Political News Bits of the Day

Discussing all things political in NW Arkansas and beyond.
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David Franks
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by David Franks »

Dardedar wrote:We have a real piece of work running for the Ward 1 position Fayetteville. Below is an article he wrote. Since word was getting around he changed the name on the article to Malcolm Swift. When that too was exposed, he took it down. Here's an extra copy, from the webcache:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... clnk&gl=us

Here's where it was: http://www.teapartynation.com/m/blogpos ... %3A1998889
Mr. Phaneuf wrote fifty-five blog entries on the Tea Party Nation website. He has since removed all traces of all of them. This whiny little message is the last trace of the brave patriot Paul Phaneuf on the TPN website:

"Thanks for being sufficiently curious about the truth to come visit my profile here on Tea Party Nation.

"If you want to know what I actually think, rather than the mischaracterization and innuendo that opponents of common sense, economic efficiency, limited government and our Constitutionally protected God given rights would have you believe, go visit my web page at http://www.PaulPhaneuf.com"
http://www.teapartynation.com/profiles/ ... -the-truth

He complains about mischaracterization and innuendo, yet he has removed fifty-five examples of what he actually thinks from the TPN website. He claims in this news story that his blog post could have been "taken out of context", but he has removed all context. Never mind his distaste for government and many of its legitimate functions. Should you believe that this disdainful blog post was a one-off, or should you believe that his incisive "satire" comes from a pervasive, deep-seated disdain for people who are helped by government-- the takers, the no-skin-in-the-game, can-but-won't parasites that Steve Womack and every other Teabagger and Teabagger enabler has been kvetching about for the last five years? (Hint: his "satire" is more about insulting Julia than about the way government assistance supposedly makes women dependent.)

Here's the news story:
http://www.nwahomepage.com/story/d/stor ... 6NdBmbGIyg
"Debating with a conservative is like cleaning up your dog's vomit: It is an inevitable consequence of your association, he isn't much help, and it makes very clear the fact that he will swallow anything."
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Dardedar
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

Audio recording of a voter confronting Paul Phaneuf on his article "The Life of Julia the Pathetic Loser":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7alN1rfiaWk#t=93

Here's is the full collection of Paul Phaneuf's 55 articles that he's found it necessary to take down in the hope people won't see what's really going on with him:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/khe8d726n6li ... L0tMa?dl=0
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Indium Flappers »

War makes me so sad.
Garett Reppenhagen wrote:My war was completely different than Chris Kyle’s war. That doesn’t mean his war is wrong, and mine was right. But it does mean that no one experience is definitive.

The movie depicts compounded action scenes with very little political and regional context. It was a conscious decision by Clint Eastwood, apparently, to leave out the cause of the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. It was a conscious decision, apparently, for multiple characters to describe the Iraqis as “savages” and never show any alternative. When I heard of the bigoted reaction some Americans had after watching the film, I was disgusted, but not surprised. Audience members are mistaking Chris Kyle’s view of the war as “the” story about the war. No wonder someone tweeted that the movie made them “want to go kill some ragheads.” It’s sad that such a nearsighted portrayal of Iraqis has caused more people to fear Arabs and glorify violence against them.

It would be refreshing if a big Hollywood movie would take on the task of creating a less dramatized, more nuanced version of warfare. There are some incredible documentaries on the subject. “Occupation: Dreamland” and “Restrepo” capture the life of a service member in a modern deployment without sugarcoating the hard political environment that is a backdrop to the conflicts.
I was an American sniper, and Chris Kyle’s war was not my war by Garett Reppenhagen
"We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets."
~ The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

Behold, The Smirk:
Image

Image

Image
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

Image

Image

Image
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

A typical facebook exchange of me trying to reason with two of the non-crazy Bernie supporters (depending on how you define crazy):
---
Steve: "I am thinking the Hillary Camp is getting worried! The Oligarchy has been tampering with the polls,
the real poll will be Iowa, when the results are in, how will they explain the previous polls?

Me: How so?
Huffpollster, tracking 58 polls, HRC up 15 points in Iowa:
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pol ... ic-primary

Realclear, last 7 polls, Hillary up 15 points [edit: in Iowa]:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls ... -3195.html

She doesn't need Iowa. Or NH. She'll probably get them. NH I would call a coin toss.
She's up 28 points nationally: http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pol ... ic-primary

Steve: Hillary is just up 15 points, I thought just yesterday she was up like 30 points! Guess it is getting a lot closer to decision time!

Me: 15 points in Iowa. She's ranged from 20-30 points nationally. Right now she's up about 28 points, nationally.

Steve: I know you can read! In your own post it say 15 points!

Me: In Iowa.
The closest Bernie got nationally was 3 months ago, September 22. He got within 20 points.
That's not close.

