A force so hilarious and shrill needs its own thread.

Inspired by hearing this today:

Quote :

"So you tell the American people, "Okay, they've finally done it, these statists, these tyrannical types, they've finally gotten their foot in the door of the United States of America," they have. And this has been something that a lot of Americans have been fighting for a hundred years, these people have been around, we fought it 50 years, certainly. But they never stop. The quest for this kind of power is insatiable. These people are no different than whoever the bad guy was in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Sauron. No matter what they get they're never happy."

-Rush Limbaugh


and this:

Quote :

"Now this administration has plucked a Tree of Liberty bare. It took more than 200 years but it now looks like we are headed back to where we started."

-Sean Hannity


Among many others.


Which leads me to a question: I've been hearing the word "tyranny" thrown around on a daily basis lately. Does anyone agree with the use of this word to describe the Obama administration?

8/1/2009 12:18:16 AM

how about Barack Obama claiming everything is the most monumental thing or the biggest issue ever or the most pressing crisis ever. Come on, man

8/1/2009 12:19:36 AM

Quote :

"Barack Obama claiming everything is the most monumental thing or the biggest issue ever or the most pressing crisis ever."

More Republican hyperbole.

Thanks for the example, burro



[Edited on August 1, 2009 at 12:23 AM. Reason : ]

8/1/2009 12:20:51 AM

Clearly you haven't been listening to him or the news, then.

Let's see... Healthcare: enormous crisis. Economy, enormous crisis. Cap & Trade, enormous crisis, major milestone. Quit being a hack

8/1/2009 12:36:01 AM

Quote :

"Healthcare: enormous crisis. Economy, enormous crisis."

i think these both qualify easily as enormous crises.

and depending on who you talk to, global warming is too.

8/1/2009 4:59:48 AM

aaronburros first post was better than his second post

8/1/2009 6:02:14 AM

Quote :

"i think these both qualify easily as enormous crises. and depending on who you talk to, global warming is too."

True, but his rhetoric suggests all hell will break loose if we don't tackle these issues within the next three months.

[Edited on August 1, 2009 at 6:34 AM. Reason : .]

8/1/2009 6:33:32 AM

Wow, hyberbole in politics. Speaking of ground breaking revelations, did anyone else hear that Liberache was gay?

8/1/2009 7:35:09 AM

Quote :

"I've been hearing the word "tyranny" thrown around on a daily basis lately. Does anyone agree with the use of this word to describe the Obama administration?"

Yes.
Taxes, minimum wage laws, personal and corporate welfare, the push for government-provided healthcare -- these are all examples of tyranny. He's either signed bills for or strongly supported all of these. (Now, he's done some good, too.... like starting to close guantanamo, abolishing "enhanced interrogation techniques", diminishing the role of lobbyists, lifting the Bush restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research...)

8/1/2009 8:06:27 AM

Yes, it's tyranny when a democratically elected legislature passes a bill you don't like and the democratically elected president signs it.

8/1/2009 11:48:15 AM

Quote :

"how about Barack Obama claiming everything is the most monumental thing or the biggest issue ever or the most pressing crisis ever. Come on, man"

Except for the Iraq and Afghan wars, which barely gets a mention these days. Or N. Korea. Or Iran.

8/1/2009 11:51:27 AM

Quote :

"Yes, it's tyranny when a democratically elected legislature passes a bill you don't like and the democratically elected president signs it."

Wow...
Just because a democratically elected legislature passes a bill and the democratically elected president signs it, that doesn't mean that it can't be tyranny. Why on earth would you think that?
Name an example of tyranny. Now suppose a democratically elected legislature passes a bill creating that example and the democratically elected president signs it. See?

[Edited on August 1, 2009 at 12:14 PM. Reason : ]

8/1/2009 12:01:38 PM

I don't think he argued that it couldn't be. But no one has successfully argued that any of it is.

8/1/2009 12:06:48 PM

Quote :

""Now this administration has plucked a Tree of Liberty bare. It took more than 200 years but it now looks like we are headed back to where we started.""

Hannity is mistaken this was the Bush administration.

The Obama administration is just a money stealer

8/1/2009 12:21:46 PM

^
Agreed. Both democrats and republicans pluck the tree of liberty.... just in different areas.


^^
He implied it. He suggested that I defined tyranny by simply not liking the law, and that democratically elected legislatures and presidents can't do wrong.

The government using force to take one individual's property and give it to another individual, is tyranny. The government using force to prevent consensual individuals from agreeing upon a salary for work performed, is tyranny.

8/1/2009 12:25:21 PM

Hyperbole? Let me take a stab at it. What we need to do is more apologizing for America being so great for so long. We need to dismantle America's national defense and while we're at it, free the lovely victims in Guantanamo Bay. I'm sure our enemies abroad appreciate it and I'm certain they'll be stopping in to have a bud light with Obama in the very near future. And if you didn't already know, Obama can walk on water.

8/1/2009 12:43:57 PM

don't be a twat

8/1/2009 1:48:12 PM

Quote :

"diminishing the role of lobbyists"

by putting them in his cabinet? what?

