now that someone called him on it, he says he must have "made a mistake". I'm not going to say he's actually from Kenya, but what a bizarre mistake to make! Isn't it? My guess is that whatever the circumstance was back then (affirmative action etc.) it boosted his cause a little bit to be foreign born. When that became illegal, it was simply "a mistake". I hate politics.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

classic!

Speaking of politicians doing what politicians do best... saw a headline tonight where Obama pumped out some kind of bio 20 years ago claiming to be from Kenya. Now that someone called him on it, he says he must have "made a mistake". I'm not going to say he's actually from Kenya, but what a bizarre mistake to make! Isn't it? My guess is that whatever the circumstance was back then (affirmative action etc.) it boosted his cause a little bit to be foreign born. When that became illegal, it was simply "a mistake". I hate politics.

Did he claim to be Cherokee?

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

Things picking up:

In Nevada, rift divides state GOP, RNC

Politico

Fed up with an inept and self-destructive GOP apparatus in Nevada, the Republican National Committee and the Mitt Romney campaign have decided to erect a “shadow state party” in this critical swing state, sources confirmed Wednesday.

“They are still bogged down in the minutiae of whether Romney will be the presumptive nominee,” scoffed a GOP strategist familiar with the details of the restructuring. “We don’t have time for that when the Obama campaign already is in full campaign mode. We have no use for them [the state GOP].”

The lack of faith in the Republican Party in Nevada intensified with the botched February caucus, metastasized after the Ron Paul takeover in Sparks, and reached its zenith with Tuesday’s call for RNC Chairman Reince Priebus to resign by a divided Clark County GOP.

 

[Priceless]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

classic!

Speaking of politicians doing what politicians do best... saw a headline tonight where Obama pumped out some kind of bio 20 years ago claiming to be from Kenya. Now that someone called him on it, he says he must have "made a mistake". I'm not going to say he's actually from Kenya, but what a bizarre mistake to make! Isn't it? My guess is that whatever the circumstance was back then (affirmative action etc.) it boosted his cause a little bit to be foreign born. When that became illegal, it was simply "a mistake". I hate politics.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

 

[duper]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

Happens all the time.

Yeah, I guess the word "anyone" was overboard. But I do not believe, and I hope I am never cynical enough to believe, that a significant number of people think this way. I think that almost everyone knows that no matter how much you dislike a politician, he or she will sometimes say or do things you like.

It would appear that quite a few people here think I'm wrong about this. That makes me sad. I hate the idea of people voting for "the lesser of two evils." I've never done it, and I never will. I have yet to see a serious political candidate that had no good qualities. There is ALWAYS something to vote FOR, rather than only voting AGAINST something.

Don't you Obama supporters say that all the time about Obama's detractors?

1) I just want to go ahead and say that you are a pompous arse. You frequently remind posters that just because we have heard a few of your opinions, that doesn't mean that we know what you think about everything. And of course, you're right. But somehow, no one else on this board is as enlightened as you, so that by hearing a few of our thoughts on a few topics, you immediately know everything about us. It would be much easier to take you seriously if you didn't embed such inflammatory nonsense into so many of your posts. Once again I am reminded that you are, at heart, just a simple troll.

2) Since you said "you Obama supporters," please provide me a quote of mine where I have indicated that someone disagreed with something Obama said just because it was Obama who said it. You need to get past this snivelling idea that most of "us" are so ignorant and incapable of abstract thought that we can only think in ad hominem and cliche.

 

[joecct]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

Duper

Try living in Maryland. There's not a lot to be happy about.

 

[leswp1]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

I'll make it easier yet: There is one way, and one way only that we'll "let the tax cuts expire". That is to INCREASE tax rates. There is no other way.

Nope. We can't increase taxes.

This certainly explains why current intake is at about 15% GDP and outtake is about 25% GDP. We can start wars, we can placate baby boomers, we can nationalize education, we can destroy our credit rating. We cannot pass a law that ends on a certain date. Can't be done.

my head hurts.

