The U.S Election Thread - Topic Powered by eve community

Splitcoil

Member

Posted

Partly because we conveniently schedule minor revolutions every two to four years. Who's gonna lead the revolution if it's done with sticks and guns? If Obama popped up with a stick, everybody'd follow him, right?

So why not wait a few months, avoid civil war, and enjoy some Wii Sports in the meantime? Almost no one gets shot playing on the Wii. Revolutions are more of a crap shoot.

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Posts: 10572 | Location: Under a hat. | Registered: March 09, 2003

Ignored post by Splitcoil posted

Trogdor

Member

Posted

The sub-prime derivatives crisis is a revolution. Or will be if Congress or Bernanke gives them criminal Wallstreet assholes any more money to bail them out.

Posts: 8729 | Location: Wyoming, USA | Registered: April 15, 2003

Ignored post by Trogdor posted

Member

Posted

Yeah, I owe Sally Mae like a gazillion dollars, where's my bailout?

Only poor people join a revolution!!"

_{As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.
-Albert Einstein}

Posts: 19176 | Location: my happy place. | Registered: February 17, 2004

Ignored post by Boogerhead posted

lithos

Member

Posted

I owe the government.

Fuck Norway. Fuck them to hell.

The Lithos School of Curiousity is now enrolling

Posts: 11754 | Location: KG, BNE | Registered: May 15, 2004

Ignored post by lithos posted

Member

Posted

In other election news, apparently the Rev. Jackson stuck his foot ankle deep into his mouth while being taped. Fox news, that bastion of fairness and balance-ness, will be playing the tapes in an attempt to liken Obama to Asshat, er, Jackson.

quote:
Jackson Statement: For any harm or hurt that this hot mic private conversation may have caused, I apologize. My support for Senator Obama_s campaign is wide, deep and unequivocal. I cherish this redemptive and historical moment.

_My appeal was for the moral content of his message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy which would be a corrective action for the lack of good choices that often led to their irresponsibility.

_That was the context of my private conversation and it does not reflect any disparagement on my part for the historic event in which we are involved or my pride in Senator Barack Obama, who is leading it, whom I have supported by crisscrossing this nation in every level of media and audience from the beginning in absolute terms._

Probably best for Barack to just keep silent on this one. Jackson said something along the lines of cutting his nuts off.

_{As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.
-Albert Einstein}

Posts: 19176 | Location: my happy place. | Registered: February 17, 2004

Ignored post by Boogerhead posted

UberDog

Member

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by Trogdor:
The sub-prime derivatives crisis is a revolution. Or will be if Congress or Bernanke gives them criminal Wallstreet assholes any more money to bail them out.

Nope, still won't get people mad enough. You need to wait about 25 years when minorities outnumber whites and all this has had two more decades to simmer.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the balance shifts numerically.

Still, those fat-old white guys, I still don't see them not being in power.

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"I knew their tastes were very different and because the french like Dick a lot." -W.G.

Posts: 8809 | Location: A grue's belly. | Registered: February 20, 2003

Ignored post by UberDog posted

jbx

Member

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by UberDog:
quote:
Originally posted by Trogdor:
The sub-prime derivatives crisis is a revolution. Or will be if Congress or Bernanke gives them criminal Wallstreet assholes any more money to bail them out.

Nope, still won't get people mad enough. You need to wait about 25 years when minorities outnumber whites and all this has had two more decades to simmer.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the balance shifts numerically.

Still, those fat-old white guys, I still don't see them not being in power.

I dunno, I was just thinking about this.

It's economic. Meeting your criteria. It's funny\sad too. Citi loans me more money that I have income, knowing they are doing that, then they loan me money to buy a house (or they loan Country Wide, or whatever, down the line)knowing the economy is shaky and that they'll jack my payments after a point, but it's cool because the value of the house they let me buy will go up even if they repo it, turns out that doesn't work, so now I owe them money they know I can't pay, the investment they bought against my paying off my house is worth shit, they are in a liquidity crisis, which causes a credit crunch since nobody trusts anybody with any money since nobody knows if anything is worth anything, the credit crunch tips the balance against me, in default on my mortgage, I can't buy gas to drive to a new job to put food which I can't afford on the table, and then the FUCKING AC GOES OUT WHILE I'M TRYING TO WATCH FOOTBALL!!??!?! And since the power costs go up (and the lights dim and flicker) the beer I can't afford is warm anyway. And I can't even drive to McDonalds to get a Big Mac to relive this tension in my chest.

riots in the streets

(which is when they'll release the Zombie Virus btw, so we'll have to all pitch in for the collective good of humanity, and live in our OverLord's work camps, stamping grapes with our feet to make wine, and other important work like that, under the watchful gun muzzles of mirror-shaded madmen! ...just sayin'...)

Posts: 574 | Registered: July 05, 2005

Ignored post by jbx posted

Justy

Member

Posted

The revolution might be simpler: people just might remember how to save money and live within their means.

But that would require not being a consumer (or, not thinking of oneself as only a being with the right to consume).

