Dana Sheets wrote:
But the recounts didn't & don't matter. Because the supreme court ended the recount process - in effect - appointing Bush president. Ballot counts ex-post-facto did not weight into the decision the night the supreme court made it's decision.
The Supreme Court ended the process because the Democrats were going to keep counting and calling for more re-counts and more "chad parameters" until they won.
Dana, come on now. The Democrats tried to exclude hundreds, if not thousands of Military Votes and we all know how the majority in the Military vote. They tried to have them neutralized on a technicality and deprive those who keep us free of their Right to Vote.
I remember it clearly, as much of a "Political Animal" as Panther is, I'm sure he does as well. The Democrats were going to keep counting and keep pushing for exclusion until they won Florida. That's why it had to be stopped, it was a circus.
Gore did not win, Bush did.
And since you've brought up the divide between racial/social lines of voting the many people who claim to have been barred from voting in certain municipalities in Florida could have very easily swung the vote.
If you really believe in this day and age where so many Black folks are in Law Enforcement that Black folks were turned away at official roadblocks and whatnot by Mighty white, Dear Lady, I don't know what to say because I don't want to insult you. You're smart, you've been snookered if you believe that. There is no way in Modern America where they are going to pull off Klan like behavior like that.
The Florida election was just a big ole mess - and counting the ballots of people that got to vote is only one layer of what happened in that state that day. Which again, doesn't matter now - in the end Bush ended up with the presidency.
It was a mess. I could be a real cynic and say that if someone is so stupid they cannot figure out a ballot, perhaps they're too stupid to vote as well. I'm borderline on that one. Bush did not end up with the Presidency, he won it.
I agree that Nader is quite wacky and probably has early-onset dementia. I am not particularly pro "Green Party" politics. What I was saying was that I do have strong leanings toward environmentalism.
The Democrat's Perot.
Nader does have some value.
I have rather strong leanings and beliefs with regard to the environment as well. I have a young Son, I don't particularly want him to grow up in a Soylent Green environment.
Now that point of view allows me to easily walk in the shoes of those outside of this country who could see such as series of invasions as Imperialistic - which I belive was part of the reason Japan bombed us back in WWII. We were creeping ever closer and closer by taking over territories, putting bases in the Phillipines...Wouldn't you be nervous if you were Russian or China watching what the US is doing now?
Japan was becoming quite the Conqueror in that time frame as well. It was inevitable in many ways that it was going to happen.
As far as modern history, what is going on now, I think Russia and other countries see sweetheart oil deals with the Hussein Regime, as well as selling them AK-47s, AK-74, magazines in the hundreds of thousands, rounds in the hundreds of millions, RPGs, the grenades for them, hand grenades, antiquated night vision devices (NVDs) as well as GPS Jammers that are apparently not worth the batteries it takes to warm them up.
I don't think Russia is concerned in the slightest about us staying in Iraq or hurting them. I think they are concerned they won't get deals on the oil or be able to work within the arms race over there, ditto France (Supplied a Nuclear Reactor to Iraq in the early 80s which Israel destroyed...) and Germany.
Thank you for the compliment. But I am in no way persuaded at this point that starting up a series of wars with low international support in multiple foreign counties without direct, tangible, evidentiary & clear provocation from those countries is a good idea.
You're welcome. It's nice to have a chat with someone who is intelligent even if there is minor scraps in theory and ideology going on.
I think you have been watching the mainstream news too much. We have a coalition of 40+ countries as I understand it. Some liberal folks have countered, "Yeah, we have Britain and Australia and a bunch of other little countries that don't really count."
Well, if they don't count, why do the same liberals insist that they count as a valid holder of an opinion when it comes time for the U.N. Security Council to vote? See the double standard?
When they are going to vote against us, their vote should be equal, when they side with us, we bought them off (In some cases we did!) or they don't "count."
Not to be a "Secret Squirrel," but the Government is privy to alot of Intel that we are not and never will be. When Powell went before the U.N. and played the NSA Intercepts, I was against it because no matter how much we risk our Intelligence Networks, there will always be critics who say, "Yeah...but..."
They are already finding things in Iraq that clearly show we were right and our Intel was spot-on.
Now if we do the exact same thing WITH international support we might be viewed as leaders of the free world. But for now all I can see is a trend towards isolationism and roguish action that may lead to economic sanctions against us. And while the human cost of these war efforts is incalcuable, further contraction of our economy due to a loss of international business is about the last thing we need right now.
Dana
Have faith in this Country Dana. I promise you, the rest of the world will need us long before we need them. That is a worst case scenario. I like knives. I know a bit about steel. Some knives are made out of ATS-34 steel and some are made out of 154CM steel. They are almost identical and they're great steels, the only difference being, Crucible, an American Co., makes 154CM and Hitachi in Japan makes ATS-34. That is one example, a little bit of isolationism is not going to hurt this country. Perhaps we could finally turn back to actually helping our farmers and produce for our own people instead of ruining the farmers with all sorts of schemes and allowing banks to prey upon them. At the end of the day, we don't
need a Toyota, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes or any other foreign vehicle. We could be making our own stuff and living in even more wealth, safety and comfort. Let them sanction us, because they will find out how great this country really is.
That is also one of the reasons I support solar power and drilling our own oil, self-sufficiency.
Ciao!
.....it was weedkiller, but, Hell it coulda been Sarin)
.......and the Arabs in Korea pose a threat as well 
