jackpot posted:

Well if we're supposed to believe it's a forwarded email from a U.S. soldier, written by a U.S. soldier, we can ignore it right now. Two whilsts, one bloody, lots of polysyllabic words and not a spelling error in the whole bunch. No way a real 'merican wrote that.

crime fighting hog posted:

Rivera is a left wing news puppy? I thought he worked for Fox?

A Fellow American posted:

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
A friend sent this along to me. I can't think of a reason to disagree.
I am sending this to virtually everybody on my e-mail list and that includes conservatives, liberals, and everybody in between. Even though we disagree on a number of issues, let's all promote a "Congressional Reform Act of 2010". It would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Friends, please add your recommendations on how this bill can be improved.
I know many of you will say, "this is impossible". Let me remind you, Congress has the lowest approval of any entity in Government, now is the time when Americans will join together to reform Congress - the entity that represents us.
We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American hero's.. Please send any ideas on how to get this done.

Thanks,
A Fellow American
***********************************
Congressional Reform Act of 2010
1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.
A. Two Six year Senate terms
B. Six Two year House terms
C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

2. No Tenure / No Pension:
A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office... Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, server your term(s), then go home and back to work.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11. The American people did not make this contract with congressmen, congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.
If you agree with the above, pass it on to all in your address list.

An Old Dying Priest posted:

In Washington DC, an old priest lay dying in the hospital. For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation's capital. He motioned for his nurse to come near.
"Yes, Father?" said the nurse.
"I would really like to see Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi before I die", whispered the priest.
"I'll see what I can do, Father", replied the nurse.
The nurse sent the request to The House and Senate waited for a response.
Soon the word arrived; Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi would be delighted to visit the priest.
As they went to the hospital, Reid commented to Pelosi, "I don't know why the old priest wants to see us, but it will certainly help our images and might even get me re-elected."
Pelosi agreed that it was a good thing.
When they arrived at the priest's room, the priest took Reid's hand in his right hand and Pelosi's hand in his left.
There was silence and a look of serenity on the old priest's face.
Finally Nancy Pelosi spoke. "Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?"
The old priest slowly replied, "I have always tried to pattern my life after Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."
"Amen", said Reid.
"Amen", said Pelosi.
The old priest continued, "Jesus died between two lying thieves; I would like to do the same."

kik2dagroin posted:

My dad is starting to send me some right wing junk. There are a couple he's sent that I've seen on this very board, so I did a quick check and I don't think I saw any of these here. I really apologize for the formatting but all these stupid chain letters make me wish I couldn't read:


Here is another too. Shorter, I promise!!


I'm thinking of just sending my dad a link to the South Park episode Mystery of the Urinal Deuce as an example of how utterly hosed up their lines of reasoning can be to draw any of the conclusions that they do.

ducttape posted:

I, too, believe that the best legislative reform that we could pass right now is to require them to either be independently wealthy, or live off of "campaign contributions".

the posted:

This conversation is currently "ongoing" on facebook:

Gus - Why give miranda rights to terrorists and treat them like a civilian? GG.
-------
Julio likes this

Julio - Agreed bro, I imagine its easy to make out "you have the right to remain silent" under heavy machine gun fire, morters and rpg's.

Me - Why even have a trial at all? Just put them up against a wall and pull the trigger. Who needs due process?

Gus - I don't know. No one has balls anymore

Me - Guilty until proven innocent for the win!

Jamie - Terrorists are not soldiers, nor are they covered by the Geneva Conventions. Why they should be afforded rights under the very same Constitution which they seek to destroy is beyond me. We would not allow a soldier from another country to be tried in our civilian courts, and we definitely do not owe terrorists the privilege either.

Me - Richard Ried, Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph

Gus - And its stupid we can't use the only method of "torture" the U.S. has which is not even torture. We've only done it 3 times and it works well. Sigh. If only it were the 1940s. Nagasaki/Hiroshima methods? Lol

Me - You mean the same methods of torture that we tried and hung Japanese soldiers for using on American prisoners of war?

Gus - YES! Lol jk. Just the water board thing, forgot what its called. They just lay you upside down and pour water on your face, actually highly effective. But apprently its immoral and not nice.

