America should just be a good republic, and not try to be an empire

Help me populate the fields below! Just leave a comment, and I'll add it to the debate

The cost of on-the-job training

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29685.html

During the presidential campaign, many Americans thought that Barack
Obama's lack of leadership experience would not prevent him from being
an effective president. His eloquence, his insistence that, yes, he
could solve any problem and his image, so artfully crafted by his
advertising team, led by David Axelrod, convinced many that hope could
trump demonstrated ability. It has not. Nowhere is the evidence more
apparent than in his mismanagement of the conflict in Afghanistan.

In March, not long after taking office, President Obama explained his
convictions regarding the conflict. He charged that "the terrorists
who planned and supported the Sept. 11 attacks are in Pakistan and
Afghanistan." Further, "if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban,
that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as
many of our people as they possibly can." And he concluded: "To
succeed, we and our friends and allies must reverse the Taliban's
gains and promote a more capable and accountable Afghan government."
What followed this bold and definitive goal was the classic failing of
people without real leadership experience: the inability to do what is
necessary to achieve one's objective.

The president refused to focus on what was most important. He took on
so many tasks that he underinvested in the most critical ones. The
restructuring of the entire health care system and his cap-and-trade
proposal eclipsed the economy and the war. Investor Warren Buffett,
the "sage of Omaha," counseled him against such a foolhardy agenda,
but Buffett's wisdom was no match for the heady prospect of
all-encompassing change.

So it was that in the first 100 days after his appointment in June of
Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander of U.S. and NATO forces in
Afghanistan, Obama met with the general only once. After the press
took note of it, the president squeezed in a mere 25 minutes for
McChrystal when he was in Copenhagen to pitch Chicago's Olympics bid.
In the annals of American history, it is certain that no wartime
president has ever spent less time with his generals than Obama has.

A full year after being elected, Obama still does not have a strategy
for Afghanistan. His apologists explain that rather than rush a
decision, it is better to get it right. But at some point,
deliberation, if it goes on too long, becomes indecision. It is fair
to ask, What has he been doing for the past 12 months that took
precedence over his responsibility for our soldiers?

The answer is that he made 30 or more campaign trips for the
Democratic Party and its candidates, including five events for
defeated New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine alone. He repeatedly traveled
around the country to keynote campaign-style town hall meetings that
were carefully choreographed by his communications advisers. He
appears to want to do what he knows best: campaign, rather than engage
in what he was elected to do — lead and govern.

While he was busy campaigning in the U.S., the president ignored the
election in Afghanistan and took wholly inadequate measures to ensure
a valid outcome, even as he must have known that a legitimate
government was essential to our success. Because Obama left so
critical a matter to chance, we are left with a fraudulently elected
regime, which is accused of rampant corruption. Thus, the prospects
for our success have been greatly diminished.

With the McChrystal report in his hands since August, the president
has finally been spending more time in the situation room. Surely his
deliberations have not been speeded by the presence of Axelrod, the
president's campaign adman. Polls, politics and perspectives on what
the TV networks may think have no place at the national security
table. Communications staff should be informed of security decisions
after they are made, not invited to be a party to them.

During my career in business and government, and in running the
Olympics, I made many instructive mistakes and learned the lessons
that come with experience. Obama is making those mistakes in his first
real leadership position, and because that position is president of
the United States, the consequences of his mistakes are sobering. The
lives of our soldiers, the war against violent jihadism and the future
of millions of Afghans are in the balance.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was a 2008 Republican
presidential candidate.

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Equality

The numbering system below describes a system that scores groups of people within a range of 1 to 10 by how much they value equality.
  1. These people undervalue equality. People who value equality at a 1, do not value equality very much. These people are willing to accept inhuman, or even unnatural cruelty to others, or specific groups of people. They do not value all life equally. People from their group (family, race, nationality) are acceptable, however they give little or no concern to those from other groups, or actively seek to harm those from other groups.
  2.  
  3.  
  4.  
  5.  
  6.  
  7.  
  8.  
  9.  
  10. These people over value equality. Someone who overvalues an otherwise positive value like equality would be willing to sacrifice other good values in order to satisfy equality. These people not only are willing to steel from Peter to give to Paul, but are willing to trample all over such concepts as "freedom of choice", the "law of the harvest", justice, or reasonable application of mercy in order to ensure that Peter does not have anything more than Paul. An example of someone who is overly concerned with equality hate the strong, powerful, or beautiful. These people are not just concerned about equality of opportunity, but also equality of outcome. They are willing to sacrifice freedom, and require massive amounts of power in order to guarantee the outcome that they see fit. They don't care if anyone is happy, just that no one is more happy than others. They are so concerned with equality, that they can not accept that truly evil might be sad, or noble people to experience any happiness. They feel bad for Hitler. These people would say that no tradition, no norm, no action is wrong, or worse than other actions. It is wrong to say that someone is bad, and another person is good. We are all equal, and therefore everyone can be whatever they want as long as it is not better than someone else. 

Despite His Claims, Gov. Huckabee Supported Special Tuition Breaks For Illegals

Reasons to agree:  

  1. "Governor, let me stop you right there because a lot of people have looked at this and I've got the bill right in front of me, and I know that what you're talking about may have been in your original legislation, but you continued to push for a bill after the scholarship provisions were dropped that would simply provide in-state tuition benefits to illegal immigrants. I've read through it." – ABC News' George Stephanopoulos (ABC's "This Week," 12/2/07)
  2. On NBC's Meet The Press Yesterday, Gov. Huckabee Claimed He Did Not Support Special Tuition Breaks For Illegals. GOV. HUCKABEE: "He said that I supported special breaks for illegal aliens. That's not true, Tim. We supported simply giving children, who had earned a scholarship the same, it never happened, didn't make the legislature." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 12/30/07)
  3. At The CNN, YouTube Debate, Gov. Huckabee Said He Did Not Support Giving Illegals Tuition Breaks. GOV. HUCKABEE: "Ashley, first of all let me just express that you're a little misinformed. We never passed a bill that gave special privileges to the children of illegals to go to college." (CNN/YouTube, Republican Presidential Candidate Debate, St. Petersburg, FL, 11/28/07)
  4. On ABC's This Week, Gov. Huckabee Again Tried To Claim He Didn't Support In-State Tuition Breaks For Illegals. ABC's GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: "Excuse me. Let me just stop you right there because that's why you pushed a bill that would allow the children of illegal immigrants, if they went through an Arkansas high school, to get in-state tuition." GOV. HUCKABEE: "Actually it was to qualify for an Academic Challenge Scholarship which was a meritorious scholarship based on their grade point average, their being drug and alcohol free, and their also being in the process of applying for citizenship." (ABC's "This Week," 12/2/07; www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tKnV3_pbVI)
  5. Gov. Huckabee Claimed, "It Wasn't About Out-Of-State Tuition, It Was An Academic Meritorious Scholarship." GOV. HUCKABEE: "I supported the bill that would have allowed those children who had been in our schools their entire school life, the opportunity to have the same scholarship that their peers had, who had also gone to high school with them and sat in the same classrooms. They couldn't just move in in their senior year and go to college. It wasn't about out-of-state tuition, it was an academic meritorious scholarship, called the Academic Challenge Scholarship." (CNN/YouTube, Republican Presidential Candidate Debate, St. Petersburg, FL, 11/28/07)
  6. Gov. Mike Huckabee Said He Only Supported A Program Where Illegals Were Granted "Scholarships" For Doing "Academically Well." FOX NEWS' BILL HEMMER: "The suggestion in that is that you favor giving children of illegal immigrants tuition breaks." HUCKABEE: "Here's the deal -- he has hit me on that. Mitt Romney has tried to hit me on that. What I supported was the idea that if a student had been in our Arkansas high schools and had done academically well to be able to compete for an academic challenged scholarship which was meritorious then that student should be able to have the same opportunity as anyone else. It wasn't a special break. It was something that a person had earned." (Fox News' "Live," 11/14/07; www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHwTcWHhLaE)

