shaft.ed and Quag's political & reused pics respectively

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So Fox is admitting we live in a Corpratocracy.

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lollin at this thread

was it the respectively? thought that really helped sell the idea.

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Why isn't Mass listed in the not-yet-smited (smotten? smotted? smitten?) list?

smate?

now you're just talking about masturbating again

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bonus points for Michelle Malkin looking like a condescending asshat.

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Breaking: Harry Reid announces it now takes 61 votes to break a filibuster

.

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Actually, I oddly don't really blame Arnold for the budget nighmare that is California.

I'm not that up on the topic but I do know he's stated he will veto any budget with a tax increase. But yeah the 2/3rds majority is the big issue with CA budgets

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IIRC, legalizing prostitution and gambling and pot, and taxing both, would raise rather more than 20 billion just though direct taxation... I expect there would also be an increase in tourism $$$.

Good luck getting 2/3rds of the state Senate to vote on that one.

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So who's getting paid in CA and who's not?

People who get California IOUs:

Grants to aged, blind or disabled persons
People needing temporary assistance for basic family needs
People in drug prevention, treatment, and recovery services
Persons with developmental disabilities
People in mental health treatment
Small Business Vendors

People California pays in cash:

University of California
Public Employees’ Retirement System
Legislators, legislative employees, and appointees
Judges
Department of Corrections
Health Care Services payments to Institutional Providers

Wow so the dicks that can't balance the budget still get paid, but the poor disabled and recently unemployed schmuks get the shaft. On and all the small business vendors that are barely existing by the skin of their teeth in this economy get screwed. That won't start a ripple effect [/sarcasm]


@Xyl, the scary thing is Romney is the "smart one" in the Repubs stable.

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<3 Tom Tommorow

And Bachmann's district is getting eated, she won't have anything better to do...

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<3 Tom Tommorow

And Bachmann's district is getting eated, she won't have anything better to do...

*posts a bunch of text*
*hates republicans, ignores democratic hypocrisy*
*isn't funny*
*is tom tomorrow*

you forgot the penguin

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Yay we're 5 votes from the pure corporatocracy. Feel the socialism!

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Yay we're 5 votes from the pure corporatocracy. Feel the socialism!

Consumerism, not socialism.
Corporate control is right-wing, not left. It's one of the advanced stages of capitalism, moving it slightly closer to corporate facism, or consumerism. Socialism would be governments controlling the corporations, not the other way around.

That was called irony, commenting on the fact that the right-wing media is constantly decrying our "march towards socialism."

DDD, the difference is slight, but essentially corporations will be allowed to contribute unlimited dollars directly towards electing the officials they want in office. While that essentially is going on now, it will be even less fettered than the current system.

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I'm pretty sure

Serbia

Yugoslavia had McDonalds in 1999.

civil wars don't count. Why do you hate America?

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attn everyone: Whenever shaft.ed posts a boring political cartoon just emptyquote this picture in reply to it

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Also, fun fact: No two countries with a McDonalds in them (at the time) have ever gone to war. Ever.

Georgia-Russia both had mcdonalds pre-2000.

Oh, you're right. But was that officially a war between Georgia and Russia? (My guess is that it depends on who you ask.)

There was never a declaration of war

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Don't know that DeMint fella.

Jim DeMint on the state of our Democracy.

we're about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy. You still had votes but the votes were just power grabs like you see in Iran, and other places in South America, like Chavez is running down in Venezuela.

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Stay classy (not all) Republicans!

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BILL MOYERS: You were also involved in the campaign by the industry to discredit Michael Moore and his film "Sicko" in 2007. In that film Moore went to several countries around the world, and reported that their health care system was better than our health care system, in particular, Canada and England. [..]

So what did you think when you saw that film?

WENDELL POTTER: I thought that he hit the nail on the head with his movie. But the industry, from the moment that the industry learned that Michael Moore was taking on the health care industry, it was really concerned.

BILL MOYERS: What were they afraid of?

WENDELL POTTER: They were afraid that people would believe Michael Moore.

