crashfrog responds to me:
quote:
Imagine my disappointment.
Hey, I can't control what you post. If you're disappointed in your response, step up your game.
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You act like all Lieberman did here was get a road or a state park named after somebody.
No, I act as if a single act does not absolve him from being a piss-poor excuse of a Senator. You didn't answer my question: You really think things would have been different if it had been Lamont and not Lieberman?
You seem to have a serious case of "doesn't kick puppies." That is, so long as we can show that he doesn't stoop so low as to kick puppies, then that is sufficient to claim him as a good and decent fellow as if that is the only criterion upon which to judge. As if one must be all-bad if one is not all-good.
I'm reminded of a time when someone was trying to find something good that Bush had done and someone had pointed out the set-aside of some waters as a National Monument. On the surface, that seems like a good thing. But the reality is that he did it under the American Antiquities Act of 1906 rather than the National Marine Sanctuaries Act. By declaring it a National Monument rather than a Marine Sanctuary, there aren't any real penalties for violating it and the Executive can make any declaration regarding its use as desired.
Marine Sanctuaries, on the other hand, are run by the Secretary of Commerce with fines up to $120,000 per day per violation.
In short, Bush declared a protected area he doesn't have to actually protect.
It is not enough to look at the surface, especially if you're only going to focus on one thing.
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Rrhain, he ended decades of discrimination against gays and lesbians in the armed services
Well, no. No, he didn't. What he did was co-sponsor a bill that put in the craptacular back-door deal that Obama "negotiated" as a stand-alone measure. DADT has not been repealed. And no, I don't mean that because Obama hasn't signed it yet, it hasn't been repealed. I mean when Obama signs it, DADT will still be the law of the land. The bill that was passed simply states that DADT will be repealed if and only if:
1) The President, Secretary of Defense, and Joint Chiefs of Staff all certify that repeal of DADT would not result in significant harm to the Armed Services.
AND
2) After such certification, Congress has 60 days to weigh in and decide what to really do, including stopping the repeal.
AND
3) Both 1) and 2) must be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2011.
With a Republican majority in the House and obstructionist Republicans with yellow-dog Democrats in the Senate such as McCain, you really think they're just going to sit by?
DADT isn't repealed. Not by a long shot.
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But I do know that Lieberman being in a position to do so was directly and solely the result of Obama's foresightedness in preserving Lieberman's connections and seniority in the Democratic coalition
Bullshit. You really think this wouldn't have happened if Lamont were in instead of Lieberman? That Susan Collins wasn't involved? He isn't the chair of the Armed Services Committee. Carl Levin is.
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But I do know that if you're arrived at the point where the assignment of committee chairs are now a matter of inviolable progressive principle, you're truly at the point where futile last stands on principle are more important than actually governing.
Lieberman isn't the chair of the Armed Services Committee. He's the chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. You know...the one that's been eroding our Fourth Amendment rights. The one that hasn't bothered to investigate Obama's call for the
ASSASSINATION of an American citizen without any due process of any kind, let alone a trial or even judicial oversight.
Part of the reason that the stand-alone bill was able to be voted on so quickly is because it
didn't go through committee.
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Because it's objectively true.
Except it isn't as has been previously shown. You really need to start responding to points rather than automatic gainsaying.
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You can act like the death of public option health care was the death of All American Liberalism
Not at all. I act like those who don't fight for universal, single-payer health care, those who start from a negotiating position of taking it off the table, who insist upon major giveaways to insurance companies that do not contain costs cannot be called "liberal."
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The ACA allows millions to have insurance who would not otherwise have it.
Sorta, kinda, almost. The ability to buy insurance doesn't help if the rates are so high you cannot afford it. It's why COBRA is such a joke. And let's not forget that the insurance reform has pretty much killed the right of women to have an abortion.
quote:
DADT is dead
No, it isn't. It is still very much alive.
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and need I remind you that it was repealed with precisely the exact strategy you claimed was a non-starter?
More accurately, you need to remind yourself of what actually happened. DADT was not repealed. Instead, a series of hurdles must be overcome, one of which is Congressional review which now sits in a House controlled by the Republicans and a Senate which will be run by conservatives even though the Democrats technically have the majority of seats.
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Now you're predicting the demise of Social Security as a result of the employment benefits extension deal, and I have news for you - your track record as a swami isn't very good.
Really? You mean batting 1.000 is a bad thing?
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To recap: if it's such a giveaway, why did insurance companies spend millions to block its passage?
Because "business as usual" is always preferred. Because despite the good things that are in the bill, the bad things more than outweight it. You are again looking at surfaces, focusing on the shiny bit while ignoring everything else. Have you forgotten the mandate? The regulation of the industry is still set at the state level, not a national level. That's what the insurers already have: The ability to gouge you depending upon where you live.
What the insurance industry lobbied against was single-payer, universal coverage. And lo and behold! It was immediately withdrawn by Obama in a back-room deal while he stood behind his lectern and said that he wished he could have it.
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How is it a "giveaway" when the millions of new customers are precisely the customers insurance companies didn't want to insure....
Have you forgotten the mandate?
Rrhain
Thank you for your submission to
Science. Your paper was reviewed by a jury of seventh graders so that they could look for balance and to allow them to make up their own minds. We are sorry to say that they found your paper "bogus," specifically describing the section on the laboratory work "boring." We regret that we will be unable to publish your work at this time.
Minds are like parachutes. Just because you've lost yours doesn't mean you can use mine.
™ Version 4.2
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