 

But The Fact Is, Gov. Huckabee Supported A Bill Granting ONLY In-State Tuition Breaks To Illegals:

Reasons to agree:   

  1. Gov. Huckabee Proposed Extending Taxpayer-Funded College Scholarships To Illegal Aliens. "Gov. Mike Huckabee is proposing extending eligibility for state-funded college scholarships to illegal aliens who graduate from Arkansas high schools - an idea that several legislators predicted will go nowhere." (Laura Kellams, "Huckabee Plan Would Aid Illegal Aliens," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 1/12/05)
  2. Gov. Huckabee Asked Arkansas Legislator Joyce Elliott To Add His Scholarship Proposal To Her Bill Extending In-State Tuition To Illegal Immigrants. "In 2005, Huckabee tried to make children of illegal immigrants eligible for scholarships and in-state college tuition. Joyce Elliott, the former state representative who sponsored the scholarship measure, said she originally had wanted to offer just in-state tuition, but Huckabee's office asked her to add the scholarship provision. 'The notion I got from him is that he believed it was the right thing to do,' said Elliott, a Democrat from Little Rock." (Andrew DeMillo, "Huckabee Adopts New Tone On Immigration," The Associated Press, 12/27/07)
  3. The Scholarship Portion Of The Bill Was Stripped From The Bill. "Hard-liners, led by state Sen. Jim Holt, R-Springdale, said 'illegal aliens,' as they prefer, have no rights because they're lawbreakers. It may not be fair to single Holt out because he had plenty of company. When House Bill 1525 stalled in a Senate committee, the scholarship portion of the bill was stripped out, sending the measure to the Senate floor, where it failed twice, the final time by only two votes." (Dennis Byrd, "Federal Judge: Illegal Immigrants Qualify For Tuition Breaks," Arkansas News, 7/10/05)
  4. And The Bill That Was Actually Voted On Only Included In-State Tuition Breaks For Illegals. H.B. 1525, "Access To Postsecondary Education Act Of 2005": www.arkleg.state.ar.us/ftproot/bills/2005/public/HB1525.pdf
  5. Gov. Huckabee Fought To Pass The Stripped Bill Which Granted ONLY In-State Tuition Breaks For Illegals. "The only bill in the governor's 21-bill legislative package that failed to win legislative approval was a proposal to make the children of illegal immigrants eligible for state-funded scholarships and in-state tuition to Arkansas colleges. After passing the House relatively early in the session, the bill faltered in the Senate where it was amended to remove the scholarship provision but fell just short of passage Tuesday and Wednesday. Huckabee said his office worked throughout the day Wednesday for the two Senate votes needed to pass the bill. 'I don't understand the opposition to it, I just honestly don't,' Huckabee said." (Melissa Nelson, "Governor Touts Successful End To Legislative Session," The Associated Press, 4/13/05)
  6. The Washington Post Called Out Gov. Huckabee's Misleading Statements. " In fact, the initial bill he supported did have a scholarship provision. But that provision was later stripped out, and was not included in the legislation that Huckabee continued to push. The bill read: 'Any tuition rate that is granted to residents of Arkansas shall be granted on the same terms to all persons, regardless of immigration status, who have attended a secondary educational institution in Arkansas for at least three (3) years and who have either graduated from an Arkansas high school or received a general education diploma in the state.'" (Michael D. Shear, "Rising in Iowa Polls, Huckabee Now In Crosshairs," The Washington Post,http://blog.washingtonpost.com, Posted 11/15/07)
  7. ABC News' George Stephanopoulos: "You Continued To Push For A Bill After The Scholarship Provisions Were Dropped." STEPHANOPOULOS: "... you pushed a bill that would allow the children of illegal immigrants, if they went through an Arkansas high school, to get in-state tuition." GOV. HUCKABEE: "Actually it was to qualify for an Academic Challenge Scholarship which was a meritorious scholarship based on their grade point average, their being drug and alcohol free, and their also being in the process of applying for citizenship." MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: "Governor, let me stop you right there because a lot of people have looked at this and I've got the bill right in front of me, and I know that what you're talking about may have been in your original legislation, but you continued to push for a bill after the scholarship provisions were dropped that would simply provide in-state tuition benefits to illegal immigrants. I've read through it." (ABC's "This Week," 12/2/07; www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tKnV3_pbVI)  

 


Interest / Motivation of those who agree:

  1. Promoting Mormonism by promoting Mitt Romney by opposing Huckabee who is Romney's rival.
  2. Promoting the Republican party by promoting another person if they think that person is more qualified.
  3. Promoting religious minorities. 
  4. Promoting the separation of church and state. 
  5. Getting back at religious people for trying to making them feel bad about their actions.
  6. Promoting immigration from people from your race, if you are from the race that is trying to immigrate. 

 

Interest / Motivation of those who disagree:

  1. Opposing Mormonism, by Opposing Mitt Romney, who was Huckabee's main rival.
  2. Promoting the Republican party by promoting Huckabee if they think that person is the most qualified.
  3. Promoting evangelicalism.

  4. Opposing religious minorities. 
  5. Be seen as "strongly" committed within their religious community by promoting their church's power by opposing the separation of church and state.
  6. Opposing immigration from people who are not your race, if you are not from the race that is trying to immigrate. 

Books that agree:

  1.  

 

Books that disagree:

  1.  

People who agree 

  1.  

 

People who disagree 

  1.  

Web pages that agree

  1.  

 

Web pages that disagree 

  1.  

 

 

Mike Huckabee lies about in-state tuition breaks for illegals

 

THE WASHINGTON POST: GOV. HUCKABEE CANNOT DENY HE SUPPORTED IN-STATE TUITION BREAKS FOR ILLEGALS

 

 

"Pinocchios For Huckabee On Illegals"

The Washington Post

By Michael Dobbs, The Post's Fact Checker

December 18, 2007

 

 

"Now that he has become a front-runner, Mike Huckabee is feeling the heat from other Republican candidates who ... have accused Huckabee of having 'championed' an effort to permit illegal immigrants to benefit from in-state tuition rates at state universities. Huckabee has denied the charge…"

"Huckabee's denials fly in the face of the record."

"A Democratic representative named Joyce Elliott, had already proposed legislation granting in-state tuition status to undocumented immigrants. During talks with the governor's staff, Elliott agreed to include a scholarship provision in her bill …"

"She says that both parts of the bill were fully supported by Huckabee.

"'I never had the slightest indication that he wanted any changes,' Elliott told me, when I called her in Little Rock. 'He clearly supported the entire bill, and I never heard anything different from them.'

"Huckabee defended the bill in conversations with reporters, and expressed disappointment when the measure failed to pass the Arkansas Senate by just two votes."

"Asked about the measure during the November 28 CNN/YouTube debate, Huckabee said that his proposal applied to students who had been in Arkansas schools from the time they were 'five or six years old,' were 'A-plus' students, 'drug and alcohol-free', and in the process of 'applying for citizenship' … a point reiterated by his spokeswoman Kirsten Fedewa.

