The General US Politics Thread

Mandatory voting ID is fine... if you make sure that every voting age citizen gets free and easy access to them. No fee, no having to take time off (or even lose your job) to get one, no having the party in power load up districts that favor them with DM Vs while their opponents get one that's open a few hours a month on working days, etc. The execution is the most vital component here; if its done wrong it restricts people. In this case its obviously being used to suppress voters.

Exactly. If we assume citizens have a constitutional right to vote, and assume I Ds are mandatory for a person to be able to vote, then the Government is logically required to provide them free of charge. Otherwise, it's basically a pole tax.

@shimaspawn: Just for the record, the credit union where I cash my checks requires two forms of ID for each check, or one form plus a current phone number. So yeah, there are cases where photo ID is needed to cash a check. Might just be the fact that I'm a nonmember of this credit union, though.

You can find all sorts of places where things are required, but assuming that finding them means that they're required everywhere is just silly.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/05/24/who-is-the-smallest-government-spender-since-eisenhower-would-you-believe-its-barack-obama/

Face Palm

Sadly no one will pay attention to this.

I say that a long time ago.

Flashback: Mitt Romney says that any deficit spending, even for disaster relief, is "immoral."

This from the man who spent 3 times than his campaign took in.

How is it immoral? I hear this often but it never made sense to me.

How is "making sense" necessary? This is politics.

edited 28th Oct '12 3:28:03 PM by Ramidel

It's saddling the future generations with debt. Like stealing money from them.

Nevermind that we do the same thing with environmental problems but you don't hear them making the same argument about that.

It matters because many positions make sense from an insane worldview. Now since the worldview is insane that means it shouldn't be followed in the real world but in some other reality it would be correct. I can't even contemplate what worldview would say deficits are immoral.

Thank you for pointing that out.

Also we would not have a fucking deficit if we cut military spending by half and taxed corporations and rich people at reasonable rates. You cannot claim "Think of the Children!" while simultaneously opposing measures that would fix deficits and the environment.

edited 28th Oct '12 3:32:04 PM by Kostya

Hypocritical and morally bankrupt... but if any Republicans start bitching about how emergency disaster funding is being used while people are suffering the effects of this storm it might hurt them in places like Virginia and North Carolina. Come on foot in mouth disease...

So, Deb Fischer might not have as clean of a shot at the Senate seat that's up for grabs here in NE due to some adverse possession related dickishness. Most recent (local) article here. Basically, she tried to claim some valuable land by adverse possession so she could turn around and sell it, and at the same time, had carried out actions that made the adverse possession claim invalid. It's a major point in the mudslinging between Kerrey and Fischer.

It's borrowing money from the future! So future denizens of the country will have to pay what the denizens of today! It's a handout to bond holders! Or something, I don't really get it either.

So it's okay to let people suffer in the present so long as our children have a better life?

Okay that seems horribly cynical...

Link is busted. How old was this story though... both parties need to vet their candidates more carefully. Her actions probably weren't illegal but they do look underhanded. Especially to anyone who doesn't know the ins and outs of adverse possession.

EDIT: Didn't know she was the Republican.

edited 28th Oct '12 3:58:20 PM by Rationalinsanity

Her actions weren't illegal. Just dickish and failed to meet the requirements for adverse possession. It's an attack on Fischer's character.

Fischer made it through because the bigger, more likely candidates (Bruning and Stenberg, both even worse than her) used all of their money in the primary to attack each other and by the end of it, they were both seen as less desirable than the 3rd place candidate, who then won a Dark Horse Victory in the primary. Kerrey was essentially unopposed.

Here's the link in tinyurl form: http://tinyurl.com/9g53mmw

edited 28th Oct '12 4:05:26 PM by Balmung

The "debt is a moral issue" meme is just used to justify austerity. That's it. It doesn't have to make sense if enough people believe it.

edited 28th Oct '12 5:12:29 PM by HilarityEnsues

A different look on Romney:

Victory is yours for today - if only everyone saw this and fought accordingly...

edited 28th Oct '12 5:52:33 PM by LostAnarchist

That video made me whole where I did not even know I was incomplete.

Joss Whedon rules.

Considering that I have a little parkour ability and lots of close quarters combat and weapons training, I feel a little better about Harper being elected up here in Canada.