The Republican Thread

[lostfan]

lol I read that and knew that 2K5 posted behind it and knew he was going to say that.

[NorthSideSox72]

lol I read that and knew that 2K5 posted behind it and knew he was going to say that.

Because he's right - oil futures were not "deregulated", they are regulated by the CFTC rules like other futures. And the spike in demand and other market factors caused the oil run.

 

[southsider2k5]

lol I read that and knew that 2K5 posted behind it and knew he was going to say that.

 

Shut up, that's why.

[lostfan]

Shut up, that's why.

[CanOfCorn]

Shut up, that's why.

 

Baninated!

[southsider2k5]

Because he's right - oil futures were not "deregulated", they are regulated by the CFTC rules like other futures. And the spike in demand and other market factors caused the oil run.

 

Well they are regulated in the sense that the government regulates anything financial worth a s***. As bad as the government is in keeping up with the financial sector, they might as well let these areas be self-regulated. Most of the same stuff would happen, but at least it would be cheaper.

[NorthSideSox72]

Well they are regulated in the sense that the government regulates anything financial worth a s***. As bad as the government is in keeping up with the financial sector, they might as well let these areas be self-regulated. Most of the same stuff would happen, but at least it would be cheaper.

They are also exchange-traded futures subject to various capital and reporting requirements by both the CFTC and the clearing houses. The email made it sound like they were unregulated OTC stuff.

 

[southsider2k5]

Oh man, with this sort of left wing violent hate speech, we should expect all kinds of murders to be committed.

 

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graha...okes-about-shoo

 

'This is how they play the game. Spain is the same guy that went after me. Hey, can I Cheney this guy? Could I take him pheasant hunting? I won't shoot him in the face. I may hit him in the ass, but I won't get him in the face.

[NorthSideSox72]

Oh man, with this sort of left wing violent hate speech, we should expect all kinds of murders to be committed.

 

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graha...okes-about-shoo

I had never even heard of Ed Schultz before now.

 

[Balta1701]

I had never even heard of Ed Schultz before now.

Probably the most popular left-wing radio host in the country now that Al's in the Senate.

[southsider2k5]

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/pos...TdkMDE4NTVlNWU=

 

Barack Obama, in a letter to the Dalai Lama, July 28, 2008:

 

"I regret that our respective travel schedules will prevent us from meeting during your visit to the United States this month, but I wanted to take the opportunity to reassure you of my highest respect and support for you, your mission and your people at this critical time. I hope that this letter and your meeting with Senator McCain will make clear that American attention to and backing for the people of Tibet is widespread and transcends the divisions of our politicla contest in this important election year...

 

People of all faiths can admire what you are doing and what you stand for, and I look forward to meeting you at another time."

 

Apparently, another time is not now...

 

In an attempt to gain favor with China, the United States pressured Tibetan representatives to postpone a meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Obama until after Obama's summit with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, scheduled for next month, according to diplomats, government officials and other sources familiar with the talks.

 

For the first time since 1991, the Tibetan spiritual leader will visit Washington this week and not meet with the president. Since 1991, he has been here 10 times. Most times the meetings have been "drop-in" visits at the White House. The last time he was here, in 2007, however, George W. Bush became the first sitting president to meet with him publicly, at a ceremony at the Capitol in which he awarded the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress's highest civilian award.

 

The U.S. decision to postpone the meeting appears to be part of a strategy to improve ties with China that also includes soft-pedaling criticism of China's human rights and financial policies as well as backing efforts to elevate China's position in international institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund.

[southsider2k5]

http://news.aol.com/article/herman-thomas-...sex-with/702052

 

Ex-Judge to Stand Trial on Sex Charges

By PHILLIP RAWLS

 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Oct. 4) -- Herman Thomas had an enviable political record as a black Democrat elected and re-elected in a county overwhelmingly white and increasingly Republican. The respected circuit judge once was the Democratic Party's choice to be the first black federal judge in south Alabama.

 

Then his career collapsed under allegations that he brought inmates to his office and spanked them with a paddle. Later, an indictment accused him of sexually abusing male inmates in exchange for leniency. The trial on charges of sodomy, kidnapping, sex abuse, extortion, assault and ethics violations is set to start Monday.

 

Former Alabama circuit court judge Herman Thomas stepped down from the bench in 2007 amid allegations he spanked inmates with a paddle. He is shown in a 2006 photo.

 

The case has shocked his friends and former colleagues.

 

"I've always had the highest regard for him. The allegations were a complete surprise to me and everyone else who knew him," said Bob Edington, a prominent Mobile attorney and former Democratic state senator.

 

Thomas, who was known for wearing distinctive bow ties, stepped down from the bench in 2007 after the allegations of paddling surfaced and just ahead of a judicial ethics trial that could have forced him out of office. He was indicted on the more-serious charges this past spring by a Mobile County grand jury. If convicted of the most serious charges — sodomy and kidnapping — he faces from 20 years to life in prison.