"'He did not support in-state tuition,' Fedewa said in an e-mail. 'He supported scholarships for students who qualified.'

"The distinction that Huckabee is attempting to draw is an artificial one. His original State of the State address talked about making all Arkansas high school graduates eligible for state 'financial aid,' not just A-plus students applying for citizenship…"

"But it is untrue to claim that he 'did not support in-state tuition' for illegal immigrants. Three Pinocchios."

To read the full article, please see: http://www.washingtonpost.com

 

Related Links 

  1. Huckabee Lies
  2. Huckabee Immigration,

No mention of "Wayne DuMond" on Huckabee's wikipedia article. Huckabee's article never mentions the word "Pardon"

If you feel to "impartial" to write the article, perhaps you can have a neutral friend write it for you. Here is some info to get you started:

  1. "The Story Mike Huckabee Dreads", by Byron York, The National Review, December 5, 2007
  2. "Let us not whitewash governor's Clemencies", by Garrick Feldman, Arkansas Leader, July 28, 2004
  3. "Huckabee's role in rapist's parole comes under fresh scrutiny", by Dana Bash and Alexaner Mooney, CNN.COM, December 7, 2007
  4. "Murder Victiim's Mother Assails Huckabee," CBS News.Com, December 5, 2007
  5. "Paroled Rapist Could Haunt Huckabee," by Brian Montopoli, CBS News.Com, December 4, 2007
  6. "Huckabee Aide: Gov Pushed For Rapist's Freedom," by Brian Ross, ABC News: The Blotter, December 5, 2007
  7. "Former Aide Contradicts Huckabee Defense of Rapist's Release," by Murray Waas, Huffington Post, December 5, 2007
  8. "Documents Expose Huckabee's Role in Serial Rapist's Release," by Murry Waas, The Huffington Post, December 4, 2007
  9. "Hard Times For Huckabee," The Hotline -- National Journal, December 6, 2007
  10. "Despite Victim's Pleas, Huckabee Pushed Rapist's Freedom," by Brian Ross and Joseph Rhee, ABC News: The Blotter, December 5, 2007
  11. Huckabee and criminals: It's worse than just Wayne DuMond, JOE CONASON, Dec 14 2007
Of course you will need Huckabee's side also, for people to not say you are biased, but it is some info that needs to be known. Here are the facts that support the belief that Huckabee is a creep. Remember to site your sources. No opinion. Just facts. 
  1. Mike Huckabee had a friend named Pastor Jay D. Cole. Cole worked with Huckabee producing Bible lessons on videotape. Cole also said, "We worked heavily with him when he got politically involved too." Cole was also friends with Wayne DuMond, and would read the Bible and pray with him while he was in jail. Cole even let DuMond's wife stay at his house.
  2. 3 of the 7 members of the state board that paroled DuMond say that Huckabee played a key role in getting DuMond out of jail. One had died. The board chairman declined to comment; one board member could not be reached and one said he did not remember details of the case. So all the board members who were still alive, and willing to talk said that Huckabee was involved.
  3. 'Though he acknowledged discussing the case with the state parole board, Huckabee said that conversation was "simply part of a broader discussion" initiated at the request of the board chairman. "I did not ask them to do anything," he said. Three board members recalled it differently. They said Huckabee raised the issue of DuMond's release, asking to discuss the matter with them in a closed session. They said his religious beliefs, and the influence of the evangelical community from which he came, drove him."We felt pressured by him," said board member Ermer Pondexter. "I felt compelled to do it. . . . It was a favor for the governor." Parole board member Deborah Springer Suttlar said Huckabee did not mince his feelings about DuMond: "He wanted him out."
  4. He thought DuMond just grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, that he may have gotten a raw deal and a longer sentence than others under similar circumstances," recalled board member Charles Chastain, who said he was the lone dissenter in a 4-1 committee vote to grant parole.
  5. Cole, the minister who befriended DuMond, said: "The governor felt compassion for Wayne. He was sorry for him. So, I asked the governor to help. I asked him if anything could be done. And Mike had a lot of people on his neck trying to get him to get Wayne released." Huckabee's friend vividly remembers asking Huckabee to get DuMond out of Jail! "Many of them," Cole added, "were in the Christian community."
  6. "I became his spiritual director," Cole said. "He was a nice fella, and it was hard to believe he could have done what he was accused of doing. And Wayne claimed to be saved. So, we'd sit and talk and pray for two hours, and other times he'd call me on the phone a lot. Collect. He was just wanting to know if I'd made any headway finding people who could help his situation."
  7. Huckabee acknowledged, he wrote a letter to the prisoner saying parole was a better option. "Dear Wayne. . . . My desire is that you be released from prison," the governor wrote. "I feel now that parole is the best way. . . ." The rape victim, Ashley Stevens, became enraged. She and prosecutor Fletcher Long met with Huckabee at the Capitol. They warned him that DuMond would strike again. At one point in the meeting, Stevens recalled, she stood up, put her face next to Huckabee's and told the governor: "This is how close I was to DuMond. I'll never forget his face, and you'll never forget mine."
  8. The meeting ended, and Long, a Republican, could tell the governor was unmoved: "Most of what I think about him would be unprintable. His actions were just about as arrogant as you can get."
  9. So, in 1999, after serving 14 years of his sentence, DuMond relocated to the Kansas City area. Less than a year later, Carol Shields was suffocated in a friend's apartment. Scrapings of DNA under her fingernails led to DuMond. The day before DuMond was arrested in the slaying, another woman, Sara Andrasek, was killed in much the same way.DuMond was convicted of killing Shields and in 2004 was sentenced to life in prison, this time without parole. He was not charged in the second slaying.

Carl Sagan was an idiot


Reasons to agree:
  1. Carl Sagan said, "It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to 50 words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese‎." This is stupid.
  2. Sagan erroneously predicted in January 1991 that so much smoke from the Kuwaiti oil fires "might get so high as to disrupt agriculture in much of South Asia…"
  3. In 1994, Apple Computer began developing the Power Macintosh 7100. They chose the internal code name "Carl Sagan", the overt reference that the mid-range PowerMac 7100 should make Apple "billions and billions."[3] Behind the scenes, however, it was intended as a scathing criticism of Sagan and his brand of science.[citation needed] Though the internal project name was never used in public marketing, it did come up in Usenet postings and news of the name grew from there. When Sagan learned of this he sued Apple Computer to force the use of a different project name. Other models released conjointly had code names such as "Cold fusion" and "Piltdown Man". This was intentional as Apple engineers had used the names from what they felt were the three greatest science frauds of the twentieth century.[citation needed] Unaware of the true motive behind the code names Sagan was still displeased being associated with what he considered pseudoscience, as he was at the time writing a book discrediting pseudoscience. Though Sagan lost the lawsuit Apple management complied with his demands anyway and renamed the project "BHA" (for Butt-Head Astronomer). Sagan promptly sued Apple for libel over the new name, claiming that it subjected him to contempt and ridicule, but he lost this lawsuit as well. Still, the 7100 saw another name change: it was finally referred to internally as "LAW" (Lawyers Are Wimps).[30][31]
  4. In 1966, Sagan was asked to contribute an interview about the possibility of extraterrestrials to a proposed introduction to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sagan reportedly asked for control and a percentage of the film's box office receipts in return; these terms were rejected.[15]
  1. Everyone does idiotic things. Sagan was very smart, of course. 
  2. Sagan was very concerned about humans not destroying ourselves. That is a good idea.

