Well, if the hurricane were going to hit the actual convention in Minnesota, then I might buy the God thing.

Finding humor in another strike against people who went through hell 3 years ago, and who in all probability are NOT Republicans, just because of the minor inconvenience it presents against said Republicans, and that suits your political bias, is just sick.

You, sir, win t3h intartoobs.

Quote from: Jackalope;242583No, I don't.  It's funny.  Is it funny that the hurricane is going to hit?  No.  Is it funny that the hurricane might hurt someone?  No.

Is it funny that the first Republican convention after the absolute disastrous failure of Republican leadership that was Katrina is going to be hit by a hurricane?  Yes.  That's fucking HILARIOUS.  That challenges my lack of belief in a just and fair God.

That, my friends, is why he is a douchebag.

Quote from: Werekoala;242588Well, if the hurricane were going to hit the actual convention in Minnesota, then I might buy the God thing.

Meh.  I thought the convention was in Florida for some reason.  I'll admit the joke is pretty stupid if the convention is in Minnesota.  I didn't realize it was in Minnesota.  How the fuck does a hurricane affected a convention in Minnesota?  Fuck, I don't want to go have to read anything about this.  It's stupid.

At any rate, i stand by my assertion that this is mock outrage at a mock offense.  This is not worth discussing.

Quote from: Jackalope;242603Meh.  I thought the convention was in Florida for some reason.  I'll admit the joke is pretty stupid if the convention is in Minnesota.  I didn't realize it was in Minnesota.  How the fuck does a hurricane affected a convention in Minnesota?  Fuck, I don't want to go have to read anything about this.  It's stupid.

At any rate, i stand by my assertion that this is mock outrage at a mock offense.  This is not worth discussing.

Regardless, finding glee in the suffering of others for political gain isn't supposed to be the enlightened Democrat way. You still lose points.

Whoa, I originally only read the first paragraph or so of the article about Fowler.  The next paragraph is disturbing.

QuoteFowler was secretly recorded by the person sitting behind him while flying from Denver, Colo., to Charlotte, N.C., following the Democratic National Convention. His conversation with Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., was anonymously posted to YouTube and highlighted by RedState.com, a conservative blog.

"One doesn't anticipate that one's private conversation will be surreptitiously taped by some right-wing nutcase," said Fowler. "But that's the nature of what we're dealing with."

Does anyone else find that a bit freaky?  How would you feel if a Republican was being spied on by left-wing bloggers?

It's one thing when you say something while you think the microphones are off, quite another when someone tapes you covertly.  I think this could set a dangerous precedent in politics, where politicians have to worry about off-the-cuff jokes made to friends while on airplanes, or in taxi cabs.

I think it's funny when you catch a politician or public figure saying something because they think the mike is off.  I never held Bush's habit of flipping the bird against him even though he did it at plenty of cameras he knew were there, and generally just laughed at Jesse Jackson's latest gaffe.

I think this would be funny if the guy had said this at a function with cameras and got caught by CSPAN or one of the networks.  But that it was someone on a plane with a recording device, and it went straight into the right wing blogosphere, that's just sort of creepy.  Was it organized?  Was this just some random tech savvy right-winger who happened to get lucky, or was this part of planned effort to follow people home from the convention and spy on them?

Think about it, the person who recorded this must have been recording the entire conversation.  Towards what end?  Hoping for a gaffe?  Or hoping to get strategic information from a connected insider?

I certainly think it's ridiculous to pillory a politician for an off-the-cuff joke (which I got immediately, as can be seen by my own reference to Falwell's comments before I read the entirety of the article) made in a clearly private conversation on an airplane.

Quote from: Werekoala;242605Regardless, finding glee in the suffering of others for political gain isn't supposed to be the enlightened Democrat way. You still lose points.

Yeah, I notice that liberals and Democrats are the only ones who ever lose points for being less than perfectly enlightened beings.

Seriously, conservatives have to stomp on babies while wearing jackboots for anyone on the right to call them out, and liberals have to act slightly less moral than the saintliest of saints or the right jumps all over them.

I think conservatives hate liberals for having ideals, because conservatives don't have ideals.  I really do.  It's the only way to explain so much of the behavior I see from conservatives.

Quote from: Jackalope;242582Oh, so he's not a conservative.

He's a coward.  Gotcha.

He's a coward because he'd rather we fight terrorist over apologizing to them?

Quote from: Jackalope;242611Yeah, I notice that liberals and Democrats are the only ones who ever lose points for being less than perfectly enlightened beings.

