OUR OPINION: The most important election (again)
November 5, 2012 at 3:30 pm in Grand Forks Herald
“The Republic is approaching what is to be one of the most important elections in its history.”
So said The New York Times in a much-talked-about editorial.
In 1888.
Although in hindsight, it’s hard to conclude that Benjamin Harrison’s presidency actually lived up to the Times’ claim. Continue Reading
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Sure capt., if the republicans win they can put their limited government pledge into operation by passing legislation that makes it a felony for a black guy to stand outside a building.
Hope they wait until after they’ve regulated our marriages though. After all, what’s more important!
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Could be the clubs they were carrying had something to do with people being intimidated?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Yep.
Because members of the Black Panther Party just randomly stand outside buildings everyday wearing all black military garb.
Even you cant seriously defend this.
If so you are truly a kool-aid drinker of epic proportions.
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Relax capt — the panther was actually laying in wait for Big Bird!
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Captain have you lost your senses? Fox News had three stories last week about GOP operatives, some plain clothes & some in “uniform” to be at contested poling places in AZ, CA, TX, NM, & along the Eastern Seaboard (especially FL) to make sure the poll workers are doing their jobs (all those brown people trying to overthrow the American way of life).
You are saying it is OK for them to be there but not the other side?
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Flyingnurse, both are wrong. Using another person’s improper behavior to justify your improper behavior is faulty logic. Both are improper and neither should be allowed.
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I agree 100%. Unfortunately a conservative court disagreed. Like super-pacs, this is just another example of the corruption of American politics.
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So i suppose it would be acceptable for the Klan to have their members satnding watch at polling sites too.
Who knew so many of you were so willing to look the other way at voter intimidation.
And just because Eric Holder refused to prosecute them in 2008 doesnt make it ok.
Hes also the one who got the free pass on Fast and Furious.
Must be a good time to be a black man in govt.
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I have been watching coverage all day.
I have seen the BPP on all networks.
Not once did i see any network show anyone else standing at the door looking menacing with military garb.
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Capt — try PBS — Sesame Street is on!
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Good gravy you are going to die from a stroke.. The day is almost over and we get a six month reprieve from campaigning.. Take a chill pill, grab a beer and relax.
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But the black panthers were not inside the building watching the poll workers. They were outside wearing black leather uniforms.
How would you see it if it were a bunch of neo-nazis in uniform outside poling places???
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Regarding the line “What a tribute that is to the United States!” I would say that this is more a tribute to the marketing skills of the only two parties / candidates we ever get to realistically vote for in these sham elections. Tyrants love elections because they can claim legitimacy from the vote, and the Demopubs are no different. We keep trudging to the polls every 2 years and much of the time “vote for the lesser of two evils” yet are constantly urged to give a flawed system legitimacy by our act of voting. To wit, in 2008 we were given a has-been warmonger and a wet behind the ears backbencher that could read a mean teleprompter. Each came with a bubble headed sidekick, one a religious zealot and the other one a world class buffoon. Each believed in corporate bailouts, crony capitalism, and keeping the bloated bureaucracy and military industrial complex that was created before them. I’ve heard the canard that “if you don’t vote you don’t get to complain” so many times I want to poke a pencil in my ears when someone repeats yet again. Now my response to that is, “what if you didn’t vote because there was no one worthy of your vote”? What if you knew that even when you voted, nothing of any significance would change; that in the year after a new set of crooks takes over we would still be spending money we don’t have, starting wars we don’t want, and being told lies about all the good the new “leader” is doing for us? What if you believe that you do not need to elect a new master to go to the temple and write rules for you to obey? The Democrats and Republicans are the same party: statist, corporatist, and fascist (yes look up the definition for “fascist”, it doesn’t mean what you think it means). The only way to change this is to stop giving them consent.
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Don’t worry ndk — I’m running for senate next time — and when I’m elected in a landslide I’ll fix all that!
BTW, did I mention that I plan to change my name to “Noneof Theabove” first?
