The vast majority of self-identified "conservatives" are rural, don't have a college degree, and don't make a lot of money. The only influence they have is their vote. After that come small-time players like bigtexxx who support policies that are good for themselves personally, but who do things like argue on the internet to do their part to keep the rural conservatives believing that conservatism is good for them too. These people are largely ineffectual because the most they do is post on messageboards and comment on youtube videos. Then, there are the big-time players like the Koch Brothers who support policies that are good for themselves personally, but who do things like pump millions into media and campaign coffers to keep the rural conservatives believing that conservatism is good for them too. These people are incredibly effectual because their vast sums of money buy a lot of advertisements, reporters, and entire media outlets.
I wonder if we polled Osama about how he felt about the efficacy of Obama vs. his predecessor, what he'd say....
Awesome. Gorbachev is my hero. In a century of great villains, I think he was one of the most influential men for good in the world. I think it's a great tragedy that he lost control in the end and I think Russia would be in a much better place now if he had not. I was already on board with Obama. And, knowing what I do about Gorbachev, I'd say it is no suprise that he'd prefer Obama. Gorbachev was always an idealist.
I agree with you that Gorbachev wasn't a master planner and my understanding was that he didn't want to dismantle the USSR but got caught up in the circumstances. That said though it often takes a genius to see the obvious when no one else around is acknowledging what is really happening. Also consider that when the Soviet Union was breaking up we were seeing ethnic conflicts already happening in what was Yugoslavia and between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Russian military facilities including nuke sand ICBM's were scattered throughout the USSR. The break up of the USSR could've been bloodier than anything we have ever seen and even apocalyptic but with a few exceptions has been relatively peaceful. Gorbachev should at least be given credit for seeing that through.
Paid for by Sierra Club, www.sierraclub.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. so much for environmentalist discontent.
And my guess is if you did, they'd tell you their personal feelings are irrelevant as they serve at the behest of the Commander-in-Chief.
Anybody else kind of impressed a high school gets Gorbachev to address the students? I'm kind of curious how that came about.
And 9/11 was all Clinton's fault. He didn't head out to Crawford and tell Bush to read that damned memo, read it! I know it doesn't pertain to the current thread, but since nothing is a Republican's fault, thought I'd get it out there for you before the nurse brings out the meds for you and gwayneco. Aren't you guys supposed to let the other patients use the computers? And Bush is on record as saying that bin Laden just wasn't a priority to him. Now, maybe he was being petulant (he was good at that) because he was sick of being reminded that he was a grotesque failure in bringing bin Laden to justice; but if he were really really after bin Laden, he maybe might shoulda coulda perhaps given a better response/comment? http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/05/02/162774/bush-bin-laden/ I'd prefer to post other web sites but I can't access youtube and others directly, so....
Republicans are just so loyal and will blindly follow any orders, of course you make best soldiers. We will gladly let you lead jockeys gets your frustrations out on some dang'ol towelheads rather than dealing with your battle to keep everyone under religious oppression here at home. But we still mourn you when you die. Because you were Americans. But while you war-mongerers are still alive we will just continue to vent our intellectual frustrations quite angrily from sleek laptop computers at local coffee house establishments using antiquated adjectives. God it feels good to not be a brainwashed, Rush-sucker.
Ok, I'm charitble. I'll give you guys bin Laden. Barry took time out from healing the oceans to fire that bullet that killed Osama. Fine, but that's all you got.
I thought you guys were claiming 9/11 was an inside job now? Or is that just one of the other completely insane branch-offs of the Republican party?
LMAO. It's the liberals that gave us political correctness and campus speech codes. They are the mind-numbed robots. There is far more diversity of thought at any of the service academies than there is among the faculty at places like Harvard and Yale.
(I gotta agree with Bush on this, really. It's a good symbolic victory for us, but probably not a very big deal in the larger war on terror.)