Wendell Potter was Cigna's Public Relations Chief.

Watch the video if you have the time.

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[img=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1xQeOPE9ePU/S ... gopjew.jpg[/img]

But don't try "vagina" - Republicans ban vaginas. But you already knew that.

EDIT: booo bad image tags

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I thought the first 8 months of a presidency didn't count?

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linkage
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/polit ... 34147.html

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Nixon was such a commie

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In Scalia's defense, I'm pretty sure he used the "dick fingers" to air quote innocent. It just got lost in transcription.

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what kind of whacko fringe group would be mass emailing such a blatantly misleading survey?

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Hah Miller's up to $583K now. Someone's losing their seat in 2010.

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I'm not seeing the inflection

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Can you change the thread title? I don't post my recycled pictures here.

You are failing in your duty, then.

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You're supposed to reuse pics that Quag posted not other people.

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still doing it wrong

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There we go.

Except the original picture should have been somewhere else.

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Stay classy

(not all)

Republicans

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First off, I hate using stock markets as a measure of the economy. They primarily benefit the hyper wealthy.

Second, you're just comparing two outliers for the most part. Remove Clinton (whose deregulation along with Reagan and Bush set up the current economic mess, but paid nice short term gains for him) and Hoover, and the Repubs are probably not statistically different from Dems.

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weird

and a tidbit scary

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Yes this is a GOP sponsored ad...for a state judge.

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Pretty sure nobody called him all four.

Glenn Beck

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Glenn Beck called Obama a peace sign?

he called him a swastika too

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and you were supposed to click the link

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The opposite of "No Party System" is not "Many Party System", but a "One Party System"

What is the difference between a no party democracy and a one party democracy? Is there one? When everyone is in the same party, difference between "nonpartisan" and "intrapartisan" is merely technical.

I thought you knew something about Japan. They just recently changed polotical power for the first time since WWII. It's essentially been a one party system until this year.

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Xyl, it's not irrelevant at all. My point was that the sliding scale doesn't go:

(Ideal) - 0 Parties, 1 Party, 2 Parties, 3 Parties... Many Parties... (Non-Ideal)

But rather:

(Ideal/Most Democratic) - 0 Parties, Many Parties... 3 Parties, 2 Parties, 1 Party (Inherently Undemocratic)

The relevant measurement is not the number of parties, but the freedom of choice on offer - a "No Party System" really means that every person is not trying to make the square peg of their own personal ideals into the round hole of external political party (basically, Nab's "every man being a party unto himself").

A hypothetical "One Party Democracy" only exists if everyone agrees with whatever ideals that party is founded on; and if everyone agrees on something, it's not particularly relevant politically. Unless everyone agrees on *anything*, we can look at the issues people actually disagree with within your OPD and say "Look, there's Subparties, this is functionally equivalent to an N Party system" or "Look, there's no Subparties, this is functionally equivalent to a No Party system".

(Is anyone else unclear on what I was saying? It sure feels like Xyl is being deliberately obtuse, here.)

yes he is

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I dislike the third one, as it seems to imply that all White Americans benefited from Black oppression, which is not the case.

Actually it is, and they still do ^_^

Tell that to the white homeless guys.

Yes free labor never benefits the recipient

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or when a black person asks to be seated at certain restaurants, compared to a white person.

but they have bigger dicks so it all evens out

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I don't think Kanye West stack up to Dick Cheney

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I don't think Kanye West stack up to Dick Cheney

So now we have the bigger dicks? Make up your mind.

i see wat you did there

racist

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Yosarian's point in job competition is valid, but that isn't really whites reaping the fruits of black's labor as whites preventing blacks from laboring to get fruits. A more accurate analogy in that case would be running in a race and then continuously pushing the other person over, not climbing on their back to elevate your own position.

That's the same analogy just made lateral...

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No it isn't. The one person reaches the end by his own power.
He just cheats to prevent the other from doing the same.

