johnfás wrote:

He isn't going to let rip anyway. He is more intelligent than that. Whatever about going mad on the campaign trail it is not going to happen at the convention. Despite his anger at how his wife was treated I am quite sure he prefers Obama to McCain so he won't compromise it. Also he knows it would lower his standing both nationally and internationally no end.

It is just rather funny that they are doing it and that it got reported.

I'm not sure that Bill is that angry. He was a pretty good saboteur himself, falling asleep on stage, endlessly droning on about himself instead of Hilary and generally lookin a bit of a twit. All the signs of an unconciously unsupportive spouse.

johnfás wrote:

He isn't going to let rip anyway. He is more intelligent than that. Whatever about going mad on the campaign trail it is not going to happen at the convention. Despite his anger at how his wife was treated I am quite sure he prefers Obama to McCain so he won't compromise it. Also he knows it would lower his standing both nationally and internationally no end.

It is just rather funny that they are doing it and that it got reported.

I agree that it is unlikely he will do any such thing, but what does it tell you about those organising the convention and the divisions in the Democratic Party.

Bill will do as little as he has to do for Obama. I think that much is clear.



Cactus Flower

I agree with you Bill can be a right twit. IMO Hillary is by far the stronger character of the two. Here is quite a good article on her role now and her treatment.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/clinton_blamed_no_matter_what.html

Whoever gets the job will likely find the ground shifting under their feet. The failure to secure a WTO deal, the failure in Georgia and in Afghanistan, the sustained presence of an alternative in South America and the massive National Debt and falling dollar are all adding up to a world that may no longer jump when told to jump.

North Korea halts atomic weapons deal

Quote :

Breaking News 26/08/2008 - 14:36:59
An angry North Korea has halted its nuclear disarmament plans in protest at America continuing to list it as a terrorism-supporting country.

Removal from the list had been a key part of the deal agreed last year for the country to shut down its main reactor.

Quote :

North Korea said it may also restore the plutonium-making plant it has already demolished in a public show.

Quote :

The moves are expected to escalate tension in the nuclear talks involving China, Japan, the two Koreas, America and Russia.

Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said: “The US postponed the process of delisting the (North) as a 'state sponsor of terrorism'. Now that the US breached the agreed points, the (North) is compelled to take” countermeasures, it said.

The ministry also said the country will “consider soon a step to restore” the Yongbyon nuclear facilities, but did not elaborate.

The statement came shortly after Chinese president Hu Jintao left South Korea after summit talks with President Lee Myung-bak that included discussions on the North Korean nuclear issue.

In June the US announced that it would delist the North as a terror sponsor after Pyongyang produced a long-delayed account of its nuclear programmes and blew up the reactor’s cooling tower in a symbolic move to demonstrate its commitment.

The two sides have been negotiating how to verify the nuclear declaration, with Washington insisting it would remove the North from the terror list only after Pyongyang agrees to a verification plan.

youngdan wrote:

Lestat. If you knew what goes on even when a person is running for city council you would know that if The Wise Guys(mob) are against you you have got a big problem. What do you think of when you hear about the Mafia turning out THE CHICAGO MACHINE to help Kennedy. Here in South Boston you had a textbook example of how it works. Whitey Bulger controled the mob on the South Shore. His brother Billy decided to go into politics. Funnily enough many able politicians decided not to run against him. A 38 pressed to your ear tends to make many reconsider their political asperations.

Like to guess how Billy's political career went? Not only did he get elected in time to the State Senate but then the other 39 Senators decided that Billy was the best man to be Senate President and as powerfull as the governor himself.

Make him an offer he cant refuse.

If they refuse there is always the plane crash treatment

Why worry about the little mob when you've got the big mob on your side: Obama is backed by Goldman Sachs, UBS AG, Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse and the hedge fund Citadel Investment Group.

Murdoch backs him.

You don't get to be President of the USA unless you have powerful backing, now that is the story that I would love to hear told.

Whoever gets in is likely to have a baptism of fire, I doubt if they will last more than one term. Its the economy and with the relative economic decline will come a reduction in influence.

