brianr - Politics
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Accused terrorists should be tried in civilian courts. Accused terrorists are being convicted in U.S. courts all the time. Are we now too afraid to allow trials and due process? As Glenn Greenwald says, "isn't that the textbook definition of surrendering to terrorists."
Columbus Day should not be celebrated as an official holiday. An interesting history topic to discuss and debate, not celebrate as an official holiday.
Racism has played a role in opposition to Barack Obama. Where were all the white anti-government mobs when government was expanding and our national debt was soaring higher than ever under George W. Bush? Many have legitimate concerns but many have been galvanized by the race factor.
The EU should not deploy U.S. missile defense shields. Congrats to President Obama for abandoning plans for a long-range missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic. Another refreshing foreign policy shift.
The U.S. should negotiate with the Taliban. We're not going to obliterate them. Also, let's not forget that Iran helped us overthrow the Taliban after 9/11. Let's also not forget that "the surge's" success most conservatives were confused about was contingent upon negotiations with Iraqi insurgents. And let's not forget that factions of the Taliban have already offered to sever ties with Al Qaeda with the hope of working out a deal with the Afghan government.
President Ford should not have pardoned President Nixon.
Guantanamo Bay detainees should be moved to U.S. prisons. Agree with @jawlaw. And for those brought to justice we will never hear or see them again, which will help eliminate propaganda against the U.S. Typical most Americans don't support this since they didn't support paying for these wars and now they want to house the mess in other countries.
Sarah Palin should not pursue political office again. It's country over political expedience for me. The country is better served if she goes away but the GOP will sink deep if she and her cultish followers become the face of the party over the next several election cycles.
The Israeli/Palestinian peace process would not be more effective without the intervention of foreign nations. Under President Bush Israel became more isolated and less secure because of the notion that the U.S. was being pro-Israel by playing an inactive role in the peace process and supporting Israel no matter what. Instead, the peace process went backwards for 8 years. Both sides need to be pressured equally.
Sonia Sotomayor is a good choice to replace Justice Souter. She sounds like she's relatively in the mold of Justice Souter, which is a good thing, although Souter was nominated by H.W. Bush and ended up aligning himself with the liberals on the court. I hope she doesn't surprise us! I'm reading now that she has been appointed by both Republicans and Democrats now to federal posts. Politically, the pick is genius because Republicans are losing the growing Hispanic vote in every election. It would be unwise for them to fight Sotomayor's nomination.
Sarah Palin will run for president in 2012. Everything I read in her incoherent resignation speech spelled 2012, even though it's hard to imagine even Sarah Palin can believe this is a smart strategy.
U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was not justified. Pointless.
Mark Sanford should resign as governor of South Carolina. Who cares that he cheated on his wife? It's none of my business but the guy went AWOL for a week. He's a governor...you can't just desert the gig without telling anyone. It's ridiculous. He needs to resign and get stable.
Protests over the Iranian election will lead to a revolution. I agree with @jsyantiss on this one. It may not come swiftly but this is the beginning of a transition in Iran. I think the Mullahs drastically misjudged public sentiment and made some serious missteps. Reports of 500,000 people in one march today. As the theocrat oppressors crack down harder on the protests I think it will only put more fuel to the fire.
The Obama Administration should not issue a statement of support to the Iranian election uprising. I agree with President Bush's Ambassador to Iran, @RNicholasBurns, when he says, "President Ahmadinejad would like nothing better than to see a very aggressive series of statements by the United States that would try to put the U.S. in the center of this."
Elected officials should be allowed to change their political affiliation between elections.
The Obama Administration will have a positive impact on the Middle East peace process. Three days before Obama's speech to the Muslim world Hezbollah was the favorite in the Lebanon elections. Well, they ended up losing and I'm hopeful the speech had something to do with it. The extremists are losing the anti-American sentiment hand. Also, a recent poll shows Ahmadinejad trailing a moderate candidate in Iran.
I support President Obama's message to the Muslim world. Brilliant. This is the first step to turn things around from George Bush's crusade which put all Americans at risk and threatened the peace of the world for generations to come.
Bill O'Reilly should bear responsibility for the murder of Dr. Tiller. Agree with @AndrewSullivan on this. O'Reilly went after this guy on 28 episodes calling him a "baby killer," saying his "judgment day" will come. Now, if O'Reilly knew Tiller's life had been in danger before... and he knows very well that a radical part of the pro-life activists are viewers of his show, and he repeatedly talked about the "Holocaust" Tiller is creating and that he's a Nazi that must be stopped... and then Tiller gets shot in his church... you're telling me O'Reilly shouldn't at least tone down the attacks a little? When does a talk show host cross the line... by literally saying someone please kill this man? C'mon.