If you look at the cartoon, the white guy doesn't get carried to the ledge by the black guy. He just takes advantage of him. He still uses his "own power" to eventually climb up.

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link to original animated short

This seems somehow related

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No it isn't. The one person reaches the end by his own power.
He just cheats to prevent the other from doing the same.

If you look at the cartoon, the white guy doesn't get carried to the ledge by the black guy. He just takes advantage of him. He still uses his "own power" to eventually climb up.

If the White Guy can get up there by his own power (without using the Black Guy) why can't the Black Guy clim up by his own power?

cause the white guys used him to get an advantage

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That's not really benefiting from black oppression though. Its more like benefiting from a lack of white oppression.

(shrug) Sure it is. If the system is set up so that you have a built in advantage over your economic competitors trying to get the same jobs, it certainly is a direct benefit to you.

Without slavery they wouldn't be my economic competitors.

what?

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I dislike the third one, as it seems to imply that all White Americans benefited from Black oppression, which is not the case.

Actually it is, and they still do ^_^

Tell that to the white homeless guys.

Yes free labor never benefits the recipient

Yes, because Slaves didn't have to eat.

This was funny. I'm guessing he's kidding. But he's hard to read.

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That's not really benefiting from black oppression though. Its more like benefiting from a lack of white oppression.

(shrug) Sure it is. If the system is set up so that you have a built in advantage over your economic competitors trying to get the same jobs, it certainly is a direct benefit to you.

Without slavery they wouldn't be my economic competitors.

what?

The fact of the matter is, an I won't apologize for saying so, the part of the western world where African Slaves lived have a higher amount of Black people than any where else in the English speaking world. There's a reason for that, its because they were bought to live in that country as slaves. The reason why there's such a lot of black economic competitors in the USA is because of slavery.

what?

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CB: What am I saying?

That blacks literally benefited from slavery in the long run by being transferred to an affluent white (you say "western" but you really mean "white") country.

And all they had to do was work as

slaves

indefinitely indentured servants! What a great thing we've done for them!

we even gave them their own water fountains

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This has to be the crappiest campaign website ever made

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it's a very big pie

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This has to be the crappiest campaign website ever made

Oh my God. He's running for my district in NC. Holy shit, I have to make sure he comes nowhere close to winning.

I think he's trying to Hoffman the Republican, but this time in the primary.

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it's beyond fucked up that the Republican party seems to have endorsed that campaign (going by the elephant stamp at the bottom). Hell they probably developed it

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Tea party website


actual photo

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I don't understand what is moving about it. You have a caricature of a small percentage of the Muslim community juxtaposed with our recent helpful efforts in Haiti. Sure what people from all over the world (including the US) are doing in Haiti is heroic and should be celebrated, but I don't know if it amends for all of the negative impact we've had on the country.

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Thanks for sharing Thesp. I better understand where you are coming from, and did see this through my fairly jaded prism. But I really still take offense to what I feel is a caricature of Muslims, and putting Americans up on a pedestal as if we are somehow special in our worry and aid for Haiti.

see my friends and loved ones as "beyond redemption", and who seek the death and terror of those same compassionate people.

Do you not think there are plenty of Americans that have wrongly wished death on just as compassionate people in the Muslim world? That's what really bothers me about this cartoon. You could just as easily switch the roles and the disaster, and still have it be accurate.

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I just want to know why Shaft.ed hates America. America loves you, Shaft.ed. Give your Uncle Sam a hug.

I'm just annoyed that we aren't living up to our potential. And I hate hypocrites.

I also had a line in my previously reply that got eated by the server.

"What I missed was the fact that the roles are interchangeable is just as tragic."

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I just want to know why Shaft.ed hates America. America loves you, Shaft.ed. Give your Uncle Sam a hug.

I hate America.

FTFY

I'll tell you who I really hate. Fucking Canadians. Not the celibate ones, just the fuckers.

Oh and the French too

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so what about something like this?

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So when do we get the cartoon of the American white supremacist or Bill Kristol calling for the deaths of innocent brown people that are digging through the rubble caused by man made disasters trying to help out their neighbors?