Seriously, conservatives have to stomp on babies while wearing jackboots for anyone on the right to call them out, and liberals have to act slightly less moral than the saintliest of saints or the right jumps all over them.

I think conservatives hate liberals for having ideals, because conservatives don't have ideals.  I really do.  It's the only way to explain so much of the behavior I see from conservatives.

So basically you can't admit that finding glee in the suffering of others is wrong, as long as its your guys doing it? I mean, really, not giggling about a hurricane interrupting a convention isn't exactly being "enlightened" - its more like being respectful. And does McCain get any credit for essentially calling off the first day, in your book?

Go back to sleep, bunky... you lost this one.

Quote from: Werekoala;242616So basically you can't admit that finding glee in the suffering of others is wrong, as long as its your guys doing it? I mean, really, not giggling about a hurricane interrupting a convention isn't exactly being "enlightened" - its more like being respectful. And does McCain get any credit for essentially calling off the first day, in your book?

Dude, it was a private conversation.  We cares?  Seriously, how far up your ass is that stick that you are getting offended that someone made a joke in a private conversation with a friend?   Have you never had a laugh over someone else's misfortune with a friend?

And who ever said that the Democrats were enlightened?  Are they Buddhist monks?  

The guy was making a joke, riffing off Falwell's entirely serious comment, and all the other entirely serious comments, such as the pro-life group that famously sent out a mass email claiming that Katrina was "fetus shaped" and a sign from God that New Orleans was being punished for having 5 abortion clinics, that right-wing crackpots make in response to large scale tragedies.

See dude, you're acting like the joke was "hah hah, Republicans suffer!" which is bullshit.  It's nuns and orphans bullshit.  The joke is "hah hah, random forces of nature that right wing religious wackos attribute to God's hatred of liberals are mobilizing against the right's interests." which is funny precisely because the Christian right attributes retributive meaning to random acts of nature and is entirely serious when they do so.

I've made similar jokes.  In fact, pretty much every time nature does something to screw with right-wing interests, I joke to my friends that this proves god hates Republicans.  When the oil facilities along the gulf coast took a hit, I joked it was because God was angry at the oil companies and their gouging ways.  If a gay republican got AIDS, I would TOTALLY make a joke about how God was punishing him for being Republican.  I don't think this makes me unenlightened, I think this makes me witty.

Now, since I don't believe in God, and since I know that random acts of nature are not signs of the will of an all-powerful creator (or if they are, he sends very mixed signals that are essentially indecipherable), my friend laugh in response because they know I'm making a clever reference to the Christian right's tendency to attribute things to the punishing will of God.

Quote from: CavScout;242614He's a coward because he'd rather we fight terrorist over apologizing to them?

Wow, what a ridiculous false dichotomy you've presented.  You should really get some kind of award for that, that is truly amazing.  I haven't seen a dichotomy that clearly false in awhile.

No, he's a coward because when the first shot was fired he surrender his convictions -- if he ever had any -- and ran to join the vigilante mob that went off half-cocked and made everything worse.

The whole point of terrorism is to provoke fear, to provoke an irrational and violent response from the body of people whom the terrorism is directed at.  The worst response to terrorism is to give in to fear.  Had we not given into that fear, Al Queda wouldn't have tens of thousands of Iraqis dead, wouldn't  have Abu Ghraib, wouldn't have the Green Zone Fortress, wouldn't have infidels in the Holy Land.  All of which are basically great recruitment tools.  It's SOOOOO much easier to paint America as the Great Satan when America obliges you by stomping around angrily and pounding it's fists in Hulk-like rage.  It's like Princess Leia said "The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

Seriously, free trade agreements and the exportation of American prosperity to the Middle East will do more to stop Al Queda than any amount of bullets.  Reach out to moderate and liberal Muslims, find common ground, bring prosperity and democracy to the Middle East, and Al Queda and the the fanaticism it breeds in will lose traction.

You really expect me to believe his comment, totally off the record and for sure not meant to be broadcast, was harking back to an event 7+ years ago, an event that wasn't even worthy of a mention in the Democrat convention, as a counter-point to an entirely discredited nut-ball's comment - as opposed to some Democrat operative making a tasteless joke of opportunity that was never meant for public consumption - a joke of private, and therefore more "factual", feeling? And not even for a second hoping that an utterly random natural event would give their opposing party a moment of problem or trouble?

Riiiiiight.

