Politics: Where we struggle to kneel in the muck.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.../heroin_deaths

Do not try the heroin in Austin this year. Deaths are up 50%. Somebody has been spiking the heroin with heroin. And the result is not good. So please do not try the heroin in Austin this year.

I think dying from an OD of heroin sure beats the hell out of dying because you shot us because you hate drug users or being thrown in jail for 20 years for getting high.

This story is yet another reason to legalize drugs - so that we can regulate the purity/impurity and people can do them without dying.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I can't tell from the transcript. I may actually have to watch Crossfire.

a link to the video is here

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Lemme see here. Mebbe if I wind him counter-clock-wise tonight he'll reversorate to saying I'm doing a good job.

[Say_hello_for_me]

Originally posted by Not Me
I think dying from an OD of heroin sure beats the hell out of dying because you shot us because you hate drug users or being thrown in jail for 20 years for getting high.

This story is yet another reason to legalize drugs - so that we can regulate the purity/impurity and people can do them without dying.

If people obeyed the law and didn't sell drugs, we wouldn't have:
1.) users dying from an OD of heroin;
2.) dealers dying in a violent competition for sales territory;
3.) innocents getting caught in the crossfire of dealers' competition;
4.) hundreds of thousands less felony convictions every year;
5.) huge expenditures for police, courts and prisons.

And I don't hate anyone. I've only been arguing that people should obey the law. Thus,

I think being alive and free sure beats the hell out of dying from an OD of heroin or dying because I shot you or being thrown in jail for 20 years for getting high.

This story is yet another reason for people to obey the law until enough of change agents can change the law. Obeying the law seems like the best way to avoid overdosing, getting shot, or getting convicted and jailed on my dime.

And this whole story sucks. I see these stories about ODs and feel sorry for the parents 80% of the time. They didn't raise their kids to die at 35. Speaking of which, safe? The oldest "victim" out of 34 was 57, and that seemed like an aberration. I gotta wonder how many years heroin takes off a user's life.

Hello

[Tyrone Slothrop]

This is awesome:

• CNN.com
  
  WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. This week there was an issue that hit home with voters and forced the candidates to rethink their scripts. It even walked off with the political play of the week.
  
  (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SCHNEIDER (voice-over): They're standing in line in Florida and Michigan, in New Jersey. The line goes around the block. Eager swing state residents lining up to vote? Not exactly. They're lining up for flu shots.
  
  DR. CHARLES GONZALEZ, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: It's incredibly serious. We have half as much vaccine as we should have.
  
  SCHNEIDER: How did that happen?
  
  BUSH: We relied upon a company out of England to provide about half of the flu vaccines for the United States citizens.
  
  SCHNEIDER: Uh-oh. Sounds like outsourcing. The president had a solution.
  
  BUSH: We're working with Canada, hopefully they will produce a -- help us realize the vaccine necessary.
  
  SCHNEIDER: But hasn't Bush expressed problems with drug imports from Canada?
  
  BUSH: My worry is, it looks like it's from Canada, it might be from a third world. We have to make sure before somebody thinks they're buying a product, that it works.
  
  SCHNEIDER: President Bush made a plea to the public.
  
  BUSH: If you're healthy, if you're younger, don't get a flu shot this year.
  
  SCHNEIDER: Sounds like rationing, something the president said would result from Kerry's health care plan.
  
  BUSH: Government sponsored health care would lead to rationing.
  
  SCHNEIDER: The government has the situation under control the president says.
  
  BUSH: The CDC responsible for health in the United States is setting those priorities and allocating the flu vaccine accordingly.
  
  SCHNEIDER: Isn't that government control?
  
  BUSH: My opponent wants the government to run the health care.
  
  SCHNEIDER: Maybe the answer is legal reform.
  
  BUSH: Vaccine manufacturers are worried about getting sued, and so therefore they have backed off from providing this kind of vaccine.
  
  SCHNEIDER: Kerry says the issue is the whole health care system.
  
  KERRY: There still aren't enough flu vaccinations. What's the president's solution? He says, don't get one if you're healthy. That sounds just like his health care plan to me, hope and pray you don't get sick.
  
  SCHNEIDER: The flu bug has infected the campaign. The side effect was the political play of the week.
  
  (END VIDEOTAPE)
  
  SCHNEIDER: What President Bush warns could happen under the Kerry health care plan, shortages, rationing, that's exactly what is happening now. So the issue is whether the Kerry health care plan would solve the problem, or as Republicans charge, make it worse.
  
  WOODRUFF: Is there any evidence yet how this issue is playing out politically? Do we see polls? Do we pick up what people are saying?
  
  SCHNEIDER: We don't have any direct evidence that it's having a political impact yet. We know it is a very big issue on voters' minds. They're very dissatisfied with the fact that there is a shortage and frankly many are looking for somebody to blame. When the administration is the incumbent administration, they're likely to take some hits.
  
  WOODRUFF: You know it's serious when you read that some states will fine or jail doctors and nurses who give flu shots to people who are not at high risk.
  
  SCHNEIDER: Right, and that sounds a lot like rationing.

link (thanks RT)

Hard to believe that CNN could actually go beyond reporting what each candidate said, but there it is.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me
[people should obey the law]

Thanks for your overly simplistic (and out of touch with the scientific evidence that drug addiction is a genetically-based mental illness) response. If you spent half as much time as you spend posting here researching what doctors and scientists have discovered about the biological basis of drug addiction, you might understand it better.

Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me
feel sorry for the parents 80% of the time. They didn't raise their kids to die at 35.

How do you know? There is plenty of evidence that drug addiction is inherited and also influenced by environment. Many drug addicts were raised by parents (or at least one parent) who were alcoholics or drug addicts themselves.

Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me
Speaking of which, safe? The oldest "victim" out of 34 was 57, and that seemed like an aberration. I gotta wonder how many years heroin takes off a user's life.

Heroin is an incredibly dangerous drug to become addicted to. I feel incredibly sorry for anyone who does become addicted to that drug. However, heroin is even more dangerous because its purity is not regulated by the government.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Daily updates on electoral-vote.com not enough? Here is a page that gives the probability that Bush will win the election if it were held immediately, based on the most recent polls from each state, and updated every hour.

Here's the trend they've seen over the last three weeks:



As of 10:00 a.m. PDT, here's the predicted distribution of electoral votes:



Caveat: Garbage in, garbage out. They're looking at the same polling data everyone else is.

[Say_hello_for_me]

Originally posted by Not Me
Thanks for your overly simplistic (and out of touch with the scientific evidence that drug addiction is a genetically-based mental illness) response. If you spent half as much time as you spend posting here researching what doctors and scientists have discovered about the biological basis of drug addiction, you might understand it better.

Weren't you just complaining about people being mean? I'm trying to do people a favor and keep them alive. You got a problem with that?

Overly simplistic? As compared to what, throwing out "this should be legal", with no plan whatsoever for making it so?

And I don't think I can read this into your words, but are you saying that someone is predisposed to pick up that illegal substance the first time? If so, my lord, how many other crimes can't the offenders help committing?

And are you seriously complaining about my post count? If you spent half a second in an inner city neighborhood watching what subsidies have done, you'd have another reason to oppose subsidies. Are you passing on the truth here to justify your own actions?

In any case, there is no need for me to explain why people become repeat offenders. If people just refused to put that needle in their arm the first time (i.e., if they obey the law in this regard), they wouldn't die of injectable heroin ODs. Is putting the needle in the arm the first time something people are predisposed to do? How 'bout rape and murder? How many other things do we give people a pass on?

Originally posted by Not Me

How do you know? There is plenty of evidence that drug addiction is inherited and also influenced by environment. Many drug addicts were raised by parents (or at least one parent) who were alcoholics or drug addicts themselves.

You must be talking about the 15 or 20% that I don't feel sorry for. Please tell me you aren't saying something about your own upbringing here though.

Originally posted by Not Me

Heroin is an incredibly dangerous drug to become addicted to. I feel incredibly sorry for anyone who does become addicted to that drug. However, heroin is even more dangerous because its purity is not regulated by the government.

Another federal boondoggle? I'm in favor of legalization, but I better think about that some more now.

ET change title

[SlaveNoMore]

Unelected "King" Aragorn gets the Moore treatment, for invading the sovereign nation of Mordor

[SlaveNoMore]

Replaced_Texan
a link to the [John Stewart] video is here

What a smug, pompous, arrogant asshole. God, the publicity has gone to his head.

He should immediately walk away from TDS if his is this attitude

PS- It's a damn shame that Kinsley/Carville or Buchanan/Novak were no longer hosting the show. Tucker is too, too nice and Begala was speechless

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Daily updates on electoral-vote.com not enough? Here is a page that gives the probability that Bush will win the election if it were held immediately, based on the most recent polls from each state, and updated every hour.

Here's the trend they've seen over the last three weeks:



As of 10:00 a.m. PDT, here's the predicted distribution of electoral votes:



Caveat: Garbage in, garbage out. They're looking at the same polling data everyone else is.

Slave, help me. The anti-bush guys said all that matters is Zogby, and he has Kerry up. Then, last poll, Zogby has Bush up, so now its not Zogby that matters anymore?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Slave, help me. The anti-bush guys said all that matters is Zogby, and he has Kerry up. Then, last poll, Zogby has Bush up, so now its not Zogby that matters anymore?

You'll find Zogby polls on that site.

[Say_hello_for_me]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
You'll find Zogby polls on that site.

Hello Mr. Slothrop. Good day to you sir. Zogby showed up on the main page for exactly one state, Arkansas. Not surprisingly, he showed Arkansas for Bush.

http://www.cpod.ubc.ca/polls/index.c...em&itemID=4629

A quick check of Google news for Zogby shows this. Bush 48%, Kerry 44%. Have a very, very, perfectly pleasant and wonderful day.

Hello

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me
Hello Mr. Slothrop. Good day to you sir. Zogby showed up on the main page for exactly one state, Arkansas. Not surprisingly, he showed Arkansas for Bush.

http://www.cpod.ubc.ca/polls/index.c...em&itemID=4629

A quick check of Google news for Zogby shows this. Bush 48%, Kerry 44%. Have a very, very, perfectly pleasant and wonderful day.

Hello

What you call the main page lists the single most recent poll for each state. Zogby is, apparently, the most recent poll for Arkansas. There are many other pages on that site, many of which list Zogby polls, including the tracking poll you found described through Google. You missed the banner at the top of the page, the very first link in which ("Reuters/Zogby") takes you to that poll.

[LessinSF]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
charts

Caveat: Garbage in, garbage out. They're looking at the same polling data everyone else is.

Summoning an efficient market theory update: Kerry down to +115.