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Right on justasec! I’ll vote for you.
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You have a point….But you don’t change diddly if you don’t participate.
As for the candidates we’re given….Unless we can find a way to get rid of all that finiancial influence then I don’t see how we can change anything there either. Every politician has to play the game of going after huge donors all the damn time. Even before the Supreme Court allowed that corporations can use money like free speech they already were using that speech. I just read about how much money was spent in the ND senate race……My little $50 donation to Hiedi doesn’t even qualify as a full spit in the bucket….maybe half a spit….but probably smaller. ….
I don’t know if there’s any way it could be done, but I’d like to see us go to a system like in Britian where they can only campaign something like six months before the election. That’s the only way I can see getting out from under all that damn money. Then again all that damn money greases too many palms so it’s a damn tough sell.
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That’s where your wrong tundrabeast, by insisting the only way to change things is by “participating” in their game. The only way these people and their copious amounts of money will become irrelevant is when we raise a generation of people that lives within their means and stays away from debt slavery, that are fiercely independent and never even think of asking a government entity for a handout, that are compassionate and will always come together as a community to help out those in need, and that conduct their lives and their business honorably. When entire communities form that look to themselves for sustainability and support and tell the politicians “we don’t need your help”, we will make centralized government irrelevant. The money interests love strong centralized government because they have less people to buy off. The answer is to decentralize it. I voted on the measures, and the local candidates, I no longer care what happens in Washington DC. They are already irrelevant to me.
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So in this vision of America does a dapper gent in a white tux say, “Welcome to Fantasy Island?”
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Not much faith in your fellow man tundra, guess that’s why you send money to politicians . . .
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That’s right…..I’ve been around a while and am cynical as all hell. Creating a utopian society is a nice idea, but even begining the kind of changes you list would require people to think beyond themselves and more for the whole….And then be accused of wanting a socialist government and all hell would break loose. Unless we found ourselves in dire straights once again through major catasrophes or a total enconomic melt down and then found the need to stick together to be a crucial one. This is why I think it’s a nice dream, but I doubt I’d see it in my life time.
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And that is where we differ tundra. I have been around a long time as well, but I have become cynical of the state, and its human embodiment, the government, which claims a legal monopoly on force. Rather than believe in the goodness of the state, which you obviously do (proven by your donation to an aspiring agent of the state) I believe in the individual. I believe that in the absence of the state’s corrupting influence, individuals will naturally tend towards personal responsibility and self-reliance rather than irresponsibility and dependence on the state. Obviously the state desires the latter, because it gives the government and its various bureaucracies more power and influence over their fellow man. Utopian societies of any kind are an impossibility and a fool’s errand, but free societies have existed and been successful in the past. And individuals, acting in their best interest, did not cause the looming fiscal meltdown we will soon have, trust in the state did.
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These well adjusted cooperative people you envision….Where do they exist? Look at something simple as say an associate meeting between home owners for town homes or such. I don’t hae one myself, but from what I’ve heard from others these often become a whizzing match where several people feel their needs are more important than the others. That’s the reality you get trying to reley on society to rein itself in and be cooperative with each other in matters of governance.
We pick representatives in office holders who aren’t our leaders, but our trusted servants (Which is something that we all need to keep hammering home to our elected officials again….They serve us, not their party or the biggest donors….We the people) The system does have flaws, but that’s democracy. Without the flaws then it would stop being a work in progress. Once that happens then what do we have left? A predictible and possibly one sided electorrical process, and governing body……Much like what Rove and the neocons have been trying to establish.
You can try to buck human nature and create a new governing process that will somehow replace the one we have, but remember…..That takes a lot of people with a whole lot of energy and commitment to an idealogy they really believe in. Do you really think your idealogy would produce that kind of energy and commitment from the masses? Or would you see most people showing a great deal of apathy towards something that asks them to get involved to change? Not unless there was a dire need.