 

The oldest incident in the charges dates to 1999, his first year as a circuit judge. The first public claim against Thomas surfaced in lawsuits filed by an inmate in 2001 in Mobile circuit court and in federal court that claimed the judge offered to help him with his case in return for sex. Both lawsuits were dismissed, and Thomas' reputation remained unblemished.

 

Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson said authorities began looking at Thomas after he changed a jail sentence in 2006 for his cousin, former Mobile County school commissioner David Thomas, even though the case was being handled by another judge. Other cases that Thomas had taken over from other judges without their approval soon surfaced, she said.

 

Some inmates in those cases described being checked out of the jail for meetings with Thomas in his car or in his private office in the county courthouse. First, there were reports of inmates having to pull down their underwear for spankings with a wooden paddle. Then came allegations of oral and anal sex, according to court records.

 

Retired Mobile County Circuit Judge Braxton Kittrell said people thought Thomas' personal interest in the defendants was a positive.

"Everyone thought he had a lot of concern for people who got into criminal difficulty. All of this was a surprise to everyone," he said.

 

Defense attorney Robert "Cowboy Bob" Clark calls the accusers "lying felons" who are trying to wreck the career of "a prestigious member of the Bar for over 20 years." The NAACP has defended Thomas and claims race is behind his prosecution.

 

But Patterson disputes that, noting that each of the victims is black, and says that jail checkout records back up inmates' claims about trips to Thomas' private office, and other inmates spotted marks after paddlings. There also is other evidence, according to court records, including one inmate's seminal fluid on the office carpet. The inmates also were able to describe in detail Thomas' unmarked windowless office.

 

Prosecutors say they have 15 current and former male inmates lined up to testify in a trial that could take several weeks.

 

The 48-year-old attorney, whose license to practice has been suspended, maintains his innocence. He has said he was trying to mentor the inmates.

 

He and his attorney blame the charges on politicians who don't like him. "There is no doubt that people assisted these inmates in telling these lies on me," Thomas said in April.

 

His attorney called the indictment "a high-tech lynching" by some in power in Mobile. "They don't like uppity black folks, and that's what they consider Herman," Clark said.

 

Thomas grew up in Mobile and returned home after law school at Florida State University to become an assistant district attorney.

 

At the time, the majority white county had no black judges, and local officials were concerned that a federal judge might end countywide elections for judges. Local Democrats and lawyers recruited Thomas because he had a reputation as a young, bright lawyer and was widely respected for his civic activities, Mobile attorney Cecil Gardner recalled.

 

They got a Republican governor to appoint him to a vacancy in 1990 and he later won election to a full term. He handled lower level cases as a district judge, but he moved up to a county circuit judgeship in 1999 and started handling the most serious crimes, including murder.

 

In 1997, Alabama's presidential advisory committee recommended President Bill Clinton appoint Thomas as the first black federal judge in the southern district of Alabama. The nomination was never acted on after Thomas failed to get the American Bar Association's top rating and amid some squabbling within the party.

 

Thomas still enjoys support in Mobile. He and his wife Linda are frequently seen in public, and he continues to keep a high profile, including maintaining leadership roles in several civic organizations.

 

Edington said Thomas was particularly proud when he got to see his teenage twin daughters march in President Barack Obama's inaugural parade as members of Mobile's Azalea Trail Maids.

 

"If all these things are proven, then I along with everyone I know will be dumbfounded," Edington said.

 

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2009-10-04 12:27:06

[Texsox]

http://news.aol.com/article/herman-thomas-...sex-with/702052

 

When people abuse their power, we all lose. What a shame.

[Cknolls]

CNN fact-chcking an SNL skit making fun of OBAMA. When will it end?

[BigSqwert]

Glenn Greenwald skewers WaPo for publishing a dubious administration press release masquerading as a lengthy news article on Obama's approach to Terrorism and civil liberties.

[Cknolls]

http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/comptrolle....2.1232001.html

 

 

Keep up the good work, boys.

 

Maybe we can raise taxes? ......Definitely should re-elect all to another term.

[Cknolls]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091011/people_nm/us_polanski

 

 

Boo f***ing hoo. Die in prison you pervert.

[StrangeSox]

I really don't get the outpouring of support for Polanski. He drugged and anally raped a 13 year old girl, yet all sorts of celebrities and European politicians are rushing to his defense. Its going to be hard to convince myself to see another Scorcese or Wes Anderson film after their support for him.

[Balta1701]

I really don't get the outpouring of support for Polanski. He drugged and anally raped a 13 year old girl, yet all sorts of celebrities and European politicians are rushing to his defense. Its going to be hard to convince myself to see another Scorcese or Wes Anderson film after their support for him.

I think part of it is that a lot of people actually personally know him. If you know a person very well, it's hard to wrap your head around him doing a terrible thing.

[NorthSideSox72]

I can't see the vid at work, but, I figured the GOP'ers in here would appreciate this just for the headline: Obama to Open Diplomatic Talks with Raging Wildfire.

 

[Cknolls]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/us/13okla.html?hpw

 

 

Wonder why they din't mention the Gov or his affiliation?

