One of my Facebook friends posted a link to this a week or so ago - Party Plaform for the Republican Party of Texas.

It wasn't really until I read it that I fully appreciated what a bizarre, and seemingly unlikely, mix of big business and Christian fundamentalism the Republican party represent, and what a strange barrel of contradictions arise.

For example, they support the, "Sanctity of human life, created in the image of God, which should be protected from fertilization to natural death" (Page 1) - so no abortions, no assisted suicides.

Yet, "capital punishment is legitimate, is an effective deterrent, and should be swift and unencumbered" (page 15)

Anyway, you've got to read most of the way through to see how strange it is, but it's worth doing - a very peculiar political animal indeed.

Its a corporatocracy. They're not christian at all - they're anti-christian, using religion as a control. And their 'principles' bend and double-back to support their own business interests.

But its the way that this mafia affect not just Texans or Americans, but all of us is the most galling. I don't envy Obama.

Why dont you envy Obama ?

Perhaps because he has to run a country where ~50% of voters think that somebody who believes in that crock should be in charge.

Personally I feel sorry for the ~50% who aren't insane.

I would not worry about the country anyway because Obama the socialist liberal president is running the country into the ground .

Is he? In what way?

Also, do you know what a socialist is?

Well here goes
1 trillion plus dollars every year since elected .
Nearly 16 trillion in the red .
100 million americans now recieve some help from the feds
Credit rating triple AAA down graded first time in american history .
Record illegal alien deportations and now an amnesty for 2 million illegals .
Record drone attacks in pakistan and afganistan .
Never passed a budget .
Record unemployment
Broke most of his election promises .
The country is more divided now on race than ever .
Thats just a few i never bought into the obama hype . Being a politicain be it labour conservative republican democrate its all the same . Same job different party .
America debt in 100 dollar bills 16.2 trillion http://demonocracy.info/infographics/usa/us_debt/us_debt.html
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

So, just to be clear, you're blaming Obama for a worldwide economic downturn, precipitated largely by the Republicans removing constraints on the financial markets, which had been put in place after the 1929 specifically to stop this sort of thing happening again?

The idea the America is more split on racial lines now more than ever is laughable as well, isn't that right Rosa?

Ok if you dont agree at least back it up with some facts . I go to america 2 to 3 times per year and read alot of the blogs . Try the Huff post which is a left wiing liberal and see how divided the country is . The hate on both side is unbelievable

Sorry I forgot, mustn't feed the trolls....

Come off it you have not read my reasons why the country is in a terrible state .He has been in power nearly for 4 years and what has he done to stop wall street carrying on the same as in the bush years .In fact wall steet is one of the biggest obama donors Dont get me wrong i neither care for the republicans or the democrates to me they are all the same just like england .

You are an idiot steve if thats the best you can come back with .

Thanks for that, but you are the one claiming that America is more racially decided now than during hundreds of years of slavery followed by segregation is laughable.

No steve america is more divided now than 4 years ago under bush .Have you been to the states if so when ? I dont know you personally and i have being on this site longer than you even as far back as 2001 before the site went down in 2006 although your have posted more i thinks it in bad taste to label me a troll . Personal attacks like that is disgusting and i suppose your way of thinking is superior than mine . I made a comment if you agree or disagree thats fine why cant people agree to disagree .

I agree the trolls comment was unnecessary

But you stated it was more split now than ever before, not than 4 years ago.

"Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half." - Gore Vidal

As statisticians are fond of saying, "The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'", and I doubt you read enough blogs to represent a statistically significant number of Americans. Also, given your political leanings, I doubt you even read a balanced sample of blogs. Ergo, what you are dealing is is not "fact", merely opinion.

Of course, there's nothing like a depression to widen the gap between the rich and the poor and when that gaps widens it becomes increasingly more likely that those on the 'poor' side will feel hatred, and those on the 'rich' side will feel fear - it's the stuff that revolutions are made of.

America is a deeply divided country, but it seems unlikely that the Republicans, with their tired 'trickle-down' theory justifying tax-cuts for the rich, are the party to heal that divide.

Wow your so arrogant but this is what i expect form a card carrying liberal . You dont know my political leanings or do you know what blogs i read to form an opinion if its balanced or not . Tell me o great one with your superior mind how you formed your opinions and from where .Let me educate you on my political leanings shall i . I have been following american politics since Jimmy carter/Gerald Ford times . Bill Clinton was a good president except for the Monica scandal the country was properous under him . 2000 i wanted Al gore to be president not G Bush . 2004 anybody but G.Bush how could the americans vote him back in .2008 Certainly not mc cain or palin . I wanted Hilary Clinton to be president however Obama won . I never believed the hype about Obama democrates ,independents and even some repblicians voted for him . At this stage the country was sick of 8 years of bush . 2012 a vote for obama is more spending and big goverment . Romney less spending back to the bush years . Not much of a choice . Is america more racially divided under Obama read this then




http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/09/how-racially-divided-is-the-united-sates-today/

I see you've assumed my political leanings

We're both working on the same information - what we post to this forum, and I'm a liberal and you're well right of centre.