  1. Criticizing Sagan, because he was an agnostic. 
  1. Defending Sagan, because he was an agnostic. 
  1. ?

Tracking Interest of those who agree and disagree with each issue

Please help me brainstorm the most probable interest of those who agree or disagree with President Obama on each issue. Just leave what you think motivates each side in the comment section, and I will add it to the list. Also, tell me the percentage of those who agree with Obama you think are motivated by each motivation. I will try to put the most likely motivation towards the top of the list. The book Getting to Yes, tells us that we need to focus on interest instead of positions. To understand why someone believes something we must understand their interest. What are their values? Different interest or values lead to different positions. Of course it is best when the author of an idea submits their interest. However others users of the website could submit and then vote on the most likely motivations of each side. We need to also classify interest as opposing interest or mutual interest. Businesses interest might include low taxes and good infrastructure.
A technique taught in Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (by Roger Fisher and William L. Ury) is to focus on interest not positions. In addition to having a place on the internet for the listing of problems and possible solutions, I would like to have a place for the listing of interest. Members of a country, business, or trade organization could list their interest. Businesses could list their interest of low taxes, and good infrastructure. Psychologist could compile a list of all of the interest of a family. A slight variation on this would be to allow people to list their goals.
These list of solutions, interest, and goals would become pretty long. If written on paper they may become a big mess. However the internet offers great opportunities in the organization of data. People could be allowed to vote on weather or not they think certain interest or solutions to a problem are valid. The interest that are the most valid could rise to the top. This would make the site more user friendly. However those interest that are not generally accepted will still be presented on the site, for those who are concerned primarily about the interest of the minority. The technology behind the internet will will make such things as responding to a specific solution, interest, or goal will be possible. The evaluation process could be used to let the site users evaluate the responses that people make. This will allow a truly dynamic give and take between different positions. If the evaluation process thrives then this dynamic give and take will constantly get better. Those positions solutions, interest, and goals that are described clearly, and are truly valid and logical will get the most acceptance.
However traditional problems may arise between people as the work their way to the real issue, and deal with road blocks in the dynamic exchange of ideas. On advantage of this web site is the natural way that the people are separated from the problems. You are not arguing with a person you are arguing with an idea. Hopefully you will not be arguing with a slopy idea, with lots of road blocks, you will be working the best but most valid idea.
One way that we could direct people in the way of evaluating solutions, interest, and goals in the best way. We could ask people if the way the solution, interest, or goal was worded might cause people problems. Perhaps someone worded their position in a partisan way, or maybe used hostile emotions. Each of these separate issues could be a plus or minus, that sends your idea up or down the slide. Questions could be asked such as, is this action consistent with principles? Yes or no.
I would also have a section of my web site designated to the hottest issues. This issues would be the ones in which violence is taking place. This would help focus interest on the issues that need the most help. One of the principles of Getting to Yes to to work together with your advisory on the problem, instead of working against each other. For this purpose we will rarely frame conflict of group a vs. b. However there are some things that could be done in this method that may help people resolve conflict.
Assuming that on the web site we have already listed all of the interest of every party, we can go forward with specific conflicts between groups. For instance in the case of the Israel and her Palestinian neighbors we could have a section on the site specifically about that conflict. This enable people to list such things as common goals. Both the Israelis and the Palestinian people want economic security, and other fundamental needs.

Obama is right on the estate tax

Is Obama the change we need?

Obama could learn a thing or two about health care reform from Massachusetts. One, time is not the enemy. Two, neither are the Republicans.



Mr. President, what's the rush?

Obama could learn a thing or two about health care reform from Massachusetts. One, time is not the enemy. Two, neither are the Republicans.

By Mitt Romney

Because of President Obama's frantic approach, health care has run off the rails. For the sake of 47 million uninsured Americans, we need to get it back on track

.

(Now insured: Francisco Diaz of Boston consults with nurse practitioner Anna Hackett Peterson./Josh T. Reynolds for USA TODAY; Mitt Romney./AP)

Health care cannot be handled the same way as the stimulus and cap-and-trade bills. With those, the president stuck to the old style of lawmaking: He threw in every special favor imaginable, ground it up and crammed it through a partisan Democratic Congress. Health care is simply too important to the economy, to employment and to America's families to be larded up and rushed through on an artificial deadline. There's a better way. And the lessons we learned in Massachusetts could help Washington find it.

No other state has made as much progress in covering their uninsured as Massachusetts. The bill that made it happen wasn't a rush job. Shortly after becoming governor, I worked in a bipartisan fashion with Democrats to insure all our citizens. It took almost two years to find a solution. When we did, it passed the 200-member legislature with only two dissenting votes. It had the support of the business community, the hospital sector and insurers. For health care reform to succeed in Washington, the president must finally do what he promised during the campaign: Work with Republicans as well as Democrats.

Massachusetts also proved that you don't need government insurance. Our citizens purchase private, free-market medical insurance. There is no "public option." With more than 1,300 health insurance companies, a federal government insurance company isn't necessary. It would inevitably lead to massive taxpayer subsidies, to lobbyist-inspired coverage mandates and to the liberals' dream: a European-style single-payer system. To find common ground with skeptical Republicans and conservative Democrats, the president will have to jettison left-wing ideology for practicality and dump the public option.

The cost issue

Our experience also demonstrates that getting every citizen insured doesn't have to break the bank. First, we established incentives for those who were uninsured to buy insurance. Using tax penalties, as we did, or tax credits, as others have proposed, encourages "free riders" to take responsibility for themselves rather than pass their medical costs on to others. This doesn't cost the government a single dollar. Second, we helped pay for our new program by ending an old one — something government should do more often. The federal government sends an estimated $42 billion to hospitals that care for the poor: Use those funds instead to help the poor buy private insurance, as we did.

When our bill passed three years ago, the legislature projected that our program would cost $725 million in 2009. At $723 million, next year's forecast is pretty much on target. When you calculate all the savings, including that from the free hospital care we eliminated, the net cost to the state is approximately $350 million. The watchdog Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation concluded that our program's cost is "relatively modest" and "well within initial projections."

And if subsidies and coverages are reined in, as I've suggested, the Massachusetts program could actually break even. One thing is certain: The president must insist on a program that doesn't add to our spending burden. We simply cannot afford another trillion-dollar mistake.

The Massachusetts reform aimed at getting virtually all our citizens insured. In that, it worked: 98% of our citizens are insured, 440,000 previously uninsured are covered and almost half of those purchased insurance on their own, with no subsidy. But overall, health care inflation has continued its relentless rise. Here is where the federal government can do something we could not: Take steps to stop or slow medical inflation.

At the core of our health cost problem is an incentive problem. Patients don't care what treatments cost once they pass the deductible. And providers are paid more when they do more; they are paid for quantity, not quality. We will tame runaway costs only when we change incentives. We might do what some countries have done: Require patients to pay a portion of their bill, except for certain conditions. And providers could be paid an annual fixed fee for the primary care of an individual and a separate fixed fee for the treatment of a specific condition. These approaches have far more promise than the usual bromides of electronic medical records, transparency and pay-for-performance, helpful though they will be.