[southsider2k5]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...,6068669.column

 

In this corner: Defending Glenn Beck from liberals, conservatives

 

For a self-described rodeo clown who frequently admits he isn't that bright, Glenn Beck must be doing something right. A de facto leader of the populist backlash against President Barack Obama, he made the cover of Time magazine, with his tongue sticking out no less. His books are best-sellers. His radio and TV shows have stratospheric ratings. His one-man comedy performances draw packed audiences, and the proceeds from his numerous ventures have him making north of $20 million a year.

 

But perhaps his most impressive feat is his ability to unite a broad coalition of liberals, media scolds and conservatives under the single banner of Beck-hatred.

 

Now, before I proceed, I should disclose that I like Beck personally. As a Fox News contributor, I have appeared regularly on his show. Whether that gives me more, or less, credibility when I say I cannot defend some of the things he says is for others to decide.

 

Still, much of the anti-Beck backlash (He's an extremist! He's paranoid! He's hate-filled!) from the left is hard to take seriously. First, this is a crowd that lets Michael Moore and Janeane Garofalo speak for them, and that celebrated the election of unfunny man Al Franken to the Senate. If you think it's racist to oppose Obama's health care reform efforts, it goes without saying that you'll think Beck is an extremist. This is what liberals always say about popular right-wingers, including Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley. For more than 20 years liberals, including Presidents Bill Clinton and Obama, have insisted that Rush Limbaugh is everything from an unpatriotic hatemonger to an enabler of domestic terrorism. It makes sense that they'd give Beck the same business.

 

Or consider Jon Stewart, the legitimately funny host of "The Daily Show." The liberal establishment swoons over him. Stewart's M.O. is to launch lightning attacks as a left-wing pundit and then quickly retreat to his haven across the border in Comedystan, but Beck must be pelted from the public stage for blurring theater and punditry? Really?

 

Over at MSNBC, which until recently floated no end of paranoid theories about neoconservative plots, Beck is a boogeyman for his sometimes bombastic rhetoric about fascism and whatnot. Some complaints have merit, but this is the same network whose favorite conservative pundit is the populist Pat Buchanan, not even a Republican, who has written a book explaining why World War II was a mistake and how Hitler craved peace. Meanwhile, Keith Olbermann's shtick is far more dishonest: He pretends he's Edward R. Murrow reincarnated when he's really Al Franken with more important hair.

 

The conservative criticism has more bite.

 

Many conservatives believe Beck is undermining conservatism with his often goofy style and his sometimes outlandish and paranoia-tinged diatribes. In an ode to conservatives such as William F. Buckley, my friend Charles Murray writes, "Don't tell me that we have to put up with the Glenn Becks of the world to be successful. Within living memory, the right was successful. The right changed the country for the better -- through good arguments made by fine men." Murray is nostalgic for conservative leaders who were, like Murray himself, soft-spoken intellectuals.

 

There are problems with such nostalgia. First, there has always been a populist front on the right, even during the "glory days" when Buckley was saying he'd rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than the faculty at Harvard University. Moreover, whatever Beck or Limbaugh's faults, they are more cheerful -- and more responsible -- warriors than the populist right-wingers of yesteryear. The Tea Partiers may be rowdy and ideologically diffuse, but their goals -- like Beck's -- are indisputably libertarian. And from a conservative perspective, popular libertarian uprisings should be preferable to the sort of statist populism so often celebrated on the left.

 

Most important, popularity is what the intellectuals were fighting for: to create a conservative culture (Americans describe themselves as conservative over liberal 2-1). By definition, making conservatism popular means making it less stuffy and intellectual and more accessible. Why defenestrate Beck from the house of conservatism merely to preserve the rarefied air?

 

Besides, why should conservatives support an unfair double standard? Liberals never see the antics of their flamboyant celebrities as an indictment of liberalism. Perhaps it's time conservatives adopted a more liberal standard.

 

Tribune Media Services Jonah Goldberg is an editor at National Review Online.

[southsider2k5]

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/pos...TYyZDM5ZTcwZmQ=

 

Democratic House Candidate Attacks the Wrong Guy

 

Democratic California lieutenant governor John Garamendi is running for Congress, in that special election in the district near San Francisco, and the expectation is that despite his flaws as a candidate, the fact that it's a heavily Democratic district should save him.

 

But . . . maybe not. Besides the fact that he looks silly on the stump, insisting questioners not use "the T-word" — taxes — his campaign is looking pretty amateurish.

 

For starters, Garamendi's campaign sent out a mailer, accusing Republican rival David Harmer of supporting "off shoring jobs" and citing a story from Utah's Deseret News from April 23, 2004.

 

Except that story wasn't about the David Harmer running for Congress; it was about Utah's executive director of the State Department of Community and Economic Development David Harmer.

 

Same name, different guy. What's more, congressional candidate David Harmer wasn't even living in Utah at the time.

 

I believe this is a good use for that phrase they're using on ESPN's NFL postgame show — "Come on, man!"

[StrangeSox]

A lot of people will see the flier but will never see the correction. It's possible they were aware ahead of time and did it anyway. It's happened in the past.

[DukeNukeEm]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...,6068669.column

A National Review writer who wants to dumb down the United States of America? I'd never thought.