tvashtarkatena

I know that when I have a fundamental problem, I bury it with an enormous expensive bureaucracy stamped with a NAZI moniker. Doesn't everyone? Does anyone take our federal government seriously anymore?

My Outback's not that sexy, unless you're a lesbian with a fetish for scrap metal.

Airline Security: No parody required.

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the passengers, you know, have to get up out their seats to subdue Mr. Hello I'm From Nigeria?

I'll be interested to see what happens when a flight crew encounters their first case of explosive diarrhea during the final 'sit down and STFU' hour of a flight. Good luck with that.

I'm posting in the wrong fucking thread. One might argue I do that 100% of the time.

I made my GF a mid century modern table lamp and Noguchi cutting board. Bitches.

I'll add it to my collection. Yours will replace my wal-mart pup tent, however.

That, and the Prez was refreshingly up front in his statements. Nice supporting post, PP. I smile everytime an Rfuck rails on the Prez for being ineffective. It's not hard to notice that the Rfucks now almost unanimously: support reducing carbon emissions support same sex unions and or marriage want us to cut our losses in Iraq and Afghanistan and stop waisting money there. Support health care coverage for ALL Americans yet continue to claim Obama's too far Left. Well, they've never been the go to guys for logical consistency...or logic of any kind, for that matter.

Obama would have done better to expend some of his political capital to leverage his populist capital to push an agenda that actually addresses today's problems in a substantial fashion. That would have meant kicking the right wing in the nuts when they were down. They're still down, but now his populist capital seems to have evaporated along with the economy. All eyes were on the health care issue. It's the one that scares Americans the most, and it was the one to make happen. It didn't. History shows that's one issue you don't want to lose on. Good luck, Obama. You're a good man, but not the right man for this moment in history. But you were way, way better than the alternative. At least you're doing nothing, which is better than putting us all on a path to near term destruction.

Good piece.

The Reagan Revolution, continued by the Bush II team, was a denial of real reasons for our defeat in Vietnam, and reaction to the lack of confidence in federal leadership that resulted from that debacle. Rather than do that sane thing: recognize our mistakes and attempt to correct them, Reagan implemented more of the very same ignorance and arrogance that caused that defeat, propelled by the myth that 'if we'd just gone bigger', we could have won that war. In hindsight, it's really hard to imagine how the U.S. could have gone any bigger than it did in Vietnam: 600,000 troops, 10 years, many times more bombs dropped than in WWII, expansions into Cambodia and Laos... The results of such stupidity have been predictably disastrous; A string of defeats across the globe whenever the U.S. has acted unilaterally, culminating in the Soviet style bankrupting of the nation. When the U.S. has acted in concert with it's allies with clear, predetermined political goals in mind, however; Kosovo, Iraq I, military and even some of those political goals are somehow magically achieved. The difference in the two philosophies could not be more stark. The Neocon philosophy is drawn from the NAZI playbook: force produces fear; enemy cows and bows to our impressive might. There are no real tangible political goals to it; it simply seeks a state of permanent global domination by force. Hence all the modern day B movie rhetoric about killing all the bad guys blah blah. The Clinton/Bush I multi-lateral philosophy recognized, more astutely, what historian have always known: that war is only one, drastic foreign policy tool used to achieve a finite set of predetermined political goals. Historians will continue to argue about whether GWB or Reagan was the worst president in our history regarding the damage they've done to this country. From the destruction of the middle class, creation of a police state, evaporation of our respect and moral legitimacy worldwide, and a bankrupted economy, the list of their monumental achievements is long. Historians will probably all agree that they're in a class by themselves.

...to all you spraylords, poseurs, commies, wingnuts, Ltards, Rfucks, potheads, drunks, sheepshaggers, peakbaggers, bolters, grave robbers, cluckers, and palmfuckers. May 2010 bring The Goodness to you and yours.

"She's not gonna shit right for a month."

freed salty nuts on the bar?

Mutually reinforcing abuse vehicles.

They're both skilled musicians. They both suck. It's all a matter of personal taste. Why not argue why you like to fuck taun tauns more than sheep?

Which policy prescriptions to which issues, specifically? Take your time. I'd like to here KKK answer to this question...for once.

