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Again, two seperate things Isaac Send a noteboard - 11/02/2010 09:51:15 PM
Poking at POTUS for his 'telepromtper fetish' is a whole different tune then essentially calling Palin a phony because she wrote on her hand... I don't think I cans way you on this, and obviously that's vice-versa, so let's discard it for now. IT will either die away in a couple weeks or become a 'potatoe' or someone will find a tape of a dem politician with 'social security' written on his hand during a AARP speech.

Fair enough. I mainly mentioned it because Palin was stumping for Perry this weekend in between tea parties and because however I feel about their positions on the issues Perry is such a facade conservative it's disgusting.


Hutchinson is pro-choice, Perry isn't, that's typically about all the fodder someone needs on my side of things to tip a candidate over in the primary. I was a bit surprised that he decided to run for what will essentrially be term 3.5, since I consider term limits, especially executive term limits, pretty important. The feeling last year was that they'd basically be swapping positions, senate normally being a post-gubernatorial thing anyway. But while we tend to be okay with the occassional pro-choicer, we usually expect there other conservative credentials to be pretty sturdy, and there was the pistol ban and the TARP vote. By 'we' I mean conservatives, not the entire GOP. I happen to like her, so basically I'm fine by either, it's not my state anyway.

Tolls on roads built by bonds are an issue mainly because people opposed to high taxation NORMALLY view it as a "double tax" (as Sen. Hutchison calls the toll roads, just one reason she'll mop the floor with Perry. ) Heck, the guy tried to put a toll on I-35 until Kay informed him that the feds weren't really cool with that (so Perry tried to buy back Texas' interest in the road just to toll it; I have mental images of Ft. Hood tanks going through toll booths.... )


I'm a pragmatist, I sort of take as a given that the gov't is gonna fleece me top and bottom, they need X revenue, and it's easier to get it if some of it's hidden a bit, not straight income tax or sales tax where you get handed the bill once a year or every time you by a pack of gum. YEs, it is double taxation, unless you can show the people using it are singificantly benefiting while the majority does not, or does not benefit similiarly. Then it's a targted tax, keep in mind Joel, conservatives are against massive and often punitive taxes to pay for things they object to, we don't object to the concept of taxes in of itself. Normally road funding is fine by us so long as it's not being wasted, like the Big Dig or the Bridge to Nowhere.

Realistically, I'd expect the US Army to be waved through,


Oh, yeah, we're exempt from that sort of thing on official business, unsurprisingly

but my point is the interstates were created to encourage and enable interstate travel (with specific emphasis on the military during emergencies) and slapping tolls on them inhibits that. To say nothing of the fact that the lions share of I-35 and the rest comes from that evil federal government, but Perry wasn't planning on providing them any toll revenue (in fact it pretty much all goes to Cintra, which is why they bought the bonds Perry induced people to vote for. ) Seriously, read a little about the Trans-Texas Corridor and you'll probably understand why it's another area where Perrys base thinks he sold them out--he basically did.


Hmm... well I've just scanned it, but the situation with Cintra looks a bit weird. I don't mind privatizing tollbooths, that sounds likle common sense, but a 50-year contract? Anyway, that is a local affair, lots of died in the red GOP act a bit purple on local stuff. Pork seems less fatty locally, I suppose. I have to tell you I haven't exactly been a mssive Perry supporter either way, the only real primary challenge (outside of Ohio) I keep and I on right now is Crist-Rubio, so I'll have to defer on the point.

It's actually unusual in a lot of ways though; I bet when you drop your change in the tub on I-90 it's not $1.85 to go 11 miles (the set fee and maximum length you can go on the tolled stretch of US-183 that basically goes past a mall;


No, it's $3 to go from the PA border to bufallo (about 60 miles), and that's up $.15 recently, and of course it's NY prices, the fair per mile is a bit lower in Ohio, on RT 80. That does seem rather high.

we needed that. ) You won't be speeding along at high speed on it either; there are on/off ramps about every half mile. In addition to the lights. Yes, stoplights for cross streets on a toll road.


