getting chick-fil-a tonight in honor of the attack on the first amendment by the most dangerous people in america.

Yeah but David Cameron and mayor BORIS

Romney made the mistake of answering a serious question honestly when he should have just said fluff type things. It was a bit rude/undiplomatic, and didn't need to be said by someone just visiting in the country. It also isn't a big deal, and I'm not sure why it makes mp more nervous at the thought of a Romney presidency.

Cameron's response was weird and defensive. Pissing him off isn't the best thing to do, but his response was bitchy and just as bad as anything Romney said. Boris is one of a kind, and it's amazing that he is mayor of London. But him making fun of you isn't really a big deal. It's what he does.

That's a very kind, Republican take. He was an embarrassment

Romney might be the most personally awkward American politician of national stature since Nixon. Most aren't at the level of Reagan or Clinton, and we've seen a few relative stiffs like Dukakis and Gore and Bush 41, but Mitt almost seems autistic at times.

If he wins, he'll presumably have good staff work in advance of any diplomatic engagements (though given Republican xenophobia, maybe not...), and I'd trust him to do his prep. But on a trip like this one, his flaw here is really exposed.

Extremely improper use of the term, dajafi. plenty of autistic people are downright friendly and sociable, much more than mitt seems to be.

I apologize for any offense. Wasn't sure whether autism or Asberger's was the better descriptor; I meant the inability to read social cues or exercise internal "editing."

That he's an absurdly conceited rich prick with an evident empathy deficiency doesn't help here either.

neither, actually. while there certainly is a large overlap, the terms should never be used as shorthand for 'socially awkward'.

His words say no, but his jaw says HELL (actually heck) YEAH:

jeff2sf wrote:

drsmooth wrote:

Bucky wrote:that dude who said "voter id...which will ensure romney wins pennsylvania...done!" should be impeached.

But actually, it did serve to sway me. Whereas before I was ambivalent about voter ID, now I'm dead set against it. And it will make it extra certain that I get to the polls in November.

I'm counting on jeff to set you straight any minute now

Smooth, you're ridiculous and a waste of space. At least I adjust my arguments occasionally. You just play from the liberal playbook.

That said, I was nearly swayed the same way Bucky was. But then I hear the whining from the liberals and the key line of defense is "There hasn't been any fraud" and I get so nauseous at the idiocy of that argument.

I get that same nausea when I see the GOP attacking individuals that aren't doing anything wrong just so they can try to rig an election. I might get behind the idea of an ID card if I ever saw these same people show any concerns about the real bottlenecks in the voting system. If you want to rig an election, you don't go and find a bunch of dead people to vote, that is an impractical approach. You do it by rigging machines or doing things to ballots or by influencing the placement of machines, etc. Those are the bottlenecks. Where are the same efforts from the GOP for ways to make sure machines are safe? Or that there is proper oversight of election officials? Or real punishment for attempting to keep people from polls by writing biased laws (voter ID laws) or using improper telephone calls (like what happened in NH). This is a magic act. Watch what my one hand is doing and you'll miss how I did the trick.

Monkeyboy wrote:

jeff2sf wrote:

drsmooth wrote:

Bucky wrote:that dude who said "voter id...which will ensure romney wins pennsylvania...done!" should be impeached.

But actually, it did serve to sway me. Whereas before I was ambivalent about voter ID, now I'm dead set against it. And it will make it extra certain that I get to the polls in November.

I'm counting on jeff to set you straight any minute now

Smooth, you're ridiculous and a waste of space. At least I adjust my arguments occasionally. You just play from the liberal playbook.

That said, I was nearly swayed the same way Bucky was. But then I hear the whining from the liberals and the key line of defense is "There hasn't been any fraud" and I get so nauseous at the idiocy of that argument.

