The Democrat Thread

[farmteam]

Surprised there hasn't been any talk of the defense budget cuts yet.

 

I've been wanting the military budget slashed for years. Admittedly, I don't much about the proposal beyond cutting the Army to pre-WWII levels (though not quite that low, IIRC). However, I'm totally down with a smaller military, which seems like the end result here.

[Jake]

I'm interested in how it all can work out. Since Reagan, we've used military spending as stimulus. It will be interesting to see how much we can remove from the defense budget without putting people out of work.

[farmteam]

I'm interested in how it all can work out. Since Reagan, we've used military spending as stimulus. It will be interesting to see how much we can remove from the defense budget without putting people out of work.

That's definitely a difficult question, and one I'm not sure has a good answer.

[cabiness42]

I'm interested in how it all can work out. Since Reagan, we've used military spending as stimulus. It will be interesting to see how much we can remove from the defense budget without putting people out of work.

 

Move all the military money/jobs to building roads and schools.

[Jake]

Move all the military money/jobs to building roads and schools.

 

People don't like that stuff. Especially education spending. Too much hostility towards teachers.

[Jenksismyhero]

Move all the military money/jobs to building roads and schools.

 

Or how about we give the money back to the people that gave it up in the first place?

[pettie4sox]

Or how about we give the money back to the people that gave it up in the first place?

 

+1

 

[StrangeSox]

Federal judge in Texas strikes down that state's same-sex marriage ban. That makes it the fourth state in recent months, following Utah, Virginia and Oklahoma.

[Jenksismyhero]

But everyone hates the gays!

[StrangeSox]

But everyone hates the gays!

Yes, Texas was just on the verge of repealing their ban before this federal ruling, and we definitely don't have a bunch of states formally legalizing anti-gay bigotry.

 

Good job refuting your own terrible argument.

[StrangeSox]

The case against Cameron Todd Willingham, the almost-definitely innocent man Texas executed a decade ago, has even more problems.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/us/evide...ution.html?_r=1

[Balta1701]

“You just don’t invade another country on phony pretexts in order to assert your interests.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry this morning. John Kerry voted in favor of a resolution authorizing the United States to invade Iraq.

[Jenksismyhero]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry this morning. John Kerry voted in favor of a resolution authorizing the United States to invade Iraq.

 

Ha, I watched that to. Wonder why he didn't come up with a different phrase to use.

[StrangeSox]

Paul Ryan: Free School Lunch Means Poor Parents Don't Care About Kids

 

Of course it turns out that the 'anecdote' that was central to his speech wasn't from some Scott Walker staffer but lifted from a book; also, it wasn't about government-subsidized lunches.

 

The paper-bag lunch story is from a 2011 book about a hungry, panhandling kid in New York City. http://www.aninvisiblethread.com/about

 

And the kid in the book wasn’t turning down gov’t subsidized lunches at school, he was reacting to a private benefactor’s offer to pay for his cafeteria lunches at school.

 

 

[StrangeSox]

Gawker has some more:

 

Ryan later played along with that account, saying in a Facebook post that he regrets "failing to verify the original source of the story."

 

What he doesn't seem to regret, however, is the fact that in stealing Maurice's story, he and Anderson used it to s*** on everything he stands for today. They divorced it from the kindness he received and accepted. Their honesty problem isn't about attribution; it's about exploitation.

 

The Post also points out that Maurice and his onetime benefactor, Laura Schroff, "are partnering with a group called No Kid Hungry to help end childhood hunger in the United States. One key part of the program is connecting hungry kids with federal programs such as school lunches and food stamps."

 

For feeding hungry kids, against feeding hungry kids, what the hell is the difference? The important thing is: He wanted a brown paper bag. Vote Republican!

 

[Balta1701]

Anyone who followed the concept of a "Freidman unit" with respect to Iraq will find this to be the funniest thing they read all day.

[StrangeSox]

hahaha, that's great. For some background on a Freidman Unit, wiki.

 

[Balta1701]

Yeppers. Thankfully we must look forward and not backward so no one can go to jail for this.