Quite seriously what difference will it make if Obama rather than McCain gets in? Does anyone seriously expect him to make any fundamental change?

Now Nader would be different. By the way Barr is polling in double digits in some states.

Squire wrote:

You don't get to be President of the USA unless you have powerful backing, now that is the story that I would love to hear told.

Whoever gets in is likely to have a baptism of fire, I doubt if they will last more than one term. Its the economy and with the relative economic decline will come a reduction in influence.

Quite seriously what difference will it make if Obama rather than McCain gets in? Does anyone seriously expect him to make any fundamental change?

Now Nader would be different. By the way Barr is polling in double digits in some states.

Who is Barr?

He is the Libertarian nominee, and doing very well all things considered.

http://www.bobbarr2008.com/about/

Squire wrote:

He is the Libertarian nominee, and doing very well all things considered.

http://www.bobbarr2008.com/about/

Hm. As a 'former' CIA official, he would be a good advocate for privacy, I suppose.

I would love to see all the lesser candidates do well. Don't really care what they stand for, but often they make a lot more sense than Tweedledum and Tweedledee duo making facile points. Anything that would help split up this 2 party monopoly is to be welcomed. Buying one political party is an necessity, two an inconvenience, 3, 4, or 5 becomes a nightmare. Obama versus McCain about as scintillating as FF versus FG.

Full Text of Obama Speech

For anyone who didn't stay up all night to hear this, here is the full text of Obama's speech. Irrespective of the candidate and his motivations, it was brilliant to see that big crowd who genuinely do want "Change".

Nader is said to be on 9%. The Greens are on 1%. It would be interesting to get a run down on the whole range of candidates.

I've been watching the Convention and thereby screwing up my biological clock and after hearing the Clintons and considering the alternative, I'm now supporting Barack Obama and hope that he whips McCain and the Republicans soundly in November.

Now we are going to have an elderly borderline senile, hard on the eyes, man standing beside a rather young and beautiful woman as the republican ticket. Does that image not scream out 'sugar daddy' and 'goldigger' to the average American voter? He may just have left himself open to ridicule.


I'd still say Mr Clinton is kicking himself he never thought of it first.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

I've been watching the Convention and thereby screwing up my biological clock and after hearing the Clintons and considering the alternative, I'm now supporting Barack Obama and hope that he whips McCain and the Republicans soundly in November.

I didn't make it throught the night.

This is a brilliant site with a list of all the Presidential Candidates - including the people standing for the Boston Tea Party: surely one you would have an interest in A-T ?

http://www.politics1.com/p2008.htm

I saw an interview with the Green VP candidate - a lot more left wing than here.

cactus flower wrote:

I didn't make it throught the night.

This is a brilliant site with a list of all the Presidential Candidates - including the people standing for the Boston Tea Party: surely one you would have an interest in A-T ?

I would and David Leip's electoral atlas is another fun place on the web. You can play about with states and percentage wins to compute all sorts of political outcomes.

Quote :

http://www.politics1.com/p2008.htm

I saw an interview with the Green VP candidate - a lot more left wing than here.

I see. They don't really matter, they just make up that 1.5% of the gap between Democrat and Republican.

Nader's running mate is an interesting character expect them to do well in California especially if Obama's popularity slides.

Unfortunately the Democrats may lose this election. They have picked a very weak, and dubious candidate, of minimum experience who simply does not connect with working class whites. His grasp of various policies is dire and he is totally inconsistent. Read somewhere that at school he had little interest in history and geography, it shows.

In a close race he did not have the wisdom or good grace to offer the VP to the runner up, and by so doing has demoralised a large body of activists from a demographic he needs to increase his support with.

Worse than that the decision is already coming back to bite him with McCain selecting Sarah Palin. She is probably going to be a lot tougher than many think, is a reformer, places importance on ethics and will take principled decisions. The conservative base will be well pleased and many of the working class mums in the rust belt and mid north will easily identify with her.

Still Obama's to lose but he is doing his utmost.

One consolation is that McCain will not be Bush 3.

Squire wrote:

Nader's running mate is an interesting character expect them to do well in California especially if Obama's popularity slides.

