How many Democratic Senators will Lose Their Seats?

biochem wrote:
Agreed. Power abhors a vacuum. If the US retreats to an isolationist posture a la post WWI than US power will be replaced by something/someone. Putin? China? Islamofacists? They've all been jockeying to replace the US internationally. For those who don't particularly like the US, there are a lot worse alternatives out there. And if any of the 3 gain significant power, they won't be content to leave the US alone. Look at it from their point of view, the threat to their new power of any US reemergence on the international scene will be too significant. Their tactics may vary but all will eventually move to neutralize the US to consolidate their own power.

That leaves us with a bit of a sticky wicket, eh? If we continue to engage the world as we are, we begger ourselves. If we do not, we face dangers down the road.

I tend to agree with libertarians. We defend ourselves first and foremost, at the same time we increase our threshold dramatically for premptive action. Other nations have to be responsible for their own security. When we do act, no gloves...rather, use a steel gauntlet and leave the other guys bleeding wrecks fit only to be pittied. If we are unwilling to do that DO NOT engage the military.

namelessfly wrote:You do realize that most of the allies that I disdain view Israel's existence as illegitimate and favor peace terms that would ultimately result in Israel becoming another Islamic state, most likely as a result of genocide?

How is the Obama administration working out for you?

Israel is the one ally that I would favor defending even though realpoltic suggests that it is insane only because I feel a religious obligation. Nice to see YOU supporting the people who disrespect my religion.

Really? I awsn't aware that Australia, NZ, the UK, etc. (as opposed to specific people in them) were calling for Israel's destruction. Yes, I often strongly disagree with their approach to the conflict, or to their views of or policies regading Israel, but that's not the same as regarding Israel as illegitimate.

A disagreement - even a strong one - does not equal a desire to destroy the other.

And who here has disrespected your religion?

biochem wrote:I tend to be a proponent of the kill them there or you will have to kill them here school of thought.

The problem with that school of thought is that some (not all) of those terrorists wouldn't have attacked you "here" if you hadn't gone "there".

Your last sentence exactly expresses the primary benefits of isolationism. 9-11 was a direct consequence of US interventions, particularly Iraq. Given the failure of attempts to replace dictatorship in Iraq and theocracy in Afghanistan with liberal democracy, any further interventions are pointless and needlessly confrontational.

I will not address the issue of who on this forum has disrespected my religion. The list is long, doing so is needlessly inflammatory, and the liberal mindset is so reflexively hostile to Christains that the insults were as much the result of habit than specific intent.

Eyal wrote:

namelessfly wrote:You do realize that most of the allies that I disdain view Israel's existence as illegitimate and favor peace terms that would ultimately result in Israel becoming another Islamic state, most likely as a result of genocide?

How is the Obama administration working out for you?

Israel is the one ally that I would favor defending even though realpoltic suggests that it is insane only because I feel a religious obligation. Nice to see YOU supporting the people who disrespect my religion.

Really? I awsn't aware that Australia, NZ, the UK, etc. (as opposed to specific people in them) were calling for Israel's destruction. Yes, I often strongly disagree with their approach to the conflict, or to their views of or policies regading Israel, but that's not the same as regarding Israel as illegitimate.

A disagreement - even a strong one - does not equal a desire to destroy the other.

And who here has disrespected your religion?

biochem wrote:I tend to be a proponent of the kill them there or you will have to kill them here school of thought.

The problem with that school of thought is that some (not all) of those terrorists wouldn't have attacked you "here" if you hadn't gone "there".

Daryl, I am in a little different position. My family on my mother's side can trace it's roots back to 1066 in Huddersfield (Huttersfield? not sure off the top of my head)Yorkshire, England. Between both sides of my family have people or had people in the English, Canadian, Australian, and US military and intelligence services for many years. From 1 Veteran, I thank your family and you for your sacrifices in the name of freedom.

What's hard for me to understand is that a person from another country is sure of what's happening within my country. I have relatives that came to my house to stay for several weeks from Australia. There take on the Muslim immigration issues is in total opposition to what you are espousing within this forum. The fact's are that I don't know enough what's happening in Australia. By the same token, I feel that people that are commenting about other countries political process are looking through "Rose-colored glasses" at America.

