I. Just. Don't. _______. Care.

[K Frame]

Gerry was my supervisor when I first moved to Virginia. I met him not long afterwards. He was pretty anti-gun and was open about it.

Over the years I and a number of other people were able to work on him, to get him to at least partially change his views.

He was pretty shocked one day several years ago when he found out that a number of people in his office were gun owners and regularly carried concealed handguns and yet, despite the proximity, he hadn't been perforated multiple times.

Unfortunately, and despite our best efforts, he never quite got over his irrational fear of those with CCWs, and kept lobbying to get the state to allow the county to exclude legally concealed handguns from county libraries and rec. centers.

[K Frame]

"The Democrats have no problem making up absolutely boldfaced lies that sound good. Total lies. They even know they're lies, but they put them out anyway."

And the Democrats aren't the only ones who practice this kind of "progressive" political strategy.

Lots of blatant crap comes from all sides.

Look, you're obviously distraught. Take a day off and do something you enjoy.

[Joe Demko]

And that's part of the problem.  Each cycle, the loser spends their time bitching and moaning rather than trying to fix the problem. 

Chris

Agreed.

[Perd Hapley]

shootinstudent,

Obama made the remarks more than once.  He specifically claimed that the only thing his opponents would say about him was that he was non-white, had a foreign name, and was not patriotic.  In one iteration of the charges, he named McCain and Bush as his opposition.  He said this despite that fact that the McCain campaign did not make his race or religion an issue, and he had reason to know that they would not do so.  By inflating the race issue to a prominence it never really had, and placing it in the mouths of the innocent, he was playing the race card.  Fact.  Done.  Give up.

[Perd Hapley]

A long time ago, I thought there would indeed be some redeeming value in finally breaking the color barrier in the Oval Office.  And indeed that might have some mild benefit. 

But the more I think about it, the more I realize that that Oval Office color barrier has been disintegrating for decades, and Obama's campaign had already shown it's utter irrelevance.  And the more I realize that Obama hasn't done anything Will Smith hasn't done.  Or Michael Jordan.  Or Colin Powell, or Muhammad Ali, or Sidney Potier, or any number of other Black celebrities.  Congratulations, Obama.  White people like you.  They like you even more than the president with the really low approval numbers and the reverse cult of sacred hatred.  Or the old, stiff, slow-moving guy who looks creepy when he smiles, and has spent the last decade alienating his own party.  Congratulations, you are a big, black celebrity. 

[seeker_two]

"I've been hearing that crap for the past eight years, maybe it's time conservatives flipped the tables and constantly remind Democrats that everything wrong with the world must be Barry Obama's fault."

And that does what, exactly?

Brings you down to their level?

Sometimes you have to go down to fight in the basement when they are trying to cut the floor out from under you....

[ctdonath]

The government of this country was effectively overthrown yesterday, without a shot being fired.

No, our government was NOT overthrown yesterday.

We had an orderly election. Everyone on the ballot got there through standard accepted processes. The polls took votes in an orderly by-law fasion (a few statistically irrelevant intimidations and stuffings aside). A summary report was made, and a clear winner emerged. Double-checking this, more thorough & complete counts will be made and submitted to Congress for approval. Everyone who won did so by legitimate and lawful means.

There was no "overthrow". Nobody of significant position or number was threatened. Nobody was harmed to persuade or disable choices. No laws were broken.

Yes, administrative & legislative ideology changed significantly, and judicial will likely follow suit. That is not illegal. Despicable, perhaps, but not illegal. Suspicions abound, and vigilance is eternally warranted, but there is no solid grounds for anticipating illegal &/| unconstitutional behavior - nothing warranting lawbreaking in return.

We established an orderly turnover of power according to constitutional law.

Can the "it's a COUP!" crap. I don't like what happened any more than you do, but that doesn't warrant anyone getting hysterical about it.

[RaspberrySurprise]

I have a feeling that the first time Obama does something to piss off the black community he will cease to be black or even partially black. The oreo and uncle tom daggers will come out in force.

[ctdonath]

Come April, some will start realizing they STILL have to pay their own mortgage and gas bills.

[T.O.M.]

No, our government was NOT overthrown yesterday.

We had an orderly election. Everyone on the ballot got there through standard accepted processes. The polls took votes in an orderly by-law fasion (a few statistically irrelevant intimidations and stuffings aside). A summary report was made, and a clear winner emerged. Double-checking this, more thorough & complete counts will be made and submitted to Congress for approval. Everyone who won did so by legitimate and lawful means.

There was no "overthrow". Nobody of significant position or number was threatened. Nobody was harmed to persuade or disable choices. No laws were broken.

Yes, administrative & legislative ideology changed significantly, and judicial will likely follow suit. That is not illegal. Despicable, perhaps, but not illegal. Suspicions abound, and vigilance is eternally warranted, but there is no solid grounds for anticipating illegal &/| unconstitutional behavior - nothing warranting lawbreaking in return.

We established an orderly turnover of power according to constitutional law.

