[Oolong]

Originally Posted by mobespierre

one of 12!! wow. that is practically a claim to fame!!

yknow... i will surely get flamed to no end for this, but i am actually not too ashamed to admit i voted bush in 04. i have a justification for this:
1. i lived in ct. my non-kerry vote never would have made an ounce of a difference anyway.
2. john kerry is a douchebag.
3. since my vote wouldn't count i figured i'd pat my anti-abortion self on the back by being a single-platform voter...
4. john kerry is a douchebag.

Not your fellow American, but can't help but have to ask you how you reconciled your pro-life stance and your vote for Bush. By casting your ballot for Bush, you sent the message that you supported his invasion of Iraq. So far, the war has caused over half a million Iraqi deaths. In 2004 you had the chance to make a difference, a difference for those dead Iraqi who might have had their lives spared. Yet, you chose to support Bush so that he could continue his Iraq policy and as a result casuing more deaths. It's admirable that you think unborn fetuses should live, but what about those dead Iraqis? Shouldn't they have a chance to live too? I must have missed something. Or maybe you should give your stance a qualifier, pro-American-life.

[mobespierre]

Originally Posted by Oolong

Not your fellow American, but can't help but have to ask you how you reconciled your pro-life stance and your vote for Bush. By casting your ballot for Bush, you sent the message that you supported his invasion of Iraq. So far, the war has caused over half a million Iraqi deaths. In 2004 you had the chance to make a difference, a difference for those dead Iraqi who might have had their lives spared. Yet, you chose to support Bush so that he could continue his Iraq policy and as a result casuing more deaths. It's admirable that you think unborn fetuses should live, but what about those dead Iraqis? Shouldn't they have a chance to live too? I must have missed something. Or maybe you should give your stance a qualifier, pro-American-life.

perhaps you missed the part where i said that since i am from CT, which always goes democrat, my vote for bush did not count. me voting for bush did not, in fact, support the war.

please spare me the 'you only care about american lives' bit, because i am very much not that kind of person. i will re-affirm---- voting in the state/county where i did allowed me the freedom to be a single-issue voter, because that happened to be the most important issue to me at the time.

if i only cared about american lives i would not be in hong kong.

[Krad]

Originally Posted by tx75070

The democrats are here to save us! Here is a good illustration.

http://cagle.msnbc.com/working/060928/ramirez.jpg

Wow, things are turning out even better than I thought!

[discobay]

Yes this thread is getting hot enough for a beer wager by Friday!

[mobespierre]

HLZ: i wanted to post what my sister has so concisely said about "jessica's law:"

"Prop 83, also known as Jessica's Law. Among other provisions, registered sex offenders would be prohibited from living within 2000 feet of any school or park, AND would have to wear a GPS tracking device for the rest of their lives. This proposition was touted as a way to Keep Our Children Safe. The CA election guide provides the full text of all propositions, as well as independent analyst summaries, arguments from both the proponents and the opponents, and 'rebuttals' to the arguments (and what a joke those rebuttals are -- instead of responding to the points brought up in the counterarguments, they just reiterate their original claims). The argument in favor of Prop 83 raised the spectre of "predatory sex criminals" and "dangerous child molesters"; it obliquely condemned the CA legislature for "[failing] to pass Jessica's Law time and time again"; it screamed, "WE CANNOT WAIT ANOTHER DAY TO PROTECT OUR KIDS." [emph theirs] To end on a suitably emotionally fraught note, it recapped the horrific details of Jessica Lunsford's kidnapping and murder, and informed voters that "it's not too late" to protect other children from this fate.

So if you're a parent and care about your kid, or if you care about kids in general, then you'll vote for Prop 83.

Except that there are serious flaws in this proposition. The most compelling ones, in my mind, are 1) neither a GPS device nor residency restrictions will protect a child whose family member is the sex offender -- and the majority of sex crimes against children are committed by a relative; 2) this forces *registered* sex offenders into rural areas, overwhelming their law-enforcement agencies (this has happened in other states); 3) the restrictions don't discriminate between 'real', dangerous child molesters and teenagers with underage girlfriends/boyfriends [this doesn't mean I condone teenagers having sex, but I don't think the 18-year-old boyfriend poses quite the same societal risk as the 35-year-old rapist]; and 4) hello, a GPS tracking device for life?? Do we live in Nazi Germany?"

[tx75070]

Originally Posted by Krad

Wow, things are turning out even better than I thought!

