The Goat Pen

AlabamAlum wrote:eCat,

I hear jet fuel can't melt steel beams. Any internet articles you can find will be helpful.

Thanks in advance,

AA

heh

what can I say - my source was a writer for a magazine. I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

My faith in journalistic integrity just took another hit...

well, it was Gun Digest though

I was thinking Hustler...

A Cincy cop was shot dead today in the line of duty. You won't hear about it on CNN, MsNBC or any other breaking news sites. It's all about Charleston and stoking the racial fires. 27 year veteran, 3 kids, Father's Day Weekend. Yet no coverage. Probably because Officer Kim was Asian and the killer, who thankfully died as well was black.

It's part Charleston coverage, part Cincinnati related. If it happened in NY there would have been more focus.

When all is said and done, I think Bernie Sanders is going to be huge headache for Hillary Clinton.

Its hard to tell - he kind of has a Ron Paul trajectory where he doesn't have the big money but the people that are with him are passionate. Its just hard to tell how many people that don't show up to the speaking events actually care what he says. He's going to make the Democratic party push Hillary to be a moderate which is going to turn off more hard core democrats

Just like RP did to the republicans.

Bernie is necessary to get Clinton her reps, but whatever fumbles Hillary encounters will be on Hillary. I just don't know if she has the "it" factor that is needed to stand up to over a year of press scrutiny on the way to the White House.

I'm actually more intrigued by Rubio getting inside position on the GOP side. JEB is getting a bit more palatable to the average GOP voter...a bit. However, he has the same headwinds as Hillary in the "it" factor department. The GOP herd has to thin in order for me to tell who actually has a real chance.

Both parties have little that interests me, at this point.

I don't like Jeb and I certainly don't want another Bush

but he is going to be hard to topple - he has the war chest, he has the experience, he has the pedigree and so far his competition steps on their dick every 5 steps they take.

Walker I think, right now, is more of a threat than Rubio

Bush is the only Baby Boomer - all the other guys are our age representing Gen X sensibilities, and with the GOP the old money isn't going to go all in on Gen X.

IMO, its going to take Bush making a bad stumble or one of the Gen X candidates to catch lightning in a bottle to change the direction of where the GOP is going now. They can't out hawk Bush, they can't out Latino him, they can't out spend him and they can't overcome his network of people - the only chance they have is for him to tank in the debates and have a Rick Perry "duh' moment - at least that's how I see it.

You may be right wrt JEB. His name and his energy (until this weekend) still has me not seeing him as the candidate. The thing is, it's hard to see who is going to be.

Walker's non-degreed self and "aw shucks" goofy, resting facial expression is going to hurt him when it's all said and done. The campaign puts a camera on you 16 - 18 hours a day. We really have to stare at these people more than anyone else in our lives over the course of a year. Walker will have what Dukakis ran into. His face won't play well in a 24 hour news cycle and any verbal misstep he has will leave him open to having his mental horsepower questioned.

I will say, since a black man has become president, it has made people think anything is possible. A non-college degreed, non-veteran politician winning the White House used to be unthinkable these past 100 years.

perhaps just as significant is the idea that a one termer can go on to be president

I'm still stunned there are people that think Sarah Palin has the experience to be president - she didn't even finish her first term as Governor of a place that barely qualifies as a state.

Obama had absolutely no resume to be president as was elected - that scares me.

So I readily admit Bush and Hillary are the most qualified

I just don't like either one of them.

Yep..although a one-termer was a benefit to him because he really had no voting record to assail.

Plus, McCain was just a bum-assed candidate for the GOP and Hillary thought she had a victory lap during the DEM Primary and looked up to find that dude hot on her ass. It was too late for her to do anything by the time she realized he was a threat.

Fuck it, let's just keep it real. Bush and his Presidency made all of what we are talking about possible.

It's really a non issue. Hillary will be the next President. Like it or not.

I would have said she had it locked up 6 months ago but now I'm not sure - there is some pretty serious backlash against her

and yes, I agree - Bush made Obama's presidency possible. It was Hillary's for the taking had she not been a warhawk

Well, let's just say Bush made a democrat presidency almost a foregone conclusion. Like now, that conclusion early on was Hilary. Hard to imagine the Clinton machine getting caught off guard like that again. I've been happy with Obama, though. The last 7 years have been good ones (except for early on). I've never thought the president had that much unilateral power to make things happen. A huge influence, sure, and definitely can make some things get done, but for instance, there's no way you can blame a president for the financial crisis in 2008. That was a long time coming, with the hand of many administrations involved. Likewise, I don't give Obama all (or even most) of the credit for getting us out of it. But I think he's done a good job and I also think it was very cool to elect a black dude as president. I know, I know, that doesn't change the state of racial relations in the country overall, blah blah blah, but I still think it's cool, and I'm kinda proud to be part of the first political generation in which such a thing was possible, esp. considering that it hasn't been very long ago that the mere thought of it would have been impossible, much less the reality...

I think Obamacare has been a nightmare and I hate the idea that Obama caved within weeks of arriving at Washington about our civil liberties - especially given his teaching background

This is why I almost always side on smaller government - because bigger government just can't get it right.

Take Net Neutrality - this was a singular issue - tiered pricing for content - it was taken on by the government and bloated to include the potential for price controls and a host of other power grab issues.

Yeah, I'm not happy with Obamacare, either, my insurance costs have gone up, but I can defray them. But I can understand why some folks would be really pissed. The fact is, I'm not happy with the insurance industry as a whole. They never do what they say they'll do (or maybe it's just what you thought they would do). But I didn't even have medical insurance until 4 or 5 years ago, so I can't really complain too much...

I look back and am amazed my parents raised 3 kids - and I never knew what insurance was. We were lucky - none of us ever had any major sickness, broken bones or the like the entire time were kids.

We had a local clinic - a 2 doctor deal with one xray machine - and I bet of the times my parents took me there no bill was ever more than $30. But for my parents, even $30 was a hit to the grocery bill.

My dad did get diagnosed with cancer when I was 15, but he was a member of a union and they had some kind of major medical they offered by then. Once the cancer advanced he went on disability and was taken care of the remaining years he had.

I think I'll ask my mom how the medical bills were covered before he went on disability.

20 years ago I think I might have argued against keeping the Confederate flag

And I know I am far removed from it being in Ohio during that time - I've yet to meet anyone in Ohio who has any ties or pride in that flag - matter of fact, I think most people associate it with a pretty low class of society.

I hate that one badly misguided kid with parent who were clearly out of touch parents (Dad - hey, I'm gonna buy my apartheid supporting son who has Rhodesian military posters a gun for his birthday to celebrate him becoming a man) has done something emotional enough to drive the debate but I do think its time to retire the Confederate flag to the history books and museums.

If it doesn't represent racism, it represents a divided America - and regardless of our views on states rights and the right to secede, its symbolism is , IMO, no longer relevant in modern America.

I think it came out that the parents gave the kid money for his birthday and he went out and bought a gun with it.