quote:

Originally posted by Q5echo everybody should watch this

Perhaps I'm a little punchy being finals week and all, but I guess I'm missing your point here.

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

quote:

Originally posted by MisterOpus1 Perhaps I'm a little punchy being finals week and all, but I guess I'm missing your point here.

i think everyone should watch it.

Meh, I guess I won't be getting your point tonight no matter what. As much as I love our usual bickering, I've gotta take a small temporary leave status until I get through the next few days.

Keep thinking happy thoughts of me.

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

quote:

Originally posted by MisterOpus1 I do tend to wonder why you have this uncanny propensity to refer to your opposition as the opposite sex. That wouldn't be a bit of projection of a sexual identity crisis of your own, would it? Not that there's anything wrong with it. As a liberal, I tend to embrace everyone, even the sexually confused. Granted, I am taken by the Mrs., but I'm sure we can find someone for you regardless of sexual preference you choose.....

well keep wondering. your asshole is safe from me.

quote:

2. Bolton is a fucking nimrod and is on the most extreme side of things and does not represent the American people at the U.N. well at all.

not representative of the American people? okay so what do you base that on?

would you be willing to put that to a vote?

because we all know Opus thinks he's a nitwit, sure, and that carries some real weight in an academic discussion but what about putting it to a simple vote?

we've had the debate, we've seen what he is capable of, there is a Constitutional obligation here, lets put Democracy to the test.

lets not play any f**king games here Opus, we're not kids. you have not demonstrated to anyone you are serious about UN reform. and if you think obstruction of the process based on "harsh tones" represents the "will of the people" then whatever hopes you claim to have of making the UN a better place will only be prolonged.

quote:

Originally posted by Q5echo not representative of the American people? okay so what do you base that on?

Both his behaviors and his words that I have outlined in the past. Was there something there that you missed to which I posted previously?

quote:

would you be willing to put that to a vote? because we all know Opus thinks he's a nitwit, sure, and that carries some real weight in an academic discussion but what about putting it to a simple vote?

What, here on TA? You being serious?

quote:

we've had the debate, we've seen what he is capable of, there is a Constitutional obligation here, lets put Democracy to the test.

Oh, I see - you want to put "Democracy to the test" when you're still clinging on by a thread to the majority. Is that still putting "democracy to the test" when Bush appoints him anyway via recess appointment?

quote:

lets not play any f**king games here Opus, we're not kids. you have not demonstrated to anyone you are serious about UN reform.

We haven't discussed it specifically, but as I said previously I am the first in line to address the downfalls of the U.N. and how they should be corrected. This has not ever been an issue with me. What HAS been an issue, however, is someone with a record like Bolton who's brash and idiotic behavior coming into that mess and supposedly "reforming" the place. To me that's beyond the pale of absurdity to have someone like him with such views (to which I've outlined previously) be a representative of the U.S. and the world's leading superpower.

And as I've mentioned previously, this is a perfect representation of how this Administration conducts its business. Take public education, for example. It's no secret how this Administration feels about this topic, especially Bush (who was quite the striking student in his own right, but I digress). It's also no secret that public education needs a bit of work as well. So what is Bush's solution?

No Child Left Behind - the most impossible standards set up not on the students, but especially on the teachers and the schools to reach 100% pass rating on a yearly exam by the year 2014. It's not merely a matter of striving to achieve such tremendous academic goals, as this Administration attempts to bolster, but rather an absolutely ridiculous standard that could never be achieved by any stretch of the imagination on a federal (or even state) level.

And the catch is a simple one - Bush knows this. He's fully aware of the consequences of failure to reach those increasing annual test score standards as more and more $ gets squeezed out of the public schools. But that's exactly the idea. He's not out to merely reform it. By setting such unreachable standards and thus slowly squeezing the fuck out of teachers and schools, he's deliberately destroying the institution altogether, slowly but surely . You discuss this issue with any public teacher (and considering my parents are both teachers) and you would be hard-pressed to find any that agree with this asinine program. Teacher accountability needed? Absolutely. In this manner by squeezing out $, jobs, and impossible standards? Fuck no. Not to mention how redirecting the focus on taking these annual exams is asinine and defeats the purpose of learning content in the first place, but that's another story.

Okay, so I digressed quite a bit there. My apologies. My point, however, is that by a similar manner of addressing the need for reform in the U.N. while simultaneously representing the U.S. diplomatically is not performed by someone who throws bombs and behaves in the manner that Bolton has done in the past. This is not a correct means of handling the issue with such an appointment, and I maintain that appointing someone else with better behavior and less neoconservative-U.S.-first-fuck-everyone-else type attitude will be a better fit.

Besides, how much longer can a shitknocker like Bolton continue to ignore things like this?:

http://abcnews.go.com/International...TC-RSSFeeds0312

Lead by example? Where's Bolton's lead on this issue, sir? Is there something inherently good to be the world's leading superpower and willfully ignore hundreds of thousands of lives lost in one of the biggest humanitarian crisis we've ever encountered? Why not lead the U.N. on such issues if they are too incompetent to do it on their own?

quote:

and if you think obstruction of the process based on "harsh tones" represents the "will of the people" then whatever hopes you claim to have of making the UN a better place will only be prolonged.

Do we really need another lesson on the habits of the Republican vs. Democratic Congressmen being more obstructionist? I thought I made it perfectly clear with who takes the clear lead in obstructive behavior, especially when one casts one's mind back to the 90's under a Democratic president with a Republican-led Congress. Can one remember back that far?

___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...