_{»» "Forget infinity. I've got books waiting for me to read them." — colin
»»"Speculative novels of last Tuesday." — William Gibson}

Posts: 5099 | Location: Knoxville, TN, USA | Registered: January 12, 2003

Ignored post by Justy posted

UberDog

Member

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by Justy:
The revolution might be simpler: people just might remember how to save money and live within their means.

But that would require not being a consumer (or, not thinking of oneself as only a being with the right to consume).

The Right to Consume will be amended into the constitution of the new millennium, next to the right to discriminate for purposes of moral health.

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"I knew their tastes were very different and because the french like Dick a lot." -W.G.

Posts: 8809 | Location: A grue's belly. | Registered: February 20, 2003

Ignored post by UberDog posted

John Maddox Roberts

Member

Posted

Expecting the American people to rebel is more than merely naive, it is epically disingenuous. We are what people rebel against. When your biggest problems are inconveniently pricey gas and that people lent you too much money, you're already on top of the world! Can you imagine what these complaints sound like to Third World people?

Posts: 1500 | Location: Estancia, NM, USA | Registered: November 01, 2003

Ignored post by John Maddox Roberts posted

Member

Posted

Soon enough.

_{As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.
-Albert Einstein}

Posts: 19176 | Location: my happy place. | Registered: February 17, 2004

Ignored post by Boogerhead posted

doggo

Member

Posted

More than electing Barack Obama as the next president, which is are only real option, what we should be focused on is imposing term limits in Congress.

It's clear that these people get entrenched and start making decisions based on keeping their seat and helping out their longtime buddies who are lobbyists.

In fact, maybe we should have a draft for Congress. You go in, serve your term (and your country), and then you're outta there.

Seriously, every U.S. citizen of a certain age should have to serve in Congress. Just like jury duty. Or, you serve once in the House, and once in the Senate. Everyone has to serve in the House. Once you've served in the House, then you become eligible to have to serve in the Senate.

Or maybe it works that way from the state level up. In your state you must serve in the State House if drafted, then you're eligible to be drafted to serve in the State Senate. Then you're placed in the pool to serve in the U.S. House, then in the pool to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Anyone who ends up serving all four levels gets a set of lifetime benefits, like a pension and health insurance, or whatever it is that retired senators get.

We treat it no different than we treat people called up for military service now. Your employer is supposed to hold your job for you until your service is done. Those that have served in the military can decline though.

Obviously every citizen would have to be more educated in government and legal issues. That could start in primary school. Sure, we'd have a lot of dumb laws, but we do already. Maybe we'd get more common sense too. And of course we'd have to have oversight. Supreme Court? Justice Dept? Preznit? (I know I'd be a train wreck if I had to serve. But at least I'd be a well-intentioned train wreck. Not some cynical, corrupt, career politician.)

Posts: 3013 | Location: Ouillmette | Registered: January 13, 2003

Ignored post by doggo posted

Member

Posted

Utopian daydreamer!

_{As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.
-Albert Einstein}

Posts: 19176 | Location: my happy place. | Registered: February 17, 2004

Ignored post by Boogerhead posted

doggo

Member

Posted

Ach... You're right Boog. It'll never work.

Posts: 3013 | Location: Ouillmette | Registered: January 13, 2003

Ignored post by doggo posted

Member

Posted

I'd be willing to try it, if we exclude certain states from participation.

I'm lookin' at you, Texas.

_{As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.
-Albert Einstein}

Posts: 19176 | Location: my happy place. | Registered: February 17, 2004

Ignored post by Boogerhead posted

John Maddox Roberts

Member

Posted

Athens tried it. Didn't work out.

Posts: 1500 | Location: Estancia, NM, USA | Registered: November 01, 2003

Ignored post by John Maddox Roberts posted

lithos

Member

Posted

The trouble with democracy is that there's bound to be some bastard out there with different views to yours.

The Lithos School of Curiousity is now enrolling

Posts: 11754 | Location: KG, BNE | Registered: May 15, 2004

Ignored post by lithos posted

Splitcoil

Member

Posted

quote:
Originally posted by John Maddox Roberts:
Expecting the American people to rebel is more than merely naive, it is epically disingenuous. We are what people rebel against. When your biggest problems are inconveniently pricey gas and that people lent you too much money, you're already on top of the world! Can you imagine what these complaints sound like to Third World people?

Yep. Revolution is a hard life. The vast majority of Americans couldn't even wrap their heads around how to survive, let alone actually do it, or come out ahead.

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Posts: 10572 | Location: Under a hat. | Registered: March 09, 2003

Ignored post by Splitcoil posted

Gromit

Member

Posted

Found here.

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"It may be said with rough accuracy that there are three stages in the life of a strong people. First, it is a small power, and fights small powers. Then it is a great power, and fights great powers. Then it is a great power, and fights small powers, but pretends that they are great powers, in order to rekindle the ashes of its ancient emotion and vanity. After that, the next step is to become a small power itself."
--GK Chesterton, "Heretics"

Posts: 7495 | Location: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: February 02, 2003

Ignored post by Gromit posted