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Post 40

Monday, January 18, 2010 - 9:36pmSanction this postReply
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Ted:

For example, without even asking, I am sure that John Armaos will vote third party if either the liberal candidate is a shoe-in (so he has his choice of losing candidates) or if the independent might actually win. John can let me know if I'm wrong.


Actually you're completely right. I have voted Libertarian but usually when the Democrat is expected to win in a landslide, which in CT that's quite frequently the case.

Post 41

Monday, January 18, 2010 - 11:16pmSanction this postReply
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I thought so, John. The strategy is quite simple, and I know many non-Objectivists who follow it. It requires just common-sense level game theory and the realization that voting is how people get elected to office, not a type of prayer for which one wins metaphysical purity marks.

I think Sowell says it eloquently and, frankly, frighteningly if you read him in full.
Those of us who are not Republicans nevertheless have a huge stake in this fall's elections, because the current administration in Washington is not merely deficient but dangerous, both at home and abroad.

. . . It still takes a candidate to beat a candidate-- and the question is whether the Republicans come up with the kinds of candidates that can win.


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Post 42

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 1:56amSanction this postReply
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Well it would help if the Libertarian party didn't blame America for 9/11.


Ha! Yes, Libertarians and their evil beliefs that "actions have consequences". How dare they not buy into a scheme where there are wholly irrational actors! Those...those...reasonable people!

If that's your main hang-up, that's a pretty lame excuse, because Libertarians are not as collectivist as all that. They (and I) partially blame the American government...so leave your nationalist tendencies at the door, o collectivist!

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Post 43

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 2:02amSanction this postReply
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I thought so, John. The strategy is quite simple, and I know many non-Objectivists who follow it. It requires just common-sense level game theory and the realization that voting is how people get elected to office, not a type of prayer for which one wins metaphysical purity marks.


A solid understanding of game theory and economics in general would dictate that you never vote. And you keep saying "purity" even though you've been told time and again that Libertarian voters compromise, which is the antithesis to purity. Learn. To. Read.

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Post 44

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 4:40amSanction this postReply
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Four years of Obama will effectively do more to advance libertarian ideas than all the GOP administration so far put together...

...by more clearly illustrating the reality of the opposite alternatives of American Totalitarianism.

And by 'four years', I mean, the one year of free-reign he was given to expose himself, and the three years of discipline about to start.

More Americans are starting to awake to the clear vision of what they don't want. That wasn't about to happen with yet another 'Me, too' Democrat-Lite GOP administration.

Who knows? Obama might have even woken up the GOP to the reality of what they don't want.

Obama, in the end, will have been America's vaccination against socialism. A near death experience, but that which doesn't kill us...

Live with getting into office under the cover of the fog of 'Change' and 'Hope', die with the resulting clarity of vision when the fog finally clears.

Massachusettes, of all places, is about to historically not only just say 'No', but 'Hell, no' to American Totalitarianism. Even if the Democratic machine manages to force a narrow victory for Pelosi's Twin, the Scare in New England is going to leave the Dems shaken, their opposition freshly energized, and the 2012 midterms looking more and more like 1994 as once again, like clockwork, Dems in power overplay their hands and alienate the independents who swing every election.



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Post 45

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 5:53amSanction this postReply
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I watched the first 15-20 minutes of the debate last night (online here). Coakley seemed like a typical liberal Democrat -- all problems are the fault of the Bush-Cheney administration. I wasn't at all impressed with Brown. Electing him might block enactment of the Senate version of ObamaCare. However, he is hardly against government-run health care. He was touting the virtues of the Massachusetts state-run health care system. He seemed like the kind of guy who would vote for ObamaCare if it were amended enough with special deals for Massachusetts. He said nothing in favor of free markets or against government-run health care on principle in the part I saw.
 


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Post 46

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 8:59amSanction this postReply
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"Four years of Obama will effectively do more to advance libertarian ideas than all the GOP administration so far put together..."
[sic]

Nationalization of the healthcare industry will effectively do more to advance Objectivist ideas than all the GOP administration so far put together...

Default and devaluation of our currency will effectively do more to advance Objectivist ideas than all the GOP administration so far put together...

The annihilation of Israel while we sit and watch will effectively do more to advance Objectivist ideas than all the GOP administration so far put together...

America being brought to its knees will effectively do more to advance . . . ?

(And if we kill ourselves we might all wake up as NBA-smurfs of Pandora.)

Post 47

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 9:11amSanction this postReply
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Wasw the impression you got kind of like this, Merlin?

