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Post by eu.ro on Mar 19, 2009 3:01:42 GMT -6
I was reading my favourite German news magazine yesterday, when suddenly some kind of virtual hammer hit my head: "New Mexico withdraws from the death penalty" You guys are actually getting weak, aren't you? eu.ro
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Post by ltdc on Mar 19, 2009 18:43:10 GMT -6
hey, we've done stupid stuff before. november 2008 comes to mind
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Post by eu.ro on Mar 20, 2009 2:57:33 GMT -6
hey, we've done stupid stuff before. november 2008 comes to mind Nah, I don't think so. Obama was just the lesser of two evils. Mr. "Popstar" President won't lead America out of it's crisis and McCain / Palin(!) would have been another nail in Americas coffin. (To all those lovely Europe haters out there: I'm not saying that we make a great show of learning.) Nonetheless I think that Obamas positions are much more "America" than the antiquated views of his opponents. Something I don't like about Barack are his decisions regarding the muslim terror threat. To close Guantanamo without thinking twice was a mistake. Same with his flirting activities towards Iran. eu.ro
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Post by D.E.E. on Mar 20, 2009 3:06:42 GMT -6
hey, we've done stupid stuff before. november 2008 comes to mind Obama was just the lesser of two evils. McCain / Palin(!) would have been another nail in Americas coffin. (To all those lovely Europe haters out there: I'm not saying that we make a great show of learning.) Nonetheless I think that Obamas positions are much more "America" than the antiquated views of his opponents. eu.ro All of these are just your opinion and one that a lot of Americans do not share. McCain was not a lot of different that Obama and his attempt to please the Conservatives with Palin did not work. I think Obama was the greater of two evils but that is like saying I would rather be hit with a cane, over being hit with a whip, neither are good choices and both are going to hurt. Just remember who took office after J. Carter, and why. The results will likley be similar after Obama leaves. I am hoping he does better than his current record is showing but my hope is dwindling fast.
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Post by SubSurfCPO(ret) on Mar 20, 2009 5:48:40 GMT -6
Just remember who took office after J. Carter, and why. The results will likley be similar after Obama leaves. This is my opinion as well.
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Post by eu.ro on Mar 20, 2009 7:55:01 GMT -6
DEE, I understand your viewpoint but please let me add this: Under George W. Bush's regency, the relationship between the US and nearly any other country, organization or alliance on this planet came to an all time low. Furthermore he left behind a country that will need decades to recover financially. Right after Obama had been elected, Bush jun. became officially what you Americans call a 'lame duck', I guess. On the internatinal scene he had become that two or three years ago - maybe even earlier. (I know that most Americans give a rat's rump about the rest of the world but the ongoing crisis clearly shows the true independence of single countries today ... sadly) I think it was a strong and necessary sign of you American people that Bush's successor was NOT conservative. McCain, a highly decorated veteran, clearly had a conservative's pedigree. Nonetheless I respect him as one of the fairest politicians I have ever seen. While I critizice a number of Obama's decisions, I accept that the position he had to start from couldn't have been worse. On the other hand I think that shouting 'yes, we can' won't help to get the country out of the mud - if that is the only strategy you have! Obama needs support, that's for sure. From inside and outside the country. He won't save the world on his own, like the ol' bloke from Gotham City. It may sound stupid but since November, the picture of America in most European countries has changed to the better. Isn't that a gift in times of globalisation and unified markets? eu.ro
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Post by Californian on Mar 20, 2009 7:56:21 GMT -6
I was reading my favourite German news magazine yesterday, when suddenly some kind of virtual hammer hit my head: This explains a lot.
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Post by SubSurfCPO(ret) on Mar 20, 2009 8:28:49 GMT -6
Obama needs support, that's for sure. From inside and outside the country. eu.ro He did have support (mine included) then, he broke faith with many who elected him. First, he mortgaged our future with a politically based stimulus plan. Second, he signed an annual budget rife with unnecessary spending (known as pork here). Finally, for me this is the last straw, he supported a plan were the disabled veterans of this country should utilize private insurance to pay for medical care for service connected disabilities. I have full faith in the American people however to correct any problems we, as a whole, feel need correction. I think we can only go so far on rhetoric and no substance. This AIG business is already showing the seamy underside of politics and the President's own party, namely Sen. Dodd, is willing to throw the head of their party under the bus much like the republicans did with Geo. Bush. This a fascinating time in American politics; the best part, for me, is the UK gets it, the Europeans get it, China is learning a lesson in American business (they should have taken a page from the failed Japanese business model for doing business in America; namely, there is no honor in American business) and hoping they just can make back the money they invested, the Middle East does not get it, and Russia is arrogant. . They will do and/or say something very stupid if they feel the President or the nation is in someway weak, not comprehending these are the voices of free people. This is why my comment is a long term comment. I expect our upcoming congressional elections will be entertaining as well. The people are not happy, they will cheer in a crowd but they vote with their wallets and pocket books. If we do not feel that the change promised by Obama is real enough or progressing fast enough, then they will accelerate it. We have done the same thing to almost every president so far.
