No one has the information to second-guess the President/Commander-in-Chief. To pick one excellent candidate is not to disparage another.
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The entire discussion about Christie is off-topic and should be removed, including my littel contribution here: Conservatives tend to know other Conservatives, and Liberals, other Liberals. So the few people you may know from NJ are not necessarily the slitest indicative. I DO live in NJ, and was astonished that he was elected in this very Blue state. But, as someone else points out, his approval rating is now 40%.
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They must have a mailing list that gives the URL to stories to swarm, and provides talking-points. Or a website with the same information, because they do seem very unified in everything they say -- all 36 of them.
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We don't have an "empire". That is Cold War, Communist nonsense, dressed up in a dated reference to the Roman Empire. By the way, you do realize that the United States is a descendant of the Roman Empire, don't you? Look at our Capitol, a great Roman building. If Rome had not stuck with its empire, the nature of the world today is impossible to know.
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So, everything President Obama says is political, eh? Then, equally, isn't everything EVERY politician, of any persuasion, says also political? Dictionary.com's first definition of "political" is "of, pertaining to, or concerned with politics". And "politics" means "1. the science or art of political government. 2. the practice or profession of conducting political affairs". So of course everything the President of the United States says in public matters is political. "Politics" is NOT a dirty word.
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Hardly surprising [that some union members who voted Republican in the past intend to vote Democratic next time], given the pathological hatred of unions by the Tea Party version of the Republican Party.
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Sorry, but Liberals are still waiting for him to close Gitmo, withdraw from Iraq, offer single-payer health insurance, etc., and are livid at his siding with Republicans on cutting back Social Security, Medicare, and heating assistance. He has broken an awful lot of promises, and before he gets my vote, he will have to fulfill his promises BEFORE November 2012.
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Plainly you do not know that the only reason the Tea Party made inroads in the midterm elections is that we don't have compulsory voting, and midterm elections ALWAYS produce starkly lower turnout than Presidential-year elections. Turnout in 2010 was 37.8% (http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2010G.html); in 2008, 56.8% (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html). If 56.8% had turned out in 2010, the Democrats would have CRUSHED the Republicans. This is why Republicans don't want compulsory voting, because their PERMANENT MINORITY status would become plain, not just as a point of view but also as a voting block.
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Keep using the phrase "Kool-Aid". It shows everyone who sees it that you are not to be taken seriously.
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The Radical Right never gives up, and never accepts with the people's will as shown in re-election of Presidents. They impeached Bill Clinton in his SECOND term. And Clinton was a closet Republican, as can be seen from his recent, open betrayal of Americans in encouraging Paul Ryan in his attacks on basic American institutions.
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You do not have the right to slander people as "Commies". I have flagged that comment as abusive. But you don't understand it to be abusive, do you?
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Huh? ALL military are yes-men to the Commander-in-Chief, once he issues an order. They don't have the right to say, "No, sir, I will not." Their duty is to reply "Yes, sir!", or "Aye-aye, sir!" As regards what they say in counseling the President, I have never been in the chamber with them, so do not dare to impugn their integrity in offering candid advice, even if it opposes the President's predispositions.
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The majority does NOT have the right to censor speech just because they disagree, but only if it is intrinsically abusive. AOL before it took over HuffPo allowed readers to thumbs-up or thumbs-down VOTE, a feature that should be restored to comments areas.
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Not true [that the U.S. is NATO]. The U.S. canNOT get NATO to go along with just anything, and when operations are controlled by a foreigner, they ARE controlled by that foreigner.
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No, Liberals understand that sometimes there really is no alternative to war. When everything else fails, and the only way to defend a principle or innocent people is warfare, then we do, sadly, accept the need for war. We hate it -- I chanced across some WWII coverage last nite on PBS (including the Battle of the Bulge, during which I was born; no pun intended, tho my mother said she won that one), and was appalled that we ever had to engage in such barbarism. But we accept that not all wars are "senseless". The Iraq War? Yes, senseless as regards U.S. principles and interests. The Afghan war? Not the slitest senseless, but fully justified, in many ways, as regards training camps allowed to Al-Qaeda by the Taliban, as regards the monstrous Taliban regime, as regards interrupting the flow of heroin to the West, etc. All those issues are still at issue in the future of Afghanistan, and we dare not let things return to the execrable and dangerous condition before 9/11.
