i admit it's plausible gore could've prevented 9/11, i mean it's plausible james woods could have prevented it and he couldn't prevent sean young from gluing his dick to his thigh. i just don't think it was likely. failures like that are systemic. not that the bush national security team wasn't especially set up for failure on that front (i can still remember reading the 9/11 commission report and damn near losing my shit after reading that condi rice basically didn't know what al qaeda were on 9/11. they'd only bombed a couple of embassies, a us navy ship, and some barracks (and that's just the plans that succeeded) and we'd only already bombed afghanistan and sudan once in response but i guess that escaped the damn head of the nsa's notice cuz she'd decided this century was going to be about keeping an eye on the russkies), but it's not like there'd been a huge turnover at the fbi and cia after 8 months. they bear responsibility but it's comparable to how a commanding officer bears responsibility when a sentry falls asleep at a post.
― balls, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 05:40 (nine years ago) link
xpost very few vice presidents have actually gotten elected president in the first place! adams, jefferson, van buren, coolidge, and poppy bush are the only ones that really fit the bill; truman, coolidge, and johnson ran as incumbents after the death of the president and as you say nixon was running after a gap. so basically in modern times the only reference point is GHWB. not a super robust sample size in terms of making predictions about what could have happened in 2004.
re: no child left behind: sure. but it's one thing to say "a thing bush proposed got some democratic votes" and another to say "gore would have also proposed that thing." sorta like the iraq war. similarly i guess if gore had sat down and tried to sell a random war in iraq he probably could have gotten the votes, but he wouldn't have done that. not saying they were just radically different on education or anything, just different priorities, different attitudes, different constituencies. i dunno, maybe it would have amounted to the same thing or something like it. at the time, "we need to have tough standards to make sure our schools are performing" sounded really good to a lot of people.
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 06:04 (nine years ago) link
that's also obama's policy fwiw
― balls, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 06:14 (nine years ago) link
I'll try a facile conclusion: had Gore been president, we would've had no Iraq, slightly milder neoliberalism, would've lost the presidency in 2004, and many of the Obama administration victories would've been delayed another 5 to 10 years b/c Obama wouldn't have ever been president.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 10:50 (nine years ago) link
would've lost the presidency in 2004
This is really debatable though, and requires transplanting the cynicism that came out of GWB's handling of it (and his re-election!) into a timeline without it.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 10:54 (nine years ago) link
I'm going by history and our not being kind to veeps wanting a second term of their own.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 11:01 (nine years ago) link
I'm with Doctor Casino on that one - threadbare sabermetrics over a few data points is likely to be less use than the specific circumstances.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 11:51 (nine years ago) link
Tonight on Counterfactual Theatre
― go hang a salami I'm a canal, adam (silby), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 14:49 (nine years ago) link
^^^
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 14:55 (nine years ago) link
education policy in general doesn't really line up neatly along party lines
Yeah. Probably needs its own thread, though there might not be enough education-policy geeks on here to sustain one. I've reported/written a lot about education over the past couple decades, and I think it's the most complicated and frustrating of yr major national/social/cultural issues. Even more than healthcare, which at least has some clear ideological faultlines -- single-payer vs. "private market." In education, you have liberal "reformers" and conservative "reformers," who sometimes seem to agree on some things but sometimes are very far apart. And then you have a bunch of more-or-less defenders of the status quo, who aren't ideological so much as institutional, and you have a massive amount of plain old inertia just making it very hard to ever change anything. There are the profiteers -- the people who make and market textbooks, technology, etc -- who aren't necessarily wedded to any one model, they just want to be first in the door. And there's also this very decentralized power structure, where the feds control some things, the states control others, and local school boards still have a huge amount of authority (because the biggest chunk of most school systems' funding is local). Anyway, it's a mess.