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Post by D.E.E. on Mar 20, 2009 9:49:35 GMT -6
DEE, I understand your viewpoint but please let me add this: Under George W. Bush's regency, the relationship between the US and nearly any other country, organization or alliance on this planet came to an all time low. Furthermore he left behind a country that will need decades to recover financially. Right after Obama had been elected, Bush jun. became officially what you Americans call a 'lame duck', I guess. On the internatinal scene he had become that two or three years ago - maybe even earlier. (I know that most Americans give a rat's rump about the rest of the world but the ongoing crisis clearly shows the true independence of single countries today ... sadly) I think it was a strong and necessary sign of you American people that Bush's successor was NOT conservative. McCain, a highly decorated veteran, clearly had a conservative's pedigree. Nonetheless I respect him as one of the fairest politicians I have ever seen. While I critizice a number of Obama's decisions, I accept that the position he had to start from couldn't have been worse. On the other hand I think that shouting 'yes, we can' won't help to get the country out of the mud - if that is the only strategy you have! Obama needs support, that's for sure. From inside and outside the country. He won't save the world on his own, like the ol' bloke from Gotham City. It may sound stupid but since November, the picture of America in most European countries has changed to the better. Isn't that a gift in times of globalisation and unified markets? eu.ro As I said I hope he does well but he has been a disappointment so far. GWB came in to office and before the year was out we had 9/11 I think that may well be worse than the current economic crisis. Of course I believe that simply because the economic crisis is one that was made by the companies that are facing it. It has become more than that, I understand but the fact is the economy was like a house of cards and some of the weaker ones fell, now the rest tumble. Quiet simply I still hope Obama succeeds but I do not see it. I believe that Obama is very bad for the US, and I do not care how the rest of the world sees it. McCain was not a Conservative, he did not vote conservative nor was he in any respects one. He was closer to the Dem's than the Republican's point of view. It is why the conservative base never took to him.
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Post by lawrence on Mar 20, 2009 11:15:20 GMT -6
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Post by SubSurfCPO(ret) on Mar 20, 2009 11:17:03 GMT -6
I liked the guy but I cringed everytime he walked up to the mike.
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Post by D.E.E. on Mar 20, 2009 11:21:01 GMT -6
I liked the guy but I cringed everytime he walked up to the mike. Now that is a fact I can relate to.
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Post by lawrence on Mar 20, 2009 11:43:05 GMT -6
Hi Joe, you have to admit he was funny though, some classic clangers. When he was nearly out of Office we had a wobble-U "it will be alright on the night type programme with some of his classics on. It was hilarious.
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Post by SubSurfCPO(ret) on Mar 20, 2009 11:45:34 GMT -6
Hi Joe, you have to admit he was funny though, some classic clangers. When he was nearly out of Office we had a wobble-U "it will be alright on the night type programme with some of his classics on. It was hilarious. W and Ford - comedy team
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Post by lawrence on Mar 20, 2009 11:48:04 GMT -6
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Post by eu.ro on Mar 20, 2009 12:05:35 GMT -6
As I said I hope he does well but he has been a disappointment so far. GWB came in to office and before the year was out we had 9/11 I think that may well be worse than the current economic crisis. It was different. Nonetheless it was a sad and terrible tragedy. No, it would be too easy to blame a number of companies and banks only. It was made by the people who bought things they couldn't afford, it was supported through bankers who gave bucks to folks who shouldn't have got a single dime, it was pushed through our never ending will to have more and more and more and finally it was made by governments who believed that businessmen shouldn't have to follow regulations which are beyond paying taxes. It's more like the biggest fell and buried the small. DEE, I think you should. Like any other country the US is far away from being independent. What no American would have believed twenty years ago, is reality today. People in Germany lose their jobs because other people in Detroit and Washington made mistakes. On the ohter hand people in America lose their money, because ruthless idiots in Berlin, London or Tokyo gambled with billions of dollars. It's a web and eveyone of us is a single node. eu.ro
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Post by SubSurfCPO(ret) on Mar 20, 2009 12:08:54 GMT -6
Joke of the Day
A herder named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.
