Shouzer

Jared, I’ve liked your last few posts, and definitely agree with everything you are saying. Bush is one ridiculous mother f**ker and I personally can’t wait until he is out of office once and for all. Not really sure who I see running the country next, though if I had my choice I’d be voting for Jed Barlet!!!

here’s a bit more along the same lines. warrantless spying is going to become legal. great..

isn’t it great that our government now thinks they can tell us how to live (don’t be gay etc) and soon they’ll be able to check up on us to make sure we’re living properly?

the thing i still don’t understand is what you ppl think bush has done good for this country. scott mentioned before he thinks it was worth it because he got conservative judges on the supreme court, yet there has been NO mention of overturning roe v wade or any such thing. it’s not going to happen.

what would happen if it got overturned and gay marriage became constitutionally banned? the republicans would lose their platform. those are the only things they’ve been elected on in the last 30 years. there would be no reason to vote for them if those two issues were gone. you can’t tell me we’re in a better place than we were with clinton in office.

hell, i have to double the number of loans i’m getting next year because of changes bush has made to financial aid. hark mentioned to me before that his fin aid is shit next year too. what do you think that is? it just happened by accident?

not an accident. i really don’t think that the gop stands a chance in the next election, no matter who the candidate is. probably the only one with a glimmer of hope is mccain, who is on the left side of conservatism anyway.

two things that have happened to my political stance in recent history. bush taking republicans way too far to the right, and watching the west wing. im as liberal now as i’ve ever been. not that i agree with every part of the platform, nor do i like all of the party’s members, but a republican would have to work harder for my vote next election than a democrat would.

hehe, west wing had that much effect, eh?  must be a good show then.  :)  in all seriousness, regardless of whether your political views had changed, i\’d be glad to hear that you\’ve thought about some of the things we\’ve had discussions about before.  and i don\’t mean that to sound condescending in the least–believe me, some of our old conversations still run through my mind sometimes.
i think it\’s true of most sides of either party that they\’re not fans of every member. the two that stand out the biggest for me on the democratic side are hillary clinton and joe lieberman. they waste too much time worrying things that don\’t matter. omg, if you mod grand theft auto you can see teh nudity!!!1!

personally, i really do like al gore. people like to bring up the fact that he claims to have invented the internet, but if you do some research, you can quickly find out he never said that. in fact, he did play a big part in pushing it to the mainstream.

he has a new movie coming out that i\’ve read quite a bit about called An Inconvenient Truth that i\’d really like to see. it seems that he really is one of the only ppl in american concerned with the fact that gas prices are insane and that we\’re killing the environment with our over-usage.

seriously, gas is like $3/gal now, but have you heard bush say anything about that? no, it\’s all about gay marriage. now, regardless of your personal (and perhaps religious) feelings on the matter, the fact remains that the conservatives are GOING to lose this one. they always have. wealthy landowners aren\’t the only ones who count. women can vote. blacks are considered people. and nowadays, we look at these things and say, \”well, duh\”. 50 years from now, it\’ll be the same with homosexuality. show me a point in time when social conservatism has won out.. the point is that accepting people as they are is the lesson we seem to never learn. the fact is, too, that jesus was a liberal in his time. think about that.

[Edit:] haha, that wasn\’t supposed to sound like it was all in direct response to you, hark. i certainly didn\’t intend it that way. it started out that way, and then i branched out.

hark i was just thinking, out of curiousity, were there any parts of west wing in particular that had an impact on you? i haven’t gotten very far, but of the eps i’ve seen, the most powerful one was the one about the guy who was going to be put to death.

i specifically remember the part where toby is talking to the rabbi and says something like, “but rabbi, the torah does not say . . . ” and the rabbi replies, “yes, but the torah also says slavery is ok, etc”. he makes the point that it was the best the law could be at the time or something.

then there was the part at the end with the priest that was good too. i just remember that immediately after the guy is killed, the pres begins confessing his sins to the priest.

so far, that was the ep that has lingered with me the most. just curious if there were specific ones for you?

Actually, there are changes ocurring on the pro-life front. According to this story, the Supreme Court is reconsidering a ban on partial birth abortions. If I understand correctly, Congress passed a law to ban partial birth abortions, but then a court in California deemed this law to be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court is now reviewing that case.

According to this article, Ohio is now considering a complete ban of abortions. Similar things are going on in South Dakota and Louisiana. This story seems to be a little more informative.

Wow, stupid website didn\\\’t save my comment.

I\\\’m not going to go look up all the references again, but I\’ll summarize. The Supreme Court is looking at a ban on partial birth abotions atm. Also, several states including South Dakota, Louisiana, and Ohio have bills in some form of existence to make a total ban on abotions in there states.

There is some stuff going on in that front, it just is not going to happen over night.

it didn’t save it, because you had so many links it marked it as spam.

regardless, i’ll guarantee you that while partial-birth abortions might be outlawed, nothing further will. and, to be honest, you’d be hardpressed to find many avg ppl who would be against that anyway.

my point was to say that bush based a large part of his platform on abortion and gay marriage. he’s not mentioned abortion once since he’s come into office, and he only brings up gay marriage around elections or when his approval rating is setting record lows.

also, those states considering laws really don’t have much to do with bush. at the last election, nevada voted on whether or not to legalize marijuana, yet you know bush wasn’t a part of that. states are states, the federal government is another thing.

quick update on the original story here. who does bush think he is?

on the spot, it’s tough to name episodes or instances. but there’s a definite lingering feeling that is composite from all the episodes. you’ve got to get to season 2 when bartlett tears into this conservative radio host who is supposed to dr. laura.

haha, i’ll ahve to get that from you again sometime. or, maybe i’ll just wait until school starts.

Hark, That’s undoubtedly one of my favorite episodes and the episode that first popped into my mind when reading these posts. Bartlett makes some great points there which are hard to argue against. I’m so proud you have come around to being a West Wing fan.

In a related story, the Supreme Court shot down the President’s initiative to allow unfair trials for terrorists. Good move on their part. It’s nice to see the checks and balances working properly.

yeah, i saw that too. i’m happy it happened, but guantanamo gained notoriety, what, 5 years ago? took a bit long, imo. more than a term of leniency seems a bit much. obviously that’s not bush’s fault, but i’m sure he has no intent to change it.

Yes, the episode where President Bartlet rips into Dr. Jacobs–a fictional character the likes of Dr. Laura–is superb. It’s on my facebook profile as one of my favorite quotes…though, the delivery by Martin Sheen is what makes it all worthwhile.

And as Kyle said it is tough to name a few episodes or instances on the spot, as show as a whole was amazing.

I’ve been watching Season 6 on DVD…and there is one episode that revolves around Allison Janney’s character, C.J. Cregg, the White House Chief of Staff, and whether or not she is a lesbian.