― something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 15:01 (nine years ago) link
Weird all this talk of a spec Gore presidency and zero mention of kyoto protocol, climate change, energy policy etc
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 15:04 (nine years ago) link
Can we talk for a second about an acquaintance of mine who is running against Sean Duffy in Wisconsin?
http://www.kirkbangstad.com/
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 15:06 (nine years ago) link
guh i regret the conjecture now. i was more just (internally i guess) heading off 'didn't we almost have it all?' fantasies that spring up over hypothetical gore presidency so I could defend him against that dumb 'lol he invent internet - NOT' meme.
― balls, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 15:11 (nine years ago) link
never allude to that Whitney song again, bro
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 15:16 (nine years ago) link
don't be so emotional
― balls, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 15:18 (nine years ago) link
where do broken hearts gore.
― pplains, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 15:25 (nine years ago) link
guess not
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 15:31 (nine years ago) link
i wholeheartedly endorse anyone who wants to take down sean duffy and any means they choose to do so
― balls, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 15:57 (nine years ago) link
I haven't actually talked to him in years but a common friend (who works in politics) alerted me to this, which I think is pretty awesome; he's a really great dude.
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:05 (nine years ago) link
(Here's hoping there isn't some nightmarish surprise in his policy positions)
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:06 (nine years ago) link
Does he have a chance? Any other Dems?
― pplains, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:07 (nine years ago) link
I'll be his baby tonight!
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:07 (nine years ago) link
As far as I know, he is the Dem; I don't think anyone else is in the race.
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:09 (nine years ago) link
I wanna dance wausau body.
― pplains, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:09 (nine years ago) link
didn't wisconsin have it all?
― balls, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:17 (nine years ago) link
it's not right (but it's eau claire)
― goole, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:20 (nine years ago) link
^ winner
― balls, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:26 (nine years ago) link
beautiful
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:35 (nine years ago) link
just gonna be watchin' football in my Mankato
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:38 (nine years ago) link
just wanted to throw Minn in
ok i can't tell any of those states apart
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:39 (nine years ago) link
also beautiful
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Wednesday, 30 September 2015 16:52 (nine years ago) link
grrr: https://wilderness.org/blog/few-members-congress-are-about-erase-50-year-old-promise
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 30 September 2015 19:39 (nine years ago) link
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) - Aerial bombardments blew apart a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the battleground Afghan city of Kunduz about the time of a U.S. airstrike early Saturday, killing at least 19 people, officials said.
@billmon1 London 1940: Civilians throughout the city were killed at about the same time as a German air strike, @CNN reports...
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 4 October 2015 16:41 (nine years ago) link
Further investigation is needed to determine whether the Taliban has acquired a modern air force.
― Aimless, Sunday, 4 October 2015 17:45 (nine years ago) link
http://s22.postimg.org/cn78ql8hd/kochswarm.pngI know it's pronounced Koke but that's not how I read it
― The Once-ler, Sunday, 4 October 2015 20:57 (nine years ago) link
the ignorance of history recent enough to be journalism is getting a little hard to take. suffice it to drop these in re the "counterfactual" gore admin (he won btw)?
https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1G1-63954947/gore-criticizes-bush-foreign-policy-approach-gop-candidatehttp://edition.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/08/05/time.history/http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/juicy_bits/2004/03/could_we_have_prevented_911.single.htmlhttp://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/15/how-bin-laden-escaped-in-2001-the-lessons-of-tora-bora.htmlhttp://articles.latimes.com/2006/nov/12/opinion/op-kagan12http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/05/15/flashback_gore_calls_bush_policies_un-american_in_2002_speech.htmlhttp://articles.latimes.com/2003/nov/10/nation/na-gore10http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,574809,00.htmlhttp://money.cnn.com/2002/11/06/news/pitt/http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2002/12/snow_job.single.htmlhttp://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aoM0mju1ARQohttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/19/AR2007121902177.htmlhttp://www.monitor.net/monitor/0502a/gorebushwarming.html
― it's not a tuomas (benbbag), Monday, 5 October 2015 03:27 (nine years ago) link
Greenwald re the bombedy-bomb media tiptoeing
"The U.S. and its allies — in both the Afghan government and its own media — have now switched course from the 'it was a collateral damage mistake' cliché to the proud 'yes we did it and it was justified' boast (indeed, a large bulk of today’s NYT article, ostensibly about the effects of the hospital’s destruction, is actually devoted to giving voice to those who are justifying why the hospital was attacked, even as the framing of the article is designed to suppress the identity of the perpetrator). But from the start, not even the U.S. military had the audacity to try to obscure that they did this. They left that dirty work to their leading media outlets, which, as usual, are more than eager and happy to comply."
