2008 Presidential Primaries
- Thread starter Griffith
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CnC said:
I'm just hoping for a really weak president this term. Ron Paul would work; he is at least somewhat rational. All of his real cooky ideas (NO MORE IRS! lol) would never get passed, but he is an intelligent and relatively uncompromised individual. I disagree with a lot (most) of his politics, but I prefer him to the rest of the lot.
I hear Sealand is nice this time of year.
Vampire_Hunter_Bob
Cats are great
CnC said:
There was a documentary I posted in the youtube thread that explained the military industrial complex and why it's incredibly hard to cut funding for the military. That and also, I think it happens to be the fact we are fighting a war in two different countries right now and you can't really cut spending for the military by too much.
Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:
Yea, it was called "Why we fight". A nice documentary.
Like it said, and I agree with, the first crack in the wall could come in the form of campaign and lobbying reform. Of the candidates remaining I believe McCain, RP, and Obama have all stated intentions or brought about legislation to deal with the problem. Unless the cyclical nature of corporations (military or otherwise) funding or influencing a politician and said politician influence the funding of said corporation can somehow be broken you're not going to see any sort of change in defense spending.
Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:
First off, I'm sorry if I'm dominating this thread too much. We've now strayed from the original topic. This will be my final post in this sub-thread.
A few items to consider here:
FY 2008 Budget:
Dept. of Defense: $481.4 Billion
NASA: $17.3 Billion
Education: $56 Billion
This does NOT include the costs of the wars in Afghanistan/Iraq. Those are funded by appropriations. The amount Obama is planning to cut here is $18 billion over 5 years. That's $3.6 billion per year. That's a negligible sum in terms of the DoD, but it breaks manned spaceflight for this nation.
Okay. I have already established that I will not be voting for Obama (which was the topic) and have since been justifying that and running along this tangent.CnC said:
I don't want to get verbally raped by the SK crowd yet; I'm a newb virgin, and want my first time to be special and gentle.
One candidate I know naught about (other than the mormonism) is Romney. Can anyone illuminate me on the finer points of his (science or otherwise) policy in a concise form?
S
Sanguinius
Guest
Nonsapient said:
This website is about the best I've seen of the Romney agenda. The makers obviously have their own view but I think they present Romney's policies clearly enough.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-3_3_06_MK.html
Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Nonsapient, did you vote for W in the last election? He was going to be the SPACE PRESIDENT! 
Anyway, when he said he was going to take us to Mars, little did we know that was more a state of mind than a trip somewhere; he's bringing Mars to Earth. Anyway, I'm as big a space exploration honk as anybody, but not a NASA fan, too many bureaucrats that have a stake in not rocking the boat and keeping funds funneled to their superfluous programs and pensions, a lot like the Military in many ways, except not as useful. I'd basically cut the whole fucking program at this point and reboot it from the leftovers with a new urgency to actually get something done. I'm excited by the mission to Mars, but it's just set up for delays and pussyfooting, it's on a 25+ year "plan" as it is, and now President Obama is cutting it's funding already. I don't think the issue is the money, you can pump money into something forever but if there's no urgency the money will just disappear, also the real cost we're not willing to pay is in human life. If we had a reason to have a presence on the Moon or to go to Mars, something valuable up there, there'd be people blowing themselves up every day trying to get there, as it stands, I'm disappointed with our progress since 1969. Read any 50's science fiction, we were supposed to be living in cities on Mars by the 1970s. =)
Back on topic, I think I'm voting for Obama today.
Anyway, when he said he was going to take us to Mars, little did we know that was more a state of mind than a trip somewhere; he's bringing Mars to Earth. Anyway, I'm as big a space exploration honk as anybody, but not a NASA fan, too many bureaucrats that have a stake in not rocking the boat and keeping funds funneled to their superfluous programs and pensions, a lot like the Military in many ways, except not as useful. I'd basically cut the whole fucking program at this point and reboot it from the leftovers with a new urgency to actually get something done. I'm excited by the mission to Mars, but it's just set up for delays and pussyfooting, it's on a 25+ year "plan" as it is, and now President Obama is cutting it's funding already. I don't think the issue is the money, you can pump money into something forever but if there's no urgency the money will just disappear, also the real cost we're not willing to pay is in human life. If we had a reason to have a presence on the Moon or to go to Mars, something valuable up there, there'd be people blowing themselves up every day trying to get there, as it stands, I'm disappointed with our progress since 1969. Read any 50's science fiction, we were supposed to be living in cities on Mars by the 1970s. =)
Back on topic, I think I'm voting for Obama today.
Vampire_Hunter_Bob
Cats are great
Nonsapient said:
I was not aware of that. Exactly what is being funded with that defense budget? I know their not spending it on missiles and thousands of those new humvees can't be that much.
No, I didn't actually. Fun fact: I'm from Midland, Texas, where he claims to be from. He and his family scare me.Griffith No More! said:Nonsapient, did you vote for W in the last election? He was going to be the SPACE PRESIDENT!
I agree with all of that, to be honest. Private exploration is my last hope. With that said, If we kept a steady (and decent) supply of funding to NASA, and cut some of the dead wood (bureaucrats and 65-80 year old engineers) it may have a shot at reform. Long terms goals instead of ever-shifting targets would help too (an issue worsened by the election cycle).
Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:
Infrastructure, defense contracts, R&D, outpost funding, etc. It's a really big tangled mess.
Edit: linky for the DoD Budget http://www.defenselink.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2008/index.html
I voted early last week in the Illinois Primary, and now regret it.
Ron Paul has text messaged me twice and called me four times in the last 72 hours.
He even got his wife to call me.
This last time I screamed into the phone, "I already voted for your asshole husband!"
God let it end soon.
But yeah, I voted too [can someone insert something patriotic in here? much appreciated, my skills in the image dept. are a'lacking]
Ron Paul has text messaged me twice and called me four times in the last 72 hours.
He even got his wife to call me.
This last time I screamed into the phone, "I already voted for your asshole husband!"
God let it end soon.
But yeah, I voted too [can someone insert something patriotic in here? much appreciated, my skills in the image dept. are a'lacking]
Vampire_Hunter_Bob
Cats are great
Nonsapient said:
*looks at budget* Remove the Air Force. There problem solved.
Anyways, Did anyone else from Maryland hear about some problems about being told to vote in the wrong polling places?
CnC said:
Edit: Huckabee just won West Virginia and it's 18 delegates.
At least Mitt Romney was dead last at 1.0
Vampire_Hunter_Bob
Cats are great
CNN said Obama won Georgia.
Griffith No More! said:
Voted.
Check this out:
http://www.kcpw.org/select-a-candidate
I got Obama as my #1 with a 10.0, Hillary came in second at 9.0, and coming in last, Ron Paul, 1.0. Wow, I had no idea, really. =)
Obama with a 19.
