Now that the Democrats lost a senate seat in Virginia, we can see a trend for the upcoming senate and congress elections. The Republicans will sweep both houses and the Obama administration will be paralized. Then in 3 years Sarah Palin will become president.

Once the Republicans take over the government, the US will really, really experience massive changes for the better, just like it did under G.W. Bush. I foresee a golden age of change and renewal.

Übergeek 바둑이: a little sarcasm? lol

If she were to win, Todd Palin would become the First Gentleman. I think that is the proper term. The question is, would he feel at home in pictures like this photo of a club made of 36 first ladies?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:First_Ladies_2008.jpg

There are a few countries with female heads of state. I imagine that he could form a First Gentlemen's club with guys like Joachim Sauer (First Gentleman of Germany), Pentti Arajarvi (First Gentleman of Finland), Martin MacAleese (First Gentleman of Ireland), and Jose Miguel Arroyo (First Gentleman of the Philippines).

If Dalia Grybauskaite (Madame President of Lithuania) gets married then there might be another bloke joining the club. Oleksandr Tymoshenko is kind of the First Gentleman of the Ukraine but he doesn't like appearing in public and he might refuse to join the club.

With five or six blokes in the club they might have poker nights. I can see them betting a few million here and there over a hand of Texas Hold'em.

More seriously, if Sarah Palin is elected and they decide to drill baby drill in Alaska's Artic National Wildlife Refuge, will they rename it to Alaska's Arctic National Oilfield Refuge? I would rename it Arctic Arabia.

Übergeek 바둑이: These posts are examples of why you liberals cant hold on to your power.... you are all sooo progressive, and soooo intelligent, and you know what is the best for this country, even though you are about 25% of the population, its just that the rest of us are just poorly educated and uninformed hicks.... and you and Pelosi know whats best, and you will tell us that you are more tolerant and more inclusive and more blah blah blah, but the reality is that you are only more inclusive and more tolerant etc when someone agrees with you or they simply deffer to your superior agenda.....

You know health reform is right, so it doesnt matter that you promised to be more bi partisan, that you promised to have a more open and honest process, no, those promises dont matter because you have self righteousness on your side, you have been given a mandate to cram this down our throat, quick before we lose our super majority, quick before anyone actually has time to digest and understand the true ramifications,... you all make me sick really!


The problem with being so smug and contrite is that you got your power based on telling people how different from that you were going to be, and as bad as you claim Bush was and how different you would be, you turned out worse, simply because you said you were better, no, you promised to be better, and that is a lie that will haunt you for a very long time to come!

What you should have said is that you know what is best and to give us a blank check and we will make everything all right, like the wizard of oz, just leave us alone behind the big progressive curtain, and we will make everything all right, we promise!

Did you see on the news..... some of the Massachusetts democrats, they were going to vote democrat until the Kennedys put their noses into things, and they were like "Im not letting them tell me how to vote" , and ended up voting republican instead!


Even Obama tried, even the great persuader could not get it done

1 frickin year, thats all, you couldnt even keep your promises for 1 frickin year

Now the 75% of us uninformed hicks are gonna show you smug SOBs the way to the exits

Snoopy: Obama knows that Bush is to blame.... not only for the poorly executed relief efforts, but for the earth quake itself, and for the fact that Bush did not send Haiti money to make their environment more earth quake resistant in the first place!

Czuch: i like that

Czuch:

> as bad as you claim Bush was and how different you would be,
> you turned out worse, simply because you said you were better

You got to the point I was trying to make. When G. W. Bush was president a lot of us were on his case. He did many things that many people considered down right terrible and that is why both inside and outside of the US his image suffered.

Barack Obama comes in, preaching change. That might sound great at election time, but the political system in set up in such a way that it has become nearly impossible for any president to effect meaningful change.

Now the Republicans get their turn at taking pot shots at the president. Come election time the Republicans will also preach change. Will they be able to deliver? Probably not, because the legislative process in congress and the senate is set up so that the status quo will stay there. Politicians represent their own interests first, then the interests of those who paid for their election, and then, if there is a chance, the interests of those people who voted for them.

Sarah Palin will be nothing like Bush. That is true, but only to the extent that the limits of power on the president will allow. That means "big business and the current distribution of wealth must operate as usual".

As all previous presidents in history, the president will do some good things, a lot of bad things, and his/her popularity will start out great and drop as people become disillusioned with their inability to change anything.

Here in Canada it is not any better. I have not seen this country get much better in the last 20 years. We went through free trade agreements, a huge recession in 90/91, then a slow climb out of it in the 90s, then we had an oil boom from 2003 to 2007, only to be followed by the current recession and all the bailouts for banks, car makers, etc.

In all of this, we had both Liberals (Democrats in the US) and Conservatives (Republicans in the US) promising change and improvement. The system is such that nothing got better or changed in 25 years.

We might have techno gadgets (computers, cell phones, etc.) but when we look at the overall picture of the world, did anything change since the end of the Cold War? We replaced an enemy for another. Communists gave way to terrorists. Poor people are still poor. Rich people are still getting richer. Can a president (or any president, prime minister, etc.) effect meaninful change?

