livendive

Meh, your bias is showing. I will probably not be voting for Obama, but I can still respect the democratic platform more than the republicans. Democrats believe in civil liberties (except for guns), Republicans believe in governance by religion (except for guns). Both parties believe in taking a large amount of money from the populace, but Democrats belive in economic benefits for the needy, while Republicans believe in economic benefits for the decidedly un-needy. If one of these groups is going to take my money regardless, I'd rather it go toward feeding people and protecting the environment than giving tax breaks to folks who profit by trashing the environment. I'm probably voting for Gary Johnson, but if I had to choose between D and R, it would most certainly be D. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Well, there were no statistical data or facts, or really much sense at all, so what was really "contained therein" and how do atheists play a role? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Given how opposed you are to facts and statistical data and the bizarre nature of this particular statement, can you please expand on your claim? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Really because I really would like to know why Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely nothing except that many people viewed him as their savior of humanity. How many other people in this world have won the Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing? Obama is a divider and it is rather sad how he vilifies successful people. Successful people should be emulated not criticized. Why do you think Clint Eastwood decided to speak out against Obama. Mr Eastwood once liked Obama, but that was before he saw what a divisive politicians that Obama is. I don't recall his nobel commendation mentioning anything about being a "savior". In fact, you seem to be the one dreaming that up and then projecting it onto them. Af for Eastwood, and villifying successful people, did you hear the praise Obama had for Mr. Eastwood yesterday? Again, you're fantasizing something that simply isn't true. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Ummmm...you are also describing the overwhelming majority of the caucasian community here. Except for being a caucasian male, you are describing me. So, it almost appears that you are agreeing these numbers are driven by race. It seems someone's vote is being driven by race. And since I wish I was voting for Condoleeza Rice, I doubt it is mine. I'm sure there is a subset who votes for Obama on the basis of race, and there's also a subset who votes against him on the basis of race. Someone here has stated that he believes ALL black people vote for Obama because of race, while completely ignoring what percentage of them also vote for the Democrat when he's white. Suddenly, because Obama's black, that must be the only reason black people vote for him, which is a pretty racist opinion in and of itself. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Obama was marketed by his media pals to be "The messiah, the savior of humanity, the great uniter of the human race complete with his Nobel Peace Prize". But Obama has been anything but a uniter and the only job Obama cares about is his own job. He has been a divider pitting classes against each other and shitting all over the USA's largest trading partner with his protectionist anti-trade, anti-business policies. But with all that going on with the failed Messiah, the Republicans do NOT get a "Get out of jail for free card" for they too still have plenty of skeletons in their closet. The USA is in desperate need for a 3rd option. Of course we know from our own experience north of the border that 3rd options by default are not the solution. 3rd options must still have good policies and must not be afraid to do unpopular things when they are the right thing to do. Governing from the center and not actually doing anything because you fear alienating some special interest group that you depend on is no solution. For years the LPC just assumed that they would always be the "Natural Governing Party", and when they got caught red handed stealing money from the tax payers, the voters rightly punished them to the point where they still have not recovered. What am I trying to say? Obama and the Democrats have failed the US people with their politics of division and they have failed their largest trading partner with their protectionist policies. But the Republicans also have a history of failing the American people. The USA is screwed with these two political parties. The USA desperately needs a 3rd option. But who? Look at what the media and the GOP did to Ron Paul when he tried to be different. You are misremembering to the point of dishonesty. The whole Messiah gig and your related claims were sarcastically put forth and kept alive by the Republicans, and the most divisive aspect of our government is the House, where the mantra is "Never compromise, make Obama fail, regardless of the consequences." Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

How do you see your Christian values being made insignificant? If your values are affected by a President, you're doing it wrong. All this guy wants is for you to not force your values on me, as mine are slightly different (and vice versa). And our country isn't becoming subservient, it's just becoming a better neighbor. I'd agree that BHO's progress has been less than perfect, but his position is rather critical, so we probably shouldn't fire him until we've found a better candidate to replace him. Mitt Romney looks more likely to return us to the ways of GWB than to move us forward toward any goal we want to reach. Blues, Dave As I read your reply I conclude, you have proven my point. You and proof have a pretty disfunctional relationship. Neither of you is good for the other. Fortunately in this instance, you're not even in the same area code. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

How do you see your Christian values being made insignificant? If your values are affected by a President, you're doing it wrong. All this guy wants is for you to not force your values on me, as mine are slightly different (and vice versa). And our country isn't becoming subservient, it's just becoming a better neighbor. I'd agree that BHO's progress has been less than perfect, but his position is rather critical, so we probably shouldn't fire him until we've found a better candidate to replace him. Mitt Romney looks more likely to return us to the ways of GWB than to move us forward toward any goal we want to reach. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Simple stuff here. What percentage of the black community can relate to an extraordinarily wealthy white Mormon from Massachusetts. What percentage of them would benefit from the policies he intends to implement (tax cuts for the wealthy, reduced education spending, reduced entitlements, etc)? I'd guess those numbers are close to or smaller than the margin of error in that poll. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Illustrated fact: In the last 50 years, Democrats are consistently betterless awful at managing the federal budget and the economy. Illustrated fact: In the last 100 years, Presidents with a business background have ranged between pretty bad and the absolute worst at their jobs, and the last three were especially bad at economic issues. Illustrated fact: US alternative energy production is demonstrably greater now that it was previously, in both private investment and energy output. Your response: "Screw you and your facts, they mean nothing! What about our FEELINGS?! " Rest assured, if emotions and feelings end up winning this election, it'll be a landslide for Obama over that out-of-touch, uninspiring, dull stick-in-the mud the Republicans are offering up. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I know beliefs are more important than facts to you, but this can't hurt. Blues, Dave But the fact is people are not working. People are worried. People don't think BHO has done a good job. As CE so aptly stated, we need a businessman at the helm not a law professor. What makes you think a businessman makes a good president? Our last 5 presidents with significant business experience were as follows: George W Bush (Harvard business major, at that) George HW Bush (one term president foiled by economy) Jimmy Carter (see Bush 41) Herbert Hoover (often ranked in the bottom 10 presidents) Warren Harding (consistently ranked as either the worst president of the last century or very close to it) Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