We don't have much like that in ohio, but the NY comparison, there are bridges to the island that run you .75, and that's maybe 5 miles, of course, that is a bridge and a pretty f'ing massive one, so a bit different, and again, it's in NY, not the most anti-tax state, I always make a point of brinigng smokes with me (still less than $5 in ohio) so I ain't paying $9 for a pack up there.

I'm not a big fan of toll roads generally, and one of the things I USED to like about living in the South is they were very rare, but I HAVE lived places where they're common, and this isn't how they work. Texas roads in particular used to be the envy of the nation because we use them, we NEED them, and until recently TXDoT kept them in good shape for that very reason. Now I have to through a 3-S curve in a half mile to reach the 10mph 90° turn where old 183 crosses (tolled)183A just to get to my house. And they want more. Not only have they done a sorry job designing the toll roads, not only are the private foreign firms who own them making orders of magnitude more than they invested off of TX taxpayers, but they've incidentally made the FREE roads hazardous to drive (which makes what the logical alternative?)


Well, no argument there, if there are good reasons for this, as there may be, I am not familiar with them, and I don't defend actions taken by people just because they're members of my party.

Why is someone so committed to less taxes and government she has to write it down or she won't mention it supporting this kind of stuff?


I actually doubt she knows. Politicians tend to have basically the wiki-notes level of knowledge on things outside their own comittees and district/state, and that's just so they don't sound retarded, it's not like they actually have in-depth knowledge (or really should be expected to) on specific matters local to a different area.

The biggest problem I, personally, have with the HPV vaccine is that 1) vaccine manufacturers can't seem to find a preservative that isn't a known carcinogen (or worse) but won't just manufacture preservative free vaccines with shorter shelf lives,


Things that kill of microorganisms tend to be unhealthy for large organisms too, gotta work within the confines of current science. It's a risk thing, not just real risk but also lawsuit risk (couch, cough... tort reform) they can't get sued for Thermosil, they could get sued for a dose of vaccine that had foriegn bacteria in it. The stuff is safe enough, it's just risk management, if you've got decent dat showing Y gives you W% risk of deaht, and by using X you significantly decrease W while slighlty increasing it in a different but smaller way, you do it. In combat, a helmet decreases your senses, thus slightly increasing your odds of being caught unawares, but singificantly increases your odds on survivability. Same difference. Of course, the ACH ones, redesigned for the new body armor and new tech, further increase survivability while decreasing the sensory loss, and I'd imagine some years down the road we'll be able to replace Thermosil and others with something similiar... but currently it ain't around.

3) as with the toll roads owned by a private Spanish firm, one of Perrys senior aides just happened to take a position with the company benefiting about that time. However, the hue and cry from the religious right was exactly what you'd expect: Teenagers won't have sex if no one tells them about it, but if you give them the vaccine they'll sell themselves on street corners.


Well, I appreciate the analogy but I doubt anyone (beg pardon, large numbers of sane people) are saying HPV vaccinations will lead to a huge leap in prostitution. I'm not even sure why anyone needs to do anything with the kids beyond say "Roll up your sleeve, this injection reduces your odds of getting cancer" there's really no need to bring sex into the equation anyway. "Roll up your sleeve, this will keep you from getting the flu" doesn't have to be followed by "And now you can kiss any guy you want without worry about him giving you a cold, so put on some lipstick and run down to the lockerroom girlie." So basically I consider it a fairly invented issue either way. Just about every illness can be spread as a STD, I mean it's not like you can't get the flu by having sex too.


I'm inclined to agree with you about trusting the parents on medical treatment (which is what we do with just about every other form) but see sex ed as larger educational and public health issue; a lot of parents AREN'T qualified to teach their kids about it, and in many cases those very kids are proof.


