Don't forget that in February Israel votes a new government. So the ones trying to become PM (Ehud Barak) have a certain interest in appearing "strong". At this time there is no real interest on the israeli site for a peaceful solution.

Furthermore what this TYT guy says sounds reasonable but: acknowledging Hamas and opening borders would be difficult in my eyes because where are the borders? On the egypt side they are afraid of refugees and on the israeli side? You guessed it.

>> ^KnivesOut:
Why not put some teeth into the up/down-vote system?


I can think of two reasons not to give teeth to the comment voting system, and both are demonstrated with Winstonfield_Pennypacker.

First, sifters often downvote people, not the quality of a comment. Take two comments in this thread (the first two quoted below), for example. The first comment, heavily downvoted, comes from a P-flag who holds contradictory opinions on many topics sifters at large seem to hold dear. The second comment, upvoted, saying basically the same thing, comes from a well known gold-star.

Second, sifters often downvote opinions, not the quality of a comment. Take the third comment below, for example. Whether you agree with it or not, it's a valid point, but it too was heavily downvoted.

When sifters start voting on quality, then it would make sense to give teeth to the voting system.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
I live in Utah, and the places up for sale are not national monuments. Utah is primarily scrub desert and remote mountain, just like ANWR is moonscape tundra that no one ever bothers visiting. Energy independance or a bunch of wilderness that you'll never see, want, or use? Decide which you want America. You can't have both. Drill baby. Drill. Hope the companies get the land anyway, and this @$$hat gets 20 years in the clink. Can't believe some people think this dork is a 'hero' for preserving a bunch of scrub land and preventing America from achieving energy independence. What a loser.


>> ^BillOreilly:
this kid is a national disgrace, and who gives a crap about 22k acres in Utah, have any of you ever BEEN to Utah?


>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
M'eh - like so many news stories this tells you more about the people who react to it than it does about the subject of the story. Bush handles a minor incident with amused disregard, and liberal hate-mongers who don't like Bush react by projecting their pettiness and stupidity onto the screen. We all know with 100% certainty that if someone had hucked thier shoes at Barak Hussein Messiah, that the selfsame liberal would be screeching like harpies about how 'evil' the guy had been while simultaneously having orgasms about how wonderful Obama was at handling it. What a bunch of tools.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
M'eh - like so many news stories this tells you more about the people who react to it than it does about the subject of the story. Bush handles a minor incident with amused disregard, and liberal hate-mongers who don't like Bush react by projecting their pettiness and stupidity onto the screen. We all know with 100% certainty that if someone had hucked thier shoes at Barak Hussein Messiah, that the selfsame liberal would be screeching like harpies about how 'evil' the guy had been while simultaneously having orgasms about how wonderful Obama was at handling it. What a bunch of tools.

When Obama has started a war on false pretenses, overruled constitutional rights, jailed people without a fair trial, driven the economy into the ground, and generally behaved like a fucking moron in the most important job in the world for 8 years straight, and then has a shoe or two hurled after him, I will gladly salute that shoe-thrower too. I promise. Get back to me if I forget.

M'eh - like so many news stories this tells you more about the people who react to it than it does about the subject of the story. Bush handles a minor incident with amused disregard, and liberal hate-mongers who don't like Bush react by projecting their pettiness and stupidity onto the screen. We all know with 100% certainty that if someone had hucked thier shoes at Barak Hussein Messiah, that the selfsame liberal would be screeching like harpies about how 'evil' the guy had been while simultaneously having orgasms about how wonderful Obama was at handling it. What a bunch of tools.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Barak Obama, Bill Richardson, Beard, Rugged, Western, Governor, New Mexico' to 'Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Beard, Rugged, Western, Governor, New Mexico' - edited by blahpook

Think, ask, believe whatever you may like. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. I was personally offended. I speak for myself as a lifetime advocate for multiracials. I am NOT a mutt. I've never been a mutt and don't intend on becoming one now. It's not a word of pride. it's a derogatory reference. If don imus had said it everyone would be screaming. if john McCain said "I'm going to get my kids a dog. probably a mutt like Barak Obama." It would be world war 3. No other group of people would allow such a slight and we should not consider it OK either. Like I said. Believe what you like. just don't call me or mine mutts. We WILL be offended.

My letter to CNN about the "M" word



My name is Max Parthas. My wife and I are two of America's most recognized Spoken Word artist and the founders of Prysmatic Dreams. PrysmaticDreams. com
An artists social network based on the dream of multicultural brotherhood.

We were as proud as anyone else to know that a multiracial American became our president. I have personally discussed the issue with Barak Obama during our travels. Below are photos of him reading my thoughts on this new melting pot America at our first meeting. I thought we had grown as a people to fully embrace who we are as people of multiple cultural heritages. Until June 12, 1967, white and blacks couldn't even get married legally. Now the children of those unions and others like them number in the tens of millions. We have pride in who we are and who he is. We are here to stay and part of the national character.

