Politics As Usual

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Gattigap


I’m embarrassed to consider how much time I’ve invested over the last day or so in this conversation. I was under the impression that at least it was going somewhere. Fuck this. See ya, guys.

Gattigap

I was kidding. It's Friday, you must be tired, go home.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Libertarian candidate for President:

Badnarik believes that the federal income tax has no legal authority and that people are justified in refusing to file a tax return until such time as the IRS provides them with an explanation of its authority to collect the tax. He hadn't filed income tax returns for several years. He moved from California to Texas because of Texas' more liberal gun laws, but he refused to obtain a Texas driver's license because the state requires drivers to provide their fingerprints and Social Security numbers. He has been ticketed several times for driving without a license; sometimes he has gotten off for various technical legal reasons, but on three occasions he has been convicted and paid a fine. He also refused to use postal ZIP codes, seeing them as "federal territories."

He has written a book on the Constitution for students in his one-day, $50 seminar on the Constitution, but it is available elsewhere, including on Amazon.com. It features an introduction by Congressman Ron Paul and Badnarik's theory about taxes. His campaign website included a potpourri of right-wing constitutional positions, as well as some very unorthodox views on various issues. He proposed that convicted felons serve the first month of their sentence in bed so that their muscles would atrophy and they'd be less trouble for prison guards and to blow up the U.N. building on the eighth day of his administration, after giving the building's occupants a chance to evacuate. In one especially picturesque proposal, he wrote:

• I would announce a special one-week session of Congress where all 535 members would be required to sit through a special version of my Constitution class. Once I was convinced that every member of Congress understood my interpretation of their very limited powers, I would insist that they restate their oath of office while being videotaped.

One assumes, although one cannot prove, that none of this is an exercise in irony. At any rate, these opinions were removed from the website shortly after he won the nomination, and they didn't come up when he visited state party conventions. Nor did his refusal to file tax returns, thereby risking federal indictment and felony arrest. While many of his closest supporters were aware of these issues, they were unknown to most LP members.

R.W. Bradford via Political Animal

[Secret_Agent_Man]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
An update on the introduction of the rule of law in Baghdad:

• Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.
  
  ....the informants told the Herald that Dr Allawi shot each young man in the head as about a dozen Iraqi policemen and four Americans from the Prime Minister's personal security team watched in stunned silence.
  
  ....The Herald has established the names of three of the prisoners alleged to have been killed....The three names were provided to the Interior Ministry, where senior adviser Sabah Khadum undertook to provide a status report on each. He was asked if they were prisoners, were they alive or had they died in custody.
  
  But the next day he cut short an interview by hanging up the phone, saying only: "I have no information — I don't want to comment on that specific matter."

From the Sydney Morning Herald, by way of Political Animal.

See, things ARE improved. Uday would have flayed them first.

S_A_M

[SlaveNoMore]

Secret_Agent_Man
See, things ARE improved. Uday would have flayed them first.

S_A_M

Right.

And now that he's got that under control, Step 2:

• 9/11 Commission Finds Ties Between al-Qaeda and Iran
  Senior U.S. officials have told TIME that the 9/11 Commission's report will cite evidence suggesting that the 9/11 hijackers had previously passed through Iran
  
  By ADAM ZAGORIN AND JOE KLEIN
  
  Friday, Jul. 16, 2004
  Next week's much anticipated final report by a bipartisan commission on the origins of the 9/11 attacks will contain new evidence of contacts between al-Qaeda and Iran—just weeks after the Administration has come under fire for overstating its claims of contacts between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
  
  A senior U.S. official told TIME that the Commission has uncovered evidence suggesting that between eight and ten of the 14 "muscle" hijackers—that is, those involved in gaining control of the four 9/11 aircraft and subduing the crew and passengers—passed through Iran in the period from October 2000 to February 2001. Sources also tell TIME that Commission investigators found that Iran had a history of allowing al-Qaeda members to enter and exit Iran across the Afghan border. This practice dated back to October 2000, with Iranian officials issuing specific instructions to their border guards—in some cases not to put stamps in the passports of al-Qaeda personnel—and otherwise not harass them and to facilitate their travel across the frontier. The report does not, however, offer evidence that Iran was aware of the plans for the 9/11 attacks.

So...surgical strikes from Israel in the next few months? Anyone?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
So...surgical strikes from Israel in the next few months? Anyone?

It kinda makes you wish our military wasn't so tied down in Iraq.

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
It kinda makes you wish our military wasn't so tied down in Iraq.

What it makes you wish is that this country took the Axis of Evil seriously. 1 down, 2 to go.

[Skeks in the city]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
It kinda makes you wish our military wasn't so tied down in Iraq.