The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, 'If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?'
Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers; 'Sure, Why not?'
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany .
Within mere seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data is stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.
Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, 'You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.'
'That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,' says Bud.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.
Then Bud says to the young man, 'Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?'
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, 'Okay, why not?'
'You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government,' says Bud.
'Wow! That's correct,' says the yuppie, 'but how did you guess that?'
'No guessing required,' answered the herder. 'You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows . . . this is a herd of sheep . . . Now give me back my dog.
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Post by Lisa on Mar 20, 2009 12:13:29 GMT -6
I liked the guy but I cringed everytime he walked up to the mike. Speaking of oratory skill.... ;D
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Post by SubSurfCPO(ret) on Mar 20, 2009 12:17:47 GMT -6
I liked the guy but I cringed everytime he walked up to the mike. Speaking of oratory skill.... ;D the sad thing is... she is MY elected representative thanks Lisa I am in need of a quadruple martini Oh, and Go DAWGS! www.georgiadogs.com/
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Post by Elric of Melnibone on Mar 20, 2009 12:49:17 GMT -6
GO GATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! www.uf.edu
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Post by Lisa on Mar 20, 2009 12:59:02 GMT -6
she is MY elected representative Maybe you'll like MY representative better.
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Post by Californian on Mar 20, 2009 13:49:38 GMT -6
I liked the guy but I cringed everytime he walked up to the mike. Speaking of oratory skill.... ;D Thank you for that painful example of how our schools are failing, Lisa.
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Post by ltdc on Mar 20, 2009 18:12:05 GMT -6
Hi Joe, you have to admit he was funny though, some classic clangers. When he was nearly out of Office we had a wobble-U "it will be alright on the night type programme with some of his classics on. It was hilarious. well stay tuned Lawrence, I hear Biden will make W look like an amature at open mike night ;D if Hussein allows him to speak
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Post by honeyroastedpeanut on Mar 21, 2009 11:37:06 GMT -6
I was reading my favourite German news magazine yesterday, when suddenly some kind of virtual hammer hit my head: "New Mexico withdraws from the death penalty" You guys are actually getting weak, aren't you? eu.ro Do you by any chance have digital tv? There was a documentary from 2006 on last night on ZDF-Doku about the death penalty in Texas. I was astonished that it wasn't biased against the DP. They had MVS in favor and against the DP, a guy from Human Rights Watch, a state attorney of Texas, a woman from the TDCJ, families of DR-inmates... It was definitely worth watching. The Human Rights Watch guy was really strange though. He was wearing shades during the whole interview and just talked about how bad the US are. He said that the US love violence (sic!) and have a horrible human rights record. I just wondered why so many people from Mexico try to get in this hell on earth then!?
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Post by eu.ro on Mar 22, 2009 13:02:03 GMT -6
I was reading my favourite German news magazine yesterday, when suddenly some kind of virtual hammer hit my head: "New Mexico withdraws from the death penalty" You guys are actually getting weak, aren't you? eu.ro Do you by any chance have digital tv? There was a documentary from 2006 on last night on ZDF-Doku about the death penalty in Texas. I was astonished that it wasn't biased against the DP. They had MVS in favor and against the DP, a guy from Human Rights Watch, a state attorney of Texas, a woman from the TDCJ, families of DR-inmates... It was definitely worth watching. The Human Rights Watch guy was really strange though. He was wearing shades during the whole interview and just talked about how bad the US are. He said that the US love violence (sic!) and have a horrible human rights record. I just wondered why so many people from Mexico try to get in this hell on earth then!? Despite having digital TV, I did not see that mentioned documentary on ZDF-Doku. You are right, mainly unbiased reports about the death penalty are rare. At least on German TV stations. While I'm an opponent of capital punishment I have to criticize, that this topic can't be discussed in the media without pushing people into the right or even Neonazi corner. That's more than regretable. eu.ro
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mst3k4evur
Inactive
Member of the Month - 4/09
Ameeerrrrrricaaa, F**k Yah!