For more information about the ACLU's efforts to reclassify MJ in WA: Marijuana public information campaign

the powers that be probably would make alcohol illegal if they could - they tried it once and it failed. the dumbasses can't see that having MJ illegal has failed. they are just too stubborn to give up this charade There's been no legislative effort to criminalize alcohol since prohibition ended. None. On the flip side, prohibition never ended in a large number of counties and parishes in the eastern and central states, but that area has shrunk, not expanded. Regarding pot, its a public information issue. The ACLU has mounted a multi year effort to reclassify MJ as a misdemeanor in WA. We're actually getting pretty close to doing just that; attitudes have changed dramatically over the past few years, and there's a good chance legislation might pass as early as 2010. We've learned that about a 3rd of the public thinks it should be fully legal, a 3rd thinks it should never be legal, and 3rd believes that the war on drugs has failed but they don't know what to do about it. We go after that last 3rd with our PI campaign. The primary issue that resonates with voters is civil rights, not money, as previously stated. 80,000 Americans are arrested for MJ only offenses every year. Many of these have their lives destroyed by that event; loss of employment, housing, education, benefits, in addition to a dangerous exposure to our horrific prison system which requires no introduction (rape camp, anyone? Can I interest you in white supremacist gang membership?). Half of our national prison population, over a million people, are in for drug offenses involving no other crime. Thanks to the war on drugs, our Land of Freedom boasts, by far, the highest incarceration rate in the world. Higher than North Korea, higher than China, higher than Iran. Furthermore, the War on Drugs is primarily against pot users; they are the lower hanging fruit and present the lesser physical threat to law enforcement. The public doesn't realize this, instead assuming that the kind of tolerance we see here in Seattle is representative of the country as a whole, and that the war on drugs focuses on the hard stuff. It doesn't. Finally, pot laws hit black communities hardest, in unbalanced ways for which there is an enormous amount of supporting literature...no room to expound on it here. It's an equal protection issue. The issue that runs second to civil rights in terms of public perception is one of cost. In these times of massive deficit, it's not hard to convince voters and legislators that more prisons shouldn't be our top priority. We've had amazing success in gaining support for MJ reclassification with audiences we've been able to reach with our campaign, which indicates that more people need to have a serious conversation about pot, and more generally, drug policies if we are to move forward as a society on this issue. Regarding health effects, our campaign doesn't go down that rat hole. We assume that pot is probably not good for you, just as tobacco and alcohol are probably not good for you, and leave it for the public to decide what their individual habits are going to be. Having said that, there have been no credible studies to date that indicate any life threatening long term effects of MJ use other than those to the respiratory system from the act of smoking itself if that is the chosen method of ingestion. Sure, it makes the occasional crazed Mexican want to rape white women, but still. Contrast that with alcohol abuse, which often leads to fatal esophageal rupture, destruction of the brain and liver, or death from trauma or exposure.

Nope, just assholes, and if fools like you would join the 20th century it wouldn't have to be that way.

No one here has argued that as far as I can tell. Neither are good for you (the red wine thing is bunk...dark grape juice has the same beneficial effect). Pot certainly hurts less the next morning. Most would agree that its probably less dangerous to drive stoned than drunk, although neither is recommended by the State Patrol. The physiology of the user is everything. For those genetically predisposed to alcohol addiction, even a small amount of that drug can be a very, very bad thing. Pot is not as statistically or chemically addictive, but a person can become psychologically addicted to just about anything. Not spraying, of course. Oh no.

But...what have these kids done wrong?

Cuba's capitol city and others were bombed repeatedly by US trained forces before Bay of Pigs. That was followed by an amphibious invasion force. All trained and supplied by the U.S. Of course, Cuba was silly to treat that as a serious threat. We certainly wouldn't have. Castro personally commanded the forces that quickly kicked the shit out of the U.S. backed campaign. He would go on to play a decisive role in kicking our proxy ass in Angola, a victory which led to that country gaining its independence. It was the beginning of a string of U.S. defeats that has lasted right up to the present. We should think about staying home more. Especially now that we can no longer afford to vacation abroad. But, hey, we got Noriega

Wasn't there a another country called...let me see...it's in the Caribbean...Cuba, yeah, Cuba involved? The one U.S. backed forces tried to invade? Creating, oh, just a small incentive to emplace Russian missiles for self defense? But it all has to do with wimpiness, right? Go Palin style or go home.