8/1/2009 6:10:19 PM

Not necessarily hyperbole, but I've noticed that the word freedom gets thrown around a lot and always with great conviction. However, "freedom" can take on multiple different meanings, depending on an individual's perception and subjective biases.

What I consider an important freedom may be different from what someone else views as important to them. People go on tirades about not wanting to lose their freedoms, but I never know to which freedoms they might be referring.


I have no point, really, that I know of... carry on.

8/2/2009 10:39:33 PM

Quote :

""Every politician on earth claims to support freedom. The problem is so few of them understand the simple meaning of the word.""

-- Ron Paul
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/articles/161/what-does-freedom-really-mean/

8/2/2009 10:41:45 PM

^

8/2/2009 11:57:00 PM

I wonder what's next for the GOP.

They seem to collectively misunderstand why they're getting nowhere fast, and keep trying to solve their problems by doing more and more of exactly the things that fucked them up. You'd think that such a huge political machine, with all of their pollsters and think tanks and everything would be able to see completely obvious things.

8/3/2009 12:07:53 AM

rush limbaugh is a fantastic troll.

8/3/2009 12:08:15 AM

He invented the game.

8/3/2009 12:11:54 AM

Turns out death threats have gone up 400% from Bush to Obama:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5967942/Barack-Obama-faces-30-death-threats-a-day-stretching-US-Secret-Service.html

Wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that this type of thing is being said about him on a daily basis:

Quote :

"Obama is raping America. Obama is raping our values. Obama is raping our democracy."

-Michael Savage

8/4/2009 9:46:18 AM

Those crazy white rednecks Somalia based Islamists and their hatred of blacks

8/4/2009 10:09:40 AM

double post? on tww? never

I also like how the article gives out all their Secret Service codenames...sounds like a brilliant security move to publish information like that

[Edited on August 4, 2009 at 10:11 AM. Reason : .]

8/4/2009 10:09:40 AM

Quote :

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

--Palin

8/7/2009 9:16:59 PM

hahaha jesus christ Palin

8/8/2009 2:02:19 AM

Quote :

"They seem to collectively misunderstand why they're getting nowhere fast, and keep trying to solve their problems by doing more and more of exactly the things that fucked them up."

Agreed. Back in high school, when I used to think Rush Limbaugh was worth listening to, he would always rant about how Republicans were the party of ideas and Democrats were the party of emotion.

Now, I don't think enough of the Democratic party to call them a party of ideas, but the GOP has certainly descended into the mindless name calling and appeals to nebulous emotions that marked the left in the mid 1990s (remember how elderly people were going to eat cat food and kids would starve at school?)

Politics was never a high art, but it has recently descended into a spinoff of "Ow My Balls!"

8/8/2009 8:24:24 AM

I just heard a rerun of Rush's commentary on Obama's healthcare speech.

Quote :

"The office of the president of the United States was demeaned last night. President Barack Obama gave a grossly inappropriate and, to me, embarrassing speech, a campaign speech disguised as a big speech to a joint session of Congress. It was grossly inappropriate in content. There were lies, falsehoods, distortions, it was embarrassing in tone."

Quote :

"He was petulant; he was childish; he was a community organizer and agitator; he lied; he was divisive; he attacked me; he attacked Sarah Palin; he attacked conservative Republicans in Congress who dare to challenge government-run health care. He continued to attack tens of millions of Americans who spent the summer attending town hall meetings. It was crude. It was disgusting. The most crude and disgusting performance by any president I have seen. "

I mean, really?

9/14/2009 11:47:51 AM

Boone, I have a theory...what's your occupation?

9/14/2009 11:51:57 AM

Teacher

OMG LIBERAL

9/14/2009 11:52:37 AM

I guarantee you that I might be more liberal than Boone and right now I fix A/V equipment for a living (I'm finishing my degree soon, then who knows?).

Just thought I'd say that before you came back with the old "those who can't do..." chestnut.

[Edited on September 14, 2009 at 1:53 PM. Reason : .]

9/14/2009 1:52:33 PM

oh look, another thread talking about how fucked up the Republican party is and more criticism of their pundits...


We all get it and we're all in agreement. If we can't move on to something else, at least keep it in one thread.

9/14/2009 1:59:13 PM

Quote :

"Republican party [and] their pundits..."

If only the two were separable I'd cut them some slack.

9/14/2009 2:26:37 PM

"There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the tricks and delusions of oratory." --Mark Twain

9/15/2009 12:14:45 PM

I felt I had to respond to this.

Quote :

"Wow... Just because a democratically elected legislature passes a bill and the democratically elected president signs it, that doesn't mean that it can't be tyranny."

No, because that's literally not what tyranny is, and his actions literally aren't those of a tyrant. A tyrant is one who assumes power due to his own means and not due to being democratically elected. What you're saying is, "Just because it's not tyranny, doesn't mean that it can't be tyranny." No, that's exactly what it does mean, you fucking idiot.

This is the same stupid ignorance that has people referring to Barack Obama as a both a fascist and a socialist.