Try a business-like analysis

I spent most of my career in the private sector. When well-managed businesses considered a major change of some kind, they engaged in extensive analysis, brought in outside experts, exhaustively evaluated every alternative, built consensus among those who would be affected and then moved ahead. Health care is many times bigger than all the companies in the Dow Jones combined. And the president is rushing changes that dwarf what any business I know has faced.

Republicans are not the party of "no" when it comes to health care reform. This Republican is proud to be the first governor to insure all his state's citizens. Other Republicans such as Rep. Paul Ryan and Sens. Bob Bennett and John McCain, among others, have proposed their own plans. Republicans will join with the Democrats if the president abandons his government insurance plan, if he endeavors to craft a plan that does not burden the nation with greater debt, if he broadens his scope to reduce health costs for all Americans, and if he is willing to devote the rigorous effort, requisite time and bipartisan process that health care reform deserves.

Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007.

Cambridge Police Profiling Still A Grim Reality for Harvard Faculty Assholes

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2009/07/cambridge-police-profiling-still-a-grim-reality-for-harvard-faculty-assholes.html

Guest Opinion
by Professor John Evans Evans-John
Harvard School of Harvard Faculty Asshole Studies
Harvard University

When I first learned of the arrest of my colleague Professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates after he stood up to the fascist jackboots of a declasse, ill-educated Cambridge police officer, I was of course angered -- but scarcely shocked. L'Affaire Gates simply aired, in public, the dirty 100-thread-count table linen of an American culture where Harvard faculty assholes still face a daily struggle against profiling, abuse, and insolence.

It will come as no surprise that Skip's arrest was the talk of the Douchebag Room at the Harvard Faculty Club last Friday. I and a group of colleagues had assembled for our weekly lunch; I opted for their competently-prepared Ahi Tuna Tartare and an amusing glass of '05 Hospices de Beaune Premier Cru Cuvee Cyrot-Chaudron. I had noticed that the Franz Fanon Memorial Booth -- Skip's long-reserved lunch spot -- was uncharacteristically empty, and asked our waiter Sergio for an explanation.

"Professor Skeep, he no is come today," said Sergio. "I tink he is in the jail."

Our table exchanged knowing glances, for we knew immediately that Skip was only the latest victim of a system that singles out the Harvard faculty asshole for stigmatization and unequal justice. It is a system that all of us knew too well, and provided an opportunity for an open conversation about our shared experiences as Harvard faculty assholes in America while waiting for Sergio to bring the dessert cart.

One after one came the cascade of stark stories: the rolled eyes of our department secretaries. The Spanish language mockery of our office janitors. The foul gestures of drunken strap-hanging Red Sox lumpenproles aboard the MBTA. The frequent police stops on the highway to Cape Ann and Martha's Vineyard for "Volvoing While Asshole." And then there are the insulting media stereotypes, where we are routinely caricatured as pompous, effete, self-important, irrelevant elitists. All, I might add, by a motley collection of lowbrow inferiors, few of whom have ever published in a peer-reviewed journal. Let alone edit one.

Sometimes it even comes at the hand of self-styled "peers" from D-list state ampersand institutions. One colleague recounted the tale of his restroom confrontation with a Texas A&M professor at a national academic conference last year. After relieving themselves at adjacent urinals, my colleague noticed the oaf leaving hastily for the plenary session and decided to gently point out his hygienic forgetfulness. "A Harvard man washes his hands after urinating," he said. "And an Aggie don't piss all over his hands, asshole," came the reply.

A female colleague from the English department recalled a recent incident along the Charles River jogging path during her regular morning run. A confused passer-by rudely interrupted her progress and requested directions, as if my colleague were some sort of lowly campus guide or untenured adjunct. "Where does this street go to?" she demanded. Naturally, my colleague took the opportunity to correct her, noting that "at Harvard we do not end our sentences in prepositions."

"Okay, Where does this street go to, asshole?" barked the interloper. Needless to say, my colleague's daily morning runs have since been replaced with tear-filled visits to the Faculty Asshole Self Esteem Counseling Center.

For untold hundreds of Harvard faculty assholes such indignities are, sadly, still part and parcel of being "The Other." As Associate Director of the School of Harvard Faculty Asshole Studies, I have worked to institute policies to insure that Harvard maintains a nurturing environment for all assholes in our community, be they faculty, students, or alumni. Some progress has been made, such as Harvard's mandatory sensitivity and deference training program for all incoming freshassholes. But such internal programs do little to address the impertinence and discrimination we still face outside campus. Some have suggested that we involve the Cambridge Police Department in an educational outreach program, but in my experience the CPD is among the worst offenders.

Case in point: last winter I was slated to deliver the keynote address for an intradepartmental asshole colloquium at Lowell House. Running late, I temporarily parked along Plympton. As I emerged from my Audi, I discovered that I had captured the unwelcome attention of a CPD officer. "Hey Buddy, is that your car?" he barked.

"Why? Because I'm a Harvard faculty asshole in America?" I cleverly retorted.

"No asshole, because this is a snow route and you can't double park here," he sneered, concocting a flimsy excuse for his continued harassment. "You have to move it now."

"That's Professor Asshole to you, you fascist townie," I explained, tossing him the Audi's remote-start key. "Need a valet? Call your mother at the brothel."

It doesn't take an experienced asshole rights activist to tell you what happened next: my Audi was on its way to impound while I rode to the Cambridge Police Station in the unheated vinyl rear seat of Bull Conner's squad car. To add insult to injury, the desk officer refused my request for a dignified background bookshelf for my booking photos.

Thankfully the Constitution still allows even Harvard Assholes a bare modicum of human rights, so I used my allotted phone call to alert the Dean and the Faculty Grievance Committee to my plight. In those 35 excruciating minutes I wasted away waiting in that stark cell, I wrote the opening chapter of "Letters From a Cambridge Jail," my forthcoming scholarly magnum opus on the grim legacy of Asshole oppression in America.

Eventually my arrest record was expunged and I agreed to meet the loathsome arresting officer at President Faust's office for a conciliatory off-record "beer chat." As the University Counsel had predicted, the lure of free limitless alcohol proved irresistible to the simpleminded Irishman, and he was soon happily signing confessions of guilt and abject apologies. Still, even after he was fired, I was left to pick up the pieces of my shattered psyche.

As I recounted the details of that unpleasant encounter to my colleagues, a few wondered aloud if we were not better served by changing the system gradually. Then our eyes turned to the stately historic portraits of the Harvard faculty assholes who came before us, hanging in silent judgment on the Douchebag Room walls; Schlessinger, Galbraith, Leary, Cornel West, Alan Dershowitz, Theodore Kaczynski. Would these great assholes have accepted complicit silence in the face of crude police insolence? How will we be remembered by future generations of Harvard faculty assholes who will battle future generations of Cambridge police and parking enforcement officials? Where is Sergio with the damned dessert cart?

Some suggest that the election of President Obama proves that America's prejudice against Harvard assholes is a quaint relic of the past. But for those of us who live with it every day, the evidence shows the opposite. And it isn't just Harvard assholes suffering the cold, rude hand of uppity townie privilege. Other, if less endowed, asshole faculties suffer similar oppression; in the southern Lacrosse fields of Duke, in the west coast arugula farms of Stanford, at Northwestern, where ever Northwestern is.

No, we must not be silent. That is why I have used a portion of my class action windfall against the Cambridge Police department to produce a shocking new documentary film, "Asshole Like Me," detailing the courageous plight of the tenured Sphincter-American community. It premiers this Friday at the Science Center. Get your tickets now -- with free beer on tap, demand will be high!