 

[Rover]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

classic!

Speaking of politicians doing what politicians do best... saw a headline tonight where Obama pumped out some kind of bio 20 years ago claiming to be from Kenya. Now that someone called him on it, he says he must have "made a mistake". I'm not going to say he's actually from Kenya, but what a bizarre mistake to make! Isn't it? My guess is that whatever the circumstance was back then (affirmative action etc.) it boosted his cause a little bit to be foreign born. When that became illegal, it was simply "a mistake". I hate politics.

A lie out of the MinnFan school of posting. Obama had nothing to do with claiming he was born in Kenya. The publisher has already put out a response days ago saying they themselves made the mistake.

From Politicalwire:

Miriam Goderich issued the following statement to Political Wire:

"You're undoubtedly aware of the brouhaha stirred up by Breitbart about the erroneous statement in a client list Acton & Dystel published in 1991 (for circulation within the publishing industry only) that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. This was nothing more than a fact checking error by me -- an agency assistant at the time. There was never any information given to us by Obama in any of his correspondence or other communications suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii. I hope you can communicate to your readers that this was a simple mistake and nothing more."

 

[pirate]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

This is the gift that keeps on giving. Princess Summerfall Winterspring identified herself as Cherokee back in the 80's when she submitted recipes to that valuable geneological source, Pow Wow Chow.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us...ive_roots_in_84_cookbook/srvc=home&position=1

Harvard says her minority status had no impact on her hiring...I don't believe that. A university and a law school would be particularly aware of the diversity of its faculty. And I would suspect reports that in some places and touts it in others.

Certainly, at that time they couldn't have a staff of only white males, they had to have a goal to have a diverse faculty, she had to know that reporting herself as a minority would absolutely give her an advantage in an environment that would naturally strive for diversity.

I say that because diversity is good, places should seek a diverse faculty or staff. The clever response is "we didn't utilize affirmative action methods to facilitate this hire". Sure, she was qualified, probably as qualified as the next person, but the next person might not have been a female minority. She knew that declaring herself as a minority could only help her cause.

If they find out that in other surveys, census, financial aid or whatever that she didn't consistently report herself as a minority then somebody should go find the fork because she'll be done.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

1) I just want to go ahead and say that you are a pompous arse.

I can certainly understand why you might feel that way!

I don't always express myself well in English, it is a challenge for me sometimes to put the right words together in the right way. I had a strict and formal instruction in English grammar and rhetoric which is not in keeping with today's more colloquial style. I realize that people can find that off-putting, yet it's also a bit like having Asperger's...perhaps it's a bit like having an accent, it's how I learned to compose.

It would be much easier to take you seriously if you didn't embed such inflammatory nonsense into so many of your posts.

I guess I have a rather dry sense of humor, a little friendly banter now and then.....if it really does offend you rather than merely engage you in a playful way, then I'm sorry. We're talking politics, it gets a little rough-and-tumble, sure, but it's not meant personally. Is it really that different than what Yankee fans and Red Sox fans say about each other? If it is and I misread the situation, then oops.

sorry. do not mean to offend, merely to fence.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

The Kenya / Cherokee "scandals" must be what the right means when they say we should be spending our time on the substantive issues that face the country.

 

[Rover]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

No offense, but this story is getting into the overkill zone. Much like AquaBuddha, its amusing for a few days but then it just starts getting stupid. Cookbooks now? Do you really think the average voter gives a rat's arse?

The problem with Scottie Brown is he's letting the Boston Herald run his campaign. At some point their interests may start to diverge. To attract readeship from their dwindling base, the Herald will push this story from now until the the year 2050 if they thought it would do them some good. Brown needs to appeal to a much wider audience, and I'm not sure this is doing him a lot of good outside of the people who are already going to vote for him.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

No offense, but this story is getting into the overkill zone.

agree

Brown needs to appeal to a much wider audience, and I'm not sure this is doing him a lot of good outside of the people who are already going to vote for him.

