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On August 30 2012 11:36 woody60707 wrote:Show nested quote +Right now, 23 million people are saying: Why didn't Romney chose Condi for V.P.? I don't know who this guy was, but this seems pretty true.
She declined if I remember correctly from July
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On August 30 2012 11:40 Defacer wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:39 xDaunt wrote:
This is a great speech by Ryan. It's a gigantic kick to the balls for democrats. This a terrible speech that doesn't stand-up to scrutiny.
Such as ?
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On August 30 2012 11:40 Defacer wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:39 xDaunt wrote:
This is a great speech by Ryan. It's a gigantic kick to the balls for democrats. This a terrible speech that doesn't stand-up to scrutiny. But it will galvanize Romney's base.
What do you mean?
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On August 30 2012 11:43 Powerpill wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:36 woody60707 wrote:Right now, 23 million people are saying: Why didn't Romney chose Condi for V.P.? I don't know who this guy was, but this seems pretty true. She declined if I remember correctly from July
I know. But I meant that her speech just now was great. And this guys speech is sounding very blah.
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On August 30 2012 11:39 BlueBird. wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:32 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:27 Falling wrote:On August 30 2012 11:20 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:17 Kaitlin wrote:On August 30 2012 11:11 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:07 Defacer wrote:
For the Republicans in the thread -- any concerns about the lack of official foreign policy or relations experience with the Romney/Ryan combo?
While Obama was a neophyte when he entered the 2008 race, he did bolster his ticket with Biden. As easy as it is to make fun of Biden, the guy was the Chair of the Foreign Relations committee and brought a lot of experience to the table. And Obama did seem like a quick study.
It will be interesting if foreign policy comes up in the debates, and how Ryan and Romney will prepare for it.
Biden has nothing to do with Obama's foreign policy. Hillary and the Bush-era DoD holdovers did/do. As for Romney/Ryan, I have no concern. They'll surround themselves with good people and be fine. On a side note, how fucking awesome would it be to have Secretary of State Chris Christie? Nah. I was thinking Secretary of Education, or we might need to leave him in NJ to keep them going the right direction. Nikky Haley head of the NLRB. Not sure if Condi would want to be Sec. of State again, but she would work. Can we at least send him to the UN? I really, really want to see him tell other countries to suck our balls in a way that only he is capable. Which is why a lot countries have an issue with American foreign policy. And why Obama was/is much more popular amongst the international community. And why Canada has often tried to position themselves as a mediator between America's 'splendid isolation' and the rest. Can we at least agree that we can never tell the Russians to suck our balls too many times? On a more serious note, I really don't want a foreign policy whose end is to get other countries to like us. I want them to respect, and in some cases, fear us. Above all, I want the unapologetic pursuit of American interests just like how every other country pursues their interests. The fact you just posted about making people "fear" us, as if it's no big deal, makes me question everything that America stands for. We need to make the world a better place for everyone, and being assholes and bullies is not the way to do it. I want other countries to like us, not because we are trying to make them like us, but because our actions as a nation should just be likable by doing things that don't come off as selfish, condescending, and arrogant. Making people fear us, should never ever be on our priority list, ever.
Making people fear you is (rightly and sensibly) the number one foreign policy goal of any nation, for obvious reasons (if you think about it). Doing it by proxy is almost as good, that's why small countries ally themselves to big ones. To make other big countries scared of trying to push them around or gobble them up.
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Ugh ... this speech is so poorly written and poorly delivered and so -- confusing.
So Ryan's complaining about cuts to Medicare -- the exact same cuts that the Romney and Ryan administration propose to make -- and is now railing about the Obama administration spending money that he doesn't have?
'Tax Fairness'. That's what they're calling it now?
Awkward segueway to mom ...
BTW, Solyndra was not 'crony-capitalism'. It was a bad government funded invested that fucking failed, but one project out of many from a energy budget where every other project did well. R. Congressman Issa investigated it and could not find any evidence of wrongdoing or 'crony-capitalism'.
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On August 30 2012 11:45 DeepElemBlues wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:39 BlueBird. wrote:On August 30 2012 11:32 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:27 Falling wrote:On August 30 2012 11:20 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:17 Kaitlin wrote:On August 30 2012 11:11 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:07 Defacer wrote:
For the Republicans in the thread -- any concerns about the lack of official foreign policy or relations experience with the Romney/Ryan combo?
