I’m tired of the system. I’m tired of a system where continuously utilize vagueish rhetoric in fear of tipping the scales too much in either direction. It makes for a boring political process that simply encourages apathy from the voting public.

Bull. I always vote, but I don’t feel that voting gives me the right to complain. PAYING TAXES gives me and everyone who does it the right to complain. Even non-voters support the government financially, and thus are entitled to express opinions about it.

I haven’t been around here in a while, but I’m glad I saw this post. I’ve been saying for a few weeks now that anyone who is still undecided either thinks too much or not nearly enough.

A few points (not necessarily addressed to YOU, but to the crowd here)…..

I voted Libertarian starting in the 80s and throughout the 90s. Always patted myself on the back for “sending a message.” Two things I learned about that message are: 1) No one is paying attention to it. As soon as someone wins, people stop counting the votes he/she didn’t get, and 2) When a useless knob like Bush becomes Prez, the message no longer satisfies.

Also, how would any candidate be able to outline how he’ll get things past Congress? I’ve never seen a candidate do that, probably because they DON’T KNOW WHO IS GOING TO BE IN CONGRESS YET. What personalities will he be dealing with? What type of mix? What other bills and issues will be on the table to be used for negotiation? What tweaks will legislators want to make? Either candidate, if elected, will have to adjust his tactics according to who the states send to D.C.

As far as intrusion goes, both parties are guilty, yes. However, which intrusion is easier to swallow? Being forced to smoke in private, or having your phone calls recorded without a warrant? Easy choice as I see it. Cleaner air and healthier food are intrusions I can live with easily – loss of privacy is not.I also find it a little easier to financially support a regulatory bureaucracy than to have to pay for the bailouts that deregulation leads to, followed by THEN paying for that regulatory bureaucracy after the fact.

I also agree that the “liberal bias” stuff is a smokescreen. After all, where do you hear it the most? From people like O’Reilly, Rush, and Beck that have a clear conservative bias. It’s said that the best trick the Devil ever pulled is convincing the world he doesn’t exist. The same can be said for the conservative media.

Again, I’m glad I saw this. Wonderful post.

Dear Nobody,

You say the media is biased against McCain and then you say you are huge fan of factcheck.org.

I cannot reconcile those two ideas.

The press absolutely LOVED John McCain until he started lying recently, and when I say they loved him until recently, I mean about a week ago. (See recent comments by former McCain fans Richard Cohen of the Washington Post and David Brooks of the New York Times and even funny guy John Stewart, who used to have him on his show like, every couple of months – they indeed loved John McCain. Also CNN and, yes, even Fox News, who never really loved him but certainly favored him more than Clinton and Obama.)

Do you remember tales of the BBQs McCain used to host, and invited the press to the party? The portrayal of McCain has, by most of the press up until the last week, largely been that he is still the accessible maverick of 2000, which he very clearly is no longer. He recently threw a tantrum because the press wants to investigate Palin’s credentials and what appear to be her political misdeeds, and until they are super nice to her, McCain says – in other words, until they vow to throw her softballs only – she is off-limits. They probably thought Charles Gibson would do just that, because he treated Obama so abysmally during that primary debate (you know, that one that made the policy and issue wonks so uncomfortable). But how dare Gibson actually ask her legitimate questions?

Alot of people who admired McCain in 2000 are just now starting to see he has changed over the last 8 years. I could go on about this particular issue, but my post is already too long as it is…

Look, if you (writing to everyone reading this, not just Nobody) hate liberal/conservative policies and love conservative/liberal policies, just say so. I get tired of reading/listening to people who seem to put on a front that they are informed and balanced when clearly they are not, they are absorbing just enough information to appear informed to other uninformed people. It has the appearance of, ahem, nuanced propaganda.

MSNBC is liberal, FOX is conservative, blah blah blah. All news sources have a bias, all people in the news industry are humans with biases. If there was an overall liberal bias 20, or even 10 years ago, it has disappeared. This of course is due to the corporate influence on media, and we know which type of candidates corporations generally (although not always, of course) support.

To say “liberal bias” anymore smacks of just not having your eyes open all the way.

All my comment comes down to, really, is that many people that consider themselves thoughtful and well-informed will generally only consider ideas that already support their worldview. And unfortunately, it is possible that a recent study has illuminated that conservatives are actually MORE likely to only believe what they want to hear.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2008/09/the_backfire_effect.html

That link is to a Mother Jones mag summary of the poly sci study. (the link to the original research article is within that Mother Jones article.)

Best regards.

We leave you with a quote from out House Speaker, the Rt Hon Reefic Coljik, “If the American election devolves into party polarization steeping in the vitriol of racial polemics and mistrust then the Union will be left in the hands of fools going into voting booths to choose not a president but an executioner.”

Keep up the good work!

Qu’ul cuda praedex nihil!

Whereas Palin is a member of an “anti-abortion group called Feminists for Life.” When running for governor in 2002, she “sent an e-mail to the anti-abortion Alaska Right to Life Board saying she was as ‘pro-life as any candidate can be’ and has ‘adamantly supported our cause since I first understood, as a child, the atrocity of abortion.’” [Anchorage Daily News, 8/6/08]

By the way, as a Texan I will tell you that Texas is the only state in the United States that has, written into our constitution, the right to secede. I know many Texans who wish we would secede and I know many non-Texans who wish we would.

I have read you for quite a while but, to be honest and with all respect, this post did upset me.

I have researched, I have thought, I have not decided.

Sorry if that is not OK but it is my vote and I can take as long as I want to make my decision. You don’t have to like that but I don’t have to like your decision to jump on the Obama wagon (although I don’t dislike it) but I do respect your right to do so.

PajamaChick