IamPhenom's Comments (1258)

“Centrist. He's still pretty conservative on many issues, especially defense/war.

I read his blog from time to time to get different perspectives. He's had one of the better right-wing blogs for some time. I could tell he was heading in this direction. He's been battling some of the far-right blogs like Atlas Shrugged or Michelle Malkin who are aligning themselves with fascist groups. He also strongly disagrees with the anti-science positions the far-right has been taking, as well as the racism coming out of many members of the Party.

Charles Johnson strikes me as being very sane and reasonable overall, so I can see why he is breaking from the far-right blogs.”

“First you need the Democrats to go off the rails into radicalism, and that won't be happening anytime soon, especially with a very (frustratingly) moderate President leading the way.

Maybe one day you will see the light the same way Charles Johnson has. The modern day Republican Party is a joke. They use "small government", "low taxes", and "more personal freedom" as political slogans, but they never actually follow those slogans when in office. Then they later disavow all the Republicans who did not follow the slogans, saying they were not "true conservatives". It's a way to avoid ever having to practice what you preach. They promise more freedom and smaller government, don't deliver it, then they tell you the Republicans who didn't deliver it were not real Republicans.

Republican strategy: promise, don't deliver, disavow, rinse, and repeat.”

“Politico is yet another Republican front group posing as a news outlet. Politico was founded by Fred J. Ryan, former Chief of Staff to Ronald Reagan, and longtime business partner of the Bush family (Fred Ryan ran Riggs Bank with GW Bush's brother...­.Riggs Bank was also linked to illegal money transfers for Al Qaeda and right-wing dictators). Ryan is also President of the Ronald Reagan Library and runs Reagan's "legacy" public relations while also running Politico. On top of that, Politico purposely hired only right-leaning to far-right journalists.

Politico only has a circulation of a small town (32,000), yet Politico reporters are invited on most television stations for commentary. They lose a ton of money, like most right-wing media outlets. In fact, their paper is distributed free, but still has only a 32K circulation.

Politico is yet another phony news outlet subsidized by the right-wing to spread their agenda.”

“Heart-warming stories. The efforts of these heroes not only helps their communities, they can inspire all of us to do more.

This is a nice event CNN has put together. Most television in general is garbage. It's nice to see a show with actual meaning and purpose for a change.”

“That is like saying there is "no fundamental proof" that there is gravity, so therefore gravity is just an "athiestic belief". Sorry megmac82, but you are wrong. Evolution is based on scientific experimentation and scientific analysis of evidence, just like gravity.

At the end of the day, you can believe whatever you want to believe. Nobody is stopping you from believing in Creationism. You just cannot teach it in PUBLIC school. That is the only issue. Send your kids to private school to learn religion. Send them to church to learn religion. Teach them religion in your home. Just do not push it on the rest of the population in a public school because it violates the Consitution and becomes a state endorsement of a religion and a specific denomination.”

“I see somebody got their right-wing talking points. Try reading those stolen emails. They do not suppress information at all.

But of course, you would not know that because you've accepted the right-wing spin that those emails "prove" global climate change is not real. YOU are engaging in right-wing groupthink.”

“Religion does not "admit it is religion". Most religions present themselves as the indusputable truth handed down by God. That is how we got the word "faith" after all.

How can science "pretend" to be empirical by the way? The entire basis of science is testing theories through experimentation. Of course it is empirical. It doesn't have to "pretend".”

“Ah, the old "evolution is just a belief too" argument. Ridiculous, but repeated very often.

Cameron can "give his other option" all he wants....o­n television, his home, private buildings that allow it, churches, private schools that allow it, etc., HE JUST CANNOT FORCE IT INTO PUBLIC SCHOOLS/BUILDINGS, WHICH IS WHAT HE IS TRYING TO DO.

The government cannot endorse any religion over another. That is the only way to have religious freedom. You cannot have public schools teaching Protestant Christian creationism. Otherwise, it is not fair to every other religion or other denominations of Christianity (Mormons, Catholics, etc.).

You would have to allow ALL religious viewpoints, even "religions" like Scientology or Satanism. Would you want your kids being taught Scientology in public school? Aren't they just "giving another option"??? What is the big deal? Forget math, science, and English, we'll take up our kids time teaching the latest religious beliefs from every random religious group. How about forcing your kids to learn about Satanism? It's "just another option" after all, right? I'm sure you would have no problem when you kid comes home and tells you they have converted to Mormonism or Scientology, right?”

“The difference is, I have never seen a Scientologist try to force their "religion" into public schools. The same cannot be said for Kirk Cameron's kooky group.”

“You just can't accept that Republicanism plays towards the stupid and the fearful. They have dumbed-down politics into little talking points like "spending bad" or "no cut and run". The same people who were probably backing Bush as he created record deficits and two un-funded wars now call for less spending. There is an elderly woman, who is most likely on Social Security and Medicare, telling us to "cut all spending", as if that is realistic. Of course, she'd be the first one screaming when her benefits are cut. We have people in that clip opposing things like Cap and Trade because they were told to, not because they understand the issue at all.