While Obama was a neophyte when he entered the 2008 race, he did bolster his ticket with Biden. As easy as it is to make fun of Biden, the guy was the Chair of the Foreign Relations committee and brought a lot of experience to the table. And Obama did seem like a quick study.
It will be interesting if foreign policy comes up in the debates, and how Ryan and Romney will prepare for it.
Biden has nothing to do with Obama's foreign policy. Hillary and the Bush-era DoD holdovers did/do. As for Romney/Ryan, I have no concern. They'll surround themselves with good people and be fine. On a side note, how fucking awesome would it be to have Secretary of State Chris Christie? Nah. I was thinking Secretary of Education, or we might need to leave him in NJ to keep them going the right direction. Nikky Haley head of the NLRB. Not sure if Condi would want to be Sec. of State again, but she would work. Can we at least send him to the UN? I really, really want to see him tell other countries to suck our balls in a way that only he is capable. Which is why a lot countries have an issue with American foreign policy. And why Obama was/is much more popular amongst the international community. And why Canada has often tried to position themselves as a mediator between America's 'splendid isolation' and the rest. Can we at least agree that we can never tell the Russians to suck our balls too many times? On a more serious note, I really don't want a foreign policy whose end is to get other countries to like us. I want them to respect, and in some cases, fear us. Above all, I want the unapologetic pursuit of American interests just like how every other country pursues their interests. The fact you just posted about making people "fear" us, as if it's no big deal, makes me question everything that America stands for. We need to make the world a better place for everyone, and being assholes and bullies is not the way to do it. I want other countries to like us, not because we are trying to make them like us, but because our actions as a nation should just be likable by doing things that don't come off as selfish, condescending, and arrogant. Making people fear us, should never ever be on our priority list, ever. Making people fear you is (rightly and sensibly) the number one foreign policy goal of any nation, for obvious reasons (if you think about it). Doing it by proxy is almost as good, that's why small countries ally themselves to big ones. To make other big countries scared of trying to push them around or gobble them up.
That's just kind of depressing when you think about it, that we need to do that at all. Or that smaller countries need to do that. Maybe I'm just overly optimistic about the human race.
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So you're complaining about cuts to Medicare -- the exact same cuts that your administration propose to make --
Nope, instead of just taking money out of Medicare and putting it into Obamacare, the Ryan plan is supposed to save money and put those savings back into the Medicare trust fund. And it's also not actually cutting anything at all, it's slowing the rate of the growth of spending. I don't know if it actually will save money, but they're not the same.
That's just kind of depressing when you think about it, that we need to do that at all. Or that smaller countries need to do that. Maybe I'm just overly optimistic about the human race.
No more depressing than realizing life isn't fair. It's the same thing.
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Canada11450 Posts
On August 30 2012 11:45 DeepElemBlues wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:39 BlueBird. wrote:On August 30 2012 11:32 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:27 Falling wrote:On August 30 2012 11:20 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:17 Kaitlin wrote:On August 30 2012 11:11 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:07 Defacer wrote:
For the Republicans in the thread -- any concerns about the lack of official foreign policy or relations experience with the Romney/Ryan combo?
While Obama was a neophyte when he entered the 2008 race, he did bolster his ticket with Biden. As easy as it is to make fun of Biden, the guy was the Chair of the Foreign Relations committee and brought a lot of experience to the table. And Obama did seem like a quick study.
It will be interesting if foreign policy comes up in the debates, and how Ryan and Romney will prepare for it.