"In short, in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against woman and against politicians with whom he disagrees. In any other time in our history, this man would have been laughed off the stage as an unqualified and a disaster in the making by the most conservative of conservatives. Instead, the commonwealth of Massachusetts is close to sending this bad joke to the Senate of the United States."

-Keith Olberman

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Post 48

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 9:26amSanction this postReply
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Wasw the impression you got kind of like this, Merlin?
No.

Post 49

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 9:36amSanction this postReply
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Thanks Merlin.

And when you describe Coakley as an average Democrat, besides a rubber stamp vote for Obama's unconstitutional and intentionally bankrupting socialist agenda, is this what you mean?

Mona Charen:

If a Republican candidate in such a high-profile contest put out campaign literature that misspelled the name of her state, it would be worth, let's see, mentions on every Sunday gabfest and two, maybe three, jokes on the late-night shows. Dan Quayle's misspelling is the stuff of legend. Coakley's? Not so much.

When Coakley was challenged in an October debate about her lack of foreign policy credentials, she parried: "I have a sister who lives overseas, and she's been in England and now lives in the Middle East." Hmm. Just a few months ago, Sarah Palin said something similar, and the smart set has not finished laughing yet. Palin didn't say "I can see Russia from my house!" But the Tina Fey parody has replaced the less amusing truth. "Saturday Night Live" can be brilliant. But if Palin's comment was worthy of such mockery, wasn't Coakley's equally so? Just asking.

The woman who would like to sit in the U.S. Senate announced last week that there are no longer any terrorists in Afghanistan. Not since Joe Biden boasted (during the 2008 vice presidential debate) that he had chased Hezbollah from Lebanon have we heard such a loony claim. Where are the titters?

The Democrats style themselves as being in the party of the little guy. They're for the people rather than for the "special interests." Just ask them. Yet Martha Coakley sneered at the idea of shaking voters' hands "in the cold" and chose to spend a critical night just seven days before the election in Washington, D.C., at a high-roller fundraiser sponsored by drug and insurance companies. The host committee included Pfizer, Merck, Amgen, Sanofi-Aventis, Eli Lilly, Novartis, AstraZeneca and more.

Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, HealthSouth and UnitedHealth all were sipping white wine with Coakley.
When the president stumped for Coakley in Massachusetts on Sunday, he praised her humble ambitions: "She became a lawyer not to cash in, but to give hardworking people a fair shake. She became a lawyer to fight for working families like the one she grew up in." Oh, yes, and "she went after big insurance companies that misled people."

Members of the Fourth Estate always claim that hypocrisy is what they cannot stand. They are, they say, utterly nonpartisan scourges of that least forgivable political sin. Accordingly, they explain, if a Republican "family values" candidate is caught in a sexual indiscretion, he's fair game (even if he never has mentioned family values). But when Obama broke his solemn promise to abide by campaign finance limits and Coakley is passing the hat for insurance company cash, well, how about those Yankees?

Speaking of sports teams, Coakley is so fortunate to be a Democrat — and ipso facto a woman of the people — because she's a little rusty on her Massachusetts sports knowledge. Asked on a radio program about Curt Schilling's support for her opponent, Coakley dismissed Schilling as a Yankees fan. The incredulous interviewer could only stammer, "Curt Schilling? The Red Sox great pitcher of the bloody sock?" Now it was Coakley's turn to stammer: "Oh, am I wrong about that?"

She won't get hammered for it. She's a Democrat.

But in the final hours of the campaign, Coakley is an increasingly desperate Democrat who has stooped to slander. A lurid flier aimed at female voters claims that "1,736 women were raped in Massachusetts in 2008. Scott Brown wants hospitals to turn them all away." Brown is, as it happens, pro-choice (though he's in favor of more restrictions than Coakley is). This vile lie was based on Brown's support for a conscience exemption (which also was supported by Ted Kennedy) for emergency room personnel who do not wish to prescribe the abortifacient "morning-after pill." That's a world away from closing hospital doors on rape victims.

Coakley will get a pass on all this from the press. It's good to be a Democrat. Except, perhaps, on Wednesday morning.

To find out more about Mona Charen and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM



Post 50

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 9:46amSanction this postReply
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And when you describe Coakley as an average Democrat, besides a rubber stamp vote for Obama's unconstitutional and intentionally bankrupting socialist agenda, is this what you mean?
No.


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Post 51

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 9:53amSanction this postReply
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I take average Democrat politician to mean willing minion of statism. It would be interesting to hear what you think an average Democrat is.

Here are Marcia Coakley's stands on the issues.

