UNLIMITED GOP 2012 PRIMARY CANDIDATE THREAD

[P3nT4gR4m]

Formerly known as Union of Soviet Socialist Russian commie Bastards?

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Formerly known as Union of Soviet Socialist Russian commie Bastards?

You just need to draw a line across "USA" and label the bottom part "MEXICO IRAQISTAN BROWN PEOPLE THAT WANT TO KILL US AND TAKE OUR JOBS" and have them spilling over the border

[Cain]

https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/putin-on-the-mitts

One of the biggest shocks for me since getting tossed out of Russia four years ago was coming back to an America that's taking on Russia's worst traits: oligarchy, inequality, a two-tier justice system depending on your wealth.

Now that Romney and his financial backers are openly pressuring company employees to vote for Romney, add "Putin-style elections" to the list of Russian traits America is acquiring.

Last year, I first broke this story with Mike Elk for The Nation about how the Koch brothers were ramming political propaganda down their workers' throats, advising them which candidates to vote for — all right-wing freemarketeers, nearly all Republican — warning their employees that if their slate of candidates weren't elected, their jobs could be lost due to economic catastrophe.

The Kochs and other employers can do this thanks to Citizens United, which has done more to speed up the Putin-ization of America than Putin himself could have dreamed of in his darkest fantasies. From the time of the New Deal labor laws until the Citizens United decision in 2010, employers were barred from pressuring their employees on how to vote in elections, for the obvious simple reason that employers have an enormous amount of leverage over employees.

As Marquette University law professor Paul Secunda told me last year:

    "Before Citizens United, federal election law allowed a company like Koch Industries to talk to officers and shareholders about whom to vote for, but not to talk with employees about whom to vote for. Now, companies like Koch Industries are free to send out newsletters persuading their employees how to vote. They can even intimidate their employees into voting for their candidates. It's a very troubling situation."

This past week, Mike Elk reported that the Kochs are once again pressuring their employees on how to vote—for Mitt Romney, in case you're wondering.

Note that, unlike in America, in Russia it is at least technically illegal for employers to pressure employees on how to vote. So in that sense, we've already regressed further from democracy than Putin's Russia. America's elections, by the standards of the same elections monitors we fund over in Russia, are looking increasingly as rigged and undemocratic as Russia's.

Golos was shut down briefly by Russian courts for doing its job — which largely consisted of collecting and exposing incidents in which bosses applied pressure on their workers to vote for Putin's Party in the Duma elections. This year, the Kremlin moved to cut off western funding for Golos, after they exposed similar antidemocratic tactics in the vote that reinstalled Putin as Russia's president.

In other words, for authoritarian oligarchy to survive, it needs to be able to work with CEOs to pressure their employees—what Romney is doing today, thanks to Citizens United.

[inode_buddha]

I think we should abolish the FDA and let the Free Market (TM) solve that meningitis outbreak. Informed consumers will make the choice.

[Cain]

The foreign policy debate in two sentences:

Obama: I killed Osama Bin Laden from my house. 
Romney: I have binders full of Iranian nuclear physicists.

[LMNO]

I didn't even watch.  I get more foreign policy information from your throw-away jokes than I could have gotten from those two wankers.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I didn't even watch.  I get more foreign policy information from your throw-away jokes than I could have gotten from those two wankers.

But what you didn't get was the look on Romney's face.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I didn't even watch.  I get more foreign policy information from your throw-away jokes than I could have gotten from those two wankers.

But what you didn't get was the look on Romney's face.

retarded rabbit in headlights?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I didn't even watch.  I get more foreign policy information from your throw-away jokes than I could have gotten from those two wankers.

But what you didn't get was the look on Romney's face.

retarded rabbit in headlights?

Angry monkey.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Horses and Bayonets. Lol.

[Juana]

Also, "The 80s called. They want their foreign policy back."

[Cain]

Syria is Iran's route to the sea.

Apart from Iran's own coastline, that is.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

And Iran's lack of any border with Syria. These, however, are minor points. I think what Mitt Romney was really trying to say is "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran."

[Juana]

Obama called him on that. He proceeded to backpedal and go, "NU UH! LAST RESORT! LAST RESORT!"

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Watching { WWE wrestling | American Politics } is my one guilty pleasure. I know the story lines are written ahead of time, and the whole { match | election } is rigged from the start, but the compelling narratives are addictive. I find myself rooting for someone to jump into the { ring | race } and start beating a guy with a { fold-up chair | focus-group-tested zinger } . I know it's all fake and contrived, and there'll never be real { appreciation for | progress in } the arena of { real wrestling | meaningful politics } until we give up our addiction to this fake, over-the-top, badly-acted crap. But I { bought my  season pass | invested in my candidate } and it seems like such a waste to give up now.