Biden has nothing to do with Obama's foreign policy. Hillary and the Bush-era DoD holdovers did/do. As for Romney/Ryan, I have no concern. They'll surround themselves with good people and be fine. On a side note, how fucking awesome would it be to have Secretary of State Chris Christie? Nah. I was thinking Secretary of Education, or we might need to leave him in NJ to keep them going the right direction. Nikky Haley head of the NLRB. Not sure if Condi would want to be Sec. of State again, but she would work. Can we at least send him to the UN? I really, really want to see him tell other countries to suck our balls in a way that only he is capable. Which is why a lot countries have an issue with American foreign policy. And why Obama was/is much more popular amongst the international community. And why Canada has often tried to position themselves as a mediator between America's 'splendid isolation' and the rest. Can we at least agree that we can never tell the Russians to suck our balls too many times? On a more serious note, I really don't want a foreign policy whose end is to get other countries to like us. I want them to respect, and in some cases, fear us. Above all, I want the unapologetic pursuit of American interests just like how every other country pursues their interests. The fact you just posted about making people "fear" us, as if it's no big deal, makes me question everything that America stands for. We need to make the world a better place for everyone, and being assholes and bullies is not the way to do it. I want other countries to like us, not because we are trying to make them like us, but because our actions as a nation should just be likable by doing things that don't come off as selfish, condescending, and arrogant. Making people fear us, should never ever be on our priority list, ever. Making people fear you is (rightly and sensibly) the number one foreign policy goal of any nation, for obvious reasons (if you think about it). Doing it by proxy is almost as good, that's why small countries ally themselves to big ones. To make other big countries scared of trying to push them around or gobble them up.
Is it though? I can't imagine Canada allied with US in order to make other nations fear them. The only country Canada would care to make afraid would be US itself. If it is fear based, then if anything, it would be out of fear that US would gobble up Canada otherwise (memories of Manifest Destiny). It's rather incidental that few would attack Canada because they'd risk war with US. Far more likely, Canada's foreign policy was dictated by economic reasons (needing a natural trading partner when they lost exclusive trade with Britain.)
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On August 30 2012 11:51 BlueBird. wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:45 DeepElemBlues wrote:On August 30 2012 11:39 BlueBird. wrote:On August 30 2012 11:32 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:27 Falling wrote:On August 30 2012 11:20 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:17 Kaitlin wrote:On August 30 2012 11:11 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:07 Defacer wrote:
For the Republicans in the thread -- any concerns about the lack of official foreign policy or relations experience with the Romney/Ryan combo?
While Obama was a neophyte when he entered the 2008 race, he did bolster his ticket with Biden. As easy as it is to make fun of Biden, the guy was the Chair of the Foreign Relations committee and brought a lot of experience to the table. And Obama did seem like a quick study.
It will be interesting if foreign policy comes up in the debates, and how Ryan and Romney will prepare for it.
Biden has nothing to do with Obama's foreign policy. Hillary and the Bush-era DoD holdovers did/do. As for Romney/Ryan, I have no concern. They'll surround themselves with good people and be fine. On a side note, how fucking awesome would it be to have Secretary of State Chris Christie? Nah. I was thinking Secretary of Education, or we might need to leave him in NJ to keep them going the right direction. Nikky Haley head of the NLRB. Not sure if Condi would want to be Sec. of State again, but she would work. Can we at least send him to the UN? I really, really want to see him tell other countries to suck our balls in a way that only he is capable. Which is why a lot countries have an issue with American foreign policy. And why Obama was/is much more popular amongst the international community. And why Canada has often tried to position themselves as a mediator between America's 'splendid isolation' and the rest. Can we at least agree that we can never tell the Russians to suck our balls too many times? On a more serious note, I really don't want a foreign policy whose end is to get other countries to like us. I want them to respect, and in some cases, fear us. Above all, I want the unapologetic pursuit of American interests just like how every other country pursues their interests. The fact you just posted about making people "fear" us, as if it's no big deal, makes me question everything that America stands for. We need to make the world a better place for everyone, and being assholes and bullies is not the way to do it. I want other countries to like us, not because we are trying to make them like us, but because our actions as a nation should just be likable by doing things that don't come off as selfish, condescending, and arrogant. Making people fear us, should never ever be on our priority list, ever. Making people fear you is (rightly and sensibly) the number one foreign policy goal of any nation, for obvious reasons (if you think about it). Doing it by proxy is almost as good, that's why small countries ally themselves to big ones. To make other big countries scared of trying to push them around or gobble them up. That's just kind of depressing when you think about it, that we need to do that at all. Or that smaller countries need to do that. Maybe I'm just overly optimistic about the human race.
Not overly optimistic, just completely naive. You're the guy running around with your pants down because you trust everybody and I'm fairly sure you're the guy about whom the cliche "Don't get caught with your pants down" was coined.
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Ummmm ... did Ryan just say that everyone's problems can be blamed on Obama's leadership? And is now saying everyone has control of their own fate?