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Post 52

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 11:04amSanction this postReply
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Ted:

Nationalization of the healthcare industry will effectively do more to advance Objectivist ideas than all the GOP administration so far put together...

The GOP did nothing to prevent this from happening. Thank you, GWB for sanctioning Medicare with your fine tuning of this worthy progam.

Default and devaluation of our currency will effectively do more to advance Objectivist ideas than all the GOP administration so far put together...

The GOP did nothing to prevent this from happening. Thank you, GWB, for getting the tribal borrowing ball rolling in the fall of 2008 with TARP, thereby sanctioning the idea of tribal running of 'The' Economy.

The annihilation of Israel while we sit and watch will effectively do more to advance Objectivist ideas than all the GOP administration so far put together...

Well, nonsense. GWB did do something to preclude this, as in, grab the M.E. by the belt in 2003, but OTOH, Obama has soberly not let go of that belt. So, just confusing as Hell. Has Israel been annihilated? I missed that.

America being brought to its knees will effectively do more to advance . . . ?

The GOP did nothing effective to prevent this from happening, other than, provide false hope that it was doing something effective to keep this from happening.

Obama's flailing over-reaching has swept aside the fog of false hope, and America is once again focused like a laser beam on the spectacle of freedom eating idiocy.

Thank you, Obama and left wing democrats in general for:

a] Being so clueless.
b] Screwing the unscrewable pooch.
c] Over-reaching on a non-existing mandate, other than for 'change' and 'hope.'
d] Illustrating so clearly to America how deeply it really doesn't want this left wing nonsense.
e] Riding the very last train out of FDR station. Good bye, good riddance.

An ineffective GOP, fighting a 'me-too, we can't even stand up under the onslaught of James Carville's 'It's the economy, stupid!', it is just too deep!' -- was never going to get us there. Worse, it was going to lull us into thinking we weren't heading towards totalitarian disaster.

If, in response to this latest f'k up by the default National Party Wing in Power, the GOP returns simply as the old clueless GOP with their 'better' plan to 'Run The Economy', then nothing has changed and nothing is going to change, unless, until, and if a party shows up in DC with an axe and dismantles 90% of what they find there.

It's so out of all control, that to 'fix' it requires a single act of legislation de-authorizing everything in the US Code back to 1789, and a very selective re-do from the ground up. Eventually, there should be far more unemployment in DC than in the balance of the nation, the DC real estate market should be on its a$$. When that happens, I'll know we're on the right track.


(Edited by Fred Bartlett on 1/19, 11:05am)


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Post 53

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 11:09amSanction this postReply
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Every time it's "OK, look, in a perfect world, you should vote your principles. But this time and this election is not the time, because the implications and stakes are just too high!.

This is the shell game that Republican shills are going to play the rest of your life, if you're a principled individual. They'll try to beg, scare, cajole, threaten and horse-trade to get you to agree to their statist agenda.

No thanks, Ted. Cry "Wolf" too many times and no one comes running anymore.

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Post 54

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 11:32amSanction this postReply
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Well put, Fred, Steven.

How sad it is to hear a rallying cry, not of "Fight to be Free!" But instead, "Fight to be on the winning side!"

The latest polls taken among Washington Republicans have McCain at the very top. Does that tell us anything about how blind this "lessor of two evils" policy is? McCain, the fellow that flew back to Washington during his campaign against a socialist, in order to ensure the passage of TARP!

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Post 55

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 7:27pmSanction this postReply
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Well - Brown won, 53-46...

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Post 56

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 7:53pmSanction this postReply
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Yup, and thank goodness for that!

jt

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Post 57

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 8:59pmSanction this postReply
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If that's your main hang-up, that's a pretty lame excuse, because Libertarians are not as collectivist as all that. They (and I) partially blame the American government...


Uh....wait a minute. They are not as collectivist as all that, but you say they collectively partially blame the government.

Yeah good one Steven.

And thanks for reaffirming why I don't vote Libertarian. Since you blame America for the irrational actions of murderous thugs, why don't you partially blame women for being raped because they are women?




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Post 58

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 9:07pmSanction this postReply
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Yeah, like Steve Wolfer said, it's a good thing McCain won.

. . . Er. . . ?

No, the point is very simple.

The one candidate who could beat her actually did defeat the woman who would have been the sixtieth vote in the Senate for socialism.

That's what's called a "good thing" for those of us who aren't hoping for the worst possible outcome as a validation of our religious faith.

(Edited by Ted Keer on 1/19, 10:26pm)


Post 59

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 6:47amSanction this postReply
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Ted Kennedy finally did his part for the health of Americans.

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