27th January 2003, 12:15 PM
I don't know if I really want to get into this because these are issues which really can end pretty badly... they have more realworld meaning than videogames... Plus, no one here seems to be on my side and its tough to be the only one defending your side of the argument. Why is everyone here who cares about politics seem to be conservative? :(
As you can guess I pretty much completely disagree with just about everything the three of you said. I don't know if going in depth is worth the time, though, because it'll just lead to more long arguments and no change in the world of anyone changing their minds. Oh well.
Still... how can you seriously say that environmental protection doesn't do any good? That's such a stupid (and classic for rightwingers) position that its impossible to argue... if you insist it you can, but it doesn't mean that it has any relation to what is going on with the environment in the real world...
Of course, Bush is doing his best (and given this political climate, making progress in) getting rid of as much of it as he can to help his corporate buddies. Its really terrible and will onlyl lead to more clearcut oldgrowth forests, irreversable damage to the ecosystem, etc, but there's nothing that can be done... the stupid people who allowed conservatives to control the whole government by, for some bizarre reason, thinking that which party is in power doesn't matter are really to blame. As we're seeing it clearly does...
Affirmative action? I was really hoping that after the whole Trent Lott thing, Bush would grow part of a brain and at least PRETEND to make attempts to not alienate the entire black vote. However, he then goes and attacks affirmative action and nominates super right wing judges. Great. Way to show that your party is exactly where we all know it is: for the rich white men only... Er, rich white Republican men...
That stupid tax cut proposal sure helps prove that one, if anyone needed any convincing because they haven't been reading the papers or watching the news for several years. Hmm, lets see... a dividends tax cut which will help super rich people and major corporations only. Getting rid of the estate tax, which will help super rich people only. And more like that. Gee, I wonder who he is catering his programs to... I wonder...
As for oil drilling in Anwar, its a less major issue but still is major because it represents something -- more government destruction of national parks and forests, just like all the logging that the administration is now increasing in other oldgrowth national forests. Good for corporate profits, bad for the ecology of the region, planet, etc... and for the future of wild spaces and national parks and places for freedom from clearcutting and building that national parks and stuff are supposed to be...
Iraq. I just don't see how ANYONE can think that Bush honestly has created this war (I'll face it... with Bush in charge, we never had a chance of NOT having a war in Iraq, 9/11 or no... it just gave him a 'better' reason...) over "terrorism". If it truly was, he'd be going after TERRORISTS. He's not... real terrorists elsewhere are ignored while he focuses all his energies on a nation that not only doesn't have nuclear weapons (or proof of a currently operational nuclear weapons program), but isn't even funding terrorists (except for Palestine, but all the Arab countries, including many US "Allies", are doing that so that's not a decent reason unless we go to war with, say, Saudi Arabia too...). Yeah, its over terrorism. Sure. And it has NOTHING to do with Bush wanting to make up for daddy's mistake of leaving Sadaam alive, or to give the big oil campaign donors access to one of the world's biggest oil fields. SUUURE. At least Germany, France, Russia, China, and 70% of the American public (I'd give a link to the poll, but don't remember where. I know its accurate... 30% of the people support us going to war by ourself. Its around 70 or 80% with UN support, though.) agree and say that war really isn't the right thing to start considering until diplomacy has been worked through and the UN authorizes another declaration against Iraq... which, if indications are right, France, Russia, and/or China well might block. So Bush is forced to go to war with only Tony Blair (not the British people... they are even more against our own war than Americans...) backing him up. Of course, given this IS Bush, I'm sure he'll go in anyway... I wish he had a brain and would follow legal channels like almost every other major world leader does, but no luck.
As for abortion, that is a VERY important right that I (and any self-respecting sane liberal) should be very scared about being destroyed by this administration... but this argument, as I've seen in political arguments in the recent past around here, devolve real fast into two shouting camps... and all of you (three, at least) are on the one which I can't possibly disagree with more. I think that trying to restrict abortion is really a truly awful position and that stupid stuff about unborn fetuses being the same as living humans is just dumb.