Unfortunately the Democrats may lose this election. They have picked a very weak, and dubious candidate, of minimum experience who simply does not connect with working class whites. His grasp of various policies is dire and he is totally inconsistent. Read somewhere that at school he had little interest in history and geography, it shows.

In a close race he did not have the wisdom or good grace to offer the VP to the runner up, and by so doing has demoralised a large body of activists from a demographic he needs to increase his support with.

Worse than that the decision is already coming back to bite him with McCain selecting Sarah Palin. She is probably going to be a lot tougher than many think, is a reformer, places importance on ethics and will take principled decisions. The conservative base will be well pleased and many of the working class mums in the rust belt and mid north will easily identify with her.

Still Obama's to lose but he is doing his utmost.

One consolation is that McCain will not be Bush 3.

A lack of interest in history and geography might not be such a bad thing in a US President. Last time Nader was seriously criticised for splitting the left vote. How does this voting work, do you know ? there are a lot of people on that list of potential candidates.

cactus flower wrote:

This is a brilliant site with a list of all the Presidential Candidates - including the people standing for the Boston Tea Party: surely one you would have an interest in A-T ?

I would love to stand for the Boston Tea Party. I would include Tealogical Studies as a school subject, a tax on coffee products and subsidies for tea houses in the manifesto. We would bring about a Rooibos Revolution.

Have you tried shopping for some tay in Lidl recently? two fifty for 160 bags of Typhoo or "Mackinlays". I've tried both - they're good so it's quite a teaconomical place to shop, Lidl .

End of off-topic from me, I promise.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Have you tried shopping for some tay in Lidl recently? two fifty for 160 bags of Typhoo or "Mackinlays". I've tried both - they're good so it's quite a teaconomical place to shop, Lidl .

End of off-topic from me, I promise.

Excellent work, comrade. I tend to get Lyons/Barrys/Twinings but Typhoo is grand stuff. I'd have that and that is indeed rather nice and it can be the brew of the bust while when the recovery comes, we can return to Twinings as the brew of the boom!

End of off topicness also.

cactus flower wrote:

A lack of interest in history and geography might not be such a bad thing in a US President. Last time Nader was seriously criticised for splitting the left vote. How does this voting work, do you know ? there are a lot of people on that list of potential candidates.

Lack of knowledge is a very useful attribute in a puppet.

This idea that the Democrats or anyone else owns votes typifies their arrogance, and what is wrong with the Democratic Party. If they were so concern about other parties they could introduce run off voting, but no they prefer it as it is. Bi-polar politics suits them. Apart from that Nader didn't lose Gore the election. Gore failed to carry his own state etc. etc. With all the hanging bits of paper in Florida the Democrats conceded much too early. However the enquiry was taken up by people like Cynthia McKinney (Green Party candidate) and that is why all Jeb Bush's vote rigging came out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPOmOTyDm1w

Cynthia McKinney is a bit of a live wire, and not exactly my sort of politics, but I think in many ways she is not bad at all. Forget the McCain - Obama debate what I would love to see is Obama debating with McKinney. She would probably demolish him in a few minutes especially if you equipped them both with boxing gloves. Indeed a Nader - Obama debate would be interesting, foregone conclusion who would win. Obama is a seriously weak candidate. If you look at his voting record he constantly avoids decisions and simply votes present. It is not just inexperience that is the problem.

The voting is plain simple one vote. plonk!

The Prohibition Party look like a bundle of joy.

Live coverage of the gop conference. http://www.gopconvention.com/videos/

Is he seriously expecting a bounce from this sentimentalist hyperbole?

riadach wrote:

Live coverage of the gop conference. http://www.gopconvention.com/videos/

Is he seriously expecting a bounce from this sentimentalist hyperbole?

Americans like sentimental, dollops of it, Bambi, Disney syrup by the ladle.

Lieberman strong speech, Ron Paul good speech.

You are aware these were 2 separate events and the 1.3 million Paulites who voted in the primaries have no intention of voting for McCain.

There seems to be a bit of naievety here as regards the Mob so here is an article for you all to read. http://www.lewrockwell.com/burris/burris10.html