Democratic Convention

[notyoueither]

Yours is good though.

[KrazyHorse]

Even better

[notyoueither]

Now, that's a good flag.

[KrazyHorse]

It took like 5 minutes to make. I hope you appreciate it.

[notyoueither]

Pure genius. Your nobel should be along anytime now.

[KrazyHorse]

I've got a nobellist as my avatar right now. Too bad the server's overloaded so you can't see it.

[notyoueither]

I caught a glimpse. A younger Pearson?

[KrazyHorse]

The first one I found with the characteristic neckwear...

[notyoueither]

Well, since we're doing flags, very appropriate.

[KrazyHorse]

I think I'll keep it as him for a while.

EDIT: sleep now

It's a good thing I don't have a real job.

[notyoueither]

Well, you know what they say...

get a hair cut and get a real job...

G'night. And the nice people can have their thread back now.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
For those who didn't watch the speech, or didn't get what points were made, here they are:

Presidential goals

"Make America stronger and respected in the world."

"Restore trust and credibility to the White House."

How much stronger can we get relatively? This seems to be an impossible goal as our share of the world's power pie is shrinking economically, technologically and in terms of population. A short term increase in power will have to be payed for with interest, resulting in a probable long term decline, precisely one of the reasons Bush is under attack by so many people right now.

There is nothing to "restore". Both Bush and Clinton were reviled by partisans even before they managed to lie and get in trouble for it. I can't imagine that by selecting a candidate who is as far left as Bush is far right is going to improve the climate in Washington. You can't convince the partisan jihadis to trust anyone who isn't of their ilk, and recent history has shown that eventually the blizzard of negativity will stick.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
War in Iraq

Bring in more allies to share burden.

Sounds so good that Bush has been trying everything in his power to do so since the war started. Even though foreigners might like Kerry a lot better than Bush, this will account for nothing when it comes to committing troops to Iraq. There will be no appreciable difference between Kerry and Bush here.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Foreign policy

"Never hesitate to use force when it is required."

I should have voted for Gulf War 1, damn! That's why I supported Gulf War 2 despite my misgivings, as I knew full well that I'd be running for president this year.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Meet any attack "with a swift and certain response."

Sounds good, but requires targets and begs the question: If you had a target already, why didn't you take it out sooner? There are two easy responses to this equation, the Clinton do little or nothing approach and the Bush "hang 'em high" approach and a millimeter between them illumiated only by the guiding light of U.S. intelligence. Good luck, in all seriousness.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
"Never give any nation or international institution a veto over our national security."

Three percent of all undecided voters in swing states are black helicopter conspiracy theorists.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Lead global effort against nuclear proliferation.

Which we already do. I assume he means with more vigor / funding which might be a good idea.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Military policy

Add 40,000 active duty troops.

A good idea, but only if 10,000 are Arabic linguists and the rest infantrymen.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Double special forces to conduct anti-terrorist operations.

I guess I missed the study that recommended an exact doubling of Special Forces troops. That's a huge investment that won't come to fruition for years and in the meantime will dilute the forces already in place in order to meet the huge demand for experienced trainers. I'm not necessarily against it, but lets study the issue and find a realistic track rather than a soundbite solution. This sounds a little like Hitler in the bunker at the end of the war ranting about how he would bury the allies with his u-boats and missles.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
End "backdoor draft of National Guard and reservists."

Which begs the question why not end the National Guard and Reserves? Why do we have them if they can't even be used in wartime? They are expensive and not as effective as active duty components, particularly in combat arms. Keep a small specialized reserve component and disband the rest. Use the money to pay for an increase in troops we are actually allowed to use.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Go to war only "because we have to."

Sounds good, but will not be able to stop us from going to war when we want to, or the president from using his office to convince enough people that we have to.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Never fight "a war without a plan to win the peace."

A ridiculous notion in the vast majority of wars, though a useful one where we expect to overrun our opponent, depose their government and occupy them as in Iraq. Warfare is a dialectic. You take an action, get a result as well as a reaction. Expending a lot of effort in planning for the end product of a lot of complicated and messy intermediate steps can be a big waste of resources, which might be better served making sure that you win the war in the first place.

