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[Phmcw]

I think people are over analyzing a rather harmless statement.  (ie: Tinfoil hat type over analyzing.)

This is the kind of statement that make me rage.
Over analyzing?
That guy's job is to talk and make policies, but right now it's to talk. And you're telling me that he use a slogan one letter away of the one of the most notorious racist group in the us and DID NOT NOTICE?
When your barista mistake coffee been with arsenic do you say it's an harmless mistake?

And let's not forget he got a whole staff to help him too. Politician in the US just play dumb to get out of everything or ours are genius. Your call.

[Luke_Prowler]

There are no coincidences in politics. If republicans ae good at one thing, it's how to spin words

[Nadaka]

Man, I get to vote for the first time this coming year and I don't even like any of the candidates from either main party, which is weird even for anti-bi-partisan freeformschooler. That's the most progressive irritation I can think of.

I have no idea what an anti-bi-partisan is but I am with you. I don't like Obama, and every republican candidate is even worse.

I can't vote reform ever since they had the raw incredulity to put Pat Buchanan on the ticket.

With nuclear power once again facing a one way trip into history I can't vote green either.

And the rest of the 3rd parties I know about are just crazy.

[fqllve]

What does it matter how many letters away it was? That has absolutely zero bearing on anything. If he had said "I like to wear hats" would anyone be claiming that he's actually part of a secret cabal of cat-wearing fetishists?

The statement as he made it was highly chauvinistic and a bit xenophobic yes, but there is absolutely no reason to suspect that Romney is leaving hardly secret racist messages in his campaign ads. Frankly, I had no idea the KKK had the slogan "Keep America American" because I don't tend to pay much attention to what they say. I would imagine most people don't.

Besides, the fact that the two phrases are so similar would make his using it intentionally phenomenally stupid. This from a candidate who has no record (that I know of) of extreme positions on immigration (compared to other GOP candidates) but does have a record of playing the political game very carefully. I just don't buy it.

[freeformschooler]

What exactly does "anti-bi-partisan" mean?

It means that I highly dislike how the current U.S. political system is largely based around two parties, and voting for anything else is like throwing your vote away, because realistically, there's no way a third party would be elected.

I would have voted for a member of the Green Party or SOMETHING if it wasn't for that

It's not even that I oppose either party. It's just that in situations where neither of the two "realistic" parties to vote for contain candidates I would WANT to vote for, I wish there were other options.

[Necro910]

What exactly does "anti-bi-partisan" mean?

It means that I highly dislike how the current U.S. political system is largely based around two parties, and voting for anything else is like throwing your vote away, because realistically, there's no way a third party would be elected.

I would have voted for a member of the Green Party or SOMETHING if it wasn't for that

It's not even that I oppose either party. It's just that in situations where neither of the two "realistic" parties to vote for contain candidates I would WANT to vote for, I wish there were other options.

Yeah, it sucks. At this point it's either vote for the right-leaning idiot or the left-leaning idiot. Voting for an actually competent leader means nothing because of the flood of uninformed peoples 

[Andir]

What does it matter how many letters away it was? That has absolutely zero bearing on anything. If he had said "I like to wear hats" would anyone be claiming that he's actually part of a secret cabal of cat-wearing fetishists?

The statement as he made it was highly chauvinistic and a bit xenophobic yes, but there is absolutely no reason to suspect that Romney is leaving hardly secret racist messages in his campaign ads. Frankly, I had no idea the KKK had the slogan "Keep America American" because I don't tend to pay much attention to what they say. I would imagine most people don't.

Besides, the fact that the two phrases are so similar would make his using it intentionally phenomenally stupid. This from a candidate who has no record (that I know of) of extreme positions on immigration (compared to other GOP candidates) but does have a record of playing the political game very carefully. I just don't buy it.

Thank you... My sentiments exactly.  I worked for UPS for a time and I remember people making all kinds of absurd claims that the NASCAR sponsorship of car #88 was somehow linked to the Nazi party because it could be seen as SS.

Edit:  There was the campaign about One company, One Vision, One Brand at the time as well which people linked to the Nazi propaganda of One Country or something like that... too tired to look it up. (E3: One People, One Reich, One Führer)

Edit2: Sorry.  It's that level of thinking that Glenn Beck uses in his comparisons and it irritates me that people step to that level.

[Necro910]

What does it matter how many letters away it was? That has absolutely zero bearing on anything. If he had said "I like to wear hats" would anyone be claiming that he's actually part of a secret cabal of cat-wearing fetishists?

The statement as he made it was highly chauvinistic and a bit xenophobic yes, but there is absolutely no reason to suspect that Romney is leaving hardly secret racist messages in his campaign ads. Frankly, I had no idea the KKK had the slogan "Keep America American" because I don't tend to pay much attention to what they say. I would imagine most people don't.

Besides, the fact that the two phrases are so similar would make his using it intentionally phenomenally stupid. This from a candidate who has no record (that I know of) of extreme positions on immigration (compared to other GOP candidates) but does have a record of playing the political game very carefully. I just don't buy it.

Thank you... My sentiments exactly.  I worked for UPS for a time and I remember people making all kinds of absurd claims that the NASCAR sponsorship of car #88 was somehow linked to the Nazi party because it could be seen as SS.

