This thread depresses me.
Profoundly.
I have GOT to get the fuck up out of this country.
This thread depresses me.
Profoundly.
I have GOT to get the fuck up out of this country.
Oh yeeeeaaaaahhhhh! Me too, me too. Bad stuff happening. Watch out shit is hitting the fan blah, blah blah.
Ridiculous.
One day before leaving the presidency, Lula refused the extradition of Cesare Battisti (a convicted felon to terrorism and the death of five people in Italy,who fled,and was found in Brazil) to Italy.
Now Dilma will have to face this.
The year has barely begun, and Dilma already has a plan to recover the dead and cases of people who disappeared during the dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985)
probably from a civilian point of view of the facts,
reveiling the culprits military generals
this plan was already kind of in the media
but the Lula government always avoided it.
On another note..
The day of inauguration of Dilma,
when the leaders of other countries came to see the possession
the U.S. representative (Hillary Clinton)
was placed next to Hugo Chávez,
The Republicans and Democrats plan to sit together during the Sate of the Union Address coming up next week!? Now, that'll be a first for me. It's a possibility now and I hope it actually happens.
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/politics/democrats–republicans-to-sit-together-at-state-of-the-union
Blair was at the chilcott inquiry today.
Quite a lot of his policies were halfbaked while he was in office, but I've never seen someone with keener political sense. The only thing he really ever messed up with is giving Brown a job, and keeping him in it.
When I was a boy of 12, my mother's boyfriend was running for United States Congress as a Republican in what was, at the time, the 9th poorest congressional district in the nation. This man, now my stepfather, had experience in radio, television, fifteen years of restaurant managing and held the chair of the Southwest Georgia Chamber of Commerce for five years- years of initiatives and planning to get that part of the state back on its feet economically. He worked with a Jimmy Carter for a time on a project that, yes- did involve peanuts.
When I met him for the first time, I felt his charisma, his charm. He practically grew up in the district he was running in, and knew everyone that saw him. He had their respect and trust and he introduced all his contacts to me. I had never been involved in something so unique and interesting before, and it instilled in me a profound love of politics and economics. I listened to him speak about his plans of action and about his constant urging the voters to take action and help him work his hardest to get them where they all wanted to be.
His opponent, however, was a Democrat who had held the seat in the district for twelve years- a six-term Congressman who ALSO knew the region and people. This Congressman was also rated dead last in a poll conducted a few years ago on Congressional effectiveness, but that's another tale…the point is that this Congressman made virtually no effort to better his district in 12 years and many people saw this and knew this. My stepfather chose to run as a Republican because he strongly identified with the ideals of the party and because many of the people in the district associated the Democratic Party with their representative who hadn't done much for them in 12 years.
Dave didn't have much money. Nowhere near enough to effectively campaign where he needed to and reach as many people as he wanted. He was never particularly rich or wealthy. He did, however, believe he could count on his fellow Republicans for help. After all, a new district for the republicans after 12 years would be a nice new addition, right? Wrong. The major Republican leadership did NOT help Dave in the least, in ANY form. He and I suspected that the bigwigs in the Republican party didn't want to waste money or support on this poor, desolate majority-black district with no real strategic significance. Dave was also very, very new at the whole politics game, so his newness contributed as well.
This newness of his also affected the voters, very negatively. He won the nomination and faced off against the six-term Congressman, and with spending very little money and struggling to persuade a district that had consistently stuck with a man for 12 years that he could actually do something positive and helpful here, walked away with 37% of the vote.
Today he and my mother are happily married, and he's now a PR guy with a local company. I learned a great deal from that man about life and politics...I'm a conservative at heart but its still difficult to call myself a Republican after what happened to Dave.
Is that actually yours or a chain mail.
@JERK:
Is that actually yours or a chain mail.
i assure you, its my story and it did happen.
I don't know why i posted that really…...just wanted to explain it i suppose.
btw jerk disease, love the michael corleone avatar of yours. i dont think you've got the right to have it personally :P but excellent choice.
Get ready for a government shutdown by midnight tonight!
Unless a miracle happens.
A little over 10 hours left.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/08/government-shutdown-2011-live-updates
I wonder if this is what Belgium feels like.
The article's right, this feels a lot like what happens in the mid nineties. All that's left is for Boehner to have a hissy fit on air force one.
@Cyan:
I wonder if this is what Belgium feels like.
Belgium has 250 days under its belt. We're babies compared to their absence of government.
The article's right, this feels a lot like what happens in the mid nineties. All that's left is for Boehner to have a hissy fit on air force one.
Knowing Boehner he'll cry when it happens.
Belgium has 250 days under its belt. We're babies compared to their absence of government.
But what you guys are looking at is absence of all but the most critical of the civil service, which is infinitely more worrying.
Yeah, if you're not "essential" or the program isn't "essential" then you're on leave without pay and the program is griiiiiiiinded to a halt. Sucks because people depend on those programs (like ones that offer mortgage loans) and no matter how you look at it, letting go 800,000 people for an indefinite time period is bad. Real bad.
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/08/135239853/whats-closed-and-whats-not-in-a-shutdown?ps=cprs
American politics needs to stop being so dogmatic.
But how?
I dunno tbh. "The everyone's an American regardless of political belief, creed or ethnicity" bedrock of American politics seems to be cracking a bit. It's just too diverse a society, radical lefties are never going to be able to politically get on with radical rights.
But if it was easily solvable they wouldn't be having all these problems.
Wait, What? Government Shutdown?
I'm confused, Why is this happening? What's going on? I have no idea.
Yeah, if you're not "essential" or the program isn't "essential" then you're on leave without pay and the program is griiiiiiiinded to a halt. Sucks because people depend on those programs (like ones that offer mortgage loans) and no matter how you look at it, letting go 800,000 people for an indefinite time period is bad. Real bad.
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/08/135239853/whats-closed-and-whats-not-in-a-shutdown?ps=cprs
Soldiers won't get pay either, or at a slowed pace.
The government is shutting down because the Democrats and Republicans can't agree on how to resolve the federal budget deficiet. Basically they can't agree on how to fund the gorvernment.
Someone will not have a career on the other side of this.
@Monkey:
Someone will not have a career on the other side of this.
Bohener… ?
Depends on how people respond. Probably him though…they are saying on the news about how this happened in 1995, and it was not the president then (Bill Clinton) who ended up badly but the republicans in congress.
It's…It's...It's...
It's a MIRACLE!!!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/08/government-shutdown-2011-live-updates
Don't worry–if you missed the hystrionics this time, we have the new budget which will start next year to argue over soon, so the whole thing will start all over again, only with more intensity, since it involves much more time, not just half a year. Oh joy.