First, the tea party is a movement rather than actual physical political party. They espouse constitutional law, low taxes, and balanced budget. The biggest cause to the creation of the tea party was Obama-care and the repeal of campaign finance laws. On both sides, billions of dollars are being spent to select politicians that don't care what the average person does. A "few" select individuals are determining our elections by massive use of wealth and selected leaks on close races. Many of us feel like our government has been hijacked. Did we approve of Libya? "hell no!" These same people were prepared to go into Syria. The facts are that the intervention was stopped by fundamental Christians that wanted no war within the Middle East. Then they attempt to invalidate the Constitution by making single shot rifles illegal and having pistol with more than 6 shots illegal. See pre-war Germany to see how that type of in-actions lead to terrible governments and consequences for the rest of the World. We have government that is selectively enforcing the laws of USA. The Obama administration is using the government to investigate the Tea party and it's members. They feel we are threat to them. We are cross roads to another civil war! Yes my last statement is a projection of what's going to happen in 10 to 20 years down the road. Hopefully, my statement about a civil war are an hyperbole because the consequences will be dire to the world if I am correct. Now, take what Obama and the rest of the democratic leadership said about the Tea party movement. They claimed that the tea party was saying these racist comments as they moved through the procession when the tea party rallied at the Mall of America in 2009. The thing is that these politicians were trailed by people with camera's the entire time. The democratic leadership still claimed that racial slurs were issued. A $100,000 us dollars was offered for video showing the racial slurs. No one has been able to corroborate the statements of the "Democratic Leadership in both the House and Senate." No one claimed that reward money. Our current government will lie whenever it's convenient to their political agenda. Look at Benghazi, it was because of a guy that produced a video against "Allah". He went to jail (he's still in jail)! It was never a terrorist incident. Yeah Right!

The media has remained silent about these issues. The problem is that eight corporations control most the US media.

As far as the NSA is concerned, a pox on their leadership. However, all major governments are doing this. The NSA provides a necessary service. It's when an agency goes beyond it's mandate that we should be concerned. It has!

Daryl wrote:Thanks to all for your PMs and public messages of condolence regarding my father's passing. The funeral has concluded and all went as well as could be hoped for.
I wouldn't have mentioned it at all except for sheer rage at the ongoing bagging of any country by a certain person.

An overused term is paradigm or world view. One poster here has an extremely different one than most, although he does have a couple of fellow travellers who tend the same way.

In regard to population growth or otherwise he said "The demographic reality is that all of our allies including Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan are on a demographic death spiral"
Yet the actual situation for Australia is "an overall total population increase of one person every 1 minutes and 23 seconds". Population graphs for us show a constant upward growth. Sure a very small percentage are Muslim migrants but they become good citizens, and like Spacekiwi I regard all those holding strong religious beliefs of any kind with puzzlement anyway.
The bits about how our military contribution is miniscule compared to the US is contemptible, tell it to the war widows, tell it to our SAS who are always assigned the most difficult jobs (perhaps not if you enjoy having teeth to chew with), per head of population we do more than our share.
I repeat my challenge, tell us what actions you personally or near kin have done to directly support our combined troops in a combat situation? Apart from my Dad who risked his neck providing air cover to GIs, I spent many years planning and supporting combined operations in many locations. Have you worn uniform, or done anything apart from insulting those brave enough to protect you and yours?

smr, I'll not repeat all our long posts just " What's hard for me to understand is that a person from another country is sure of what's happening within my country. I have relatives that came to my house to stay for several weeks from Australia. There take on the Muslim immigration issues is in total opposition to what you are espousing within this forum. The fact's are that I don't know enough what's happening in Australia. By the same token, I feel that people that are commenting about other countries political process are looking through "Rose-colored glasses" at America."