https://theintercept.com/2015/10/05/cnn-and-the-nyt-are-deliberately-obscuring-who-perpetrated-the-afghan-hospital-attack/
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Monday, 5 October 2015 15:24 (nine years ago) link
the latest news is that the Afghan forces requested the airstrike. see, they asked for it!
― 1998 ball boy (Karl Malone), Monday, 5 October 2015 15:27 (nine years ago) link
MSF/DWB:
“MSF is disgusted by the recent statements coming from some Afghanistan government authorities justifying the attack on its hospital in Kunduz. These statements imply that Afghan and US forces working together decided to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital with more than 180 staff and patients inside because they claim that members of the Taliban were present.
“This amounts to an admission of a war crime. This utterly contradicts the initial attempts of the US government to minimize the attack as ‘collateral damage.’
“There can be no justification for this abhorrent attack on our hospital that resulted in the deaths of MSF staff as they worked and patients as they lay in their beds. MSF reiterates its demand for a full transparent and independent international investigation.”
https://theintercept.com/2015/10/05/the-radically-changing-story-of-the-u-s-airstrike-on-afghan-hospital-from-mistake-to-justification/
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Monday, 5 October 2015 15:33 (nine years ago) link
these doctors appear to be fucking furious. good for them.
― panettone for the painfully alone (mayor jingleberries), Monday, 5 October 2015 17:12 (nine years ago) link
MSF is probably the safest enemy of the Pentagon to donate to, tho i'd like to spread the love around today
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Monday, 5 October 2015 18:08 (nine years ago) link
whatta maroonhttps://twitter.com/monicacrowley/status/651043858541879296
― a literal scarecrow on a quaint porch (forksclovetofu), Monday, 5 October 2015 18:47 (nine years ago) link
well, she was in Richard Nixon's company for several years.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 5 October 2015 18:51 (nine years ago) link
Was that Simply Red billboard from East Berlin too?
― pplains, Monday, 5 October 2015 18:54 (nine years ago) link
She's since clarified that it was irony.
― Frederik B, Monday, 5 October 2015 19:03 (nine years ago) link
other things that work: -asbestos-thalidomide-chemical weapons-leaded gasoline
― all my friends are vampires (art), Monday, 5 October 2015 19:04 (nine years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/business/trans-pacific-partnership-trade-deal-is-reached.html
Its full 30-chapter text will not be available for perhaps a month, but labor unions, environmentalists and liberal activists are poised to argue that the agreement favors big business over workers and environmental protection. Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the Pacific trade accord as “a bad deal,” injecting conservative populism into the debate and emboldening some congressional Republicans who fear for local interests like sugar and rice, and many conservatives who oppose Mr. Obama at every turn.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 5 October 2015 21:29 (nine years ago) link
Good week for Obama! With TPP, he's guaranteed lots of dough for his library, board positions for Michelle, and lots more corporate thank you's! AND, he got to test how good he's gotten at killing people (as he himself said) by blowing up a hospital! Kids in burning beds! He's so...likable, isn't he?
― Iago Galdston, Monday, 5 October 2015 21:33 (nine years ago) link
shd give him another peace prize
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 5 October 2015 21:49 (nine years ago) link