As a final thought I will say that I might joke about Sarah Palin, or the First Gentleman, etc. but it would be a mistake to underestimate her abilities, just as it is a mistake to underestimate President Obama.

Übergeek 바둑이: I think you are wrong, in the respect that the type of change most parties claim, is from consrvative ideal to liberal ideals and back and forth.... but Obama was supposed to be different, yes in many respects he was promoting liberal/progressive agenda, but what most people voted for was his promise of a change in the way politics in general were going to be handled.... specifically the more bipartisan, and inclusive and openness blah blah blah....

without that he is just more of the same ol same ol....
he is no different, really, and many of us knew this, but many of us had "hope" and voted on that hope and now they see their errors, and it only took one year for our eyes to become un blind folded......

Thing is that the progressive far left liberals only wanted to move on their socialist agenda, and they thought they had a mandate to do that, unimpeded... but the fact is that their mandate was for a change in how government works and not for their far left agenda


Having said that, I think the same is true for the republicans as well.... people are getting fed up with polics as usual from both sides of the isle, and republicans need to learn this or they will be out as well....


Its time that politicians work for the people who hired them, and in my opinion, that time is very near indeed!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6994774.ece



The science is settled isnt it?????

Czuch: ....and they got a nobel prize for this work????? Nobels' credibility is really high isnt it?

Artful Dodger: Any hints?

你好，誰是否這裡讀中文？

Czuch: what is that?

Bwild: Traditional Chinese......

Czuch: Google Translatrese… only “hello” makes sense, the rest is a total mess.

Pedro Martínez: lol, it started out saying in english "hello, does anyone here read Chinese?"

Pedro Martínez: My translator says this

You are good, who whether does here read Chinese?

Czuch: Now from english to dutch then to chinese then back to english its...


"You are good, here reads everybody Chinese? "

Czuch: now from english to french to chinese back to english...


"You are good, here, no matter who Chinese does read ?"

Czuch: From Chinese into Czech: “Haló, kdo je tady číst Číňan?” meaning “Hello (however, this 'hello' is only used when answering a telephone), who is here read Chinese (however, this 'Chinese' is a Chinese person, not Chinese language)”.

Czuch: okay, last time, I promise....

from english to japanese to chinese back to english..


"Today, anybody here reads the Chinese? "

Pedro Martínez: My translator does not do Czech, I wish it could!

Czuch: http://translate.google.com/#cs|en|
This one does, but please don't use it…

Czuch: okay, sorry, really...

from english to german to french to japanese to chinese back to english again...

"Somebody here reads the Chinese corona light? "

Czuch:

Czuch:

> 你好，誰是否這裡讀中文？

From Chinese to Kilngon to Vulcan to Ferengi to English ...

How illogical! How can a president get a Nobel prize when the only ones who can afford it are 5-year-old Romulan kids with a weekly allowance? Kaplah!

Übergeek 바둑이:

Czuch: IMO they looking for scape goats in this whole sorry mess they created themselves
and until the ppl have the chance to vote at the ballot box
we stuck with a MP whos wasnt elected
who took us into 2 wars no one here wanted
but im sure V can explain it better when he gets back

Snoopy:

where is that man anyway?

Czuch:

Bwild: Are those two smileys meant to invoke thoughts of an insane asylum?

Czuch: seriously though....V is on sabatical up in the Tibetan Andes with the Dahli Llama discuss all the political discussions here on Brainking, and will return to enlighten us with his wisdom and knowledge of everything,yet nothing! lol

Pedro Martínez:

Bwild:

Bwild:

Tuesday: To the contrary, I hope you guys will finally nominate someone competent in the primaries.

Pedro Martínez: who do you have in mind?

vote Green!!

Artful Dodger: we need them to make it so any law they pass for us, also applies to them, and any law they pass for themselves, also applies to us!

Czuch: I actually don't have anyone specific in mind… it just seems to me that if I take a look back at the last three elections, neither of the presidential candidates, whether Gore, Bush, Kerry, McCain or Obama, had the qualities to become a president I would respect as a competent leader of the country. If Palin gets in the White House, I will start to believe that there are some sort of three-president turns: three proficient presidents (Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton) followed by three fumbling ones (Bush Jr., Obama, Palin). And maybe it would work further into the past too…

Artful Dodger: I was about to write that I dare say she would be, but then I deleted it because I thought nobody would argue with me anyway… lol

missouri is trying to pass a law that requires welfare receipianst to undergo drug screening...and lawmakers will have to go thru it every 2 years??
seems to me lawmakers should submit to random screenings

lol...recipiants

I suppose waterboarding had no bad consequences beyond the "few" cases it was used for. Now parents are considering waterboarding as punishment for their kids since it is not "torture":

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2010/02/09/waterboard_kids/index.html?source=rss&aim=/politics/war_room

I wonder what those who defended waterboarding have to say about this.