MrRain422

I think a great many people would agree that torture is an atrocity.

Yes, he should go die so that you can make more money. Typical Bushie attitude. If you are such a fan of Bush's policies, than why don't you go fight? Oh that's right, fighting and dying so that you can make money is the job of poor people.

Right on. Fuck everyone else.

Bradley is having an excellent year and deserves to be on the All Star team, though I'm not sure if he deserves the starting spot. Hamilton is having an amazing year though, as is Kinsler. I voted for Young basically because that position just isn't as deep as it used to be and he's putting in his typical very good season.

Yeah, no real solid DH's this year. Thome is actually not doing terrible though, so long as you don't give undue weight to batting average. He's still getting on base at a .355 tick and his OPS+ is 121, which isn't great by his standards but still pretty good. And yeah, C Quentin is the best Sox outfielder this year and will likely end up on the reserve roster.

My full ballot: AL C: Mauer 1B: Youkilis 2B: Kinsler 3B: A-Rod SS: Young OF: Hamilton, Dye, Ordonez (homer pick) DH: Thome NL C: McCann 1B: Berkman 2B: Utley 3B: Chipper SS: Hanley OF: Dunn, Ludwick, Braun

I just voted for: Dunn, Ludwick, Braun. None of them will actually start the game though.

I think my dream ticket would be Wexler/Greenwald.

People spend a ton of time and energy worrying about all sorts of things that aren't going to happen.

Here come the Tigers.

I know just what you mean.

Are you suggesting that McCain's policies, if implemented, would benefit most racial minorities? And benefit them more than Obama's policies?

I think a lot people here could really benefit from reading The Shock Doctrine.

That's because he hasn't yet -- the profit will come after he leaves office, from all his buddies that benefitted from creating the disaster capitalist utopia that is Iraq (starting with profiteers #1 and #2, Cheney and Rumsfeld, who both made millions upon millions).

I think most minorities would be willing to vote for an old white dude over a black guy if the old white dude's policy positions were more in their favor.

I find it very easy to believe. The whole administration is stacked with crony stooges. The people in the EPA who make those kinds of decision are there because of their loyalty to Bush, and if they didn't go along with it, they'd be replaced by someone who would.

UW's assumption in bringing that up, of course, is that I found it acceptable when Clinton did it, which is false. Regardless, it's completely irrelevent here.

Am I to assume from this statement that you don't have any points to make regarding what I actually said? Do you think that it is okay to attack a nation without first attempting diplomacy?:

Okay, but bombing supposed nuclear sites is still an unnecessary, unprevoked military attack. It's an immoral and corrupt policy.

But part the reason that Iran hates Israel is because Israel and the United States are constantly threatening them and seem credible in that threat. Regardless, it's batshit insane to propose attacking a country that does not have nuclear weapons and is no actual threat to our security. A policy of attacking any country that defies our orders, no matter how big of a threat they actually are, is inexcusable warmongering. And we've given them every reason to defy our orders by presenting situations in which defying us looks to them to be to their direct benefit.

It wouldn't make any sense for Iran to make a first strike attack on Israel. To do so would guarantee obliteration by nearly every other nuclear power in the world (but mainly the U.S, Israel and Great Britain). The leaders in Iran know this. The only way that they would nuke Israel is if they were pretty certain that they are attacked, or perhaps if they think that an attack is imminent.

I'm talking about one specific statement. Although he's certainly tried to sound tough and has said some truly horrific things about Israel, to my knowledge he has not threatened them overtly. I certainly didn't cite HuffPo. I don't even read it. I think I've perused that site maybe twice. Some of the biggest hawks against Iran are Democrats, so I'm not sure really who you're referring to. I don't give Ahmadinejad more sway than McCain or anything. I just prefer peaceful solutions and attempts to understand our enemy's position over bombing the hell out of another country

Yes, the agreement with North Korea, when contrasted with our policy towards Iran, certainly gives the impression that the United States is more willing to negotiate with governments that do have nuclear weapons than those who don't, so from Iran's perspective, they are definately being told that they should persue nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip with the U.S. It's a shame, because negotiations like those we had with North Korea are the right policy, but when make deals like that right alongside making threats to Iran, hypocricy shines through and it sends exactly the opposite message to

The mistranslation was that he used a word that specifically referred to the nation's government, but it was translated and spread as if he'd been referring to the nation itself. He basically said he wanted to eliminate Israel's regime, not wipe out the nation. I'm sure many people in Iran do wish to see Israel wiped out. But there's a huge difference between what may be the public's sentiment and what is being said by their leaders. The official government line, especially in areas of foreign relations, are often much more moderate than general public sentiment.

It was mistranslation that's been discredited several times, uttered by a guy who has no power to go to war, but believe whatever you want. I'm not saying that the Iranian government is belevolent or something -- clearly there's a lot of bad shit going on there. But there's a lot more gray area there than most people are willing to admit. I agree that Iran shouldn't have nuclear weapons, but I haven't heard a compelling argument for why Israel should be allowed to. And considering that the U.S. and Israel have been threatening to bomb Iran for a couple years now, and the U.S. did invade I