Posts: 3,701
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Post by mst3k4evur on Mar 22, 2009 19:08:43 GMT -6
I was reading my favourite German news magazine yesterday, when suddenly some kind of virtual hammer hit my head: "New Mexico withdraws from the death penalty" You guys are actually getting weak, aren't you? eu.ro Weak?! You guys haven't executed anyone in 60 some years! Bring back the DP where you are then criticize! ;D ;D
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Post by eu.ro on Mar 23, 2009 3:46:23 GMT -6
I was reading my favourite German news magazine yesterday, when suddenly some kind of virtual hammer hit my head: "New Mexico withdraws from the death penalty" You guys are actually getting weak, aren't you? eu.ro Weak?! You guys haven't executed anyone in 60 some years! Bring back the DP where you are then criticize! ;D ;D I have to agree here, albeit I wish I wouldn't have to. While Europeans love to bash the US for capital punishment we simply have to realize, that most jurisprudences inside the European Union are a mess. Germany has just released for Red Army Fraction member, top terrorist and murder of nine Christian Klar after twenty something years in prison. That's an unbelievable farce, a slap in the face of his victims. His clemency plea was rejected by Federal President Horst Köhler but two years later a district court reviewed the case, psychologists stated he won't be threat to society in the future and that it was. eu.ro
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Post by D.E.E. on Mar 23, 2009 15:39:44 GMT -6
As I said I hope he does well but he has been a disappointment so far. GWB came in to office and before the year was out we had 9/11 I think that may well be worse than the current economic crisis. It was different. Nonetheless it was a sad and terrible tragedy. No, it would be too easy to blame a number of companies and banks only. It was made by the people who bought things they couldn't afford, it was supported through bankers who gave bucks to folks who shouldn't have got a single dime, it was pushed through our never ending will to have more and more and more and finally it was made by governments who believed that businessmen shouldn't have to follow regulations which are beyond paying taxes. It's more like the biggest fell and buried the small. DEE, I think you should. Like any other country the US is far away from being independent. What no American would have believed twenty years ago, is reality today. People in Germany lose their jobs because other people in Detroit and Washington made mistakes. On the ohter hand people in America lose their money, because ruthless idiots in Berlin, London or Tokyo gambled with billions of dollars. It's a web and eveyone of us is a single node. eu.ro Yep it was different it was much worse, as the current crisis is one of our own making. No it is not too easy to blame the banks and large companies, they did not have to make loans to people who could not afford to pay them back. It is why we have a credit check system. I did not say the smallest, I said the weakest some of them were huge but were very weak because of poor loans they had made. Now see I know you have some difficulty reading what I said, I did not say that Obama was bad for the world or that I did not care about the world economy, I said I believe that Obama is bad for the US. I do not care how the rest of the world sees it. They may see him as being good for the US or bad for the US I simply do not care. I do care how I see him. Do you understand the difference. Having said that I do not care if other countries fall that is an internal thing of that country and while it may have an effect on my country it is not my country. Some other country will rise to take its place. The same goes for every company in the world they can fail, while it may have a major effect on me the fact is some company will rise out of the dust and take it place. Don't gamble or if you do be prepared to lose. Yes like the web we are all a part of it but some leave and some arrive, the web continues with or without our input.
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mst3k4evur
Inactive
Member of the Month - 4/09
Ameeerrrrrricaaa, F**k Yah!
Posts: 3,701
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Post by mst3k4evur on Mar 23, 2009 19:24:48 GMT -6
Weak?! You guys haven't executed anyone in 60 some years! Bring back the DP where you are then criticize! ;D ;D I have to agree here, albeit I wish I wouldn't have to. While Europeans love to bash the US for capital punishment we simply have to realize, that most jurisprudences inside the European Union are a mess. Germany has just released for Red Army Fraction member, top terrorist and murder of nine Christian Klar after twenty something years in prison. That's an unbelievable farce, a slap in the face of his victims. His clemency plea was rejected by Federal President Horst Köhler but two years later a district court reviewed the case, psychologists stated he won't be threat to society in the future and that it was. eu.ro It get's worse. Klar and the others in the RAF may deserve more time or death but at least you can reasonably say their threat is in the past. Marc Dutroux, the Belgian serial pedophile who killed four little girls, got the max under Belgian law: 10 years to life. Hell, even the members of the terrorist cells in London and Madrid that were caught after the transit bombings will be out someday!
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Post by olivebranch on Mar 23, 2009 22:51:45 GMT -6
Many here are upset because Obama's election sigaled the end of White Male domination and the start of the end of the patriachy.
It's time for White straight men to play on a level playing field and they don't like it. They don't like it at all.
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