Can the "it's a COUP!" crap. I don't like what happened any more than you do, but that doesn't warrant anyone getting hysterical about it.

Perhaps I misspoke, or you misunderstood my intention.  my point is that the current administration, and that President's party, were removed from power.  And, i completely agree with you that this was done in an orderly, legal, and peaceful fashion.  No force used to expell those from power, and no force used to keep the power.  that is why I am proud of America.

[K Frame]

"Perhaps I misspoke"

Yes, you misspoke.

Overthrow, in the context of a discussion of governments, virtually always has a negative, extralegal, connotation.

[T.O.M.]

Mea culpa.  I was up to 3 at Republican Headquarters making sure I had a job after Jan 1.  Brain fry is setting in.

[De Selby]

shootinstudent,

Obama made the remarks more than once.  He specifically claimed that the only thing his opponents would say about him was that he was non-white, had a foreign name, and was not patriotic.  In one iteration of the charges, he named McCain and Bush as his opposition.  He said this despite that fact that the McCain campaign did not make his race or religion an issue, and he had reason to know that they would not do so.  By inflating the race issue to a prominence it never really had, and placing it in the mouths of the innocent, he was playing the race card.  Fact.  Done.  Give up.

Again, you're basically crying foul because he responded at all to the rumors floating around, which by some polls were quite widely believed.  It was an issue in the campaign-it doesn't matter if McCain's people were the ones doing it or not.  You acknowledge that it was an issue, even, but then go on to conclude that Obama should never have acknowledged that same issue.  Apparently it's playing the race card for Obama to say the in effect exact same thing that you did, that people said racist things about him during the campaign?

There is absolutely no reason why a candidate can only fairly respond to something said by the other candidate.  Yet that is now what appears to be the basis of your claim that Obama "played the race card." 

[Perd Hapley]

To repeat myself:

"He specifically claimed that the only thing his opponents would say about him was that he was non-white, had a foreign name, and was not patriotic.  In one iteration of the charges, he named McCain and Bush as his opposition."

He was not simply responding to what people had said.  He was claiming that the Republican party would focus on his race as the center-piece of his campaign. 

[De Selby]

Well, I watched most of his campaign stumps, and the transcripts of those would tend to be more authoritative than the size of your font.  He rarely mentioned race, and when he did, it was against unnamed opponents and framed in the "how I look" manner; as far as I can tell he actually only said that a handful of times during the entire campaign.

But look how your argument is morphing-now it's not wrong because he said the same thing you did, it's wrong because in the same speech, he later identified McCain and Bush as his opponents?  I guess saying two true things in the same speech, one of which you don't say that often, is "race baiting" now because....wait, missed it again.

This is starting to look like the dreaded "Bush derangement syndrome" continued...

[Perd Hapley]

Boy, I guess the font size didn't help, after all. 

It was jfruser who said that Obama played the race card "early and often."  I never made that claim.  I was simply pointing to those "handful of times," as proof that he HAD done so.  He did play the race card, even if sparingly. 

But look how your argument is morphing-now it's not wrong because he said the same thing you did, it's wrong because in the same speech, he later identified McCain and Bush as his opponents?

Wrong.  He mentioned their names directly before the dollar bill comments. 

http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2008/08/obamas-comment.html
"Nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know."  The quotation is taken from a Washington Post transcript. 

My argument has been consistent throughout.  I can't be blamed if your reading comprehension is limited. 

[De Selby]

Don't worry, my comprehension is fine-I think your reliance on blog articles instead of the source material might be part of the problem.  The quotes you reposted are the same thing you alleged before...and again, it looks like Obama is simply repeating what you already said in this thread, ie, "no one says racist things weren't said".  But that's playing the race card because it was Obama saying it. 

I think more than reading comprehension, critical thinking is the skill we should be focusing on here.

[Perd Hapley]

Sigh.  Did I not say the quotation was from a Washington Post article?  Here it is from the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080102970.html?hpid=topnews
"Nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He's risky."

And don't lecture me about critical thinking, after that weak attempt to discredit the transcript because    it was reposted on a blog!!    

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I think more than reading comprehension, critical thinking is the skill we should be focusing on here.

 If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black!  You just tried to say fistful was wrong because he quoted from a blog.

It is willfully ignorant to believe that Obama didn't rely on race to win this election.  He played the race card, plain and simple.  We all saw it.  Despite what you may believe, your obfuscation and word twisting does not have the power to change what happened.

[Perd Hapley]

And just for the record, that blog was trying desperately to DEFEND Obama. 


Here is your claim, which has been easily refuted by reference to some well-known comments by Obama:

Well, he was accused of playing it (I think he struggled to avoid it because it is a loser of an issue) by some conservative commentators.  But whether you think he did or did not, there is no question that he didn't play Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton politics. 

Again, I don't claim that race was something Obama talked about a lot, just that he certainly did try to use false allegations of racism to his advantage. 

[Monkeyleg]

Locked, at least until this stops being a spitting contest.