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On August 30 2012 11:52 Falling wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:45 DeepElemBlues wrote:On August 30 2012 11:39 BlueBird. wrote:On August 30 2012 11:32 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:27 Falling wrote:On August 30 2012 11:20 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:17 Kaitlin wrote:On August 30 2012 11:11 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:07 Defacer wrote:
For the Republicans in the thread -- any concerns about the lack of official foreign policy or relations experience with the Romney/Ryan combo?
While Obama was a neophyte when he entered the 2008 race, he did bolster his ticket with Biden. As easy as it is to make fun of Biden, the guy was the Chair of the Foreign Relations committee and brought a lot of experience to the table. And Obama did seem like a quick study.
It will be interesting if foreign policy comes up in the debates, and how Ryan and Romney will prepare for it.
Biden has nothing to do with Obama's foreign policy. Hillary and the Bush-era DoD holdovers did/do. As for Romney/Ryan, I have no concern. They'll surround themselves with good people and be fine. On a side note, how fucking awesome would it be to have Secretary of State Chris Christie? Nah. I was thinking Secretary of Education, or we might need to leave him in NJ to keep them going the right direction. Nikky Haley head of the NLRB. Not sure if Condi would want to be Sec. of State again, but she would work. Can we at least send him to the UN? I really, really want to see him tell other countries to suck our balls in a way that only he is capable. Which is why a lot countries have an issue with American foreign policy. And why Obama was/is much more popular amongst the international community. And why Canada has often tried to position themselves as a mediator between America's 'splendid isolation' and the rest. Can we at least agree that we can never tell the Russians to suck our balls too many times? On a more serious note, I really don't want a foreign policy whose end is to get other countries to like us. I want them to respect, and in some cases, fear us. Above all, I want the unapologetic pursuit of American interests just like how every other country pursues their interests. The fact you just posted about making people "fear" us, as if it's no big deal, makes me question everything that America stands for. We need to make the world a better place for everyone, and being assholes and bullies is not the way to do it. I want other countries to like us, not because we are trying to make them like us, but because our actions as a nation should just be likable by doing things that don't come off as selfish, condescending, and arrogant. Making people fear us, should never ever be on our priority list, ever. Making people fear you is (rightly and sensibly) the number one foreign policy goal of any nation, for obvious reasons (if you think about it). Doing it by proxy is almost as good, that's why small countries ally themselves to big ones. To make other big countries scared of trying to push them around or gobble them up. Is it though? I can't imagine Canada allied with US in order to make other nations fear them. The only country Canada would care to make afraid would be US itself. If it is fear based, then if anything, it would be out of fear that US would gobble up Canada otherwise (memories of Manifest Destiny). It's rather incidental that few would attack Canada because they'd risk war with US. Far more likely, Canada's foreign policy was dictated by economic reasons (needing a natural trading partner when they lost exclusive trade with Britain.)
I wonder if at some point if Canada and the U.S. weren't allies, the former Soviet Union would have cut across Sarah Palin's yard and come for your oil ... The deterrent of being aligned with the U.S. prevented that possibility.
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On August 30 2012 11:53 Kaitlin wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:51 BlueBird. wrote:On August 30 2012 11:45 DeepElemBlues wrote:On August 30 2012 11:39 BlueBird. wrote:On August 30 2012 11:32 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:27 Falling wrote:On August 30 2012 11:20 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:17 Kaitlin wrote:On August 30 2012 11:11 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:07 Defacer wrote:
For the Republicans in the thread -- any concerns about the lack of official foreign policy or relations experience with the Romney/Ryan combo?
While Obama was a neophyte when he entered the 2008 race, he did bolster his ticket with Biden. As easy as it is to make fun of Biden, the guy was the Chair of the Foreign Relations committee and brought a lot of experience to the table. And Obama did seem like a quick study.
It will be interesting if foreign policy comes up in the debates, and how Ryan and Romney will prepare for it.
