I started a thread after the election wondering what direction this board was going to take

[inthebrain]

with the Dems owning control of the house, Senate and Executive Branch.

I had a feeling that much of it would take a staunchly rightward turn. I'm baffeled by the left bashing.

Wonder how that changes direction as the next election cycle nears. One thing I will say is that reactionary politics are alive and well round these parts. Two things of note...

1) Interesting that the same tactics used to prop up Bush's economy are now being used to prop up this supposed "recovery".

2) As Bush's wars are becoming Obama's wars it's interesting how "victory" in these wars are now discussed as an ends to them. Nobody has set parameters to what "victory" means. Especially in relationg to Afghanistan where there are fewer than 100 AL Queda left and Bin Laden is no longer there.

[donco6]

1. It's in direct proportion to all the liberal issues that are being dismissed.

GLBT
War
Education
Corporatism

The more the Administration rolls over to the right on these issues, the more the existing liberals squawk, the more the Obamanauts defend.

[leftstreet]

2. I'm more curious as to how 'conservatives' are reacting

Not the HateRadio nuts, but those 'conservatives' who voted for Obama on antiwar and pro healthcare economic issues.

Although they're not well represented on the Intertubes.

[JoeyT]

28. The ones I know aren't very happy either.

If by conservative you mean "Old school fiscal conservatives that abandoned the Republican party for being crazy assholes around the time of the first Bush." They seem to be pretty unhappy. They seem to be making the same comparisons the liberals are. The cognitive dissonance is hilarious. "But wait...we didn't have money for a real economy boosting program the first time around, health care, or social security but we have the money for a war?"

[jpak]

3. There are only 100 AQ in Afghanistan because the US and NATO routed them from Afghanistan in 2001

OBL fled Afghanistan - because Bush let him get away.

If we left now - they would return.

try again

[walldude]

4. So it's my responsibility to pay to keep AQ out of Afghanistan?

Team America.. FUCK YEAH! Nothing like being the world police under the guise of being afraid of a few radical freaks.

[jpak]

5. Obama stated he would prevent AQ from finding safe havens in SW Asia

I support that

FYI - Those poor innocent put-upon AQ dudes killed thousands of civilians in NYC and Kenya and Bali and their sympathizers killed more civilians in London and Madrid.

not bad for a few radical freaks huh...

:puke:

[Sebastian Doyle]

14. Not bad for a mythological bullshit entity, huh?

http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares

Fuck the "Al Qaeda" illusion.

[walldude]

15. First of all, Don't you fucking dare try to act like I called those AQ assholes

"poor innocent put upon". You lost any fucking debate right there when you pulled out the uniform code of the Republican and put words in my mouth that I didn't come anywhere near uttering.

Second, NYC could have easily been avoided had Bush and his administration bothered to use the intelligence that the Clinton Administration gathered. They chose to ignore the warnings and 9/11 was the result. So don't give me that shit about how clever they are, anyone who could fucking READ knew it was coming.

And lastly if you think comparing the military might of the worlds only SUPERPOWER to Kenya, Bali, London and Madrid are helping you make your point you are sadly mistaken.

[FLDCVADem]

27. FYI

the majority of people that died at the Pentagon were civilians too, not that their deaths are any more tragic than the deaths of the military members.

[spoony]

6. So when we "leave" in 2011? Will they have forgotten by then to return?

We're going to leave eventually. Why do you think they won't return then?

[jpak]

7. Obama's plan is to train and deploy Afghan seucrity forces to prevent them from returning

FYI

[spoony]

9. Are you talking about the Taliban or AQ?

How do you prevent AQ from coming back in? They're here, in the US, and everywhere else.

[jpak]

11. Both - and ummm lets see....US trained Afgan security forces will keep them out?

yup

and prevent AQ from having a safe haven again in Afghanistan?

yup

[spoony]

13. You're acting like it's so simple, like AQ wear uniforms

If we want to help them fight AQ, we need to train them on law enforcement. The military is not the appropriate tool here any more than we would use the Army to catch bank robbers.

[Stinky The Clown]

16. That statement sounds like the last gasp of a dying moron.

"Afghan Security Forces" ....... riiiiiight.

Wanna buy a bridge?

Incredible.

[jpak]

17. That is the reason for the surge - sorry if you don't like it

stink on

[Stinky The Clown]

24. Yes, it is, indeed, the stated reason for the surge.

Do you buy it? Do you think that, finally, a sufficient number of Afghans will go against their eons of culture and form a national (as opposed to tribal) force just because we surged?

I can let you have the bridge real cheap.

[Stinky The Clown]

23. Self delete

Wrong place

[EFerrari]

12. And you believe that number why?

Seriously. Life is not a comic book.

AQ left for Pakistan and other places like Somalia and Yemen.

And no, they wouldn't return because the Afghan Taliban had big problems with bin Laden and now Pakistan has big problems with us. There's no way bin Laden, if he lives, or AQ would be welcome in Afghanistan.

[Techn0Girl]

25. We should invade Poland too!

Because Al-queda might take up residence there if we don't.

Maybe the Ukraine too!

[MNDemNY]

8. You should not be baffled.

Obama was a "right of center " candidate. A corporatist to the core. No surprises for me.

[liberalmuse]

10. I'm tired of the left bashing here.

There are still a lot of awesome lefties, but way too many Obama haters for my liking. Hell, I could get that on one of the right wingnut sites, but that is why I avoid them like the plague. It's been really disappointing.

[JackRiddler]

18. Even more disturbing: No one dares set parameters on what "defeat" means.

If it goes wrong, as it usually does, what's the maximum price in lives before the strategy is acknowledged as wrong?

[JackRiddler]

19. Prior to the election you had a promise of Afpak escalation, the FISA vote and "bailout" support.

What more did one need to know? Biden was also a tip-off, and after the election, the choice of Emanuel and the nod to Robert "Bush Mob" Gates were guarantees. Not to mention Geithner, Bernanke and the rest.

Knowing this in advance, I voted for him anyway, because a McCain victory would have represented endorsement of the Bush regime by the people, and thus an invitation to do even worse. And because McCain was hot for an additional war in Iran. Perhaps we've already avoided that.

Sotomayor's something, too.

And that's about it.

More importantly, for those without illusions about the corporate party duopoly, the left is failing to exploit the opportunity that Obama really does represent: To force some concessions from the street. If there was a live Democratic base, they'd have to cater to it at least a little bit.

Even before the election, a vibrant antiwar movement would have announced a huge demonstration for a twin pullout on Jan. 21st, 2009, regardless of who was inaugurated.

Instead there is the enormous embarrassment that the largest demonstration in this year of war, depression and bankers' plunder -- albeit only moderately impressive -- was the FOXNEWS-led teabaggers procession of confused reactionary nonsense in DC. Pathetic.

No pressure from below = guarantee of corporatist policy, continued bankers' junta, continued war, moderate imperialism in Latin America (unlike Bush would have, they pretended to be against the Honduras coup for a while), liberal imperialist excuses for new interventions, no single payer, in the end probably no real public option. Let alone a New New Deal!

[elehhhhna]

20. you forgot the surge.

[TexasObserver]

21. I started a joke that started the whole world laughing

[eleny]

22. k&r for prescience

[JackRiddler]

26. K&R