Well, I'd say in the anecdotal sense it's pretty hard to be a parent without being qualified to discuss sex, a high school grad might not be the ideal person to teach people arithmetic or reading, but they are qualified IMHO to do it, the process involved in having children tends to pretty much result in knowledge of sex ed to the level we'd teach anyway.

But I stated my objections because you asked what they were; that's a separate and much larger debate (poisoned Chinese toothpaste and human food grade grain has eroded my faith in the FDA. )


Well, I'm not exatly a huge fan of the FDa, but they are pretty good at their job, overall.

It may surprise you, but, yes, the bulk of the protests, or so it seemed from me (and I was among the group that opposed it for completely different reasons) came from people who insisted it would lead to promiscuity. It's the same logic that leads them to oppose teaching contraception: If you teach kids there's a safer way to have sex, they'll have sex, and the less they know about sex the less likely they are to engage in it. They regarded it as a betrayal, and the standard objections to compulsory vaccination, even the fact one of Perrys senior staffers had just become a Merck lobbyist, were almost an afterthought; the story had been going on for at least two or three days before I heard anyone mention it once (and that one I followed closely enough that I've actually downloaded copies of Perrys executive order. ) Conservatives, especially the religious right, got sold out by their own candidate. Literally. So again I ask: Why is their new national candidate supporting him over a legitimate conservative? I like virtually none of Kay positions, but I believe her sincerity. Perry, well, if I could make the highest bid I'm sure he'd be happy to work for me. Of course, since I'm paying is salary now he's supposed to do that already.


Well , I assume she was there because he asked to come, and because Kay isn't exactly on the conservative christmas card list these days. I hear you, but I'm not really in a position to debate these matters from lack of knowledge, and I'm not going to cede points I don't now about.

That conflict was to be expected; what was more noteworthy was that a supposedly far right Governor, heir to Bush and routinely stating his "family values" creds, totally betrayed his base on the issue. Again, Kay will mop the floor with Perry in the primary, and if you want an example of everything Palin claims to be, look there.


Bush wasn't far right, we had a lot of issues with becaus eof that.

A lot of Texas Republicans, most, I think (but we'll know soon) don't like Perry any better than I do. As another Texan once said, an honest politician is one who, when you buy him, he STAYS bought.


To be honest, I'd rather have her as governor than senator, her two sticky points in my book are abortion and guns, and obviously the governor of texas isn't a threat to the cause on those issue. If Palin wants to campaign for him though, well, that's her business... as I've said Joel, I'm not exactly a member of her fan club, I just don't like seeing people demonized over things I don't consider very demonic.

Had McCain won he'd have been a year older than Reagan on their respective Inauguration Days; it worried the hell out of me and a lot of people. It reminds me of what they used to say about how Quayle fulfilled the goal of making America more religious, because the whole country prayed for Bushs health every night. And Palin is very obviously maneuvering for the Republican nomination; she just won't come out and say it because it's too soon and she hasn't locked up all of the base. Which I doubt she ever will because most savvy Republicans see her the same way a lot of savvy Dems saw Hillary: The one way to guarantee defeat.


Yeah, Mccain is still alive. Reagan lived the whole term, and a pretty good chunk of the presidents who died in office did so from lead poisoning, which isn't very related to age. Not saying I want someone who looks like they are about to fall over dead, but I don't play the age card that way, I want our POTUS to be 55+ coming in. I didn't want Palin either, I just didn't consider her a bad choice either. Of course, unlike most people I knew who she was before hand, because I'd seen her and Napolitano at a table fielding questions the year before, they both came off pretty well, I have to say they've both sort of disappointed me since.

Even so. Again I say, look to Kay, who has all of Palins fiscally and socially conservative credentials, a LOT more national and international experience and reflects those things in actually knowing her stuff and sounding like it.


National experience is good, but Perry happens to have 10 years experience at this particular job already, and while I think maybe you guys should be considering pass a term limits amendment, he clearly has the upper hand on her in relevant experience. With Kay, well, her saving grace on conservatism is that while she may support Roe v Wade, she has a NARAL rating of like 0%. of course, as governor her opinion on abortion is basically irrelevant, but it's a serious blow to her image as a conservative. So was the pistol ban, so was voting for TARP. WE (conservatives not GOP) warned them there would be consequences for those votes, I've got no prob with her winning but it's good to see those consequences come into action, regardles sof the specifics.