Romney on Obama's Push For Health Reform: Slow Down

Tuesday, July 21, 2009 4:19 PM

By Katie Connolly

In the last two weeks, political commentators have expressed doubts over President Obama's time frame for healthcare reform. Meanwhile, even some Democrat lawmakers appear to be getting cold feet. In response, Obama is relentlessly pitching his plan. He has spoken about healthcare on eight out of the last nine days, and he's scheduled to hold a town hall meeting on the topic this Thursday. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is one of the few politicians in the country with first hand experience of steering major health care reform through the legislative process. The reforms he enacted in Massachusetts have been critizied for being costly, but they've also managed to extend coverage to a significant number of uninsured people. By 2007, the proportion of uninsured people in Massachusetts was the lowest in the country.

I spoke to Romney about his experience with healthcare reform this morning.  His cautionary words for Obama? Slow down.  Here are some excerpts from our conversation:

What do you think needs to happen over the next couple of weeks if President Obama's deadline for healthcare reform is to be met? 

I think the President ought to hit the reset button. I think it is critical that he have the participation, involvement, and support of people on both sides of the aisle, as well as people in various sectors of the health economy. If we are going to have a dramatic shift in the nature of so large a part of our economy  then it needs to be something that has been thoroughly vetted and has received great support. Out of a desire to move very quickly, while his support is highest, he has skipped the critical steps of educating, involving, and evolving his own plans to meet the perspectives of the great majority of our citizens.

It sounds like you are encouraging the President to slow down. Aren't there risks in delaying?


He's in a very difficult position. We faced a very similar question [in Massachusetts] as we began our process. We spent over two years putting together a health care plan and then building support for it on both sides of the aisle - working with hospitals, providers, doctors, business groups, labor groups, advocates for the poor. We involved all of these parties, and it took a long time, but what we ended up with was a bill that passed the legislature - if you combine the House and the Senate - 198 to 2. 

What lessons can be gleaned from your experience in Massachusetts?

After we crafted the architecture of our plan, the first person I went to was Ted Kennedy. He and I met numerous times and what we fashioned was not perfect in either one of our eyes, but we worked together, because only together could we know that we would have the support of all the parties necessary to make it work.

The states are laboratories of democracy. Well, our state passed a bill. It's been in place now for several years. Have they studied it? Have they spoken with the Republicans and Democrats in Masssachusetts? Have they spoken with hospitals? Doctors? Have they sent the GAO there to take it apart to see what is working well and what is not? Nobody has given me a call, except Republicans. I've received no calls from Democrats saying what do you think about it? What would you do differently if you were to do it today? There's a whole series of things I'd do differently. And yet, there seems to be such a rush to act. I understand that President Obama wants to get this done in his first term, but more important than getting it done in the first year is getting it done right, before he is out of office. There is time here to get it done right.

In terms of the reform proposals before Congress, what do you see that you like and dislike so far?

I'm not happy that the President wants to provide a so-called public option. There is no need for the government to become an insurance company. I'm convinced, as many before me have said, that this is a step towards a single payer system; that it will result in billions, if not hundreds of billions, of subsidies down the road and a new entitlement, which is one of the last things America needs right now. On the other hand I am happy that he is actually working to reform healthcare. It's important for us to get everyone insured. It's important that there be an effort made to reduce the excessive inflation in the healthcare sector. 

How well do the current proposals deal with reducing costs?

The legislation has almost nothing to do with cost reduction. Nothing I have seen in the bills that are being discussed by the Democratic leadership suggests that there will be a significant change in health inflation. 

This is an extraordinarily important topic and one for which there is a great deal of information around the world. Normally, if this were private enterprise, you would spend a great deal of time with brilliant analysts, looking at alternatives, evaluating lessons from foreign places, and perhaps even experimenting with some alternatives before unleashing them on the entire US economy. Healthcare reform is a matter that should be focused on allowing our citizens to have better health at more reasonable cost, as opposed to being thought of as a political success or failure. We really can't afford a lot of trillion dollar mistakes.

What do you think the President's message to the American people should be when he speaks on Wednesday night?

I don't presume to give the President advice. I can say that the campaign promise that President Obama made to work on a bipartisan basis and to change the atmosphere in Washington is something which I think America is still hoping to see, particularly in health care. It is just not consistent with his original vision to anticipate jamming through a piece of legislation which has numerous flaws, and which can only receive the support of his own party if members of that party have had their arms twisted into knots. That is not going to be the right kind of answer to America's health care needs. 

Obama vs Romney in 2012

I saw this image, where a soccer mom asks Obama, "I thought you were getting a Hybrid?" Obama is driving a giant SUV that says "Big Gov". I compare what Obama is doing with the government, to what Romney would have done.

Here is a quote:
Romney took more than skills and knowledge away from Bain; he also acquired a way of thinking, a Weltanschauung—call it the Bain world view. He sees waste and inefficiency in almost moral terms; in fact, his crusade against inefficiency is practically a governing philosophy. "Government inefficiency wastes resources and places a burden on citizens and employers that's harmful to our future," he told me. "And anytime I see waste, or patronage, it bothers me." 

Now compare that to Obama.

[Obama-inefficiency.gif]

Romney is the best candidate to handle our massive problems.

Reasons to agree

  1. Romney ran businesses (Bain Capital and Bain Consulting) that purchased poorly ran companies and turned them around.
  2. Barack Obama is running the country poorly.
  3. The country will need a massive turnaround in 2012.
The inefficiencies of the internal combustion engine are nothing compared to the waste of energy that big bureaucracies produce. 

Obama is wrong on Card Check

Obama is a cosponsor of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, which is also called the “card check” bill.

Obama, unlike Romney, does not know how to run a business

Obama is wrong to think that empathy is a qualification to be a supreme court judge

Background: Obama said, "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."
Obama is wrong to think that empathy is a qualification to be a supreme court judge
Reasons to agree
  1. Lady justice has her eyes covered, because she limits her own view, but just holds the scale. Judges are also supposed to limit their own view. Our country has stayed for so long, without rebellions because we have the separation of powers. Legislatures make the law, and judges enforce it. We are going to have states try to leave the union, if they don't feel it still follows the intent of the constitution. Liberals think they are getting what they want, when they disregard the separation of power, but it leads to chaos.

Romney is more likely than other candidates to help our economy

Reasons to agree
  1. Romney knows more about business than any other candidate.
  2. Romney knows more about the economy than any other candidate. We need a president who understand the economy.
Probable interest of those who agree:

  1. They arrive at their decision independent of any ulterior motivation.
  2. Promoting Mormonism by promoting a Mormon.
  3. Promoting Mormonism by attacking someone who stands in the way of a Mormon (Huckabee).

Probable interest of those who disagree:
  1. They arrive at their decision independent of any ulterior motivation.
  2. Opposing Mormonism by Opposing a Mormon.
  3. Promoting Evangelicalism by attacking someone who stands in the way of an Evangelical (Huckabee).
Please leave a comment if you would like to add a Reason to agree or disagree, probable interest of those who agree or disagree, webpages orbooks that agree or disagree.

Romney is better than Huckabee on Crime

Reasons to agree:
  1. Huckabee is week on crime.
Probable interest of those who agree:

  1. They arrive at their decision independent of any ulterior motivation.
  2. Promoting Mormonism by promoting a Mormon

Probable interest of those who disagree:
  1. They arrive at their decision independent of any ulterior motivation.
  2. Opposing Mormonism by promoting a Mormon
Please leave a comment if you would like to add a Reason to agree or disagree, probable interest of those who agree or disagree, webpages orbooks that agree or disagree.