Brown does need to do something positive to attract more votes for him, and at the same time this is also an instructive example of the theory of negative campaigning: the goal of keeping this story alive is not to generate any additional votes for Brown, it is to whittle down potential votes away from Warren through attrition. ("ugh, I'll just stay home. Can't stand either one of 'em.") This is that "win at any cost" mentality at its worst. Here you and I can agree it is worse than useless. The vote is a precious thing yet this portion of the campaign is designed deliberately to reduce voter turnout. Yuck.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

The problem with Scottie Brown is he's letting the Boston Herald run his campaign. At some point their interests may start to diverge. To attract readeship from their dwindling base, the Herald will push this story from now until the the year 2050 if they thought it would do them some good. Brown needs to appeal to a much wider audience, and I'm not sure this is doing him a lot of good outside of the people who are already going to vote for him.

This is the Republicans' problem in microcosm. Talk radio and the rest of their media enablers are very useful to them for kicking up a lot of dust and distracting and outraging the gullible portion of the electorate. But because those are entertainment outlets their eventual responsibility is to drive crazier and crazier stories for sensationalist appeal, so when it comes time for a GOP candidate to look serious, they're on the Failboat. That's how they wound up with Cain, Bachmann, Santorum, Trump and Newt as front line candidates. Add that to the lack of (often even direct resentment of) critical thinking skills among many of the dittoheads, and the entire party becomes decoupled from reality. It's really no wonder they have leadership saying they want to go through the debt ceiling drag act again -- they literally no longer care or understand about any value except publicity.

The GOP is no longer a political party. It's a reality TV show.

 

[pirate]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

has nothing to do with Scott Brown, nothing to do with cooking and nothing to do with right or left...if she conveniently identified herself as a minority to assist her in gaining a position at harvard Law then I think she has made a huge error. She is smart, she knew what she was doing...if she truly identifies herself as a minority then so be it...if that was done just to help her odds of getting a job then I think that is a big issue. That it would make her a tremendous hypocrite as well is just part of the story.

I'd never hire somebody that would change their race designation as it suited them, you think that is ok?

edited for typo

 

[LynahFan]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

Harvard says her minority status had no impact on her hiring...I don't believe that. A university and a law school would be particularly aware of the diversity of its faculty. And I would suspect reports that in some places and touts it in others.

Certainly, at that time they couldn't have a staff of only white males, they had to have a goal to have a diverse faculty, she had to know that reporting herself as a minority would absolutely give her an advantage in an environment that would naturally strive for diversity.

I say that because diversity is good, places should seek a diverse faculty or staff. The clever response is "we didn't utilize affirmative action methods to facilitate this hire". Sure, she was qualified, probably as qualified as the next person, but the next person might not have been a female minority. She knew that declaring herself as a minority could only help her cause.

If they find out that in other surveys, census, financial aid or whatever that she didn't consistently report herself as a minority then somebody should go find the fork because she'll be done.

Heh. After my wife (half American, half Pakistani) hired in at Lockheed, she was quite shocked to find that they had designated her as both Native American and Innuit in their EEOC report and she made them correct it right away. Institutions are always under pressure to demonstrate that they have minorities (of the right sort, naturally) on staff, and job applicants certainly know that. Not too hard to connect the dots.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

She is smart, she knew what she was doing...if she truly identifies herself as a minority then so be it...

She may be smart, she also appears to have been stubborn on this point....she could have made it all disappear at the outset with a proper show of contrition and humility.

"While it was always part of our family lore that we had a Cherokee ancestor, I never actually researched it to the point where I could definitively prove it with documentary evidence.
You know what it's like, you grow up hearing people say it all your life, you just assume it's true, the thought never crosses your mind to actually question it.
However, and I am so embarrassed, but because these questions have come up, I figured I'd just go look it up; after all, I'd heard about it all my life, the records wouldn't be all that hard to find, right?
Yeah, you'd think so, but guess what....can't find them anywhere. This is so awkward. I'm sorry, please it was an honest mistake."​

Done, over, forgotten.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

Heh. After my wife (half American, half Pakistani) hired in at Lockheed, she was quite shocked to find that they had designated her as both Native American and Innuit in their EEOC report and she made them correct it right away. Institutions are always under pressure to demonstrate that they have minorities (of the right sort, naturally) on staff, and job applicants certainly know that.