Yeah, I love that cartoon. Notice that Granpa has read only half of the book to Junior. The later chapters include how Dems beat the Republicans in 2008 with a 95% landslide, then they were able to bring the cost of gasoline down to .35/gallon, although most people are riding bicycles since the Dems put the Big Three auto makers out of business back in 2012. Big Oil companies got what they deserve, beacuse of their record-breaking profits back in 2005-2010, when the Dems approved a 100% gasoline tax forcing all american oil companies out of business except for Chavez's Citgo gas stations. Unemployment was reduced to 1%, Mexico and the U.S. became one nation. Thanks to stemcell discoveries, 148 year old Ted Kennedy is in his 4th term as President(yes, Dems ammended the Constitution so a President can hold office for a maximum of 20 years). Dems have used the law of Emminent Domain to bulldoze homes to plant more trees so the chipmunks and squirrels can reproduce and not become instinct. Thanks to Hezbohla and Al-queda subsidies, all Americans enjoy free health care. In the year 2024, the Democrats proudly celebrated the one billionth aborted baby and took much of the credit for population control. Al Gore was so successful in his war on global warming, that Florida is now named the Mild State, with its cool 59 degree summer temperature and its sub zero winters. Thanks to Al Gore,the winters in the midwest are harsh though, but most residents there enjoy comfort when they fly to Iran for the winter and enjoy the warmer climate, thanks to their nuclear energy program that gives them unlimited energy supply for ever. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was right. He only wanted nuclear power for energy, not to build nuclear weapons! How could we have been so wrong? Back in 2006, when that evil President Bush was president and misleading the people on the global war on terror, many people thought that we were near the ends of time. Surely, the apocalypse at any moment was coming, but luckily the Democrats took office just 2 years later and saved the world, largely in part because of the beloved United Nations, 113 year old(thanks stemcells) President Bill Clinton.
In the last chapter, Granpa reads to Junior how the Democrats were so proud to abolish smoking, gasoline vehicles, killed a billion babys, saved the squirrel, punished drug companies and big oil, closed down all restaurants that used transfatty acids to cook, how they allowed anyone to vote, including illegals and inmates, even dead people, how they allowed same sex marriage or marriage to animals. Democrat grandpa is proud that capitalism is vertually non existant now. The Dems eliminated the upper middle class and now only a lower middle class society exists. Dems were so appauled that our gonvernment used loud music and cold rooms to interrogate the enemy that they abolish all interrogations. We are no longer feared by other nations and everyone loves us now. In fact, the super power nations like Thailand, Iran, North Korea, Peru and Jamaica provide us with most of our infrastucture in exchange for agriculture products that we have in abundance now, since the Emminent Domain law passed in early 2000's. We are so happy to be loved and felt sorry for now.
"Yes Junior, thank goodness(can't say God), that the suckers, I mean the American people, voted Democrat in 2008 to save our freedoms, because we Democrats always know what's good for you".

[Krad]

sweet!

plant more trees so the chipmunks and squirrels can reproduce and not become instinct.

OH NO! INSTINCTIVE SQUIRRELS!!!!


You know, I might have actually formulated a real response to you, if you had managed to spell either Hezbollah or Al-Qaeda correctly.

[HoLangZai]

I'm perfectly willing to concede that the law isn't perfect. But its a step in the right direction.

If a family chooses to live with a known sex offender, then they are complete idiots. The government can't save them from their own stupidity.

A GPS tracking device is a great idea, so are residency restrictions.
But if I could really have my way, anybody that did any of this crap would be put in jail for life, no parole. Sounds harsh, but when bad guys are put away they aren't able to do any damage again.

I'm not some big humanitarian, but frankly the fact that bad guys that rape little girls and boys get light sentances of 2 years or probation etc just enrages me. We need to have a tough punishment for ANYBODY that commits these crimes and others, and second the deterrent for the same kind of people thinking of commiting them.

I didn't use Jessica's law as the perfect/only possible solution. But just to illustrate that we need to have tough penalties for heanous crimes. As New York proves, tough laws and strong enforcement can lead to a dramatic drop in all kinds of crime, as has been the case every year since Giuliani was elected.

At least the bad guys would go away for 25 years. Thats all I want.

Liberals shouldn't bother entering this kind of debate, because they are always the ones enacting weak laws and nominating the weak judges. They have never been tough on crime, and frankly I don't think they ever will. The fact that so many people were demonstrating outside San Joaqin prison when Tookie Williams was being put to death is the perfect example of why these people should never be allowed to enact legislation to do with crime, or anything else for that matter.

[sylvesterjay]

thats because TX is probably the product of democratic school board. not like those englightened rightwing christian republicans in Kansas, who teach that all mankind was descended from 2 people. but then again in the US south, brother and sister love is encouraged.

[hullexile]

Originally Posted by Krad

sweet!



OH NO! INSTINCTIVE SQUIRRELS!!!!


You know, I might have actually formulated a real response to you, if you had managed to spell either Hezbollah or Al-Qaeda correctly.

I bet he can spell FOX though. Funny how Europe seems to muddle along quite happily even though we have had parties to the left of the Democrats in most countries for many decades. The Brazilian economy seems to be doing OK as well even with the Workers Party in charge. Why is it that only America will collapse if there is a bit of liberalism, is the economy that fragile?