Solar Panel and Wind Turbine Idea

When wealthy people die, much of their money gets taxed. It is called
the estate tax, by those who like the tax and the death tax by those
who want to make the tax sound morbid. In nations that have the estate
tax, rich people who spend their money on solar panels or wind
turbines could avoid it, with all the money that they use for that
equipment.

This would stimulate the market for this equipment. Billions of
dollars would get invested in this wind turbines and solar panels. And
we wouldn't be going around the estate tax really, because when you
die you are not transferring money, or houses. You give your kids a
pile of solar panels or wind turbines. The "value" of these items do
not get taxed.

So instead of Paris Hilton getting access to offshore bank accounts
when her father dies, she would get millions of dollars of solar
equipment that her dad bought in 2010, that helped stimulate the
economy, and that she can use to produce clean energy.

Barack Obama was melodramatic about his drug use.


If you think my post come out of the middle of no where, I'm sorry. I hate the news. I hate the 24-hour news networks. I like the Sunday morning news shows better, because they put the most important things from the week, into one hour. I agree with the following statement:
"To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worthwhile. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter."
So this is kind of out of the middle of no where, but I have been thinking about Mitt Romney and his drug policy vs. Barak Obama and his policy. That led me to the following ideas. What do you think?
  (This is a photoshop, just incase you are stupid).
Barack Obama was melodramatic about his drug use.
Reasons to agree:
  1. Obama said, "I got high [to] push questions of who I was out of my mind." People do things for a lot of reasons. To say that he used drugs for one reason, because he was having problems with his racial identity, seems to be playing the melodramatic race card. I'm not saying that it might have been part of the reason that he used drugs, but to fully blame all his drug use with racial identity problems, like he did in his book, seems a little melodramatic.
  2. Melodrama involves an oversimplified hero. Obama seems to see himself as a hero, in a very simplistic way. He wrote two or three autobiographies about himself, before he was even un unaccomplished senator. Now that he is president, he can write a few autobiogaphies, but he has already written two or three.
  3. Obama goes on and on about how honest he was about drug use. He even went on and on about how he "wasn't the first president to use drugs, but the first one to be honest about it". However, if Obama is so honest about his short comings, why did he keep his smoking habit such a secret. And how can the press go on and on about how honest he is and they are, when they never published, and I mean not a single news outlet, published a photo of him with a smoke?
  4. When Obama said, "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack though" (Dreams from My Father) perhaps he thought he would reach those who had used drugs and convence them to go straight. However he will have reached more straight kids and convinced them to use drugs, by making it sound cool, showing that he was able to beat it, and using their street names, as though he is still trying to have "street cred".What do you think? Was Obama too self centered with his drug use story? Will heavy drug use go up? Perhaps it will go down. Obama can be a good or bad role model to people in a powerful way. Boys without fathers. Obama was able to beat it… or maybe he never got in far enough.
How about this. Obama ties his drug use with his search for his identity. Bush's mother started the just say no movement. Republicans are about abstinence. Democrats don't like the goody-goody, never used drugs image. Steve Jobs said, "I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger." So according to Steve Jobs, Bill Gates wouldn't be so "narrow" if he had "dropped acid". Was Barack Obama trying to tell people he wasn't "narrow" when he told the world all about his drug use, but he hides, and the media helps him hide his continued cigarette addiction? Did Obama think it was sexy of him to have used drugs in the past, but he is embarrassed of his continued cigarette addiction? If not, why did he tell the world about the former, and no one knows about the latter?
Some of this may be old news, but I hope I am covering new territory.
Perhaps the important question is what party are we? Obviously, we are Bill Gates. We are not the party tries to glorify dropping acid. And it all goes back to these old battles from the 60s, that just won't go away. Forget Romney's Mormonism. It had nothing to do with his church… if Mitt Romney had used drugs in his youth, like Glen Beck, no one would have cared about his Mormonism. Perhaps Romney reminded people of things they don't want to admit were mistakes. Saying you don't like people like Romney is an important part of convincing yourself that people like him are narrow.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you do gain some great insight from dropping acid. Maybe Obama doesn't think he is really a cool guy because he used to use drugs. Maybe there is a logical explanation why he was "honest" about using drugs in the past, but doesn't admit his un-politically fashionable current cigarette use.
Of course the "I used to do drugs" thing glamorizes it, but the "I don't use drugs, made something out of myself, and became president" thing also de-glamorizes it. But that is not my point. I don't care about the glamorizing drugs thing. I don't even care about the hypocrisy of Obama saying how honest he was, when it serves his purposes of appealing to people who love to pat themselves on their back by saying how "nuanced" they are. What I really care about is what the whole thing says about Obama, and about the democratic and republican parties.
How many democrats are democrats, even though they want smaller government, but because they think it is cooler to be in a party that embraces nuance, or to put it another way, they are embarrassed of the goody-goody-religious right image of the republican party.
Everyone I know who grew up republican, and religious, when they started experimenting with drugs or Alcohol, they stopped calling themselves religious, and republican.
When Obama was looking for a political party, was their anyone that he could identify with?
Do we want to be the party of Youth? Do we want to be the cool party? What image do we have? I don't want the Bill Gates Microsoft image, and I don't want the Steve Jobs Apple image. What about the Mitt Romney image? I think Mitt Romney would make a hell of a president, and do the right things, and make things run more efficient, but what image would he present for our party? Is Mitt Romney cool?
Mitt Romney's dad was cool. Mitt Romney's dad was a man's man, told it like it was, was entertaining, and fun to listen to.
I think if we are going to win in 2012, we have to win the debate, and show how self serving and shallow the democrats are in their immature attempt to be cool.
That shouldn't be too hard.
1. Barack Obama was melodramatic about his drug use.


2. Barack Obama thinks its cool that he used to use drugs.

3. People should have to pass drug test to get government assistance.

4. We should legalize drugs.

Jay Cost is an idiot

Jay Cost says: 

"I doubt very much that the party will suffer any long run damage from his most recent comments. The problem is: if he will say something this now, what's to stop him from flapping his gums when it could do the party real harm? What if, for instance, he mouths off one night backstage at the 2012 convention in front of a Politico reporter? That'd be a great story for the party during it's crucial week of self-promotion!"

Shouldn't we judge people by their actions, instead of what Jay Cost thinks they might do in the future?

It is wrong to get offended, especially easily

Reasons to agree:
  1.   1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not acharity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
      2 And though I have the gift of aprophecy, and understand all bmysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
      3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the apoor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
      4 aCharity bsuffereth long, and is ckind; charity denvieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
      5 Doth not behave itself aunseemly, seeketh not her bown, is not easily cprovoked, thinketh no evil;
      6 Rejoiceth not in ainiquity, but rejoiceth in the btruth;
      7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
      8 Charity never afaileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
      9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
      10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
      11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
      12 For now we see through a aglassbdarkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
      13 And now abideth afaithbhopeccharity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

There is no such thing as "pure republican principals" we all just draw the lines at different places.

Reasons to agree:
  1. If republicans are for "low taxes", a completly pure republican would have no taxes. No republican is offering a completly pure tax policy, we just all draw different lines for what "low taxes" are.