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Im my mind the right to offend is much more important then the right not to be offended. More liberties is to me preferable to less.

Thank you Mr. Scarecrow

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Im my mind the right to offend is much more important then the right not to be offended. More liberties is to me preferable to less.

Thank you Mr. Scarecrow

Yes, I support your right to call me brainless crazy I know, but to me freedom of speech can't be applied in a pick and chose manner for fear of offending someone.

Where did anyone say it should be against the law to draw and/or publish such a cartoon? I said it's perpetuating divisive stereotypes and hypocritical, and was surprised others found it moving.

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I don't get this Scarecrow dismissal. Wizard of Oz?

Strawman argument

?

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Im my mind the right to offend is much more important then the right not to be offended. More liberties is to me preferable to less.

Thank you Mr. Scarecrow

Yes, I support your right to call me brainless crazy I know, but to me freedom of speech can't be applied in a pick and chose manner for fear of offending someone.

Where did anyone say it should be against the law to draw and/or publish such a cartoon? I said it's perpetuating divisive stereotypes and hypocritical, and was surprised others found it moving.

Would you have been happy if Timothy McVeigh was standing next to the Muslim, to indicate that there's diversity among people who want to destroy America?

I think it would make a much stronger point.

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isn't that the purpose of drug laws?

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how did we not make the list? This must be rectified

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weird so washington and missouri are the closest states to "balanced"

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Actually, while i'm usually a budget hawk, I'm more worried about if it makes any economic sense to try and reduce the deficit during the most serious economic depression in 80 years.

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I like that Oregon absorbs northern Cali. We get all the best pot.

should have merged it with Nevada so you could have pot, gambling and whores

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Their failure to do anything about this is astonishing.

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I don't get it. The entire blue line after 2010 has to be a prediction (note the way 2011.5-2013 is just the same thing repeated three times). What does this illustrate?

that the predictions for job recovery are really sucky

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Wave 2 is coming

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i don't know why she's so concerned about Spain

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idk, "

budget

tax cuts" written on the hand seems to sum up a lot of what I dislike about the Republican/Tea party's fiscal perspective. It's not like there's a smooth transition between those two things. Nobody likes budget cuts but they help to reduce the deficit. Everybody likes tax cuts but they work to increase the deficit. Those two ideas should not be occurring so close together in the mind that you cross out one and write in the other. It's evidence of a lack of any coherent or principled economic policy.

Because coherence is clearly why people are backing Palin.

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idk, "

budget

tax cuts" written on the hand seems to sum up a lot of what I dislike about the Republican/Tea party's fiscal perspective. It's not like there's a smooth transition between those two things. Nobody likes budget cuts but they help to reduce the deficit. Everybody likes tax cuts but they work to increase the deficit. Those two ideas should not be occurring so close together in the mind that you cross out one and write in the other. It's evidence of a lack of any coherent or principled economic policy.

Because coherence is clearly why people are backing Palin.

*Shrug* Presumably Palin's supporters have ideas about fiscal policy, and even if they don't proceed entirely logically or based on facts, they still stem from some conviction or value system. Palin's conflation of budget and tax cuts is a pretty clear tell that her public persona isn't based on sharing those convictions. Rather, it's based on exploiting them in others. She makes a lexical connection, two loaded topic that both end in "cut." Somebody who was expressing an honest opinion on the topic would make a conceptual connection.

tl;dr: It's a major scumtell.

EDIT: Not "personal persona"... "public persona"

your level of analysis seems to assume that her supporters have any basic grasp of what you're talking about. These are the same people shouting keep your government hands off of my Medicare!

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Cicero was claiming that people outside shouldn't talk about it either, and I was just making the case that it carries more significance than "LOL Palin's dumb."

Meh. I think you're underestimating the fundamental importance of "Palin is dumb."

Palin is so amazingly, mind-warpingly dumb that it played a big role in costing McCain the election. And she was running for vice president; who the hell ever cares about the VP? Dan Quayle barely hurt Bush Sr. at all, despite also having a reputation of being dumb and having said a number of pretty dumb-sounding things. But Palin managed to bring it to the next level.

