2014 Elections

[rstrong]

Not this again. During the 2012 election cycle Republican candidates regularly had to contend with dirty tricks like this from the dishonest mainstream media. (That is, playing back the candidates' words verbatim.)

[bannination]

GOP Senate Candidate [Thom Tillis]: Republicans Must Turn Poor against Each Other

With Youtube vid link.

Yeah, I love that guy, brags about passing an unconstitutional amendment in NC..... costing taxpayers money because it's going to get overturned.

As far as I'm concerned he's the floater that just won't flush.

[Boatrocker]

Not this again. During the 2012 election cycle Republican candidates regularly had to contend with dirty tricks like this from the dishonest mainstream media. (That is, playing back the candidates' words verbatim.)

Bastards. Is nothing sacred?

[Bungalow Bill]

Tillis won the old-fashioned way. He just outspent everyone else. I saw slews
of his ads on 13, not a single one for any of the other candidates. I think
if Brannon or Harris had more cash they might have held him below 40%,
but obviously they didn't have the dough.

To me McGrady is, outside a few issues, just another conservative
Republican, obviously not far right, but right, that's wrong, enough.

Maybe McDonald will finally figure out that he is not the tenth Justice
on the Supreme Court.

[Bungalow Bill]

I'm sure that compared to the other inmates in the asylum, McGrady is fairly
sane, but he is, for the most part, a fairly standard issue conservative. I
don't know all the history of the Asheville-Henderson County controversies,
but it seems to me he's getting a little pay back under the guise of legislation.

[bannination]

Tillis won the old-fashioned way. He just outspent everyone else. I saw slews
of his ads on 13, not a single one for any of the other candidates. I think
if Brannon or Harris had more cash they might have held him below 40%,
but obviously they didn't have the dough.

To me McGrady is, outside a few issues, just another conservative
Republican, obviously not far right, but right, that's wrong, enough.

Maybe McDonald will finally figure out that he is not the tenth Justice
on the Supreme Court.

Yep, those non-stop ads..... I rarely watch TV.... but when I do, it was his ad on almost every break.

[O Really]

Not that I wouldn't have voted for her anyway, but that makes me feel good about it. I have nothing against Hagan, but I don't see that she's done much. I have no idea how she could have collected the opposition she has based on anything she's done or not done. It's simple anti-Obama garbage, even though he's no longer running for anything.

[rstrong]

He's going for it.

Clay Aiken to run for Congress in North Carolina

Aiken has also "been a special education teacher in Wake County." Now that is an excellent qualification for dealing with Congress.

Apparently his opponent in the Democratic primary, Keith Crisco, died today.

[O Really]

Too bad Ellmers wasn't the one to take the fall, since she's already rolled over for her owners

[Bungalow Bill]

So Ann Coulter won't be running for office anytime soon.

[bannination]

So Ann Coulter won't be running for office anytime soon.

Bazinga

[rstrong]

Don't forget Dick Cheney, who became eligible for the draft during the Vietnam War. He received five draft deferments. In 1989, The Washington Post writer George C. Wilson interviewed Cheney as the next Secretary of Defense; when asked about his deferments, Cheney reportedly said, "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service".

Of course Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton/KBR, and still owns considerable stock. Cheney's Iraq war made him and his friends very rich indeed.

Karl Rove - No military service.
Cliven Bundy - no word.

[O Really]

If a person is a high-ranking officer in the military, say a General, or even on Joint Chiefs of Staff, then one might think that if he went into politics he would be qualified to use the military appropriately. One might think that if a person was a mid-grade officer in the military, that he knows something about the organization and management. If he was a lower grade officer, he probably still picked up some leadership skills, but nothing that would make him any more qualified to actually be "Commander in Chief." And other than that, any military service really wouldn't matter as a qualification for elected office.

[rstrong]

That depends: Is the candidate Democrat, or Republican?

Avoiding Vietnam was no big deal for Dan Quayle, but it was a Very Big Deal Indeed for Bill Clinton. And then it was no big deal again for Bush II and Dick Cheney. John Kerry WAS a war hero, so the Republicans fabricated smears, lies and doctored photos on such a large scale that "Swiftboating" became a synonym for political disinformation campaigns.

Like many issues - deficit spending, foreign-born parents, abortion law, bank and automotive industry bail-outs, bowing to foreign leaders, foreign policy in general, ending F-22 production, Chinese leaders visiting, project Gunrunner, illegal immigrants, immigration amnesty, grazing on public land, etc. etc., etc., it's perfectly OK for Republicans. It's only a national crisis when Democrats are in power.

[rstrong]

Mormon, patriarchal, polygamist, communalist, federal contractor, whiner . . . Canadian.

Thanks. That explains the 10-30 million protesters who showed up in Ottawa on Friday.

[Bungalow Bill]

Now that there is no draft, it will be harder to complain about people
not serving in the military or being draft dodgers. The golden age of
Vietnam chicken hawks has come to a close. It sure was fun while
it lasted.

I'll give a break to the Gipper. He had poor vision and was not fit
for combat duty, unlike his buddy John Wayne, who managed to
wiggle out of service a number of times. Wayne's heroics ended
when the director said Cut.

[Wneglia]

Others had excuses, good and bad, I was just pointing out that Raygun didn't have a real military experience.

It's ironic that it may have been our military's nuclear weapons testing that killed John Wayne. Among the cast and crew who filmed the 1956 film The Conqueror on location near St. George, Utah, 91 out of 220 developed some form of cancer at various times, including stars Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell.

We do still have the Vietnam chickenhawks Mitten, David H. Koch, Jeb Bush and Mitch McConnell to deal with, it's not quite over yet.

I think John Wayne's 6 pack per day smoking history had a lot to do with his lung cancer.

[rstrong]

That was the universe rejecting everyone responsible that film.

Imagine the John Wayne in a Fu Manchu moustache and a me-Tarzan-you-Jane accent saying lines like "Yer beautiful in yer wrath!"

Or "I stole you. I will keep you. Before the sun sets you will come willingly to my arms." Or "Dance for me, Tartar woman." Or "She is a woman - much woman. Should her perfidy be less than that of other women?"

The response: "The Conqueror? Mighty armies cannot stop him. But one touch of my lips... Yes, he captured me - but he cannot tame me."

And of course "You just gotta save Christianity, Richard! You gotta!"

[rstrong]

Also: Susan Hayward, in the showgirl dress and with red hair, was the above-mentioned "Tartar woman."

[Bungalow Bill]

I was thinking mainly of presidential candidates. Jeb Bush was born in 1953,
so he likely would have missed the draft for all practical purposes. I think
all the other 2016 GOP hopefuls are younger. Old chicken hawks never die,
they just fade away.

I remember reading about The Conqueror cancer possibilities many years
ago. Sounds probable, though maybe not definitive. And of course there were
a lot of heavy smokers back then too. Besides that, it also has the reputation
of being a really bad flick, not that it would be any better if the picture had been
Red River.