From a purely cosmetic standpoint she's always struck me as looking a little severe (she might be more comparable to Hillary than Palin) but no one will ever accuse of her being either a "feminazi" or a "soccer mom" (it's just happy coincidence Palin EMBRACED the latter term; I have nothing against stay at home moms, but even if Palin was one that's not the credential I look for in a President. ) I personally thought from the start the only reason Palin was catapulted onto the national stage was as a trial balloon to see if people who joke about Hillary wearing the pants because she's got the biggest penis would accept a genuine conservative who also happened to be a woman. It seems they will.

The main problem with running Governors is that they frequently don't know how to work with Congress, particularly with Senators who had more power than them for the past 20 years. THAT'S where Obama got in trouble; normally that's the kind of thing electing a US Senator avoids, but not when he's only been there for four years. He hasn't had enough time to get dirt on people. None of that prevents their election though, so you may be right; on the other hand, Kay wouldn't be too threatening either (she's not nearly as in your face as Palin) and allows the GOP to play the gender card: "You just hate her because she's a successful female politician but not a card carrying NOW member!"


Well, ideally you run a governor for Potus and a senator for VP, that seems to work well.

The difference is that people who self identify with the religious right share the same blind spot with the LDS, despite the fact the LDS has explicitly rejected the Nicene and Apostles Creed and its leadership is on record saying things like "As man is, God was; as God is, man may become. " I'm not going to delve into doctrinal validity for various reasons, but I will say that if you look at what Joseph Smith taught and the LDS leadership still affirms, it directly contradicts FUNDAMENTAL (if you'll pardon the term) Christian doctrines. Put more simply, while there are many good Christians in the Mormon church, some of whom I'm honored to count as good friends and privileged to call brother and sister, what Joseph Smith and the LDS LEADERSHIP teach is not Christianity. Teaching that Jesus was once a sinner is not Christianity; teaching that the Father had a father (who also had a father) is not Christianity, to name just two examples. And no one who's a congregation president and traces his pedigree to the Mormon Patriarchs can plead ignorance there.


Oh, I'm there with you on the LDS, but I'm not a long-term christian, I was agnostic most of my life and still a moral man, so I don't identify someone's specific religion as very important politically, beyond the obvious ramifications with the voters. I would vote for a muslim or a hindu, so long as they clearly backed the core political platform, so mine isn't a LDS blindspot, and actually that's closer to the norm for most of the non-populist conservative right.


The Senate may not be a good DIRECT route if we ignore the role the VP plays in the Senate, but unless you're Ike, Grant or Taylor nearly all of our Presidents got there based on either experience in the national legislature or as chief executive. Those are probably the two most important things a President can have. As a direct route, no, the Senate may not be a good choice, but the lessons learned there don't just vanish when you get a different job. Again, if Obama had spent more time making deals on legislation in the Senate perhaps he'd have a better idea how to do it as President.


All right, VP as a member of the senate, yes, but let's not nitpick.

Gravel ran as a Libertarian because the Dems wouldn't nominate him (just the opposite of what perennial Lib candidate Ron Paul did) and since we're comparing the potential nominees of the two major parties, yes, he counts. Even if we ignore the role Hillary played in Bills Presidency and Governorship (does that mean I can stop listening to people whine about Hillarycare? )


I didn't know many people even mentioned Hillarycare anymore.

I think eight years in the Senate is more experience than four years as Governor of Massachusetts, and twenty years of sitting in on policy meetings in either Little Rock or DC seems like it's equal to the four more years Huckabee had as Governor. Did Thompson actually RUN?


PArallel case to Vilsack or Gravel.