Jamie - The 4 you named are US citizens who have Constitutional protection by virtue of having been born in the US. Military detention and trial is not torture. It is a matter of national security.

Me - @Gus: No, it isn't. @Jamie: But they're terrorists, right? And terrorists, by your own admission, seek to destroy our constitution. They're enemy combatants. We should not afford them due process.

Jamie - The "guilty until proven innocent" remark is moot; many of these monsters admit readily that they perpetrated the acts that are ascribed to them. Once an admission has been made there should be no need for a trial. Terrorists who are US citizens are US citizens regardless of their intent. The terrorists to whom Gus is referring are by no means US citizens, nor have they ever been. Therefore they do not deserve protection as such.

Me - So, let me get this line of logic straight... Misguided teenager who failed to light his underwear on fire: torture him and throw him in a military tribunal. Oklahoma City bomber: He's an okay guy who should get a normal trial. What about Nidal Hassan... let me guess.... military tribunal? But wait... he's a U.S. Citizen.. what will you do?

Gus - Eh, not from what I've read, but alright.

Me - Gus, the problem with waterboarding is that it's torture. This means that it puts you under so much mental and physical stress that you'd literally admit to anything. If I wanted to, I could waterboard you and only stop once you admit that you like getting pegged in the rear end by dudes. And I'd waterboard you, and I'm 100% sure that you'd crack and "admit" to it. Does this mean you were telling the truth? Of course not. It means that you were just saying whatever you could to make the pain stop. This is why it doesn't work and will never work.

the posted:

Craftics posted:

I'm really starting to hate the obsession with the words terrorist and terrorism. The words are so nebulously defined.

The fact that people can't see just how loving dangerous it is to agree to something like "terrorists get no trials and are shot on sight" is supremely depressing.

Anosmoman posted:

Well you should squeeze in a link to this article http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3264863 Nothing wrong with using waterboarding as a disciplinary tool on a 4 year old - it's just water and not cruel at all

Gene Simmons posted:

I got this and it pissed me right the gently caress off:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/iacocca.asp

Many of you may remember Lee Iacocca's 2007 Republican-bashing book "Where Have All The Leaders Gone?" - welp, apparently some right-wingers decided to just erase the lines mocking Republicans and change them to Democrats and still attribute them to Iacocca for credibility purposes.

Bolded lines have been changed from the original per Snopes; check the link above to see what it used to say.

RagnarokAngel posted:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/missmeyet.asp
I know we're not supposed to give 1 smiley posts but just....drat.

quote:

Outrageous!

It's time for a house cleaning - I'm surprised this was aired.

STRAIGHT FROM C-SPAN

NOT TO BE BELIEVED! 1-1/2 minutes long and straight from C-Span - how a vote was passed. This is how the House will pass healthcare. Just watch this. This is our Democratic-Controlled House at work. It's their way all the way, ( the video is very short and very maddening ). If anyone wonders about our current Congress and especially the House of Representatives this youtube clip will open their eyes. Watch this, then cry. We are losing our nation and everything it stands for.

Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywgUCdefSW8

After watching this atrocity please pass it on to everyone. The entire Nation needs to see this one. This is just blatant corruption and criminal action at its best.

quote:

Um, he [Murtha] just died on Monday, so... there you go?

quote:

Yes that’s true and good thing, sorry to have to say. But…there’s a bunch more if you look at some of the other clips.

Gripen5 posted:

I don't have sound at work. What is going on there? Some kind of voice vote?

RagnarokAngel posted:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/missmeyet.asp
I know we're not supposed to give 1 smiley posts but just....drat.

Pungent Mammy posted:

He asks the ayes to stand and the nays to speak or something, and then some guy asks for a count of each and Murtha ignores him and says the ayes have it.

I don't know enough about Congressional procedure to know if this is really An Insult To Our Democracy, but with the dramatic title and it being from Eric Cantor's channel I'm inclined to be suspicious.

Gifts for Audiophiles posted:

I saw this on Fox & Friends this morning, and after talking about it they put up an altered image that swapped the picture of Bush with a picture of the Constitution.