The landscape of Iran would make it difficult to conquer, much tougher than Iraq. However, Bush could have made far strongers arguments for invading Iran than invading Iraq. I will never understand what motivated the Bush administration to invade Iraq rather than focus on Afganistan and Iran. That decision defied logic.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by sgtclub
What it makes you wish is that this country took the Axis of Evil seriously. 1 down, 2 to go.

I can imagine using the phrase "Axis of Evil" and "seriously" in the same sentence, but that isn't it. We wasted time and money and resources and lives going after a country that wasn't a threat to us, and now we have fewer options for dealing with Iran and North Korea -- the one with ties to Al Qaeda, the other building nuclear weapons. Maybe the "conservative" thing to do would have been to worry about these things before we decided to bring democracy to the Middle East.

[Say_hello_for_me]

Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
See, things ARE improved. Uday would have flayed them first.

S_A_M

FWIW, I read last weekend or earlier that this story was being floated to give the guy credibility in the eyes of his people. Which was why the story was not being denied etc.

I'm not saying thats the way it actually is, just saying that's the way I heard it first. Well before a breathless Australian tabloid repeated it with a straight face.


Hello

[Skeks in the city]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I can imagine using the phrase "Axis of Evil" and "seriously" in the same sentence, but that isn't it. We wasted time and money and resources and lives going after a country that wasn't a threat to us, and now we have fewer options for dealing with Iran and North Korea -- the one with ties to Al Qaeda, the other building nuclear weapons. Maybe the "conservative" thing to do would have been to worry about these things before we decided to bring democracy to the Middle East.

Forget about North Korea. That mountanous backwater would be hard as hell to invade. We should pulll our troops out of South Korea, and let China, South Korea and Japan worry about that place.

The only way I'd get involved is if North Korea started trying to sell nuclear or biological weapons to terrorists. But even then, I'd just favor a blockade to apprehend or kill anything going in or out. Invasion simply isn't worth it.

[Say_hello_for_me]

Originally posted by Skeks in the city
Forget about North Korea. That mountanous backwater would be hard as hell to invade. We should pulll our troops out of South Korea, and let China, South Korea and Japan worry about that place.

The only way I'd get involved is if North Korea started trying to sell nuclear or biological weapons to terrorists. But even then, I'd just favor a blockade to apprehend or kill anything going in or out. Invasion simply isn't worth it.

2, cept for the part about a blockade. If they went aggressively nuclear, its time to nuke the whole place preemptively. And if we made it clear to China all along, China wouldn't let it get to that point if they could help it.

Hello

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Skeks in the city
Forget about North Korea. That mountanous backwater would be hard as hell to invade. We should pulll our troops out of South Korea, and let China, South Korea and Japan worry about that place.

The only way I'd get involved is if North Korea started trying to sell nuclear or biological weapons to terrorists. But even then, I'd just favor a blockade to apprehend or kill anything going in or out. Invasion simply isn't worth it.

I'd agree with this, except that I believe NK has or has tried to sell to some of the rouge states in the ME, like Libya.

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I can imagine using the phrase "Axis of Evil" and "seriously" in the same sentence, but that isn't it. We wasted time and money and resources and lives going after a country that wasn't a threat to us, and now we have fewer options for dealing with Iran and North Korea -- the one with ties to Al Qaeda, the other building nuclear weapons. Maybe the "conservative" thing to do would have been to worry about these things before we decided to bring democracy to the Middle East.

I think you can quibble with the order, but not that something had to be done in Iraq.

[Say_hello_for_me]

Edwards' brother wanted on a 10 year old warrant for failure to appear to answer DUI charges. Sayeth the spokesman, yes he's aware of it, he loves his brother very much.

As much as I appreciate the sentiment, one should probably arrange for family members to turn themselves in to face justice before you run for president or accept a VP nomination from a major party. How long has Edwards known that his brother was wanted? Ugh, this could get ugly.

While we are at it, could we get a definitive answer from Dubya whether he was a coke junkie before his campaign starts throwing out accusations at Edwards for abetting a substance abuser?

This country is in bad shape. Can we get someone without a criminal background to step forward and run on a central platform?

Hello

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Say_hello_for_me
Edwards' brother wanted on a 10 year old warrant for failure to appear to answer DUI charges. Sayeth the spokesman, yes he's aware of it, he loves his brother very much.

As much as I appreciate the sentiment, one should probably arrange for family members to turn themselves in to face justice before you run for president or accept a VP nomination from a major party. How long has Edwards known that his brother was wanted? Ugh, this could get ugly.

While we are at it, could we get a definitive answer from Dubya whether he was a coke junkie before his campaign starts throwing out accusations at Edwards for abetting a substance abuser?

This country is in bad shape. Can we get someone without a criminal background to step forward and run on a central platform?

Hello

Powell/Rudi 2008