He dropped out so fast I'm not sure if he made any of the primaries, but telling me that he and Guiliani, whose never even held a STATE office, have "executive experience meet[ing] or exceed[ing] any single one of the Dem nominees" seems a stretch. Gilmore and Romneys four years as Governor give them more experience than Hillary got in twenty years of writing state and federal policy and, oh, yeah, a Senate career as long as their gubernatorial ones COMBINED. They might have more executive experience than Biden, Dodd and Gravel, but those three have FAR more legislative experience and, though it may be hard to remember in the Obama era, that's just as important in a President. And while I may have missed your qualifier in an earlier statement, if you meant to put one on experience in this comparison, you didn't: You just said, "experience. " Legislative experience counts just as much in that context, and few of the Republican candidates had as much executive (or any other) experience as most of the Democrats had legislative. McCain was the pick of the litter, and Huckabee next. After that I believe it's three four year Governors and a city mayor. I'll stack Biden and Dodds three decades in the Senate up against that any time, as well as Hillary eight years there and time spent drafting legislation introduced by either the President or a Governor earlier.


Guilliani was the mayor of the NY, which is bigger and has a greater deal of complexity than most states. I would argue being mayor of NY, LA, Chicago, Houston, etc parallels governor of state. Obviously my little village mayor, with our pop of around 1000 or so, is not POTUS-ready, it's a broad term, like CEO. Mega-company CEO probably a good base for executive leadership, CEO of a company with 500 employees? Not really.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
- Albert Einstein

