We are getting seriously good at this Number 2 stuff.
(That job is like being the Star Trek crew member wearing the red shirt. Bang, bang, you’re dead.)
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Whatever Works 
It’s bit odd that a Liberal like you would be rejoicing over “Team Obama” once again violating the sovereignty of another nation, Pakistan, and using drones to kill people, Abu Yahya al-Libi and at least four other unknown people – especially when it was the CIA who once again did the needed deed.
I’m not complaining, mind you. I just find it a bit of wandering off the plantation on your part as it were.
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You misread me jonolan. I’m not rejoicing. I’m making fun of the absurdity that we’ve claimed we ‘got Number 2″ a gajillion times since 2002. And of course, big headlines to accompany every time.
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Oh! Nevermind then. 😆
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Maybe the left and right have more things in common than you think. 🙂
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What hypocrites these Liberals be. When President Bush was water boarding terrorists and getting information that lead to more terrorists being captured you guys cited the illegality of it all and wanted him arrested on war crimes. But President Obama can violate the national sovereignty of other nations , execute people who have had no trial and you cheer him as a great hero ,
I have no problem with Obama murdering terrorists, other than that dead men tell no tales, but when will you use the same yardstick to measure George and Barak ?
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Hypocrites indeed; if Bush had enacted the same policies as Obama, Democrats would have been storming the White House gates. After the 2008 election there were calls for investigation of the Bush administration for war crimes, which Obama disregarded. Later we understood why: he intended to continue and extend the Bush policies, which he has done with a vengeance, with barely a peep from Democrats. On foreign policy, the difference between Bush and Obama is mainly one of style; Bush’s Shock & Awe sledgehammer vs. Obama’s surgical drone strikes. Of course, if Romney wins the White House, Republicans now screaming for Obama’s blood will consider violating national sovereignty and extrajudicial killings unworthy of mention; there’s zero chance of Barack and Mitt being measured by the same yardstick.
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Alan, I’m kind of wondering where in that post you see me cheering for anyone?
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By and large, I think Alan has the right of it. I’m not sure how much of it is a conscious decision though. There’s a lot of ethnoguiltism in the Left and their a lot more concerned about race than normal Americans.
It could just be that a Black POTUS murdering Brown people doesn’t set off the same visceral reaction as a White one doing it does.
Of course, this is a generalization. I HAVE run into “domestic Leftists” who are “foreign policy Rightists.” It’s just rare.
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[Left and their a lot more concerned about race than normal Americans.]
In a divided country, half of us are ‘of the left’. We’re not ‘normal’ Americans? What’s normal jonolan?
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No, you’re not. Only 20% or so identify as the Left, Moe, and half or more identify as the Right.
I’d say that makes the generality known as the Right the normative value for America.
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But they doon’t vote that way jonolan. And that’s what tells the story
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When it comes to reasons for their voting, I don’t think it is the end result that truly tells the story, Moe.
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Then what’s the point in having a vote if the end result means something other than the outcome is what the people chose to go with?
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The vote has some importance, Moe. It, by itself, doesn’t tell the tale of why the vote went that way or the motivations of the voters though.
As an example – look at Obama. He got elected because he was Black and because he ran a successful campaign against the outgoing lameduck, Pres. Bush Jr.
As another example – look at WI’s recent recall elections. The state hasn’t gone Red and Obama will still probably win it easily in November.
The vote isn’t the story. The story is why the vote went the way it did because that is based upon underlying beliefs.
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There are as many vairiants of voter thinnkking and behavior as there are voters. And the only ultimate conclusion that can be drawn from the vote is “this was the people’s choice’.
You think we elected Obama cuz he was black? Seriously? The anti Bush sentiment was so strong that Daffy Duck would have been elected if his were the name on the ballot.
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I don’t discount the reactionary nature of the electorate; it’s been well proven by history and Obama ran a stellar campaign against Bush instead of against McCain.
That being said, his being Black and his playing upon his race through his campaign’s proxies got him the Dems’ nomination and played a large part in his winning the general election.
As for “the people’s choice” – I’m more concerned with the reasons for the choice than with the choice itself. We elect politicians for reasons, albeit often stupid ones such as not being Bush (or Carter), and those reasons tell a better story about the state of our society than the votes themselves.
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I’d just hate to be the former #3 and now #2.
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A few commenters read my headline as me being serious. I was not. I was finding it absurd that everyone takes it seriously (the media) when we get an “Al Quaeda number 2” , which happens every ten months or so.
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Irony seldom works in this context. But I was baffled by the Star Trek reference too.
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I’m going to bet you were the only one baffled by the Star Trek thing!
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Actually I think a few commodores and admirals wore red shirts, and so did Scotty. It wasn’t always a ticket to a quick disintegration.
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Yeah, but it was still dangerous to wear that red shirt!
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Wasn’t it “Security” that always got killed, at least in the original ST?
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Yeah, it was normally security personnel that got killed off, but they all wore red shirts.
It actually became a Hollywood term. “Red Shirt” – a stock character that gets killed off early in the film or episode.
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Ah, now I get it. Thanks.
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who and where is number one
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Ever since OBL’s demise, it’s been the Egyptian Ahyman Al Zawahiri, the original and still living Number 2. (spelling?) Zawahiri was part of the group that assassinated Sadat.
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‘who and where is number one’: Now that could refer to The Prisoner circa 1969 with Patrick McGhoohan (sp? AKA: # 6).
If any remembers it I be impressed. You should find references on the Web also.
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