Same thing happens here. It's particularly true of companies that compete for federal contracts. Companies make all sorts of ridiculous claims about diversity and then push all through the hiring process to "make it so." The person being so designated often doesn't even know. That's why I think the Warren kerfuffle is meaningless. I'm sure somewhere along the line my company has claimed me as a Ruthenian-American worthy of minority status.

As far as making it a Terrible Outrage, well, the GOP can try. It's doubly good for them because they can smear an extremely intelligent and (to them) dangerous candidate, and it also plays into their whole White Terror narrative about things like affirmative action. Even if it makes no impact outside of their true believers, it keeps the resentment pot boiling, and that's good for business.

 

[duper]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

I can certainly understand why you might feel that way!

I don't always express myself well in English, it is a challenge for me sometimes to put the right words together in the right way. I had a strict and formal instruction in English grammar and rhetoric which is not in keeping with today's more colloquial style. I realize that people can find that off-putting, yet it's also a bit like having Asperger's...perhaps it's a bit like having an accent, it's how I learned to compose.



I guess I have a rather dry sense of humor, a little friendly banter now and then.....if it really does offend you rather than merely engage you in a playful way, then I'm sorry. We're talking politics, it gets a little rough-and-tumble, sure, but it's not meant personally. Is it really that different than what Yankee fans and Red Sox fans say about each other? If it is and I misread the situation, then oops.

sorry. do not mean to offend, merely to fence.

I'm not offended, I just find it amusing that you make these incredibly biased comments, but try to make them in such a way as to sound neutral. Somehow, though, you just never pull it off.

So go ahead and make your biased comments. Be political. Banter. It's what the thread is for. Just don't be surprised when someone tells you that your "neutrality" is nonsense. And I assure you, this has nothing to do with your use of the language. It has to do with the inane assumptions you make, while feigning annoyance with those who make assumptions about you. I know the things you say aren't personal. I also know that, for someone who seems to hate being generalized about, you sure do generalize a whole lot about others. And that's not a misunderstanding over one or two posts. That's a frequent theme of your posting.

So keep doing what you do, and certainly don't worry about me. But know that I'm probably not the only one who can't take you seriously.

 

[Rover]

Re: Elections 2012: You must choose the lesser of two weevils

has nothing to do with Scott Brown, nothing to do with cooking and nothing to do with right or left...if she conveniently identified herself as a minority to assist her in gaining a position at harvard Law then I think she has made a huge error. She is smart, she knew what she was doing...if she truly identifies herself as a minority then so be it...if that was done just to help her odds of getting a job then I think that is a big issue. That it would make her a tremendous hypocrite as well is just part of the story.

I'd never hire somebody that would change their race designation as it suited them, you think that is ok?

edited for typo

I think the notion that somebody who looks white as a ghost is getting preferential treatment is stark raving stupid. Lets say these schools are desperate to show a diverse faculty to the public. How exactly does putting Elizabeth Warren's face on their website accomplish that goal? I'm not sure the woman could even pull off getting a decent tan. Unless she was hired sight unseen, and the schools' expected her to show up with a feather in her hair, this is just dumb. Furthermore, I and I suspect a lot of people had no idea Native Americans were classified as minorities. If she was going to go that route, why not try to find some Hispanic heritage instead?

PS - I too have some Indian ancestory in me. Its all via family lore, although I do have a picture or two of a person who would be my grandmother's great grandmother. However, if you asked me for documented proof for someone born in the 1830's in northern Quebec, I might struggle to produce that info. I don't think that would make me a liar.