That said, you should always be in position to take advantage of good results (which for the most part the Bush administration was) and move heaven and earth to make sure that you have enough forces to deal with worst case scenarios if in fact this is possible. Bush's people failed the imagining the worst case scenario test, and fired people who passed it.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
National security


Immediately implement 9/11 commission recommendations.

Because lord knows what might happen if we actually have a little discussion and put a little thought into completely restructuring a huge chunk of the government instead of rushing off and blindly following the recommendations of a group of career politicians, many of whom were to some degree responsible for the current system, or failing its oversight.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Inspect container ships coming into ports.

Good one. A backdoor import tax while at the same time creating a whole sh!tload of union jobs that not only don't produce goods and services, but actually impede that production. All in order to prevent smuggling that will cost a few thousand dollars to do some other way.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Better protect nuclear and chemical plants.

We should figure out how to do this in Iraq first. I'd like to see a study showing exactly what is proposed and how much it will cost, and how much it will cost terrorists to get around the improvements.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Economic plan

New incentives to "revitalize manufacturing."

Sounds good. I wonder if his union supporters realize that this will almost certainly mean reducing / eliminating employees and replacing them with robots.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Invest in technology and innovation to create "good-paying jobs."

Perhaps a bit premature as the country hasn't yet recovered the money and "good-paying jobs" it lost in the last round of investing money in technology and innovation. Pure research is often worth the money spent in all seriousness, but that is only possible if you haven't already blown the money on everything else on this list.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Close tax loopholes that "reward companies for shipping our jobs overseas."

What exactly is he proposing here? This is so vague as to be useless. Always do right, and never do wrong!

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Reward companies that "create and keep good-paying jobs" at home.

I have a better idea. Why don't we quit penalizing all companies from hiring people in the first place, rather than selectively giving back some of that penalty to our friends and supporters in Industry X? Of course that would piss certain people off in the Democrat base, and scare others and provide no benefit whatsoever to my campaign coffers, so nevermind.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
"Fair playing field" for American workers to compete in global economy.

An idea so good, I wonder why he doesn't apply it to the Kyoto accords?

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Tax policies

"I will not privatize Social Security. I will not cut benefits."

I will cling to an inherently unstable mechanism for funding social security. I will raise taxes, and let inflation cut benefits for me.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Cut the deficit in half in four years by ending "tax giveaways that are nothing more than corporate welfare."

Belied by everything above and below.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Cut taxes for middle class.

See item immediately above.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Reduce tax burden on small businesses.

See item 2 above this one.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Roll back tax cuts for individuals making more than $200,000 a year.

Will pay for a couple of items above, but will mostly be avoided because of loopholes used by the members of this class.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Make government "pay as you go."

I didn't realize that the president now gets to hand pick the members of congress.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Education

Demand accountability from parents, teachers and schools.

Wow, I didn't realize that the president now has the power to arbitrarily arrest and execute anyone who doesn't meet his demands. I should have read the patriot act a little more closely I guess.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Reduce class size.

Assuming that he's serious about cutting the deficit, I guess he must be planning on introducing the 3 hour school day.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Create tax credit to families for every year of college.

Lets work on getting people out of highschool who are functionally literate before we loose them on the institutions of higher education please.

Health care

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Health care "a right for all Americans."

Paying for crappy overpriced health care for all Americans "an obligation for the usual classes who pay for everything in this country".

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Make system more efficient to save families up to $1,000 a year on premiums.

Pie in the sky. Tort reform could save 1-2% of the entire GNP, but would really cut down on those campaign contributions.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Ensure that system allows patients to pick their own doctors.

A useless choice, as between their poor reading skills and those long strange Indian names few Americans are going to able to distinguish one from the other.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Allow patients and doctors to make decisions, not insurance companies.

Must be another part of the Patriot act I missed.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors.

Republicans to negotiate for higher campaign contributions from drug companies.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Allow Americans to buy less expensive drugs from countries like Canada.

Doesn't get through the senate. See above.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Energy policy

Invest in new technologies and alternative fuels.