Not sure what your Australian guest's takes on Muslim immigration were, so I can only comment on my perceptions. I despise the thought of Sharia law, and would undertake violent opposition to it being introduced in my country. That said we have a relatively small intake of Muslim immigrants here and the great majority are good people who cause no problems. There are a few nutcases who are good tabloid fodder, but have limited influence. The conservative side of our politics have fed off the bogan (redneck) minority's belief that we are being swamped by fundamentalist Muslim immigration in order to cynically capture their vote, however a calm adult examination of the statistics disproves that utterly. We have about 20,000 refugees arriving a year (most of whom aren't Muslim let alone extremists), how many does the US or Europe get?
As to my understanding of the situation in America, that's the whole point of my participation here. I get so much confusing data that I really don't know what is factual and what is propaganda by some vested interest. Possibly my ignorance leads me to upset people, but I really don't understand. Several of the strongest posters here confused me initially as I thought they couldn't be genuine with their opinions and were joking, as they were so extreme and stereotypical of the reported US right that I didn't expect that they actually did hold views that were so alien to me.

Daryl, I took the time to read all 8 pages of posts. The facts are the majority of people feel like we are being led into economic, political, and diplomatic suicide. Our government is acting like a despot. We have laws authorized to kill "Americans" with drone strikes. We have continued encroachment upon our God given rights that expressed within the Constitution. These rights were endowed to us by our creator. We are no longer able to worship or bring the bible to our schools but it's Ok to pray if your a Muslim! We have a executive branch that selectively enforces the laws it only agrees with. Now, they want to change the Constitution to get rid of the 2nd amendment or modify by 5 critical words. The "no fly list" does not allow any appeal or any way to be removed from the list. In the 2008, no one in the banks or mortgage companies went to jail for fraud. Why do you think were unhappy?

You think your confused. How about us average Americans? We are being attacked upon multiple fronts. These ruling elite would like to be Germany during 30's. My personal beliefs is that they want to seize the banks like they proposed in 2008. The same administration proposed to pay our debt by issuing Trillion dollar Currency notes.

All I know, I concerned for the future and feel like I am living in George Orwell's [url]1984.[url]

smr, thanks for your feedback. It has helped although I still have a paradigm problem. Do the majority of US citizens feel the same way as you? It does seem very different to what we have been told.
To illustrate differences across the countries your comment "God given rights that expressed within the Constitution. These rights were endowed to us by our creator. We are no longer able to worship or bring the bible to our school", would puzzle many in our secular society. We believe that what rights we have are those we have fought for, and they are not god given because many believe in various gods or none for that matter, and such rights are up for renegotiation as customs change over time. Certainly our government schools would not welcome a student bringing a bible or a koran to class, and I would agree with them.
I agree that killing anyone by drone (your own citizens or others) is wrong unless in a declared war situation, examples of "no fly" list mistakes are well publicised here as well.
I just checked what the 2nd amendment says and understand that it reflects a uniquely US opinion, no other country would accept that people have a right to be armed, just because they might want to oppose a government they disagree with(we here need a practical reason, which I have for my guns).
I was of the opinion that some of the GFC architects had gone to prison, just not enough of them.

Daryl wrote:snip
I just checked what the 2nd amendment says and understand that it reflects a uniquely US opinion, no other country would accept that people have a right to be armed, just because they might want to oppose a government they disagree with(we here need a practical reason, which I have for my guns).
I was of the opinion that some of the GFC architects had gone to prison, just not enough of them.

I just wanted to make a small correction, Daryl.

The guns aren't to enforce our disagreement with the government. They are to protect our Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic.

Many thanks for that. Important distinction that does clarify the situation somewhat.

PeterZ wrote:

Daryl wrote:snip
I just checked what the 2nd amendment says and understand that it reflects a uniquely US opinion, no other country would accept that people have a right to be armed, just because they might want to oppose a government they disagree with(we here need a practical reason, which I have for my guns).
I was of the opinion that some of the GFC architects had gone to prison, just not enough of them.

I just wanted to make a small correction, Daryl.

The guns aren't to enforce our disagreement with the government. They are to protect our Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic.

