Thoughts on Today's Political Landscape

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by GRH

In the case of DSK, it's important to remember the presumption of innocence. The prosecutor's ended up having a nail driven into their case when it was discovered that the hotel maid has a history of lying (and at worst committing fraud).

Would you care to expand on this?

[SluttyShemaleAnna]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Would you care to expand on this?

There was various stuff with her receiving money from criminals, she was involved in some kind of criminal scheme, and of course we all know that only good girls can get raped, once a woman commits any crime, she automatically consents to any sexual act possible with every man she meets.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by SluttyShemaleAnna

There was various stuff with her receiving money from criminals, she was involved in some kind of criminal scheme, and of course we all know that only good girls can get raped, once a woman commits any crime, she automatically consents to any sexual act possible with every man she meets.

Criminal scheme? That's the first I've heard of that. I have heard that she is, or was, illegal and there was something dubious about her accounts or some such but that this is not strange when it comes to illegals. Of course there are fools out there who would condemn her on that alone rather than recognizing the perilous position she is in.

I've also heard DSK has a history of misogyny and sexual harassment.

[ila]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Would you care to expand on this?

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Criminal scheme? That's the first I've heard of that. I have heard that she is, or was, illegal and there was something dubious about her accounts or some such but that this is not strange when it comes to illegals. Of course there are fools out there who would condemn her on that alone rather than recognizing the perilous position she is in.

I've also heard DSK has a history of misogyny and sexual harassment.

Do you ever read or listen to the news beyond the original sensationalist headlines?

[SluttyShemaleAnna]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Criminal scheme? That's the first I've heard of that. I have heard that she is, or was, illegal and there was something dubious about her accounts or some such but that this is not strange when it comes to illegals. Of course there are fools out there who would condemn her on that alone rather than recognizing the perilous position she is in.

I've also heard DSK has a history of misogyny and sexual harassment.

Well, apparently an assortment of known criminals have paid $100,000 into her bank account, so there's definitely something going on, that cash didn't spring out of a monkey's butthole.

The facts of the case though is that the medical and forensic evidence is in her favour, and the circumstantial evidence that is known to the public seems to back her up too, as does DSK's history of sexual harassment.
The prosecution is going ahead however as the US justice system places so much weight on victim 'credibility', it seems quite likely that DSK will not be convicted.

[ila]

Originally Posted by SluttyShemaleAnna

...The facts of the case though is that the medical and forensic evidence is in her favour, and the circumstantial evidence that is known to the public seems to back her up too, as does DSK's history of sexual harassment...

The medical and forensic evidence shows that there was some kind of sexual activity. It does not prove that there was a rape.

[smc]

I know Enoch Root wants this thread to keep going. Today's column by Maureen Dowd in The New York Times is worthy of resurrecting the thread.

I am no supporter of Obama. His failure to stand up to the right doesn't surprise me at all. When he was running for president, I went on record saying that he stood for nothing.

But from the point of view of political process, watching his demise has been interesting. There are, of course, those on this site who will chime in with their usual dissembling about his policies. But I hope some of you will be spurred to discuss the process of governing, not just take the opportunity to spew bullshit that's already posted elsewhere.

One and Done?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: September 3, 2011

WASHINGTON -- One day during the 2008 campaign, as Barack Obama read the foreboding news of the mounting economic and military catastrophes that W. was bequeathing his successor, he dryly remarked to aides: ?Maybe I should throw the game.?

On the razor?s edge of another recession; blocked at every turn by Republicans determined to slice him up at any cost; starting an unexpectedly daunting re-election bid; and puzzling over how to make a prime-time speech about infrastructure and payroll taxes soar, maybe President Obama is wishing that he had thrown the game.

The leader who was once a luminescent, inspirational force is now just a guy in a really bad spot.

His Republican rivals for 2012 have gone to town on the Labor Day weekend news of zero job growth, using the same line of attack Hillary used in 2008: Enough with the big speeches! What about some action?

Polls show that most Americans still like and trust the president; but they may no longer have faith that he?s a smarty-pants who can fix the economy.

Just as Obama miscalculated in 2009 when Democrats had total control of Congress, holding out hope that G.O.P. lawmakers would come around on health care after all but three senators had refused to vote for the stimulus bill; just as he misread John Boehner this summer, clinging like a scorned lover to a dream that the speaker would drop his demanding new inamorata, the Tea Party, to strike a ?grand? budget bargain, so the president once more set a trap for himself and gave Boehner the opportunity to dis him on the timing of his jobs speech this week.