Toad on a Hat posted:

The Chair of the House makes the final interpretive decisions as to what constitutes a majority or minority vote. If you watch CSPAN, you're going to see something like this happen frequently, and usually the chair won't even bother counting. They'll say "In the opinion of the chair the ayes/nays have it" and then someone on the opposing side will ask for a recorded yeas/nays. Normally the chair grants this. However, in contentious votes or votes where the leadership really doesn't want to deal with the subject at hand, the Chair will pull a stunt like in that video. It's happened many times in our country and surprise! We still exist.

It's funny to call that video "An Insult to Our Democracy" when the Constitution of the United States gives the legislatures the power to set their own rules. These are rules that are agreed upon when each Congress enters session, and Murtha was simply interpreting parliamentary procedure and the rules of the House to benefit his side. It's not an insult; it's what's been done for 200 years.

Pungent Mammy posted:

Thanks a lot for clearing this up. I admit it ostensibly is anti-democratic, but that's the way they've operated since inception.

quote:

WE, OF COURSE, SCRAPPED THE F-22 IN FAVOR OF BANK BAILOUTS......

Russia now has #1 fighter plane in the world... SU-30 Vectored Thrust with Canards...
As you watch this airplane, look at the canards moving along side of, and just below the canopy rail. The "canards" are the small wings forward of the main wings? The smoke and contrails provide a sense of the actual flight path, sometimes in reverse direction.

This video is of an in-flight demonstration flown by the Russian's 30MK fighter aircraft. You will not believe what you are about to see. The fighter can stall from high speed, stopping forward motion in seconds. (full stall).. Then it demonstrates an ability to descend tail first without causing a compressor stall. It can also recover from a flat spin in less than a minute.. These maneuver capabilities don't exist in any other aircraft in the world today.. Take a look at the video with the sound up. This aircraft is of concern to U.S and NATO planners. We don't know which nations will soon be flying the SU-30MK.
Hopefully China isn't one of them.


Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Note:


Friends worked with advanced aircraft flight control systems and concepts for many years as an extension of stability control and means of control. Canards and vectored thrust were among many concepts examined to extend our fighter aircraft performance. Neither our current or next generation aircraft now poised for funding & production can in any way match the performance of this Russian aircraft, NOW FLYING, in any near combat situation. Somehow the bankrupt Russian aircraft industry has out produced our complex politically tainted aerospace industry with this technology marvel. Scratch any ideas of close in air-to-air combat with this aircraft in the future.

Vilerat posted:

Raaaaaaaaaarghjhhhh

Vilerat posted:

Raaaaaaaaaarghjhhhh

quote:

Scratch any ideas of close in air-to-air combat with this aircraft in the future.

Vilerat posted:

Hopefully China isn't one of them.

Mornacale posted:

When is the last time there was a major close-in air-to-air engagement? Vietnam?

Vilerat posted:

Raaaaaaaaaarghjhhhh

ducttape posted:

EDIT: it turns out that yes, this plane is vastly superior to anything the Americans have. Why, only a couple years ago, The USAF was playing wargames with the I(ndian)AF who were flying this plane. The IAF won 90% of the encounters (and only had a 3-1 numerical advantage, and the Americans were allowed to use any non-long range weapon). We might as well just wait around for the inevitable Chinese invasion.

dphrag posted:

Is the U.S. at war with China?

My Grandpa posted:

This a-mail is to inform all my liberal friends and relatives, that since you must be so embarrassed by now with the performance of your President, that to avoid hurting your feelings I am longer going to e-mail you political information.

It has been brought to my attention that I have been waiting Cyber space and perhaps loosing good friends.

Dr. Tough posted:

Well that's pretty much why they won right there. Also I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the Air Force was restricted to using Pakistani tactics or something like that.

Dr. Tough posted:

Well that's pretty much why they won right there. Also I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the Air Force was restricted to using Pakistani tactics or something like that.

SpergyGirl posted:

"I have been waiting Cyber space" - what?

I know that it must be a typo, but I can't figure out what he meant to say.

RagnarokAngel posted:

I'd assume "wasting". I dont know how he got the I and the S mixed up but its the only way that sentence makes sense to me.

dphrag posted:

No my favourite part is:



Is the U.S. at war with China?