So you can buck the current system with some notion that it can be changed….Or you can get involved with trying to shape the current party you feel the closest with into a party that will work for all the people represented. Because in the end it really doesn’t matter if the right or the left wins on election day. Once it’s over the reality is they are supposed to represent from the middle to all regardless the party affiliation…..Which is another thing that needs to be hammered home from time to time
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So in this vision of America does a dapper hispanic gent in a white tux say, “Welcome to Fantasy Island?”
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Yes…and with a small person side kick also in a dapper white tux……Sometimes less is more
I get this newsletter from Screen Rant that tells about upcoming movies and series. It’s amazing how Hollywood has ran out of ideas. There’s so many attempts to do new versions of series all the way back to the 60′s. I’m guessing it won’t be long before the try a remake of Fantasy Island series. I wasn’t much of a fan the first time around…wasn’t it something like that stellar Love Boat? Or was it less corny?
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All this crap about voter fraud was just that..crap….The real problem is this damn voter supression they keep reporting…..That and computerized voting thats controled by private enterprize….Not only is it prone for bad programming, but then you have Annomous saying that if they suspect that there’s been bad programming that turns votes that they’ll hack the system and turn them back…..We need to get voting on accontable balloots again and make all these supression games going on highly illeagle. The games they’ve been playing are outragous. Why do the Repo’s feel they have to cheat if they feel they really have what the people want and/or need? If they really believed it themselves they’d let the process work the way it’s supposed to…
Damn cheating horses arses….
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You’re too smart to actually believe all that. How could an intelligent person actually think Romney had any solutions for anything? The only solutions he ever talked about was going back to the Bush plan…And we saw how well that did.
the “Welfare state” or “Socialist State” Is another fair tale. Works good for fund raiser, but is a lot of bunk. Most people want to work, and they want to have jobs that are part of that american Dream…..But that dream is tougher all the way around today because with bills like NAFTA we’ve helped American countries to basically take jobs out of the states and put them into a lot of countries where people were living by basic means. China for example didn’t need much for roads because bikes were the primary source of traqnsportation, but now have huge traffic jams from too man vehicles. While so much of the rest of the world lived with just the most basics we were allowed to become a very wealthy nation. We’ve waken some sleeping giants and now that they’ve experienced having more than just the basics…There’s no going back. Continuing the American dream today is going to take far more creativity than in the past. We can do it, but we first need to get the propaganda machine to stop sperating us as if we’re locked into some civil war in this country.
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I really wanted to click the “thumbs up” button. But I just can’t because of your first sentence. I do agree with everything else you wrote.
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No capt — the nation hasn’t given up!
In contrast, We The People have reaffirmed our commitment to the secular democratic republic, and have rejected the quasi-theocratic plutocracy offered as an alternative. I’m heartened to see that all that money didn’t buy the election!
I was also very heartened by Romney’s concession speech. What a contrast from the bile spewed by the likes of Donald Trump.
What is needed now capt, is for everybody (including you and me) to insist that congress stops acting like a bunch of 2-year-olds and gets some problems fixed.
Ready for that task?
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I believe Slick Willie signed NAFTA. Isn’t he a democrat? Isn’t that when all the outsourcing started?
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Yes he did, and that’s why it’s amazing that both he and Obama have been repeatedly called “Estreme left Liberals” and ” Socialists” when both have done so many things that were more Republican like. NAFTA was a far worse sin than a tell tale stain on some old dress. He singned it, but congress approved it so the blame goes all the way around…..They all sold out America.
I remember some time after it was inacted taking loads to Canada. We had a few hoops to go through at the border to get our loads into Canada, but loads coming into America were pratically shot through by comparison. It was obious from the get go that the program was lop sided against Americans
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America is finished. It is now the land of the free…stuff. Cling to your Bible and gun because we will be like Greece. I will then say “I told you so.” Obama is not my President.
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Lots of people have lost their shirts betting against America. I anticipate that Obama will get the Republicans to agree to a debt reduction package that INCLUDES tax increases for the very rich and we will be on our way to reducing the deficit. But then you’ll find another reason to dislike Obama.
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