Biden has nothing to do with Obama's foreign policy. Hillary and the Bush-era DoD holdovers did/do. As for Romney/Ryan, I have no concern. They'll surround themselves with good people and be fine. On a side note, how fucking awesome would it be to have Secretary of State Chris Christie? Nah. I was thinking Secretary of Education, or we might need to leave him in NJ to keep them going the right direction. Nikky Haley head of the NLRB. Not sure if Condi would want to be Sec. of State again, but she would work. Can we at least send him to the UN? I really, really want to see him tell other countries to suck our balls in a way that only he is capable. Which is why a lot countries have an issue with American foreign policy. And why Obama was/is much more popular amongst the international community. And why Canada has often tried to position themselves as a mediator between America's 'splendid isolation' and the rest. Can we at least agree that we can never tell the Russians to suck our balls too many times? On a more serious note, I really don't want a foreign policy whose end is to get other countries to like us. I want them to respect, and in some cases, fear us. Above all, I want the unapologetic pursuit of American interests just like how every other country pursues their interests. The fact you just posted about making people "fear" us, as if it's no big deal, makes me question everything that America stands for. We need to make the world a better place for everyone, and being assholes and bullies is not the way to do it. I want other countries to like us, not because we are trying to make them like us, but because our actions as a nation should just be likable by doing things that don't come off as selfish, condescending, and arrogant. Making people fear us, should never ever be on our priority list, ever. Making people fear you is (rightly and sensibly) the number one foreign policy goal of any nation, for obvious reasons (if you think about it). Doing it by proxy is almost as good, that's why small countries ally themselves to big ones. To make other big countries scared of trying to push them around or gobble them up. That's just kind of depressing when you think about it, that we need to do that at all. Or that smaller countries need to do that. Maybe I'm just overly optimistic about the human race. Not overly optimistic, just completely naive. You're the guy running around with your pants down because you trust everybody and I'm fairly sure you're the guy about whom the cliche "Don't get caught with your pants down" was coined.
No I don't trust absolutely everybody, thanks for assuming though. I also don't have wild conspiracies about China or Russia trying to take us over next year though. I just feel like as the "superpower" we are, you think that we don't need to bully people around? Our huge military budget and all the trade that we do that other countries rely on, doesn't speak for itself?
Why must our foreign policy be based on "fear and respect our huge guns"?
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Canada11450 Posts
On August 30 2012 11:55 Kaitlin wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:52 Falling wrote:On August 30 2012 11:45 DeepElemBlues wrote:On August 30 2012 11:39 BlueBird. wrote:On August 30 2012 11:32 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:27 Falling wrote:On August 30 2012 11:20 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:17 Kaitlin wrote:On August 30 2012 11:11 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:07 Defacer wrote:
For the Republicans in the thread -- any concerns about the lack of official foreign policy or relations experience with the Romney/Ryan combo?
While Obama was a neophyte when he entered the 2008 race, he did bolster his ticket with Biden. As easy as it is to make fun of Biden, the guy was the Chair of the Foreign Relations committee and brought a lot of experience to the table. And Obama did seem like a quick study.
It will be interesting if foreign policy comes up in the debates, and how Ryan and Romney will prepare for it.
Biden has nothing to do with Obama's foreign policy. Hillary and the Bush-era DoD holdovers did/do. As for Romney/Ryan, I have no concern. They'll surround themselves with good people and be fine. On a side note, how fucking awesome would it be to have Secretary of State Chris Christie? Nah. I was thinking Secretary of Education, or we might need to leave him in NJ to keep them going the right direction. Nikky Haley head of the NLRB. Not sure if Condi would want to be Sec. of State again, but she would work. Can we at least send him to the UN? I really, really want to see him tell other countries to suck our balls in a way that only he is capable. Which is why a lot countries have an issue with American foreign policy. And why Obama was/is much more popular amongst the international community. And why Canada has often tried to position themselves as a mediator between America's 'splendid isolation' and the rest. Can we at least agree that we can never tell the Russians to suck our balls too many times? On a more serious note, I really don't want a foreign policy whose end is to get other countries to like us. I want them to respect, and in some cases, fear us. Above all, I want the unapologetic pursuit of American interests just like how every other country pursues their interests. The fact you just posted about making people "fear" us, as if it's no big deal, makes me question everything that America stands for. We need to make the world a better place for everyone, and being assholes and bullies is not the way to do it. I want other countries to like us, not because we are trying to make them like us, but because our actions as a nation should just be likable by doing things that don't come off as selfish, condescending, and arrogant. Making people fear us, should never ever be on our priority list, ever. Making people fear you is (rightly and sensibly) the number one foreign policy goal of any nation, for obvious reasons (if you think about it). Doing it by proxy is almost as good, that's why small countries ally themselves to big ones. To make other big countries scared of trying to push them around or gobble them up. Is it though? I can't imagine Canada allied with US in order to make other nations fear them. The only country Canada would care to make afraid would be US itself. If it is fear based, then if anything, it would be out of fear that US would gobble up Canada otherwise (memories of Manifest Destiny). It's rather incidental that few would attack Canada because they'd risk war with US. Far more likely, Canada's foreign policy was dictated by economic reasons (needing a natural trading partner when they lost exclusive trade with Britain.) I wonder if at some point if Canada and the U.S. weren't allies, the former Soviet Union would have cut across Sarah Palin's yard and come for your oil ... The deterrent of being aligned with the U.S. prevented that possibility.