Mitt Romney has the best chance at becoming the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2012. Romney and Palin will have all the money and both have no problem being as radical as you have to be to win the nomination in the new GOP. In the end, I have to believe Palin becomes a joke even for Republicans, but neither has any chance of actually winning.
President Obama should not release new photos depicting U.S. detainee abuse. Everyone knows what happened at Abu Ghraib. I don't see any good coming out and releasing more photos at this time. The world knows the U.S. was a nation of torture under President Bush and that has now changed under Obama. No need to risk the safety of our troops and national security by releasing pictures from that era again.
Gen. Eric Shinseki was a good choice for Secretary of Veterans' Affairs. He was awarded the purple heart twice and as @JuanCole said, if Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz listened to Shinseki when he told them before the Iraq War that it would take over 200,000 troops to stabilize the country after the invasion, less troops would have needed treatment for life altering injuries suffered from policing Iraq.
Assault weapons should be illegal.
Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party will have a negative effect on the GOP. I don't think Specter is going to start voting in lockstep with the Democrats. Maybe he will feel less pressured and vote a little more with Democrats but most importantly this switch symbolizes the GOP's shift towards becoming a regional or fringe party.
President Obama's first 100 days were satisfactory. He is doing better than most politicians when it comes to governing the way he promised he would during the campaign. Hell, he's even got Republicans scrambling to switch parties. Heh.
Private sellers at gun shows should be required to do background checks. It blows my mind that even the extremists at the NRA would object to something so reasonable.
Congress should not investigate the Bush Administration's interrogation policies. I don't think Congress should. The Department of Justice should and will because it's now a fact the Bush Administration authorized torture and had one of their right-wing appointed judges whip up a legal memo that said certain tactics were legal. It's interesting that the U.S. prosecuted and convicted Japanese soldiers who waterboarded U.S. troops during WWII but when the situation is reversed Republicans claim it's legal and justified.
Memos about CIA torture techniques should have been released by the Obama Administration. We live in the U.S., not China, the old Soviet Union or Iran. It's now time to remove the black cloud leftover from the Bush Administration. The world knows the U.S. has tortured people so it's time to officially unveil this fact and come to terms with it.
The U.S. should have diplomatic relations with Venezuela. Forget about the handshake, we should be engaged with Venezuela and major players in every region. It's irresponsible not to be and especially because you don't like it if some blowhard dictator calls you names.
The Department of Justice should not prosecute CIA officials who carried out Bush Administration interrogation methods.
The Tea Party protests are not a grassroots movement. Funded by conservative think tanks and then promoted by Fox News. Considering that, it's pretty sad they only had approximately 268,000 people attend 207 protests across the country.
The U.S. should hire private contractors to combat piracy. I don't think it's appropriate to have billion dollar ships patrolling international waters on the lookout for drugged up teenagers trying to steal money from fishing boats.
Fox News' coverage of the Tea Party protests is not appropriate. It seems strange to me that a news network is actually promoting/supporting an anti-government protest. Why wasn't Fox letting people know where anti-war rallies were in 2003? As I recall, you were deemed unpatriotic by Fox for protesting your government during a time of war. Why the change of heart, Fox? We're still at war and federal taxes haven't been raised in 16 years. What are these protests really about?
Paying taxes is patriotic. Great quote from Teddy Roosevelt (hat tip @RobertReich), "The man of great wealth owes a particular obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government."
President Obama's budget is satisfactory. It has a big vision. People are resistant to big ideas and change. Our ex-cheerleader in chief never would have had the balls to actually try and change the country by fixing the health care crisis and setting us on a path towards clean energy and energy independence.
President Obama should have authorized the use of force against the Somali pirates.
The U.S. should not take military action against Somali pirates’ land bases. Absolutely not.
Pirates should not be officially labeled as terrorists.
The U.S. should have diplomatic relations with Cuba. Our approach toward Cuba has been deranged and counterproductive to our interests in Latin America.
President Obama's national security policies are decreasing the threat of terrorist attacks in the U.S. Obama has shifted diplomatic and military resources to Afghanistan/Pakistan, the region where the people who attacked us have been hanging out the last 8 years while George Bush played out his fantasy in Iraq. He shifted Pentagon spending away from Cold War era projects to counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism systems. And let's be honest, over time he'll get more cooperation from countries around the globe when combating terror cells than George Bush.