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And your basis for asserting that group slander [that generals 3-star and up are all political yes-men] is what? How many 3-star generals (and up) have you ever met, talked with, or observed carefully, and if you claim to have observed them, via what mechanism or media?
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Given the HUNDREDS of Radical Right comments that appear here, the claim that non-Liberal posts are automatically removed is not just fatuous but also an example of The Big Lie Technique that the Radical Right employs endlessly. Say 180-degrees opposite the truth, on the theory that people will assume that there must be some truth in what you say because no one would be so brazen as to lie in the PRESENCE of disproof. Oh, yes they would!
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Pls provide proof, not an absolutely empty assertion, for your claim that the Moslem Brotherhood is taking over in Egypt. Got none? Didn't think so.
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And if a premature U.S. withdrawal produces the return of the Taliban, the return of Al-Qaeda training camps for attacks upon the United States, and the murder of women and homosexuals, will the man responsible for the Taliban's return be regarded as a hero or a villain -- not to say moron?
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Actually, the assent of Russia's Putin/Medvedev and Iran's Khamanei to the ouster of Qaddafi would be HUGELY meaningful in signifying a willingness of people to work together for democracy and peace.
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And that is meaningful how? Let us face the sad fact that most people in the military are now and have been since the arrival of the all-volunteer force, in the military because they can't find work in the private economy, or because they want GI benefits after leaving. They have NO special expertise in military affairs, much less in realpolitik. I don't want to say that they are the dumbest of us, but how smart is it to risk your life for a paycheck and the chance to go to college or a trade school on the GI bill IF you survive a war?
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The President does not "step out of the way" to let the military do its own thing. You are living in a fantasyland. As for the President's being burned in effigy in a FEW places, shouldn't that hearten you, in showing that he is not loved by the "fellow Moslems" that the Radical Right keeps talking about?
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The filibuster is unconstitutional. Nowhere does the Constitution permit any antidemocratic supermajority except when it SPECIFIES a supermajority.
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I hope people who are not part of the tiny coterie of RadRite commenters here are realizing how short and empty of substance the myriad comments placed here by Rightwingers are, so come to understand that there are only a tiny number of you people posting DOZENS of one- or two-line, inflammatory remarks to camouflage the reality that there are very few of you, and you do NOT represent ANY significant portion of the American public.
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Another two-line inflammatory, utterly empty nonsense post by a Radical Rightist. You do realize that saying something does not, in itself, make it happen, right? Why do you people keep talking about a certain defeat for Obama, when you can NOT see into the future? Just wait. We will all see, early in November 2012. Be patient.
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That's another two-line flame by a Radical Rightist. The President ORDERED the strike. He wasn't hiding anywhere. Where exactly were YOU when the President ordered the execution of Usama bin Laden?
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You plainly do not know what Communism is. One thing it ISN'T is insisting that everyone buy health insurance from PRIVATE COMPANIES.
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Pls do not invent your own facts. Obama hasn't even nearly doubled the national debt -- tho Bush did; after Reagan and Bush's father together quadrupled it (http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm), so that Republicans OCTUPLED the national debt -- much less has Obama tripled it. GM is still a private company, which has paid back what was lent, and is now making a tidy profit, despite the will of disloyal Republicans to destroy that major American corporation, for the benefit of foreign automakers. The stimulus HAS worked; when Obama came into office, we were losing 655,000 jobs a MONTH; now we're not. On and on, everything you say is false. Go ahead, add items to your list, and fair-minded people who respect TRUTH will shoot them down. But you can't take the time to write more than 2 or 3 lines, can you? You have to put up DOZENS of Radical Right comments a day to try to persuade people that your tiny fringe group is majority opinion.