A report by the Senate Intelligence Committee concludes that the CIA misled the government and the public about aspects of its brutal interrogation program for years — concealing details about the severity of its methods, overstating the significance of plots and prisoners, and taking credit for critical pieces of intelligence that detainees had in fact surrendered before they were subjected to harsh techniques.

 

The report, built around detailed chronologies of dozens of CIA detainees, documents a long-standing pattern of unsubstantiated claims as agency officials sought permission to use — and later tried to defend — excruciating interrogation methods that yielded little, if any, significant intelligence, according to U.S. officials who have reviewed the document. “The

 

CIA described [its program] repeatedly both to the Department of Justice and eventually to Congress as getting unique, otherwise unobtainable intelligence that helped disrupt terrorist plots and save thousands of lives,” said one U.S. official briefed on the report. “Was that actually true? The answer is no.”

[StrangeSox]

This should come as a surprise to nobody, but torture didn't work and the CIA repeatedly lied about it.

[Balta1701]

Um...1 post up?

[StrangeSox]

psssh like anyone reads your posts.

[Balta1701]

Wall Street Journal needs piece of clip art to go along with op-ed by Charles Koch expressing why he's a patriot for spending so much on elections.

 

Wall Street Journal picks piece of clip art used for years as the logo for Daily Kos.

[mr_genius]

http://time.com/58743/cancelcolbert-activi...-until-it-ends/

 

[StrangeSox]

Many dismissed the protest we undertook last month with #CancelColbert, a hashtag we set up in response to a blatantly racist Tweet about Asians from the Colbert show’s account.

 

We think people are surprised to see that their monolithic view of Asian Americans as a model minority is being challenged. We are not the problem. Your stereotypes and narrow roles for us are the problem.

 

She still doesn't seem to understand what that segment was satirizing.

 

Yeah, racial humor is really difficult to do well, especially if you're using some group you're not a part of. Colbert usually does that very well. I wouldn't have a problem with anyone saying that they understand the point he was making, but still were offended with the way he made it. I could see pointing out that using other ethnic stereotypes, even to satirically mock ethnic stereotypes, is more damaging than helpful, e.g. how many people laugh at Colbert mocking how ridiculous Snyder is versus are really laughing at the racist stereotype (Chappell had this problem frequently).

 

But not once does Seuy Park bother to mention what Colbert was actually mocking with his deliberately-over-the-top ethnic stereotyping, Dan Snyder's Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation. Like Colbert pointed out in his lengthy response last week, the #CancelColbert crowd has completely changed the topic from the continuing use of a racial slur for an NFL team's name and then deliberately rubbing it in with this foundation to Colbert's satire. Most of the articles I've seen talking about it don't even bother to mention the WROAF. Why not try to make common cause with AmeriIndian groups and others who protest against the redskins slur?

Edited April 11, 2014 by StrangeSox

[mr_genius]

She still doesn't seem to understand what that segment was satirizing.

 

Yeah, racial humor is really difficult to do well, especially if you're using some group you're not a part of. Colbert usually does that very well. I wouldn't have a problem with anyone saying that they understand the point he was making, but still were offended with the way he made it. I could see pointing out that using other ethnic stereotypes, even to satirically mock ethnic stereotypes, is more damaging than helpful, e.g. how many people laugh at Colbert mocking how ridiculous Snyder is versus are really laughing at the racist stereotype (Chappell had this problem frequently).

 

But not once does Seuy Park bother to mention what Colbert was actually mocking with his deliberately-over-the-top ethnic stereotyping, Dan Snyder's Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation. Like Colbert pointed out in his lengthy response last week, the #CancelColbert crowd has completely changed the topic from the continuing use of a racial slur for an NFL team's name and then deliberately rubbing it in with this foundation to Colbert's satire. Most of the articles I've seen talking about it don't even bother to mention the WROAF. Why not try to make common cause with AmeriIndian groups and others who protest against the redskins slur?

 

Suey Park my favorite new political activist. One of my friends is convinced she is actually a Republican doing a Colbert'esque impersonation of an activist, but I think she is for real.