I'll grant you that. But the close allegiance between Canada and US predates Cold War politics. For the longest time, the biggest threat to Canada... was the US. Heck. It was a fairly significant contributing factor leading to Canada's Confederation.
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That Romney joke was good ...this is what his campaign needs more of. Ryan poking harmless fun at Romney actually humanizes Romney.
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On August 30 2012 11:57 Falling wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:55 Kaitlin wrote:On August 30 2012 11:52 Falling wrote:On August 30 2012 11:45 DeepElemBlues wrote:On August 30 2012 11:39 BlueBird. wrote:On August 30 2012 11:32 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:27 Falling wrote:On August 30 2012 11:20 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:17 Kaitlin wrote:On August 30 2012 11:11 xDaunt wrote:
[quote]
Biden has nothing to do with Obama's foreign policy. Hillary and the Bush-era DoD holdovers did/do.
As for Romney/Ryan, I have no concern. They'll surround themselves with good people and be fine.
On a side note, how fucking awesome would it be to have Secretary of State Chris Christie? Nah. I was thinking Secretary of Education, or we might need to leave him in NJ to keep them going the right direction. Nikky Haley head of the NLRB. Not sure if Condi would want to be Sec. of State again, but she would work. Can we at least send him to the UN? I really, really want to see him tell other countries to suck our balls in a way that only he is capable. Which is why a lot countries have an issue with American foreign policy. And why Obama was/is much more popular amongst the international community. And why Canada has often tried to position themselves as a mediator between America's 'splendid isolation' and the rest. Can we at least agree that we can never tell the Russians to suck our balls too many times? On a more serious note, I really don't want a foreign policy whose end is to get other countries to like us. I want them to respect, and in some cases, fear us. Above all, I want the unapologetic pursuit of American interests just like how every other country pursues their interests. The fact you just posted about making people "fear" us, as if it's no big deal, makes me question everything that America stands for. We need to make the world a better place for everyone, and being assholes and bullies is not the way to do it. I want other countries to like us, not because we are trying to make them like us, but because our actions as a nation should just be likable by doing things that don't come off as selfish, condescending, and arrogant. Making people fear us, should never ever be on our priority list, ever. Making people fear you is (rightly and sensibly) the number one foreign policy goal of any nation, for obvious reasons (if you think about it). Doing it by proxy is almost as good, that's why small countries ally themselves to big ones. To make other big countries scared of trying to push them around or gobble them up. Is it though? I can't imagine Canada allied with US in order to make other nations fear them. The only country Canada would care to make afraid would be US itself. If it is fear based, then if anything, it would be out of fear that US would gobble up Canada otherwise (memories of Manifest Destiny). It's rather incidental that few would attack Canada because they'd risk war with US. Far more likely, Canada's foreign policy was dictated by economic reasons (needing a natural trading partner when they lost exclusive trade with Britain.) I wonder if at some point if Canada and the U.S. weren't allies, the former Soviet Union would have cut across Sarah Palin's yard and come for your oil ... The deterrent of being aligned with the U.S. prevented that possibility. I'll grant you that. But the close allegiance between Canada and US predates Cold War politics. For the longest time, the biggest threat to Canada... was the US.
Democracy spreads through trade, not takeover. I may be wrong, but are there any examples of a democracy taking over another democracy ?
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On August 30 2012 11:52 Falling wrote:Show nested quote +On August 30 2012 11:45 DeepElemBlues wrote:On August 30 2012 11:39 BlueBird. wrote:On August 30 2012 11:32 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:27 Falling wrote:On August 30 2012 11:20 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:17 Kaitlin wrote:On August 30 2012 11:11 xDaunt wrote:On August 30 2012 11:07 Defacer wrote:
For the Republicans in the thread -- any concerns about the lack of official foreign policy or relations experience with the Romney/Ryan combo?