George Bush Sr. also wasn't nearly as likely to keel over during his four year term. Make Bush Sr. look at aged as McCain and Quayle becomes a factor.

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I mean...Dan Quayle said some dumb things, (my favorite being the quote "we need to create an anti-satellite weapons system because we wouldn't have prevailed without it in Tom Clancy's book "Red Storm Rising") .

You do realize it's mainstream GOP to pretend as though 24 is real life and Jack Beaur really exists.

And I'm not going to disagree with you that Palin was dumber than Quayle, but you have this weird curve where that flips and becomes a selling point for a fraction of the population.

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Making a big deal out of this, in terms of mocking her, is a terrible mistake. It's really such a non-issue. She'll just get to use this to continue her narrative of a down home genuine person who is being looked down upon by elitist snobs. Very easy to generate sympathy from.

It's a non-issue that she has to write down her core political beliefs on her hand so she can remember them? That's my issue with it - not thye fact that she wrote notes on her hand, it's WHAT she wrote that's the problem. It's one thing to write a quick note for reference so you can back up your snappy statemtns with facts that may be difficult to remember. It's quite another to be either so stupid or so uncommitted to what you're saying that you need to write vague notes to summarise your supposedly deeply-held beliefs while you're giving a speech.

I just don't see how anyone can defend the content of that writing. IT'sd stupid.

And she didn't even get it right the first time. That's the even more remarkable part.

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Tom Tomorrow wants his shtick back.

there's no penguins?

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USA's reaction to the events of 9/11:

um...thanks?

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Best headline ever

Gay Guardsman Still Drills With Unit

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Wow, I hate to sound doubtful but that poll makes you yankees sound all kinds of dumb. How do you not know the 2 parties or the ocean name? Like I'm actually thinking its fake based off thoses two stats.

trust me it's not faked. We're that stupid

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The only thing that looks sketchy to me is the Thomas Jefferson question only getting 14%. Outside of that I find it very believable.

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I agree more jobs creation via public works programs would be helpful right about now.

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I wasn't aware that Kentuckians didn't want any of Obama's appointments to go through, wanted to reduce payments to Doctors and would rather go without unemployment benefits and public works funding.

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His approvial rating isn't going to the shitter, thus they support it.

The problem there might be that his approval rating was

already

in the shitter. He was at 28% last year, and he isn't running for re-election, so nobody's been taking any recent polls. Guy's a douche.

Hmm I had read that it wasn't falling hadn't realised that was because it was already in the shitter.

Below 30% ratings can be assumed for the majority of Congressional representatives.

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His approvial rating isn't going to the shitter, thus they support it.

The problem there might be that his approval rating was

already

in the shitter. He was at 28% last year, and he isn't running for re-election, so nobody's been taking any recent polls. Guy's a douche.

Hmm I had read that it wasn't falling hadn't realised that was because it was already in the shitter.

Below 30% ratings can be assumed for the majority of Congressional representatives.

That's Congress in general. Most reps pull decent numbers out of their own states. (They kinda have to if they're going to maintain that prodigious incumbency rate). Bunning was polling terribly in comparison to the top 4 Democratic contenders, so he dropped out. I'm actually curious to see where Buttonmen got his info, because I can't find a poll on Bunning <1 year old.

yeah you're right on that

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I'm actually curious to see where Buttonmen got his info, because I can't find a poll on Bunning <1 year old.

Turns out I can't tell the diffrence between 2009 and 2010 I googled and went by month didn't think to check year. Went back and looked, can't find anything newer then June '09.

Also you gov officials seem so public and well known, in comparison our current goverment seems like a one man show.

He used to be a pitcher so he's well known.

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And CNN is "left leaning"

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that was great Cybele

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haven't had time to read it all. Heading off to the airport in a few.

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quality bump



Though these things always make me sad when i read the first page

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you can't ruin sportsball