Republicans should stop trying to kick people out of our party

Reasons to agree:
  1. We need a majority, in order to be in power. 
  2. It is better to be in power, with some republicans that don't all agree, than to be out of power, and have only pure republicans.
  3. There is no such thing as "pure republican principals" we all just draw the lines at different places. 

Republicans should not be the party that gets offended.

Reasons to agree:
  1. It is wrong to get offended, especially easily.
  2. We think it is stupid for people to get mad at Rush Limbaugh for wanting Obama to fail, when democrats all wanted Bush to fail. But democrats got all mad, and say they are offended when Rush says he wants Obama to fail, when they all wanted the same thing for Bush.
  3. Republicans think it is stupid to complain when you are offended.
  4. Republicans get mad at "trivial lawsuits"
  5. Republicans are the party of men.
  6. Republicans don't care about your feelings.
  7. If you rob a bank, Republicans don't want to hear about how hard your life was.
  8. Republicans want justice, more than we care about mercy.
  9. The democrats are the party of Mercy. Republicans have mercy also, but do not think it is as important, typically, in general, as much as democrats.
  10. Republicans know that giving Mercy rewards bad behavior.

Michael Steele should not step down as RNC chairman

Reasons to agree:
  1. It looks weird that we put a guy in to be the chairperson of the RNC, and then we get red of him. 
  2. You can't just say that Steele has done something bad. Everyone does some things bad. 
  3. Everyone does some stuff that someone thinks is bad. No one agrees with someone all the time. So just because some random blogger thinks that the head of the RNC is wrong does not mean you should toss him out. You have to say he has done something worse than other RNC chairs.
  4. It would look weird to have the party that everyone says still has problems with race to get red of the first black chairperson.
  5. Republicans are not the party that gets offended.
  6. It is wrong to take people out of context. 
  7. What Michael Steele said about Romney was taken out of context.
  8. Republicans should stop trying to kick people out of our party.
  9. Republicans should not be the party that gets offended.

Wanda Sykes fans are against Rush Limbaugh. AreRomney fans against Michael Steele?

Wanda Sykes fans hate Rush Limbaugh, because they pretend that they are offended because he says that he wants Obama to fail, the same way Democrats wanted Bush to fail. They fake all this righteous indignation, applying all these bad motivations to Rush Limbaugh. They try to interpret Rush Limbaugh's motivation. They say that what Rush Limbaugh means, when he says that he wants Obama to fail, is that Rush wants America to fail. They say that Rush Limbaugh wants American families to get laid off, to lose their jobs, to lose their health insurance, and to fail.

Romney supporters must not do the same thing to Michael Steele, that the Wanda Sykes fans are trying to do to Limbaugh. We are not the party that gets offended at nothing, takes things out of context, and tries to read our own negative views of someone into their motivations.

It doesn't matter if other people agree with us. All that matters is if it is right or not. Piling on is mob mentality, and it is that kind of thinking that brought Romney down, when no one would stop and think about his more nuanced positions...
 
"I do the very best I know how, the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, 10 angels swearing I was right would make no difference."
~ Abraham Lincoln

Nothing people say about you can hurt you if they are wrong. No, Mitt Romney did not have economic flip-flops, but it comes of sounding racest to say that even hinting that Romney had economic flip-flops is why you want to get red of a guy. He appologized! He said something off the cuff!

What are these other "little things" that "keep piling up"? Disagreeing with Rush? Romney disagreed with Rush, about Obama's success. What other "little things" are there?

I am not calling you racest, but the democrats are saying that we are motivated by race when trying to get red of Steele, and we should avoid that, and avoid the appearance of that, and I see nothing that Steele has said taken collectivly as a whole, or little comments put together that add up to him being rightly dismissed. Look around on the internet. We look stupid, because we are blowing this out of proportion.

Everyone says things that can be taken out of context. And it is a tribute to our system when people don't have to do market research on everything they say...

We should keep Steel, for George Romney's sake!

Romney's dad lost his presidency because something that he said was taken out of context. It would be sad of Steele lost his spot, while talking about Romney, because of something Steele said out of context.

Michael Steele should stay

We must not take Michael Steele out of context. That is what killed Mitt Romney. If we want Romney to have a chance in 2012, we have to change the way we debate issues as a party. We can't look at the superficial image of things... we can't turn the word "nuanced" into a bad word, and we must never take people out of context. If we removed Steele for what he said, we would be serving the emotional shouters of the party... we are not the party of emotion... we are not the overly-idealistic, naive, party of people who get riled up by something that someone says out of context. We are the party of ideas. It doesn't matter what it sounds like Steele said, it only matters what he really said.

Jay Cost thinks that it is tie for Michael Steele to go, over what he said about Romney. Jay Cost is wrong.

Michael Steele was saying what a lot of people believe. We need to win the argument, with reason, not by kicking those people out of power that don't understand see things "the true way". We need Michael Steele out there saying what people believe, and having the conversation.

The caller was saying Romney could have won against Obama. Who cares? Maybe Romney would have won, maybe he wouldn't. Who cares? Michael Steele was pointing out that Romney did not win. I think Michael Steele tried brainstorming some of the reasons Romney did not win.

Yes democrats could do what John Stewart does every night, and take something that Steele said out of context. But there are a lot more things that Romney said that they could more easily take out of context.

You could take what Steele said out of context, and say that Mormons do not have the right to be republicans.  But that is not what he said. Steele said, "It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism." He never said that he had issues with Mormonism, or that it was right that the base did. He listed it as one of other reasons, and he is right that it was a factor. It doesn't matter if what Steele said "sounds wrong" because he is right. It was a factor.

Steele didn't say it was good that the party reject people like Romney, Reagan, and George HW Bush, who were once pro-choice. If Michael Steele would have been smarter, he could have pointed out that Reagan was once pro-choice. He also could have been more nuanced (a word that Hotair is trying to turn into a bad word... not a good move for the republican party) in his explanation of Mitt Romney's pro-life position. Romney said he was always pro-life, but believed in the rule of law and promised he would not change the law in Massachusetts. When the democrat called him a liar, and said that he was pro-life, would always be pro-life, Romney had to convince them that he would not change the law. He would not make the laws more pro-life, or pro-choice. Romney kept that promise, but people took what he said out of context. It didn't matter than any person with 1/2 a brain knew that Romney was always pro-life, that he just promised not to change the laws, all that mattered was they have videos that could have been taken out of context. Well it is the same with Michael Steele. But we have to reform as a party. We can't keep Steel out of the party leadership because he can be taken out of context, and hope to get Romney into leadership, another person who was totally taken out of context.

Obama has not always put the safety of Americans first

Reasons to agree:

  1. Rasmussen finds 58% of Americans believe the Obama administration's release of CIA memos endangers the national security of the United States.
  2. By releasing the torture memos, Obama opened American citizens up to international tribunals. A UN lawyer said the US is obliged to prosecute lawyers who drafted the memos or else violate the Geneva Conventions.
Probable interest of those who agree:
  1. Republican Party Affiliation (40%)
  2. They agree with the argument, outside of any interest or alterior motivation (30%)
  3. Racism (5%)
  4. Political laziness & issue crossover.
  5. The dislike for politically correctness.
  6. The desire to call bad behavior
Probable interest of those who disagree:
  1. They disagree with the argument, outside of any interest or alterior motivation (30%)
  2. Democratic party groupism (40%)
  3. Liberal guilt.
  4. Political laziness & issue crossover.

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And I'll add your reason to agree or disagree with Obama