88=HH=Heil Hitler.

That's the relation there, I don't think it was SS 

[Andir]

What does it matter how many letters away it was? That has absolutely zero bearing on anything. If he had said "I like to wear hats" would anyone be claiming that he's actually part of a secret cabal of cat-wearing fetishists?

The statement as he made it was highly chauvinistic and a bit xenophobic yes, but there is absolutely no reason to suspect that Romney is leaving hardly secret racist messages in his campaign ads. Frankly, I had no idea the KKK had the slogan "Keep America American" because I don't tend to pay much attention to what they say. I would imagine most people don't.

Besides, the fact that the two phrases are so similar would make his using it intentionally phenomenally stupid. This from a candidate who has no record (that I know of) of extreme positions on immigration (compared to other GOP candidates) but does have a record of playing the political game very carefully. I just don't buy it.

Thank you... My sentiments exactly.  I worked for UPS for a time and I remember people making all kinds of absurd claims that the NASCAR sponsorship of car #88 was somehow linked to the Nazi party because it could be seen as SS.

88=HH=Heil Hitler.

That's the relation there, I don't think it was SS 

Whatever, I thought it was something dumb like that.

[Truean]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/congress-battles-over-payroll-tax-cut-extension-government-180339755.html....

Again? Didn't we do this in summer or something? They punted the question then until now. Well, now it's now.... Just... shut up and pass a funding bill.

You want CYA spin? Here ya go. Free of charge:

"Sometimes, when there aren't any good choices, you make the best choice you can, or at least the one that's the least bad. What I did passing that budget wasn't the most popular thing or perhaps the best, but the only other alternative would be to go without a budget for how many more years.

Not passing a budget at all, again, would've been worse and cost us far more. If you hate men for taking action, then do not criticize when they take none and let everything fail."

[Heron TSG]

Problem: The Republicans signed a 'Contract With America' about a decade ago that prevents them from voting to raise taxes. IT's basically everyone else bargaining with them and the Republicans stonewalling everything. No wonder shit doesn't get done, eh?

[JoshuaFH]

This is the first time I've heard of such a contract.

[Truean]

This is the first time I've heard of such a contract.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/11/30/grover-norquist-predicts-anti-tax-pledge-will-keep-republicans-on-top

[kaijyuu]

I've been thinking about Vector's little war with the autism class. I make no claim about being educated about autism; all I did was read the wikipedia page. Also, correct me if I'm wrong about anyone's intentions.

I'm posting here rather than using a PM because I'd like to hear more opinions than just Vector's, and it's probably a progressive issue anyway.


Specifically I've been thinking about pride in disability. Now, before anyone accuses me of otherwise, I've no problem with people with disabilities or accommodating them. Also, I've got no problem with differences in people that aren't impairments. I'm also no eugenics supporter. But I do feel a bit weirded out by the notion that impairments could be seen as something other than a problem to be fixed.


Some see autism as a disease (which the class Vector's aiming at destroying is doing). Others see it as simple difference (which I believe is Vector's opinion). I'm somewhere in the middle. The difference between autism and homosexuality (for example) is that homosexuality doesn't carry any impairments; nothing about it affects one's daily life or ability to perform tasks. Thus, homosexuality is not a problem to be fixed. Autism however is classified by difficulty in participating in social activities. Are we to celebrate this and not try to mitigate it?

A precedence of ignoring impairments and writing them off as "difference" doesn't sit well with me. Analogies to autism are difficult since there's nothing quite like it, but for general impairments: my grandfather has some significant hearing loss due to old age. He refuses to wear hearing aids because "I hear just fine." We tolerate it because it'd be easier to convince a mountain to move than change his mind, but I am not going to agree him that his hearing is fine. His hearing impairment IS a problem to be fixed, and while I'll continue to accommodate him, I'm not going to call his belief that his hearing is fine anything but a delusion, especially because it is fixable. Back to autism, the social impairments aren't easily fixed or mitigated, but I see no reason not to try and find treatments/etc to fix and mitigate them, or to label them as anything other than problems.


Another aspect of autism (repetitive behavior, odd mannerisms) I will concede isn't necessarily a problem to be fixed, with some caveats.

Tolerating mannerisms is a matter of courtesy, but mannerisms (autism derived or otherwise) can be distracting or annoying. I remember back in high school there was a kid who would sway his head back and forth whenever he spoke; he got a lot of grief from bullies about that. Now, I was totally on his side (and still am) that an odd mannerism is a stupid thing to get harassed about, but even the most open minded individual is going to notice it and get distracted. Should they tolerate it? Of course. Would it be beneficial to the kid if he could have control over his mannerism and be able to stop it? Of course.


Well that's just my random thoughts on the matter. Please inform me if I'm ignorant about anything.

[trees]

I don't have much to say, just a small thought:

The difference between autism and homosexuality (for example) is that homosexuality doesn't carry any impairments; nothing about it affects one's daily life or ability to perform tasks.

I think the "daily life" bit for homosexuality there depends a lot more on one's environment than anything. I don't think that's the best comparison to make.