![[Image: story.jpg]](http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2003/01/13/tomo/story.jpg)
Tom Tomorrow is hilarious... and has got the Bush and Iraq situation down perfectly.
As you can guess I pretty much completely disagree with just about everything the three of you said. I don't know if going in depth is worth the time, though, because it'll just lead to more long arguments and no change in the world of anyone changing their minds. Oh well.
Still... how can you seriously say that environmental protection doesn't do any good? That's such a stupid (and classic for rightwingers) position that its impossible to argue... if you insist it you can, but it doesn't mean that it has any relation to what is going on with the environment in the real world...
Of course, Bush is doing his best (and given this political climate, making progress in) getting rid of as much of it as he can to help his corporate buddies. Its really terrible and will onlyl lead to more clearcut oldgrowth forests, irreversable damage to the ecosystem, etc, but there's nothing that can be done... the stupid people who allowed conservatives to control the whole government by, for some bizarre reason, thinking that which party is in power doesn't matter are really to blame. As we're seeing it clearly does...
Affirmative action? I was really hoping that after the whole Trent Lott thing, Bush would grow part of a brain and at least PRETEND to make attempts to not alienate the entire black vote. However, he then goes and attacks affirmative action and nominates super right wing judges. Great. Way to show that your party is exactly where we all know it is: for the rich white men only... Er, rich white Republican men...
That stupid tax cut proposal sure helps prove that one, if anyone needed any convincing because they haven't been reading the papers or watching the news for several years. Hmm, lets see... a dividends tax cut which will help super rich people and major corporations only. Getting rid of the estate tax, which will help super rich people only. And more like that. Gee, I wonder who he is catering his programs to... I wonder...
As for oil drilling in Anwar, its a less major issue but still is major because it represents something -- more government destruction of national parks and forests, just like all the logging that the administration is now increasing in other oldgrowth national forests. Good for corporate profits, bad for the ecology of the region, planet, etc... and for the future of wild spaces and national parks and places for freedom from clearcutting and building that national parks and stuff are supposed to be...
Iraq. I just don't see how ANYONE can think that Bush honestly has created this war (I'll face it... with Bush in charge, we never had a chance of NOT having a war in Iraq, 9/11 or no... it just gave him a 'better' reason...) over "terrorism". If it truly was, he'd be going after TERRORISTS. He's not... real terrorists elsewhere are ignored while he focuses all his energies on a nation that not only doesn't have nuclear weapons (or proof of a currently operational nuclear weapons program), but isn't even funding terrorists (except for Palestine, but all the Arab countries, including many US "Allies", are doing that so that's not a decent reason unless we go to war with, say, Saudi Arabia too...). Yeah, its over terrorism. Sure. And it has NOTHING to do with Bush wanting to make up for daddy's mistake of leaving Sadaam alive, or to give the big oil campaign donors access to one of the world's biggest oil fields. SUUURE. At least Germany, France, Russia, China, and 70% of the American public (I'd give a link to the poll, but don't remember where. I know its accurate... 30% of the people support us going to war by ourself. Its around 70 or 80% with UN support, though.) agree and say that war really isn't the right thing to start considering until diplomacy has been worked through and the UN authorizes another declaration against Iraq... which, if indications are right, France, Russia, and/or China well might block. So Bush is forced to go to war with only Tony Blair (not the British people... they are even more against our own war than Americans...) backing him up. Of course, given this IS Bush, I'm sure he'll go in anyway... I wish he had a brain and would follow legal channels like almost every other major world leader does, but no luck.
As for abortion, that is a VERY important right that I (and any self-respecting sane liberal) should be very scared about being destroyed by this administration... but this argument, as I've seen in political arguments in the recent past around here, devolve real fast into two shouting camps... and all of you (three, at least) are on the one which I can't possibly disagree with more. I think that trying to restrict abortion is really a truly awful position and that stupid stuff about unborn fetuses being the same as living humans is just dumb.
Tom Tomorrow is hilarious... and has got the Bush and Iraq situation down perfectly.
![[Image: logo_bos_79x76.jpg]](https://www.tendocity.net/logo_bos_79x76.jpg){kind=logo}