While Obama was a neophyte when he entered the 2008 race, he did bolster his ticket with Biden. As easy as it is to make fun of Biden, the guy was the Chair of the Foreign Relations committee and brought a lot of experience to the table. And Obama did seem like a quick study.
It will be interesting if foreign policy comes up in the debates, and how Ryan and Romney will prepare for it.
Biden has nothing to do with Obama's foreign policy. Hillary and the Bush-era DoD holdovers did/do. As for Romney/Ryan, I have no concern. They'll surround themselves with good people and be fine. On a side note, how fucking awesome would it be to have Secretary of State Chris Christie? Nah. I was thinking Secretary of Education, or we might need to leave him in NJ to keep them going the right direction. Nikky Haley head of the NLRB. Not sure if Condi would want to be Sec. of State again, but she would work. Can we at least send him to the UN? I really, really want to see him tell other countries to suck our balls in a way that only he is capable. Which is why a lot countries have an issue with American foreign policy. And why Obama was/is much more popular amongst the international community. And why Canada has often tried to position themselves as a mediator between America's 'splendid isolation' and the rest. Can we at least agree that we can never tell the Russians to suck our balls too many times? On a more serious note, I really don't want a foreign policy whose end is to get other countries to like us. I want them to respect, and in some cases, fear us. Above all, I want the unapologetic pursuit of American interests just like how every other country pursues their interests. The fact you just posted about making people "fear" us, as if it's no big deal, makes me question everything that America stands for. We need to make the world a better place for everyone, and being assholes and bullies is not the way to do it. I want other countries to like us, not because we are trying to make them like us, but because our actions as a nation should just be likable by doing things that don't come off as selfish, condescending, and arrogant. Making people fear us, should never ever be on our priority list, ever. Making people fear you is (rightly and sensibly) the number one foreign policy goal of any nation, for obvious reasons (if you think about it). Doing it by proxy is almost as good, that's why small countries ally themselves to big ones. To make other big countries scared of trying to push them around or gobble them up. Is it though? I can't imagine Canada allied with US in order to make other nations fear them. The only country Canada would care to make afraid would be US itself. If it is fear based, then if anything, it would be out of fear that US would gobble up Canada otherwise (memories of Manifest Destiny). It's rather incidental that few would attack Canada because they'd risk war with US. Far more likely, Canada's foreign policy was dictated by economic reasons (needing a natural trading partner when they lost exclusive trade with Britain.)
Geographical realities aside (and the economic and cultural realities that spring from them) that are somewhat unique to the US-Canada relationship, putting the fear of God and the B-52 into Moscow was almost the only relevant fact of Canadian foreign policy for 50 years. They basically gave their airspace over to us and it's still pretty much that way, although it is of course an equal partnership.
I'll grant you that. But the close allegiance between Canada and US predates Cold War politics. For the longest time, the biggest threat to Canada... was the US. Heck. It was a fairly significant contributing factor leading to Canada's Confederation.
Actually what you're saying just reinforces the point. Canada stuck closer to Britain than otherwise would have been the case if there wasn't a fear that the Yanks would swarm over the border the second Britain wasn't obligated to defend her anymore. They wanted us Americans to remember that if we wanted to carve off the non-tundra parts of Canada (or all of it), a sometimes popular topic of imagination in 19th century America, we'd have to deal with the Royal Navy too.
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Paul Ryan is so damned smart. He is articulating conservatism in a way that very few people can. Awesome speech.
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If the Republican Party wrote a research paper about their campaign points, my history/english teachers would tear them a new collective butthole. Biased data, quotes out of context, ad hominem, false analogies... its a textbook case of find the logical fallacy.
Watching this convention is like watching a film noir-- its a train wreck in the making, but you're perversely pleased to be watching it happen.
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On August 30 2012 12:02 xDaunt wrote:
Paul Ryan is so damned smart. He is articulating conservatism in a way that very few people can. Awesome speech.
What? NO! Give yourself more credit.
He did a good job revving up the crowd, but to be honest, I wasn't that impressed. Some of his 'facts' were questionable, but he go some decent shots in.
To be honest, I think I've read arguments from Blue Panther that are more compelling. But that's just me.
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EPT