I get that same nausea when I see the GOP attacking individuals that aren't doing anything wrong just so they can try to rig an election. I might get behind the idea of an ID card if I ever saw these same people show any concerns about the real bottlenecks in the voting system. If you want to rig an election, you don't go and find a bunch of dead people to vote, that is an impractical approach. You do it by rigging machines or doing things to ballots or by influencing the placement of machines, etc. Those are the bottlenecks. Where are the same efforts from the GOP for ways to make sure machines are safe? Or that there is proper oversight of election officials? Or real punishment for attempting to keep people from polls by writing biased laws (voter ID laws) or using improper telephone calls (like what happened in NH). This is a magic act. Watch what my one hand is doing and you'll miss how I did the trick.

I thought the dead thing worked for JFK.

cshort wrote:

Monkeyboy wrote:

jeff2sf wrote:

drsmooth wrote:

Bucky wrote:that dude who said "voter id...which will ensure romney wins pennsylvania...done!" should be impeached.

But actually, it did serve to sway me. Whereas before I was ambivalent about voter ID, now I'm dead set against it. And it will make it extra certain that I get to the polls in November.

I'm counting on jeff to set you straight any minute now

Smooth, you're ridiculous and a waste of space. At least I adjust my arguments occasionally. You just play from the liberal playbook.

That said, I was nearly swayed the same way Bucky was. But then I hear the whining from the liberals and the key line of defense is "There hasn't been any fraud" and I get so nauseous at the idiocy of that argument.

I get that same nausea when I see the GOP attacking individuals that aren't doing anything wrong just so they can try to rig an election. I might get behind the idea of an ID card if I ever saw these same people show any concerns about the real bottlenecks in the voting system. If you want to rig an election, you don't go and find a bunch of dead people to vote, that is an impractical approach. You do it by rigging machines or doing things to ballots or by influencing the placement of machines, etc. Those are the bottlenecks. Where are the same efforts from the GOP for ways to make sure machines are safe? Or that there is proper oversight of election officials? Or real punishment for attempting to keep people from polls by writing biased laws (voter ID laws) or using improper telephone calls (like what happened in NH). This is a magic act. Watch what my one hand is doing and you'll miss how I did the trick.

I thought the dead thing worked for JFK.

if it did, it was a fluke. Much easier to influence an election at the bottleneck points.

jeff2sf wrote:http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/state/20120729_Latest_voter-ID_data_add_confusion.html?page=1&c=y

from this article I gather:

a) no one has a handle on how "successful" - that is, how fair, how accurate, how effective at erecting a more robust vote fraud barrier - any new ID requirement might be. Proponents obviously suppose they do, but they don't have a ready means of demonstrating it.

b) evidence of a latent retail voter fraud problem is scant:

Only one possible voter-impersonation case has been identified in the city in recent years: the 1990 registration of one Joseph Cheeseboro, using a South Philadelphia address that later became a vacant lot, and the subsequent 2003 registration of a Joseph J. Cheeseborough, with a convenience-store address.

c) the gummint's ability to peer reliably into our private lives may be more limited than many have long feared (see a] above).

d) qualified voters who believe strongly that the legitimacy of US elections are compromised by the lack of a "true" voter ID, and so support voter ID laws, should stay away from the polls in the tens of millions this fall. why bother voting, the whole thing is rigged to favor "those people"



the Jim Greer situation in FL feels like it should make right-side political professionals uncomfortable. On the one hand it's obvious the guy is lying to save his skin; on the other, the obvious liar facing felony corruption charges was the state's Republican party chair

It's like he doesn't care anymore what people think and is just swaggerin' the Mittness. And Poland is next on the 2012 World Mitt Tour!

It's such a controversial statement to note that Israeli culture is more conducive to economic success than Palestinian culture

He understated Israeli per capita income by about a third, and overstated the Palestinians' by something like 400 percent. So in that sense he paid them an awesome compliment.

Can't wait to see what he does in Poland.

And no answer yet from Mitt about if he thinks Israeli sanctions and the fact that palestinians are basically in camps might have some influence on their ability to generate more income.

jerseyhoya wrote:It's such a controversial statement to note that Israeli culture is more conducive to economic success than Palestinian culture

Perhaps constantly being invaded is not conducive to economics success? You are reaching here.