The P/R-side Chat Thread v.2

[El Barto]

Indeed.  Here's Rand Paul's speech a couple of hours earlier.

Rand Paul Hates America

It's a shame that nobody will listen to him.  Sadly, for all of the bravado Americans like to spew, we really have become a nation of pussies. 

Rand continued to verbally bitch slap Reid in reply.

It's really sad because arguably, he represents popular opinion on this issue, but nobody knows any better to elect better reps or make their voice heard. It's all made me really cynical over the past year or so. Will writing to my neocon rep really change things? I remember throughout the past few years I had gotten in the habit of sending emails to senators and reps just to get a mailed letter back basically stating the position I already knew they'd take. The more and more I give a shit about what's happening, the more I realize there's nobody that really represents me.

A most horrific irony, if I were to write my congressman and tell him that I was actually more afraid of the government than of terrorists, I'd find myself very much under their scrutiny via the very provisions that I'm writing to complain about.  I think I'll pass. 

[Nick]

While I'm generally not a fan of Rand I certainly appreciate what he has done on this issue.

[MetalMike06]

Unfortunately, his efforts failed, as I expected.

*throws hands in air*

I give up.

[El Barto]

Yeah, not surprising.  What frightens me is that the only real debate going on is whether or not to make this nonsense permanent.

Personally, I preferred when government goons were jack-booted thugs, rather than our guardian angel. 

[MetalMike06]

I posted this link on my facebook, and one of my Obama-supporter acquaintances messaged me saying "it's not his fault" and that "there's merit to it." Really? Good God. A lot of people I know who voted for him at least give him some criticism in areas like this, but then there are legions of people like this guy who justify every continuation of his predecessor. I expected it but damn it pisses me off if I think about it too much.

[hefdaddy42]

Here are four religious truths that we can all count on:

1 Muslims do not recognize Jews as God's chosen people

2 Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

3. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian World.

4. Baptists and Methodists do not recognize each other at the liquor store.

[emindead]

[Super Dude]

Yeah, not surprising.  What frightens me is that the only real debate going on is whether or not to make this nonsense permanent.

Personally, I preferred when government goons were jack-booted thugs, rather than our guardian angel. 

If people get angry enough, we could end up with a genuine revolution on our hands.  I have no idea yet if that's a good thing or not, but it's looking more and more likely with each passing day.

[Sigz]

Yeah, not surprising.  What frightens me is that the only real debate going on is whether or not to make this nonsense permanent.

Personally, I preferred when government goons were jack-booted thugs, rather than our guardian angel. 

If people get angry enough, we could end up with a genuine revolution on our hands.  I have no idea yet if that's a good thing or not, but it's looking more and more likely with each passing day.

I have a hard time believing it will come to that.

[Super Dude]

Well, national trust of the government is sinking into the toilet.  It's getting to a point where it's almost as low if not as low as during the Vietnam War, and I've heard the stories about those days.

In an unrelated note, Thunderdome!  Westboro Baptist Church vs. the Ku Klux Klan!

https://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/30/arlington.cemetery.protesters/index.html?hpt=T2

[El Barto]

Yeah, not surprising.  What frightens me is that the only real debate going on is whether or not to make this nonsense permanent.

Personally, I preferred when government goons were jack-booted thugs, rather than our guardian angel. 

If people get angry enough, we could end up with a genuine revolution on our hands.  I have no idea yet if that's a good thing or not, but it's looking more and more likely with each passing day.

I have a hard time believing it will come to that.

Revolution is out of the question.  People like to bitch and moan about how bad things are, but they're still convinced that this is the greatest country there is.  I don't see them challenging that belief by taking on the government.  Plus, we're to busy fighting amongst ourselves.  As long as everybody thinks that the real enemies are Republicans or Democrats, nobody's paying much attention to The Man. 

[Super Dude]

I mean truth be told, the Democrats do have a better track record for doing things the people demand of them.  They may *not* do certain things, but they rarely do something *contrary* to what the people want (the Patriot Act being one of those confounding, rare few).

[El Barto]

Epic, Fox may not be as bad as people who like liberal networks pretend, but two wrongs doesn't make a right. Sure, Fox is no worse than MSNBC. But both networks are complete shams as news networks and if the health of our government is dependent partly on having a strong news media (as any democracy should) than a quick look at the big names, Fox included, should explain why we're stuck with what we're stuck with now.

Because Americans aren't interested in news.  They're interested in hearing someone pseudo-authoritative reinforce their existing beliefs. 

Fox News coverage is fine.

The problem is, 70 percent of what you seen on Fox News is actually not news, but commentary. And Epic View's right, that all the competitor "news" networks are the same.

Yeah, not so much.  I read a ton of FOX "news" articles everyday, and their journalism is just as biased as their commentary; just a different method of presentation. 

[Super Dude]

I'll wait for FOX to locate Egypt correctly on a map of the Mediterranean before relying on them for news.