With only 1 month left in 2012, I think that number is solid enough, but agree that 2013 and beyond can be largely discounted, as there are too many variables at play. The biggest takeaway I get from these is the notion that "Democrat President = bigger deficits than Republican" is pretty dubious, if not flat out wrong, at least over the last 50 years. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I know beliefs are more important than facts to you, but this can't hurt. Blues, Dave Dave - what am I looking at? Graphs without descriptors and in the lower two charts, not even numbers, are hard to analyze. In political discussions, these are typically bullshit. It appears to say: "UP = GOOD. DOWN = BAD" But when improving the deficit leads upwards, I suspect a bad social scientist made the graphs. Yeah, sorry, I'm the bad social scientist who threw it together with a quick excel chart using CBO numbers. In the top graph, the X axis numbers on the far left are % of GDP. The horizontal line with hashmarks represents a balanced budget, with the couple excursions slightly above it as surpluses, and the vast majority of the line below it indicating deficits. In the bottom two groupings, I simply copy/pasted sections from the top graph together by party, so all democrat administrations side by side and then all republican administrations side by side. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I know beliefs are more important than facts to you, but this can't hurt. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

This. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

According to the narrator on this video, she couldn't shut it off, and eventually the police just disconnected the battery. I'm suspicious of a series of malfunctions lining up so perfectly, but it is what the video says. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

This. I'd wager that someone who's lived with a crack addict understands better than someone who spent several dozen hours with some trying to beat it. And past users likely have a pretty solid perspective of the drug too. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

And how many times did the thought cross your mind that the world would be a better place if all those in attendance were in prison? The war on drugs just adds additional ways in whiich drugs can fuck up someone's life. It's retardedly expensive and wholly ineffective. But it does keep a fair amount of poor and colored people in prison, so I can see why the GOP would support it. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I will once you prove the author is making money. There's nothing slanderous about such a statement either way. I go to work and make money, and I assume you do as well. Why would that be a source of shame? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Ha ha, actually yes, I do remember that! You earned every penny of it. Best I ever did was that 245 guy. I didn't stand him up, but it was on a 330, in August...such is life lol. I was working at a DZ where they only paid $25 per tandem, but a $2/lb fat fee over 200. So I made $25 for the tandem and another $90 on fat fee. Then he tipped me $50, for a total of $165 on the jump. He was gay, and had grabbed my ass under canopy, but I told him and his partner to bring back every tall fit-but-heavyset guy they could find. lol Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

If you were the only one, there wouldn't be porn sites dedicated to them. That said, it's not really my thing. I find natural skin coloring more attractive on most women. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Nothing much has changed on the Afghanistan, employment, economy, or deficit fronts in the last week. What has changed is near record numbers of GOP candidates saying abnormally retarded things to the press. And you consider it odd that folks are discussing these statements? Blues Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I'd just like people like you to accept that it's none of your damn business what a woman does with her own body. I guess the FACT that I am pro-choice and have stated so in this thread escapes you. Easy to say. Your unwavering support of a party whose platform continues to include a total ban on abortions says otherwise. Do you agree with every bit of the DNC's platform? Most thinking people vote for the party whose position is *most* like their own, which is almost guaranteed to not be identical. It's only the brain-dead who adopt as their own whatever positions their favorite party tells them to. Personally, I disagree with the Democrats on gun control, affirmative action, hate crime legislation, a LOT of entitlements for the unwwilling (vs unable), their admanant hatred for the wealthy, and many union issues. I disagree with the Republicans on matters of individual freedom, civil rights, religous subservience, corporatocratic tendencies, their fervent allegiance to the wealthy, and their obsession with an ever growing military. Both sides have some pretty whacked ideas, so I generally go with the one I consider less morally repulsive. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

http://www.examiner.com/article/gop-lawmaker-lgbt-teen-suicide-is-the-biggest-lark-out-there http://www.wmur.com/news/politics/Sheriff-candidate-says-he-wouldn-t-reject-deadly-force-to-stop-abortions/-/9857748/16225528/-/9c091s/-/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/23/us/texas-judge-warning/index.html It must be idiot-hurricane season! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I would disagree with you on several of those points. I think we, collectively, express nationalism to a fault, despite plenty of evidence that we're the best at very few things. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16K6m3Ua2nw (It's Hollywood, fictional, and dramatized, but the most poignant fictional moments rely on some element of truth to be believable) I think we very much make a point of dehumanizing our enemies. Whether it's communists, or muslims, or liberal/republicans...we collectively are very poor at any sort of empathy for those with whom we disagree. I don't know how you can say we're not avidly militaristic with a straight face. Have you seen our defense budget? Or how ostracized politicians are for suggesting we cut back to maybe double a ridiculous amount? Obsession with national security...not there yet, but the Patriot Act took a big step in that direction. I hope we step back from it. Religion and the ruling elite. Mostly. The Republicans don't have full control, but they've got the churches trying to hand it to them. Power of corporations protected. We just called them constitutionally protected people, after spending and unbelievably huge amount of money bailing them out over the last several years. Republicans have been trying to squash the arts for years and Democrats seem ready to cry uncle. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)