Jim: The polls are being manipulated heavily. The real test will be how the lying liars in the media and DNC explain when Bernie wins both smile emoticon

Me: That will be terribly embarrassing. Hundreds of private polling organizations, all in on the heavy manipulation.

Jim: "Not all are... just a few that get the most airtime."

Steve: "Definitely, who runs the polls, the corporate media! They have a big stake in this election, if the populace wins, Citizens United is overturned, They will be out Billions of dollars!"

Me: "I remember when I really wanted Bush gone and wanted Kerry to beat Bush. I hoped the polls were wrong. They were fairly close but Kerry was a little behind.
The polls weren't wrong.

Me: "Steve: who runs the polls, the corporate media!">>
The media hires out polling to independent professional scientific polling companies. Hundreds of them. Their results are remarkably consistent.

***
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

Quite an achievement.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

A favorite thing thrown at Hillary over the years is the sniper bit. I've responded to it hundreds of times, but the answer is usually beyond the attention span of the conservative or Hillary hater who prefers the soundbite.
The background context on how this all came about.

***
"[When] ...she was asked about the apparent discrepancy. The newspaper reported her response:
"Now let me tell you what I can remember, OK -- because what I was told was that we had to land a certain way and move quickly because of the threat of sniper fire. So I misspoke -- I didn't say that in my book or other times but if I said something that made it seem as though there was actual fire -- that's not what I was told," she told the newspaper.
"I was told we had to land a certain way, we had to have our bulletproof stuff on because of the threat of sniper fire. I was also told that the greeting ceremony had been moved away from the tarmac but that there was this 8-year-old girl and, I can't, I can't rush by her, I've got to at least greet her -- so I greeted her, I took her stuff and then I left. Now that's my memory of it." http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/25/ ... index.html?

***

Lissa Muscatine, who served as Hilary Clinton’s chief speechwriter in 1996 and accompanied her on the Bosnia trip, [provides a fuller] picture of what took place. She gives her “vivid recollections” of the arrival in Tuzla, which I quote below:
"I was on the plane with then First Lady Hillary Clinton for the trip from Germany into Bosnia in 1996. We were put on a C-17 — a plane capable of steep ascents and descents — precisely because we were flying into what was considered a combat zone. We were issued flak jackets for the final leg because of possible sniper fire near Tuzla. As an additional precaution, the First Lady and Chelsea were moved to the armored cockpit for the descent into Tuzla. We were told that a welcoming ceremony on the tarmac might be canceled because of sniper fire in the hills surrounding the air strip. From Tuzla, Hillary flew to two outposts in Bosnia with gunships escorting her helicopter."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fac ... in-bosnia/

Further background, from ambassador Christopher Hill:
"Former ambassador Christopher R. Hill, who accompanied Clinton on the trip, published a memoir in 2014, “Outpost,” in which he recounted that just before landing in Bosnia, the staff and reporters received an unusually intense briefing about the security situation. Hill’s account does not necessarily excuse Clinton’s false statement, but it is an example of how memories can be forged in unexpected ways. Here’s what he wrote on pages 114-115:
[During the landing at Tuzla], I ventured over to listen to a member of the security detail briefing the first lady and her team on the situation we would likely encounter on the ground. As she did for every briefing she received, she listened attentively, glancing at her reading material as he talked and talked.
I found myself almost rolling my eyes as the briefer went on and on about the possibility of snipers and what the plan of action would be (essentially, making a beeline to the armored vehicles parked nearby). As the briefing continued for what seemed like half an hour, one of the journalists, a little worried, asked me if it was going to be that dangerous." --ibid

Further background, he goes on:
"I explained I was not going to contradict the briefer, but, whispering, I told him I seriously doubted we would encounter any such threat. For heaven’s sake, I explained, it was a U.S. military base with thousands of troops, where there had not been a single such incident in the three months they had set up camp. He was relieved, but those more attentively listening to the briefer were not, as they contemplated that soon they could be running for their lives across an open tarmac a la “sniper alley” in Sarajevo.
There were of course no snipers, and as the nervous passengers exited from the rear of the aircraft off an enormous steel ramp that could handle tanks and other tactical vehicles, we were greeted by a group of Bosnian children in colorful native dress. Hope none of them is a sniper, I thought. They presented Mrs. Clinton with bright bouquets of spring flowers that were quickly gathered up by aides while the first lady patted the children on the head … The visit seemed over before it began by the time we made our way back to the airstrip and boarded the C-17 for the flight to Germany. But the threat of snipers seemed to be all most people could remember." --ibid
"I'm not a skeptic because I want to believe, I'm a skeptic because I want to know." --Michael Shermer
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