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[Owlbread]

It's fascinating that you actually have to have been born in the USA or have an American parent of some description to become President of the US. It sort of goes against the whole American Dream idea, doesn't it? Anyone can "make it" right the way to the top in the USA if they work hard, unless you're an immigrant. Isn't wanting to be American and to serve the country good enough?

I'm also not very clear on American "something-vote" terminology like the Voodoo Vote or the Zombie Vote and so on. I've been reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail though, so is the "freak vote" going to Ron Paul?

[scriver]

Well, I certainly understand why the voting population is so low in the US; everybody's so out-tired of all the politicsing so when the actual election comes around nobody has any will left. Obama's going to have an easy win if only because his base isn't completely depleted and demoralized yet.

[nenjin]

I've been reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail though, so is the "freak vote" going to Ron Paul?

He only wishes.

It sort of goes against the whole American Dream idea, doesn't it? Anyone can "make it" right the way to the top in the USA if they work hard, unless you're an immigrant. Isn't wanting to be American and to serve the country good enough?

The theory is that a Generation Zero immigrant still retains strong emotional and patriotic ties to their homeland, that naturalization doesn't eliminate. Therefore they have the potential for a conflict of interest between what's best for the US vs. what's best for their country of origin.

For example, what would a former Iraqi president's foreign policy be toward their country of origin? They might give it too much aid, not enough aid....for reasons that could be driven by something other than prudent policy.

That's the theory, at any rate.

[FearfulJesuit]

To what extent are the Republicans starting to realize that their liberal Muslim enemy is probably going to win in November?

[RedKing]

I'm also not very clear on American "something-vote" terminology like the Voodoo Vote or the Zombie Vote and so on. I've been reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail though, so is the "freak vote" going to Ron Paul?

Well, the "Voodoo Vote" was just me coming up with lame alliterative phrases to describe an election in Louisiana. The "zombie vote" was a tongue-in-cheek reference to Aqizzar's reference to William F. Buckley criticizing Romney (Buckley died in 2008), suggesting that because of that "Zombie-Americans" would be swayed away.

But yeah, you'll see a lot of references to the youth vote, the soccer mom vote, the Hispanic vote, the black vote, etc. as if every demographic voted as monolithic entities.

[GlyphGryph]

The presidential naturalized citizen rule was basically created for the same reason as the separation of church and state rule - to avoid divided loyalties to foreign powers.

[Aqizzar]

Well, the "Voodoo Vote" was just me coming up with lame alliterative phrases to describe an election in Louisiana. The "zombie vote" was a tongue-in-cheek reference to Aqizzar's reference to William F. Buckley criticizing Romney (Buckley died in 2008), suggesting that because of that "Zombie-Americans" would be swayed away.

Dammit, I was talking about William F. Buckley Junior, y'know the guy who took up his father's commentator mantel.  I didn't think it'd be necessary to distinguish him from the dead one.

Waitaminute, the dead one is Junior... Okay, I know goddamn well he has a son who's also political commentator, I didn't just drop in from the twilight zone here.

[RedKing]

Well, the "Voodoo Vote" was just me coming up with lame alliterative phrases to describe an election in Louisiana. The "zombie vote" was a tongue-in-cheek reference to Aqizzar's reference to William F. Buckley criticizing Romney (Buckley died in 2008), suggesting that because of that "Zombie-Americans" would be swayed away.

Dammit, I was talking about William F. Buckley Junior, y'know the guy who took up his father's commentator mantel.  I didn't think it'd be necessary to distinguish him from the dead one.

Waitaminute, the dead one is Junior... Okay, I know goddamn well he has a son who's also political commentator, I didn't just drop in from the twilight zone here.

It's Buckleys all the way down. 

He did have one son, Christopher Buckley, who's an author and satirist, but he infamously penned an op-ed in 2008 stating that he was voting for Obama, and subsequently resigned from the National Review and was more or less excommunicated by the Right.

[Reelya]

I looked up Christopher Buckley and decided he's a dick. Writes witty satire but he talks out his arse and is a bit ignorant and racist.

Called the Chinese mere brainless copiers because they built a stealth fighter the J-20. He said in the article they copied it from crashed pieces of an F-117 (which i found after some research, was a rumor which was going around). He also claimed no Chinese had ever won a Nobel Prize, which is patently false.

Spoiler: Plane Pictures (click to show/hide)

Here's the F-117



And here's the Chinese J-20



It has more similarities with an F-22 but it's definitely influenced, and not a copy, the lines are totally different, and according to aviation websites it's quite a bit bigger than an F-22 and they're theorizing that it has quite a bit more fuel payload (F-22 designed for combat over europe, J-20 designed for naval recon etc)

Just goes to show that old line about how asians can "only copy" the more creative and superior whites won't die any time soon.

[Zangi]

I like to think of it as 'improvement'.  Take your idea and make it better for me.

[Kilroy the Grand]

I looked up Christopher Buckley and decided he's a dick. Writes witty satire but he talks out his arse and is a bit ignorant and racist.

Called the Chinese mere brainless copiers because they built a stealth fighter the J-20. He said in the article they copied it from crashed pieces of an F-117 (which i found after some research, was a rumor which was going around). He also claimed no Chinese had ever won a Nobel Prize, which is patently false.

Spoiler: Plane Pictures (click to show/hide)

Here's the F-117



And here's the Chinese J-20



It has more similarities with an F-22 but it's definitely influenced, and not a copy, the lines are totally different, and according to aviation websites it's quite a bit bigger than an F-22 and they're theorizing that it has quite a bit more fuel payload (F-22 designed for combat over europe, J-20 designed for naval recon etc)

Just goes to show that old line about how asians can "only copy" the more creative and superior whites won't die any time soon.

To bad the engines are russian made, because the chinese ones are so shoddy they get about 30-hours of flight time out of them.

[Heron TSG]

Let me just add a little interprimary levity here with Scumbag Santorum. (Yes, I know that Louisiana is up today, but it's almost a foregone conclusion.)

[Reelya]

To bad the engines are russian made, because the chinese ones are so shoddy they get about 30-hours of flight time out of them.

No different to Boeing using Rolls Royce engines. I think racism is similar to sexism in that another race is mocked for doing things that ones own country does already.

And for the "copying" thing. Technology isn't at the "race" level, it's at the "person" level, but people act like they, personally, invented everything their "race" (or country, etc) invented (and usually 99% of that was cultural imports to start with). Let's list things Christopher Buckley has personally invented :-

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Yet he mocks aviation engineers in China who are coming up with perfectly servicable supersonic jet fighter designs. I'm sure those engineers are a damn sight smarter than he is.

[Bauglir]

Read that as "I'm sure those engines are a damn sight smarter than he is."

Still might work. Not exactly a dig at the guy so much as a joke about how complex modern engineering gets, though.

[kaenneth]

http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/24/10847614-dick-cheney-recovering-at-hospital-after-heart-transplant

(tears up organ donor card)

Anyway, wouldn't this be more of an Implant?