Quote from: Werekoala;242629You really expect me to believe his comment, totally off the record and for sure not meant to be broadcast, was harking back to an event 7+ years ago, an event that wasn't even worthy of a mention in the Democrat convention, as a counter-point to an entirely discredited nut-ball's comment -

No dude, I'm saying that nutcases on the right, specifically the religious right, so frequently blame everything bad that happen in the world to God's hatred of the American left that pretty much anyone who isn't a right-wing douchebag thinks "X happened because God hates X" is a joke.

I mean I got it INSTANTLY, and made the Falwell connection without even reading the article.  In the last six years, I know I've made the same or similar jokes, and heard the same or similar jokes, from all my friends.  It's an old gag, and it's only offensive when you say it right after a disaster has killed real people and you say it with serious intent.

But where are the right-wingers who are offended by Jerry Falwell saying that God killed those people on 9/11 because of gay rights?  Where are the right wingers who get upset when right-wing organizations say Katrina was the judgment of an angry God for policy decision they disagree with?

It's fucking NOWHERE.   Because it's mock outrage and a mock offense.  It's all staged, all fake.  It's making up nonsense to get mad at liberals about, but it's really just hypocritical bullshit.

Quote...as opposed to some Democrat operative making a tasteless joke of opportunity that was never meant for public consumption - a joke of private, and therefore more "factual", feeling? And not even for a second hoping that an utterly random natural event would give their opposing party a moment of problem or trouble?

Riiiiiight.

Dude, believe whatever the fuck you want.  But if you're going to blast all Democrats because someone made a joke that you're too fucking asinine to get and need to make a big fucking deal about, then congratulations: you just lost all credibility with me for being a reasonable person.  Up to this point, I thought you seemed okay for a right-winger.  Now I see you're just another deluded crackpot fuckwit with a totally skewed moral compass.

So whatever dude.  Yeah, Dan Fowler was gleefully cackling and rubbing his hands together as he imagined the piles of Republican bodies in the wake of the hurricane.  He's a Terrible, Terrible Man, and you are a Moral Paragon for being Rightfully Offended by his Evil, Sinister Wickedness.

Quote from: Werekoala;242616So basically you can't admit that finding glee in the suffering of others is wrong, as long as its your guys doing it?

It's really pretty simple.  In the Jackalopeverse, saying hateful, rude, and violent things is only wrong if conservatives do it.  Jackalope can talk about bashing faces in with rocks and wanting people do die and then turn around and complain about Ann Coulter wanting people to die.  To him, the ends justify the means and he's said as much.  He would have made a great member of the Khmer Rouge or the Red Guard were he born in a different place and time.

Quote from: Jackalope;242627Wow, what a ridiculous false dichotomy you've presented.  You should really get some kind of award for that, that is truly amazing.  I haven't seen a dichotomy that clearly false in awhile.

No, he's a coward because when the first shot was fired he surrender his convictions -- if he ever had any -- and ran to join the vigilante mob that went off half-cocked and made everything worse.

The whole point of terrorism is to provoke fear, to provoke an irrational and violent response from the body of people whom the terrorism is directed at.  The worst response to terrorism is to give in to fear.  Had we not given into that fear, Al Queda wouldn't have tens of thousands of Iraqis dead, wouldn't  have Abu Ghraib, wouldn't have the Green Zone Fortress, wouldn't have infidels in the Holy Land.  All of which are basically great recruitment tools.  It's SOOOOO much easier to paint America as the Great Satan when America obliges you by stomping around angrily and pounding it's fists in Hulk-like rage.  It's like Princess Leia said "The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

Seriously, free trade agreements and the exportation of American prosperity to the Middle East will do more to stop Al Queda than any amount of bullets.  Reach out to moderate and liberal Muslims, find common ground, bring prosperity and democracy to the Middle East, and Al Queda and the the fanaticism it breeds in will lose traction.

So, again, I ask, you are calling him a coward for wanting to see the US fighting terrorism rather than apologize to them? You really can't say I made a "false dichotomy" then spend several paragraphs making my actual point.

Well... you can... you did... and it is delicious.

And in conservoland, when a liberal gets offended and makes a stink about some remark some public figure has made, its "OMG PC GONE WILD", but apparently when it's a liberal making such a remark their more than willing to hop on the same moral high horse.

This is the most pathetic display of partisan hackery I've seen on here in a while.  I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that if the tables were turned you'd be defending his privacy up the wazoo, screeching about PC and an easily offended society and how it'll be the death of us all, and so on and so forth.

My favorite part though is the RNC suddenly announcing they'll be suspending most of the major events of the conference after this minor stink hit the fan.  Talk about cheap political opportunism.  You people really think they would've done the same if those cracks hadn't been made?