[Perpetual Change]

Yeah, not so much.  I read a ton of FOX "news" articles everyday, and their journalism is just as biased as their commentary; just a different method of presentation. 

And other news sources don't? Presentation is fair game. There's no such thing as objective news, but to say that their news is just as bad as their commentary is just wrong.

[El Barto]

Yeah, not so much.  I read a ton of FOX "news" articles everyday, and their journalism is just as biased as their commentary; just a different method of presentation. 

And other news sources don't? Presentation is fair game. There's no such thing as objective news, but to say that their news is just as bad as their commentary is just wrong.

I didn't say anything about other news agencies.  I said that FOX's journalism is no different than their commentary and I stand by that. 

[Perpetual Change]

Let's see. On the Fox news site front page right now, we have:

1. A headline about an E. Coli outbreak in Europe.
2. An article about the cost of war spending in Afgahnistan
3. Something about Blagojevich's trial.
4. An article about new laws that might ban fourth of July fireworks.

I don't know what Bill'O talked about tonight, but I doubt it was anything like that. I skimmed the article about the Afghan war, too, which had the greatest potential for some political bias. I didn't notice anything off-color. So yeah, I really don't know what people are getting all up in arms about. It's just a shame that the "news" is shoved to time slots when people are working and the commentary gets the prime time slots.

[El Barto]

Same four I got, but the fifth headline was High Class:  The Governments Preferred Style of Ride,  subtitled "'Limousine Liberals' Report Shows Government Limo Fleet Swelling, "  about the increase in limousines purchased during the Obama administration (with a small mention that the purchasing actually began at the end of the Bush administration).   And the fireworks article was how the Fourth of July is coming under attack by tree-hugging California judges.  Personally,  I wouldn't consider a San Diego ordinance to be national news, but some things are just too good to pass up. 

Personally, I'd bet a fiver that the San Diego thing was mentioned by O'Reilly--I doubt he'd pass up an opportunity to call Cali judges pinheads. 

[Perpetual Change]

I don't have that fifth headline. Where are you seeing that?

It's not great, but I don't see what the fuss is about. I have no love for Fox news, but I also don't see the point in demonizing it, especially when those who do seem to be missing out on the much bigger problem.

[El Barto]

My desktop feed is set to show the top five headlines.

House Rejects Debt Ceiling Increase
U.S. Lawmakers Debate Costs of Afghanistan War
Blago on Trial: Senate Seat Deal 'Didn't Appeal' to Him
Court Ruling JeopardizesFourth of July Celebration
High-Class: Government's Preferred Style of Ride

I don't really have a problem with people saying they're no different than the other outlets.  I get annoyed when people say that they're objective or spout that fair and balanced nonsense.  Those are the people who think that every other news source is the liberal media because they consider FOX the center of the scale. 

[Perpetual Change]

Who said anything about them being objective or fair and balanced? They're not, but how they actually present their news IS fair game.

My biggest issue is with the commentary.

[Super Dude]

Who said anything about them being objective or fair and balanced? They're not, but how they actually present their news IS fair game.

My biggest issue is with the commentary.

EV, PraXis, and Powerslave, who else?

[Perpetual Change]

Well fuck me. Who said I was willing to go anywhere near that 

[Super Dude]

We're doomed.

[Sigz]

PAUL: I’m not for profiling people on the color of their skin, or on their religion, but I would take into account where they’ve been traveling and perhaps, you might have to indirectly take into account whether or not they’ve been going to radical political speeches by religious leaders. It wouldn’t be that they are Islamic. But if someone is attending speeches from someone who is promoting the violent overthrow of our government, that’s really an offense that we should be going after — they should be deported or put in prison.

Wait what? I was under the impression Rand Paul was a libertarian.

[Super Dude]

And this is why I left the libertarian camp.

[Adami]

I think someone who notify Netenyahu that last time Israel had pre 67 borders, they defeated every arab neighboring country within 6 days.

[Super Dude]

Adami, is your universal translator broken?

[Super Dude]

America is becoming Pakistan apparently, and the guy makes a good argument for it:

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/opinion/05kristof.html

[Adami]

Adami, is your universal translator broken?

My point still stands, poor typing and all.

[Adami]

Does anyone remember the days when every P/R thread WASN'T about Obama being the antichrist?

[Super Dude]

Ah yes, back in the day when Disappear still posted and we could all agree that Bush was the antichrist.

[Adami]

Ah yes, back in the day when Disappear still posted and we could all agree that Bush was the antichrist.

Oh god I miss Disappear and his Hezbollah loving ways.


EDIT: But seriously, it's getting impossible to post in P/R these days since everything just turns into a debate with Epicview about either Obama or the reliability of news agencies.

[Super Dude]

And I'm sure that if he were here in older days he'd have been defending Bush to the point of insanity.

[PlaysLikeMyung]

I miss dislolppear