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Palin reads Cheat Notes. - 08/02/2010 12:43:02 AM 1423 Views
Is it really worse than reading answers on a teleprompter? sorry, I see no big deal here. *NM* - 08/02/2010 01:02:49 AM 251 Views
yes yes it is. a teleprompter is subtle - 08/02/2010 01:22:17 AM 591 Views
a teleprompter is not subtle - 08/02/2010 02:25:46 PM 520 Views
staring openly and blatantly at your hand is? *NM* - 08/02/2010 03:09:25 PM 321 Views
I think if anyone else had done the dame thing we wouldn't even had heard about - 08/02/2010 06:13:44 PM 522 Views
you're right, we probably would not have heard about it - 08/02/2010 07:56:09 PM 561 Views
Yes for what the notes were - 08/02/2010 12:44:35 PM 556 Views
no biggie *NM* - 08/02/2010 02:00:12 AM 270 Views
Isn't her 15 minutes over yet? *NM* - 08/02/2010 02:45:58 AM 357 Views
This only obscures the rational reasons for duly decrying her political popularity. Moooooooo. *NM* - 08/02/2010 03:19:45 AM 324 Views
I disagree, I think it underscores it. - 08/02/2010 03:39:57 AM 523 Views
Or they might believe that a far left liberal - 08/02/2010 04:16:51 AM 541 Views
Calling someone who needs a cheat sheet for their talking points stupid isn't an ad hominem, IMHO. - 08/02/2010 12:13:36 PM 535 Views
soory but your wrong, again - 08/02/2010 02:23:31 PM 495 Views
You shouldn't need reminders of your major themes after two years pushing them. - 08/02/2010 02:55:22 PM 526 Views
That's a bit silly - 08/02/2010 08:40:25 PM 689 Views
I'm perfectly happy to discuss her positions; I just think Huckabee does a better job of it. - 09/02/2010 10:26:54 AM 708 Views
Well, let's discuss some of these points - 09/02/2010 07:13:33 PM 714 Views
Re: Well, let's discuss some of these points - 10/02/2010 09:15:04 AM 746 Views
Re: Well, let's discuss some of these points - 10/02/2010 06:49:51 PM 813 Views
Ironically, Palin seems to agree this is different than using a teleprompter for a speech. - 11/02/2010 09:05:19 AM 707 Views
Again, two seperate things - 11/02/2010 09:51:15 PM 524 Views
Agreed, but Palin and other Republicans, not I, drew the comparison. - 15/02/2010 01:02:25 PM 672 Views
Just to get the obligatory Feinstein comment out of the way... - 15/02/2010 11:43:42 PM 734 Views
Hadn't heard, actually. - 19/02/2010 06:58:50 AM 649 Views
Re: Hadn't heard, actually. - 19/02/2010 08:32:11 AM 647 Views
Ah. - 23/02/2010 09:55:45 PM 724 Views
Re: Ah. - 24/02/2010 01:32:34 AM 671 Views
Yeah, I think we've reached an understanding if not agreement. - 01/03/2010 03:51:49 AM 665 Views
Re: Yeah, I think we've reached an understanding if not agreement. - 01/03/2010 11:46:24 PM 880 Views
Re: Yeah, I think we've reached an understanding if not agreement. - 05/03/2010 12:11:48 AM 754 Views
Random Title - 05/03/2010 02:49:59 AM 681 Views
Re: Random Title - 15/03/2010 05:37:22 AM 597 Views
Re: Random Title - 15/03/2010 09:17:53 PM 912 Views
Re: Random Rejoinder - 29/03/2010 03:45:08 PM 635 Views
Re: Random Rejoinder - 30/03/2010 12:34:23 AM 1282 Views
Oh dear, who ever let you two get into a subthread together? - 15/03/2010 10:31:24 PM 743 Views
Ben was asleep at the switch, clearly. - 29/03/2010 02:48:46 PM 679 Views
oh yes, and the right never uses ad hominem - 08/02/2010 03:56:42 PM 490 Views
This is petty and also rather ignorant - 08/02/2010 03:59:40 AM 687 Views
There had to be better ways, though - 08/02/2010 08:36:50 AM 443 Views
so you're saying you're as dumb as sarah palin? - 08/02/2010 10:55:00 AM 501 Views
Basically yes - 08/02/2010 06:57:16 PM 557 Views
a couple of points... - 09/02/2010 01:53:29 AM 522 Views
Let me get this straight. - 08/02/2010 03:59:40 AM 600 Views
Okay, folks, it's not that she had a cheat sheet. - 08/02/2010 04:39:06 AM 556 Views
Style is EVERYTHING, dammit! *NM* - 08/02/2010 05:34:14 AM 282 Views
As Cheat Sheet was raised as an objection, so it clearly was - 08/02/2010 06:16:57 AM 660 Views
It's completely unprofessional - 08/02/2010 08:27:47 AM 520 Views
why? - 08/02/2010 02:29:44 PM 544 Views
well it's all she's got going for her. *NM* - 08/02/2010 03:10:37 PM 233 Views
You know that's a good question - 08/02/2010 05:19:10 PM 506 Views
maybe you are just projecting - 08/02/2010 06:15:57 PM 510 Views
well what is the association we have with notes on hands? - 08/02/2010 07:58:41 PM 536 Views
or people on the far left are being grossly disingenuous - 08/02/2010 08:18:06 PM 649 Views
dude, only posted it because it was funny - 08/02/2010 08:43:55 PM 505 Views
I agree on your title - 09/02/2010 11:30:11 AM 572 Views
Who cares? She's hot. *NM* - 08/02/2010 03:06:58 PM 245 Views
I agree with your first sentence. *NM* - 08/02/2010 03:07:31 PM 346 Views
I also totally agree with that first sentence. *NM* - 08/02/2010 03:48:24 PM 273 Views
Much ado about nothing. She was just making sure she didn't forget anything. - 09/02/2010 02:00:56 AM 487 Views
No, humble would have been note cards. *NM* - 09/02/2010 05:55:27 AM 251 Views
Nah, note cards can be dropped or lost. - 09/02/2010 03:03:25 PM 506 Views
She's such a retard. *NM* - 09/02/2010 02:46:51 AM 274 Views
Maybe - 09/02/2010 09:29:45 AM 543 Views
No offense, girlie. - 09/02/2010 11:36:55 AM 649 Views
She should have left herself a note... - 09/02/2010 11:04:34 PM 512 Views

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