Better idea. $.50 a gallon tax on traditional fuels lets the free market solve the problem sooner rather than later. And this time don't wuss out and flip flop.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Invest in cars of the future.

Better idea. Let the free market decide what people want and how to deliver it.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Campaign goals

Take the high road.

Unlike "these republicans, [who] are the most despicable liars I've ever seen".
[/QUOTE]

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
"Be optimists, not just opponents."

Don't actually fellate Michael Moore on the podium, wait to the private party afterward.

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
"Build unity in the American family, not angry division."

Unlike "these republicans, [who] are the most despicable liars I've ever seen".

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
"Make this election a contest of big ideas, not small-minded attacks."
- From CNN.com

Except at Hollywood fundraisers, and whenever the press isn't looking.

[Agathon]

I thought Kerry did an OK job, easily the best I have seen him.

Sharpton was clearly the best speaker of anyone, though. I will remember his speech for the rest of my life. Obama was excellent too.

Why is it in the US that Black people have all the heart and soul?

[lord of the mark]

oh dear, dear, dear.

After a good Edwards speech i was hoping for a good one from Kerry, to seal the deal, and let me depart from the dark side.

But instead I got a speech with

1. Not a single reference to Afghanistan
2. Not a single reference to Syria or Iran (unlike Edwards)
3. Not a single reference to democracy promotion, or to transforming the middle east
4. Not a single reference to what to do about Iraq, apart from hoping burden sharing will "get the job done"
But what precisely IS the job, John?? Washing our hands and getting out?? Getting "stability" under a dictator?? Getting a democracy? Getting an ally?
5. "we wont go alone" Well of course we SHOULD pursue broader alliances, and we SHOULDNT be as dismissive of allies as the Bushies are - but really, did we go ALONE?? Are Blair, Howard, Berlusconi, and the Eastern Europeans chopped liver? The Kuwaitis?
6. Not a single mention of Israel or the peace process.
7. When we're attacked we'll fight - I wont go to war without the facts - very well John, but what do you think about Iran? What happens if there IS another big terrorist attack, and the CIA tells you that AQs operational leadership IS in Teheran - but that will be disputed - we've already seen in disputed here and elsewhere - there will likely NEVER be clear proof - the Iranian leadership isnt as stupid as Mullah Omar - what WILL you do, John? You will attack you say, but WHOM??
8. And yes, what about the Patriot act?? And Gitmo? and renditions?? IF youre NOT going to transform the mideast, and you ARE going to essentially fight a defensive war against AQ, as you imply, how can you dispense with defensive tools?? Its very well to focus on steampship containers - container have no human rights, and while shipping lines may have rights, its easy to dispense with those. But what if the terrs focus on sending HUMANS over the borders, rather than containers? What then?
9. Stop opening firehouses in Iraq while closing them here. Could someone please tell me what the hell this line means??? Surely John isnt suggesting that we NEVER, EVER, close a firehouse in the USA? This is a huge country, and its population is often shifting. Surely sometimes it makes sense to close a firehouse? Or is he saying to stop reconstructing Iraq?


Will Marshall, of the Progressive Policy Institute, defends Kerry from the charge of Kissingerian realism - citing his support for Kosovo, and rhetoric at a previous speech. Marshall suggests that democracy promotion is radioactive for Dems right now, precisely because Bush has raised it as an alternative justification for Iraq.

Well, I could have seen that if Kerry last night had simply fallen short of what I would have wanted. But he didnt, he completely ignored the question of american values in foreign policy - the only values he expressed related to NOT using troops unwisely, and to NOT alienating allies. But what DOES John Kerry hope to achieve with foreign policy, aside from security narrowly defined? DO we have values to express in the world, and how are we to do it?? And does John really beleive that we can be safe by increasing our special forces and inspecting containers without in SOME way addressing the problems of the middle east and the whole Islamic world??? Does he not think that there ARE underlying reasons behind terrorism??

No, the bargain isnt sealed. I remain undecided, and as skeptical of Mr. Kerry as ever.

[MichaeltheGreat]

How much detailed foreign policy discussion has any challenger (without the benefit of a sitting SecState, NSA, SecDef, and the whole NSC apparatus) from any party ever presented in a nomination speech?