9/15/2009 12:39:34 PM

What? Democracy is only a slightly refined form of Ochlocracy which is, in itself a form of tyranny. Jim Crow laws were passed with a majority of voters, a democratically elected President suspended the rights of Japanese Americans in 1941, and one of the most questionable invasions of civil liberties in recent memory (the Patriot Act) was passed overwhelmingly in the congress.

The Bill of Rights was written on the very premise that a majority can become tyrannical and that man has certain inalienable rights which needed to be codified to protect minorities from the tyranny of 50% +1.

9/15/2009 3:28:52 PM

Quote :

"No, because that's literally not what tyranny is"

9/15/2009 3:51:59 PM

Public consent to an immoral act doesn't make it moral. An individual may surrender his rights of his own consent but a majority of individuals do not have the right to surrender the rights of a minority no matter how repulsive that minority may or may not be.


So, while it may be entirely possible for a majority to vote for an immoral law, majority consent does not make it legal. If individuals are deprived of their rights, even at the hand of the majority tyranny still exists.

9/15/2009 4:41:26 PM

Is that what you believed from 2000-2008?

9/15/2009 4:43:56 PM

Quote :

"and one of the most questionable invasions of civil liberties in recent memory (the Patriot Act) was passed overwhelmingly in the congress."

-- JCASHFAN


you tell me.

9/15/2009 4:55:42 PM

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tyranny_of_the_majority

Quote :

"(politics) A situation in which a government or other authority democratically supported by a majority of its subjects makes policies or takes actions benefiting that majority, without regard for the rights or welfare of the rest of its subjects. 1837, Testimony of Alexis de Tocqueville in "An abridgement of the evidence given before the select committee, appointed in 1835, to consider the most effectual means of preventing bribery, corruption and intimidation, in the election of members to serve in Parliament," Hume Tracts, London, p. 142: I suppose, however, that the secret voting has afforded, and will afford, an important security against the tyranny of the majority, which I consider as the greatest evil and the most formidable danger that can attend a purely democratical government. 1957, Hans J. Morgenthau, "The Dilemmas of Freedom," The American Political Science Review, vol. 51, no. 3, p. 718: A popular will not so limited becomes the tyranny of the majority which destroys the freedom of political competition. 2003, Daniel Byman, "Constructing a Democratic Iraq: Challenges and Opportunities," International Security, vol. 28, no. 1, p. 52: The biggest problem is the numerically larger group's use of elections and other legitimate democratic forms to ensure its dominance—a tyranny of the majority."

Alexis de Tocqueville: The Original Birther.

9/15/2009 5:01:13 PM

Quote :

"and one of the most questionable invasions of civil liberties in recent memory (the Patriot Act) was passed overwhelmingly in the congress."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090915/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_patriot_act

Quote :

"Obama supports extending Patriot Act provisions By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer Tue Sep 15, 7:11 pm ET WASHINGTON – The Obama administration supports extending three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, the Justice Department told Congress in a letter made public Tuesday. Lawmakers and civil rights groups had been pressing the Democratic administration to say whether it wants to preserve the post-Sept. 11 law's authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called "lone wolf" terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps. The provision on business records was long criticized by rights groups as giving the government access to citizens' library records, and a coalition of liberal and conservative groups complained that the Patriot Act gives the government too much authority to snoop into Americans' private lives. As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama said he would take a close look at the law, based on his past expertise in constitutional law. Back in May, President Obama said legal institutions must be updated to deal with the threat of terrorism, but in a way that preserves the rule of law and accountability. In a letter to lawmakers, Justice Department officials said the administration supports extending the three expiring provisions of the law, although they are willing to consider additional privacy protections as long as they don't weaken the effectiveness of the law. Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that the administration is willing to consider stronger civil rights protections in the new law "provided that they do not undermine the effectiveness of these important (provisions)." Leahy responded with a statement saying it is important for the administration and Congress to "work together to ensure that we protect both our national security and our civil liberties." The committee has scheduled a hearing next week on the Patriot Act. From 2004 to 2007, the business records provision was used 220 times, officials said. Most often, the business records were requested in combination with requests for phone records. The lone wolf provision was created to conduct surveillance on suspects with no known link to foreign governments or terrorist groups. It has never been used, but the administration says it should still be available for future investigations. The roving wiretaps provision was designed to allow investigators to quickly monitor the communications of a suspects who change their cell phone or communication device, without investigators having to go back to court for a new court authorization. That provision has been used an average of 22 times a year, officials said. Michelle Richardson of the American Civil Liberties Union called the administration's position "a mixed bag," and said that the group hopes the next version of the Patriot Act will have important safeguards on other issues, particularly the collecting of international communications, and a specific bar on surveillance of protected First Amendment activities like peaceful protests or religious assembly. "We're heartened they're saying they're willing to work with Congress," Richardson said, adding that is "definitely a sea change from what we've seen in the past.""

9/16/2009 6:15:39 PM

eheheh

I was checking World Net Daily to see if they were still on their birther kick, and I found this nugget:

Quote :

"SPECIAL OFFER Where did Obama learn to destroy America? Read Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals' to see the playbook for 'change' --WND Superstore"

Nice. Apparently we've moved beyond "is Obama intentionally destroying America?" Now we're just trying to know our enemy, I suppose.

9/16/2009 9:26:34 PM