The blog you posted is interesting, but it's an opinion poll, plural of anecdote, again, it also omits all of the information we need to tell us how good a poll it is; sample size, methodology, exact questions, how the sample was selected, etc.

It might be more productive to ask what metrics we could use to measure racial divisions - convictions for inter-racial violence, average white earnings vs average ethnic earnings, chance of being in employment, likelihood of entering higher education, etc. What do those figures show us about the racial divide?

Good debate, I'm scoring it even so far...

And your assumtions of my political leanings is slightly off I regard my political leanings as slightly right of center . I have visisted alot of the american blogs and the general concensus is hate on both sides . There is no way of telling how accurate the divide is but you can make your own of the information provided . America is coming to a cross roads and i think this is one of the most important elections in the last 40 years and its not being made to big of a deal . Why . Either another 4 years of obamas spending and the deficit could reach 20 trillion dollars by 2016 or Romney with spending cuts and paying down the national debt which will end up hurting poor people . Obamas problem is he took his eye off the ball with obama care which will not become law . Hilary Clinton done the very same thing in the mid 1990s and did not suceed but she was not the president . At the end of the day the voting public need jobs In 2008 obama made too many promises he could never keep . He most likely started off with good intensions but was contricted like any other politician and theres only a small amount of movement as president .In 2008 95% of blacks and 44% of whites voted for him . Come november 7th these figures will be alot lower .

Sorry for the delay replying, busy weekend.

I think you have to give Obama credit for trying to get universal health-care implemented, because it's been a scandalous situation in America for years and too many others have been scared to touch it.

Yes, it's bad timing that his presidency has coincided with worldwide economic problems, but the fact is that 50 million Americans don't have any sort of health-care, which means no access to routine treatment or vaccinations - a shocking state of affairs for a 1st world country.

The deficit issue is more complex; America still enjoys very low taxes, overall, and there will be strong opposition to raising taxes to help counter a deficit. Likewise reducing, say, military spending always creates Republican resistance and cutting federal benefits during an employment shortage is a very bad move.

I seen this on the net yesterday but some people said it was a hoax but its real . Newsweek which is a left leaning magazine have put the potus on the front cover and its written by Niall Ferguson the noted british historian Damning http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/0...s-to-oust-obam/

Whatever the leaning of Newsweek, Niall Ferguson is a right-winger, and admits as much in the article, and he's playing the Republican party line - down-play their role in creating the economic crisis and blame the next guy for not cleaning it up, make no mention of the partisan games the Republicans have played for 4 years, which have blocked pretty much every move Obama has tried to make, and capitalise on the fact that's is easy to come up with a plan to fix the economy in theory and it will always look good compared to the real-world success rate of somebody else*

The bias of the article is obvious when it's full of self-serving crap like this:



Bush went into Iraq explicitly saying that regime change was not an objective. A decade later we're expected to believe that the invasion wasn't a fool's errand to find WMDs that nobody really believed existed, and instead an amazingly foresighted libertarian effort to cause a domino-effect of revolutions across the Middle-East.

If Ferguson is a 'noted' historian I hope he's noted for being the only historian to learn history from Cartoon Network.

* I'm put in mind of the 'solution' to UK economic problems that's be doing the Internet rounds, which fixes everything (especially if you're an idiot and very bad at maths) ...

I know who Niall Fergusion is but for him to write an article for newsweek and for them to "publish it" thats the point . In 2008 newsweek supported Obama its a liberal magazine but now seems to have turned its back on him .

Sorry to butt in, but I can't help feeling that Newsweek's agenda might be a teensy bit more strategic than it might appear by putting an argument against Obama on its front cover:
1) It gets everyone talking about it and buying Newsweek, leading to
2) A riposte by the pro-Obama lobby, shooting down nasty Republican "historian"'s arguments and yet more people buying Newsweek to read all about how Obama is the only guy for the job.

It also made me smile that the article was sourced through Hollywood Gossip!

You can't base anything on that - Rupert Murdoch's UK newspapers appear to have changed allegiance from the Tories (having previously switched from Labour in late 2009) and it appears to be because of the Leveson Inquiry and nothing to do with policies, etc.

Does one article a shunning make?

Also there's value in making a straw-man of your enemies' case - presenting a representation of their values that is so obviously flawed that it increases your support of their target.