@ Daryl If it will help you orient yourself, I am fond of taking quizzes which place you on the spectrum of American politics based upon the positions you hold and the intensity to which you hold them. I almost always wind up just to the right of center, primarily due to the intensity factor.

Most of the positions which the tea party espouses are very popular in the mainstream right (outside of Washington DC). Where they have drifted away from the mainstream is in the intensity. The tea party is much more uncompromising and purist than the mainstream.

They have brought pluses and minuses to the system. On the plus side pre-tea party there was a big problem with Republicans from safe districts. Since it was a safe district, they would never lose to a Democrat and no Republican would challenge them in a primary due to party loyalty. Thus once elected the position is theirs for life. As a result, once elected it was "Voters? What voters? Who cares what the voters think?" and basically did whatever they wanted whether or not their voters approved. The tea party does not believe in party loyalty, only in loyalty to ideals and is more than willing to embark on a serious primary challenge. As a result, safe seat polticians are paying attention to the voters for the first time in decades. The voters like this. The DC establishment hate these guys with a passion. They can't say so openly without offending the voters they now have to care about, so they get their friends in the press that they've known for years to do the attacking for them.

On the minus side, while many of the tea party backed candidates are doing OK, others lacked the political skills to be successful. Letting some ad guy convince you that one of the first ads you should run to introduce yourself to voters as a senatorial candidate is "I am not a witch" shows a serious lack of political skill. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxJyPsmEask

They also in their drive toward ideological purity, overdo it and damage candidates who are genuine conservatives but less pure than the ideologues would prefer.

The drone thing was a serious controversy. The Obama administration wouldn't agree to disavow the use of drones to kill US citizens on US soil in situations that did NOT involve an imminent threat. I guess they wanted to keep all options open? It created a major firestorm for a while but has been ignored in the news lately due to the Obamacare disaster, the continuing unemployment problems etc. I'm considerably less concerned than smr but I am a bit nervous wondering what they are up to on this issue now that it is off the front pages.

The tea party is a racist vs prove it on video and get $100,000 created a minor firestorm at the time but has since been ignored, in favor of the concerns about the economy. The economy really is dominating everything here and most other stories are quickly overwhelmed by more bad economic news.

The USA is a more religious society than Australia and a generation or two ago, it would not have been at all unusual to see someone choose to bring a Bible to school. A 100 years ago, the Bible may even have been the textbook that the teacher used to teach students to read. There has been a steady pressure from the left to de-Christianize American society since the 1960s. Religious Americans deeply resent the marginalization of their beliefs. While not the norm for most school districts, some of the more radical school districts actually punish grade schoolers for expression of religious thoughts, drawing a cross in art etc. Christmas is being replaced by the generic winter holiday season etc. This resentment is especially strong when the same people who want to deny Christians the right to express their beliefs, go out of their way to accommodate Ramadan, Muslim prayer rooms etc. Church attendance is often used by pollsters as a rough measure of intensity of belief (it's only a rough measure but they haven't been able to come up with anything more accurate). This nation to nation comparison is interesting.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/rel_c ... attendance

The facts are the majority of people feel like we are being led into economic, political, and diplomatic suicide. Our government is acting like a despot.

Fairly common belief in the US not just among the tea party. The latest realclearpolitics poll avg indicates that 63% of Americans believe that the country is on the WRONG track.

Of course that's a summary of the problems. Ask about what the solutions should be and there is huge disagreement!

All I know, I concerned for the future and feel like I am living in George Orwell's [url]1984.[url]

OK. That's not commonly held. Americans are unhappy with government overreach but that's more extreme than most.

We are cross roads to another civil war! Yes my last statement is a projection of what's going to happen in 10 to 20 years down the road. Hopefully, my statement about a civil war are an hyperbole because the consequences will be dire to the world if I am correct.

Definitely not commonly held belief.

I was of the opinion that some of the GFC architects had gone to prison, just not enough of them

Most of them were smart enough to use legal loopholes to insure that what they did was legal. It should have been illegal but it wasn't so they are getting off the hook. Basically bad laws were in place with way too many loopholes that these clever crooks could slip through. Congress ignored the problem until it was too late. Business as usual in DC.