To hear him refer to himself as a "mutt" brings me near to tears. For a biracial person that's the equivalent of calling us the N word. We are not mutts. Nor are we halfbreeds, mulattoes (half mules) or mistakes. If you must call us anything let it be with respect.

We have as much right to embrace our diverse racial pride as anyone else. For our president to casually denigrate the near 30 million multiracial Americans in this country who supported his causes, his family included, is a public shame. It shows how little his rich heritage means to him and how little it matters. With one single word he made an entire burgeoning culture of people seem worthless.


I for one demand an apology.


Max Parthas
A Proud Multiracial American -not a mutt-

see the photos @ the www.myspace.com/maxparthas blog

Leaves me a little conflicted. Palin is plainly not cut out for the job, and the old guy is crazed to write off all gays as supporting Obama. But then our interviewer goes on to declare that 'This is who supports this woman, The same people that say that nigger over there when they talk about Barak Obama'

WHAT!!

Labeling all Republicans not only as opposed to homosexuality, but as overtly racist against blacks. This is exactly the kind of stupidity that I like Obama for condemning and I'm sickened every time someone 'supporting' him jumps out to call all Republican supporters racist.


The most persuasive argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with the typical voter.

I'll give three:

Fox news puts some guy on the air in the last 24 hours who fraudulently claims he had gay sex with Obama.

Cheney orders a "false flag" attack on U.S. Naval forces by Marines pretending to be Iranians.

Osama bin Laden releases a tape reportedly saying "I'm so glad you're about to elect my dear friend Barak Hussein Mohammed Obama, he has been such a valuable member of Al Qaeda." Nov 6th we find out that he was really just giving a shout out to Bush for all the help he's given him over the last several years. Oops.

Though I'm thinking the same as blankfist -- they've already shot their wad. I doubt we'll make it through next week without more ads that bring up Rev. Wright, and I'll bet Bush will bump up the terror alert level for no good reason, but mostly I think all of the above would either be ignored, or push people towards Obama.

The primary reason it would matter if Barak Obama was a Muslim is that he denies being a Muslim. That is to say - if it turned out he was Muslim, then he'd have been lying about it. (Full disclosure: my political leanings are fairly conservative, and I agree with the Republican platform on a majority of issues. I believe Barak Obama when he says he's a Christian and I get irritated with coworkers who can't seem to rise above the conspiracy theories that suggest otherwise.) I'm aware that this isn't really the nature of the argument though, so on to my next point:

The other reason is that there are fundamental differences in the belief systems of the major religions. If a voter disagrees with the moral or ethical tenets of a given religion, then they're likely to disagree fundamentally on certain issues with a candidate who subscribes to that religion. (I also acknowledge that there are fundamental similarities, too, but a sedan isn't a truck just because they both have four wheels, cupholders and run on internal combustion.)

From a practical standpoint, what a candidate does is more important than who he is, so the argument can be made that policy and platform are more important than character or background, but it can't be disputed that what a person does is influenced by what they believe.

OK, I've watched The Young Turks talk about this clip and the Obama smear piece that precipitated it:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Hannity-caught-by-the-Obama-campaign

Hannity didn't have Andy Martin on the show to talk about his hatred of Jews. He had Andy Martin on to shamelessly smear Barak Obama. It's all very despicable. One thing this episode reinforces is that Hannity is the kind of scumbag you read about in books. His brand of changeable character would not hesitate to sell his mother if it saved his own neck.

NetRunner is correct: this guilt by association tactic, employed tongue-in-cheek by Mr. Gibbs, is the same sort used by Hannity ad infinitum. It's that guilt by association tactic I was railing against above so I was actually siding with Colmes.

Sorry, but I have to call media bullshit on this one. I'm extremely anti-McCain/Palin (they are just going to be 8 more years of Bush).

HOWEVER, that video does not smack of a snub to me.

1. McCain pats Barak on the back.
2. There are some half-assed attempts to make contact on both sides, it seems that NEITHER of them are too excited about the prospect of shaking hands.
3. McCain seems to make gestures to "introduce" his wife.

God I am so sick of politics in general. I feel that the media is probably responsible for most of the misunderstandings and false reporting. Now don't get me wrong, I still feel that Chris Rock said it best:

"vote for the guy with one house"


Edit: just as I suspected, there is now a video from slightly earlier showing them hugging and shaking hands. This is just out of context and BS as usual.

Edit 2: am I nuts or did the title of this video change? I could have sworn that the no-handshake was in the title before...

What's Baraks full name again?

I like the guy on the back. He's all, "talk to the hand Obama!" "cause this redneck don't wan ta lern bout it!" "white power..." "allah, allah" "white power...."

"If my parents' doctor knew what he was doing then I wouldn't be here today."

"Barak, please vote to cut medical education funding now."

Barak looks like e just took a rail of coke