And sorry, I highly doubt 90% of the tape contained quality answers to questions about Palin. Look at the mindless, talking point spewing candidate they worship. I highly doubt an intellectual would support Sarah Palin, which is why most of the conservative intellectuals (David Brooks, Peggy Noonan, Kathleen Parker, Newt Gingrich, Steve Schmidt, etc.) criticize Palin the most.”

“But Howard Stern was interviewing homeless people on the streets of Harlem. This interview is being conducted at a book store with people buying a Palin book. The sample of people is MUCH different. You would expect homeless people to not know much about the candidates or their positions. You don't expect people who buy (and I would assume, read) political books at Borders and who attend official signings of a political candidate to be so horribly uninformed.”

“The problem is all the people who don't have access to our great health care system because they do not have insurance. Many cannot buy private insurance if they wanted to because insurance companies determined they have a pre-existing condition. Others used to have access to health care, but later had their insurance policy capped and dropped.

If every American simply had access to health care, we'd probably be ranked #1 in the world, not #37.”

“The Slate article does not support what you said, and the Newsbusters website is a complete joke run by a far-right group (Brent Bozell's "Media Research Center", an arm of the religious-right "Parents Television Council" funded by the wealthy, right-wing, Scaife and Koch families).

Now that you mention Terri Schiavo's case though, isn't it funny that the same people telling us the "government should stay out of health care" and that "no government beauracrat should make decisions your doctor should make" thought it was just fine for government to intervene in that personal, family issue? They also thought it was just fine for a Washington beauracrat to make decisions her doctor should make.”

“Can you possibly be more melodramatic? References to slavery???? Really???”

“Are you surprised? This is very common with large bills. Certain Senators/Reps hold out until they can get more for their home state/district. If I were from Louisiana, I'd be happy that my Senator got more aid for my state. That is why you elect your Senator/Re­presentati­ve after all.

$100 million for Medicaid aid for hard-stricken Louisiana seems reasonable, even if the media is trying to portray it as basically a bribe. There was a real disaster to hit that state and they are still struggling to rebuild.”

“genius”

“It seems that some Americans long for tough-talking dictators who change the laws as they go rather than the rule of law outlined in the Constitution. It truly is sad.

Of course, the same people longing for a dictator to "string 'em up" seem to scream the most about the loss of the US Constitutional authority and even want their states to seceed from the US Constitution.”

“I think you are delusional if you trust the private insurance industry more than our government.

In your doom and gloom scenarios of how a government program might screw us, you are leaving out that private insurance is already screwing us and raising our premiums by astronomical amounts every year. At least with a government program, there is some recourse. At least if a government program fails miserably, we can vote in politicians who will cancel or reform it. When (not if) private insurance screws us, good luck hiring lawyers who can compete with the insurance industry superstar law firms and endless political influence.”

“Exactly. When you put it in the perspective of what we spend on the Iraq War or defense programs in general, the cost is nothing.

I mean, our overall federal budget is somewhere around $3.6 trillion, and everyone is freaking out about $85 billion a year on health reform that would actually CUT the budget deficit? That shows how much health insurance lobbyists are controlling the message in the media.”

“But you have to compare those numbers to the numbers if we do nothing. Doing nothing will of course mean far more Americans uninsured. Doing nothing also means the current rate of unsustainable premium increases will continue. It will also mean you can pay that high premium and still have your coverage capped and still face limitations for anything the insurance company deems to be a pre-existing condition.

It's not a perfect bill. It has been watered down a great deal, but it still is a huge improvement over the current system.”

“Yeah, just ignore that they had a Republican President who vetoed all their major legislation. Way to spin...

Obama's policies are working, and it's tearing you up.”

“It is not just a he-said, she-said. There is actual email evidence that has already been released by the McCain staff proving Palin is lying.”

“It's not a political move at all. The political move would be making special rules for the detainees, like giving them a special designation of "enemy combatant", then holding them in a special facility in another country.

The non-political move would be trying them in US courts and holding them legally accountable, like we have always done.

We just executed John Allen Muhammad (the DC Sniper) the other day. Were we afraid because he was a radical possible terrorist? No, we tried him, convicted him, then allowed the victims' families to have justice when we executed him. The US Justice system worked.”

“Turn off Beck and pick up the Constitution Mokkie.

Terrorists have been tried countless times in US courts. Ask your grandfather whether it's right to give up the rule of law and the US Constitution just because you can't stop wetting your pants in fear of a few radicals.”

“I have already posted the official State Department Protocol for US officials visiting other countries. Here is the link one more time:

http://www.state.gov/s/cpr/index.htm

Is the Office of the Chief of Protocol at the State Department wrong?

Why are you ignoring the actual protocol and running with the right-wing blogosphere/pundit version?”