Obama?s re-election chances depend on painting the Republicans as disrespectful. So why would the White House act disrespectful by scheduling a speech to a joint session of Congress at the exact time when the Republicans already had a debate planned?

And why is the White House so cocky about Obama as a TV draw against quick-draw Rick Perry? As James Carville acerbically noted, given a choice between watching an Obama speech and a G.O.P. debate, ?I?d watch the debate, and I?m not even a Republican.?

The White House caved, of course, and moved to Thursday, because there?s nothing the Republicans say that he won?t eagerly meet halfway.

No. 2 on David Letterman?s Top Ten List of the president?s plans for Labor Day: ?Pretty much whatever the Republicans tell him he can do.?

On MSNBC, the anchors were wistfully listening to old F.D.R. speeches, wishing that this president had some of that fight. But Obama can?t turn into F.D.R. for the campaign because he aspires to the class that F.D.R. was a traitor to; and he can?t turn into Harry Truman because he lacks the common touch. He has an acquired elitism.

MSNBC?s Matt Miller offered ?a public service? to journalists talking about Obama ? a list of synonyms for cave: ?Buckle, fold, concede, bend, defer, submit, give in, knuckle under, kowtow, surrender, yield, comply, capitulate.?

And it wasn?t exactly Morning in America when Obama sent out a mass e-mail to supporters Wednesday under the heading ?Frustrated.?

It unfortunately echoed a November 2010 parody in The Onion with the headline, ?Frustrated Obama Sends Nation Rambling 75,000-Word E-Mail.?

?Throughout,? The Onion teased, ?the president expressed his aggravation on subjects as disparate as the war in Afghanistan, the sluggish economic recovery, his live-in mother-in-law, China?s undervalued currency, Boston?s Logan Airport, and tort reform.?

You know you?re in trouble when Harry Reid says you should be more aggressive.

If the languid Obama had not done his usual irritating fourth-quarter play, if he had presented a jobs plan a year ago and fought for it, he wouldn?t have needed to elevate the setting. How will he up the ante next time? A speech from the space station?

Republicans who are worried about being political props have a point. The president is using the power of the incumbency and a sacred occasion for a political speech.

Obama is still suffering from the Speech Illusion, the idea that he can come down from the mountain, read from a Teleprompter, cast a magic spell with his words and climb back up the mountain, while we scurry around and do what he proclaimed.

The days of spinning illusions in a Greek temple in a football stadium are done. The One is dancing on the edge of one term.

The White House team is flailing ? reacting, regrouping, retrenching. It?s repugnant.

After pushing and shoving and caving to get on TV, the president?s advisers immediately began warning that the long-yearned-for jobs speech wasn?t going to be that awe-inspiring.

?The issue isn?t the size or the newness of the ideas,? one said. ?It?s less the substance than how he says it, whether he seizes the moment.?

The arc of justice is stuck at the top of a mountain. Maybe Obama was not even the person he was waiting for.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by smc

I know Enoch Root wants this thread to keep going. Today's column by Maureen Dowd in The New York Times is worthy of resurrecting the thread.

I am no supporter of Obama. His failure to stand up to the right doesn't surprise me at all. When he was running for president, I went on record saying that he stood for nothing.

But from the point of view of political process, watching his demise has been interesting. There are, of course, those on this site who will chime in with their usual dissembling about his policies. But I hope some of you will be spurred to discuss the process of governing, not just take the opportunity to spew bullshit that's already posted elsewhere.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

I have a story that must be all too familiar. I was in college. I had never voted before. I had never registered as a voter. Not even here in Puerto Rico. I had no idea what it was like. I'd never felt compelled to vote. But then along came Obama. I'd always been annoyed that my college years would be spent under Bush yet here was an opportunity for something different. So it seemed. An acquaintance of mine was a member of the College Democrats. Smart fellow, slim, ginger--Canadian if I remember correctly--full of energy. All in all he was a good man, calm and moral. He convinced me to register. He told me the dates to keep an eye out for. He was there in the public library we were driven to vote.

He was a Hillary man but then Obama became the candidate.

Now I wonder what he feels about Obama and Hillary. I certainly do not like what's happened. There's the old but true refrain: we've gotten four more years of Bush. It's certainly a lesson. I think I've learned it pretty well. Democrats are pretty much just like Republicans.