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How quaintly bizarre, to think that the Commander-in-Chief has nothing to do with what the military does. That is seriously delusional thinking. As for the comparison of the military, which a President CAN command, to a free-market economy, which a President canNOT command, there IS no comparison. But by November 2012, we are almost certain to be out of the Great Recession that Bush and his cronies caused. You will HATE that, and not just because it will likely give Democrats the White House and both houses of Congress, but because decent, Liberal, working people will have jobs and good lives, and that would make you miserable.
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But Bush didn't make that decision, did he, despite the claims by desperate, pathetic Radical Rightwingers that Bush's intelligence found Usama, so what does that make Bush? If Obama had wanted to evade that strike, he could have used the excuse/explained the valid reason that the Pakistani Government would not permit U.S. forces to operate in their territory, and pressed the Pakistanis to arrest Usama and extradite him to the U.S. But Obama said early on that he was going to get Usama, and he did. You can't put those two things together, but everyone else on planet Earth EXCEPT the U.S. Radical Right DOES.
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Another 2-line, empty, meaningless, silly flame from the Radical Right. Pls provide link to a reputable website that suggests that Bill Ayers was ever under consideration. Serious people have no time for such nonsense.
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Altho rotating among services is traditional, it is not carved in stone. Besides, there is more than one high-level officer in each service who might have been chosen. The Commander-in-Chief has complete freedom of operation.
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Let us have none of this kumbaya nonsense. What do you think law-enforcement is, except local war? The assertion that war is always wrong is as absurd as would be an assertion war is always right.
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"Liberals are far better educated than other groups (48% college graduates, compared with an overall average of 27%)." (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/17/in-search-of-ideologues-in-america). See, a SUPPORTED assertion, not an EMPTY slander, from a Liberal who respects truth, not a Radical Rightwinger who has absolutely no respect for truth.
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There is something called the "permanent government", of people in the civil service and military who continue to serve after a change of President. We need a certain amount of continuity, and expertise.
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Yet another 2-line, empty, group-slanderous, meaningless comment by someone in the Radical Right who can never support anything he says. The statistics are readily available online. For Afghanistan: http://icasualties.org/OEF/index.aspx. For Iraq: http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx.
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Does anyone remember that in 2010, Obama was savagely attacked for not going to Arlington, but to another military cemetery, in Illinois? How come the same people who savaged that are completely silent when he DID go to Arlington this year?
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There is no God, and there is no reason to drag God into this discussion.
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Which war are you attacking? ALL wars? The Iraq war? Afghanistan? They are DIFFERENT, you know.
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The U.S. public can DEMAND the total suppression of the heroin trade from Afghanistan, and indeed SOME military units have destroyed poppy crops.
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Pls stop inventing blacks who side with you.
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Do you assume that the President does not solicit nor pay attention to recommendations from senior military staff as to who should or should not be promoted? We don't have an autonomous military. That's why we haven't have a military coup.
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Eisenhower (a much underappreciated REPUBLICAN -- REAL Republican -- President who first made us aware of the "military-industrial complex", which he DESPISED and warned us about) was an OLD MAN when he took office. How many old men do you know who are involved in basketball?
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The President of the United States NEVER runs out of things to do. YOU could not handle his job for three days without suffering complete exhaustion. We cannot have the President burn out. He needs recreation. "All work and no play..." I suppose you never heard about that.
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Martyrs accomplish nothing. Most are forgotten in weeks.
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So you have reviewed ALL of Obama's appointments, in all parts of the Government, have you? I don't believe that for a millisecond.
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Nonsense. Reagan was in PUBLICITY units, period. He never did military service as people conceive of military service: carrying a gun, going into war zones, fiting an enemy.
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There are a very few extreme pacifists who consent to be killed by dictators rather than fite back. Fortunately, many of them are killed off before they pass on any genes responsible for such madness.
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Making a statement of intent is not lying, even if you don't deliver on it entirely. Obama HAS removed lots of troops from Iraq. He must be pressed to remove the rest. But promising something and not living up to it is NOT lying. Dictionary.com for "lie": "to express what is false; convey a false impression". Note the PRESENT tense, "is" false. Statements of intentions for the future are ipso facto not lies.

- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 8:13 PM