Whistle Stopper

Whistle Stopper Forums is a quaint, simple, delightful little corner of the political forum universe. This is one of those forums where you either fit in well with the people or you do not. I've been lurking there for some time, reading the posts, trying to form an opinion about the content. Unfortunately, the variety of content at the Whistle Stopper is too broad to pigeonhole into a single categorization. What does that mean for you? How do you know if you'd be interested? Well, like most small, but active, political forums, if you enjoy the people, you'll enjoy the site. If you can't stand the people, then you'll find nothing but frustration.

Whistle Stopper is running V-Bulletin, but has not upgraded to the latest version. It's soft, clean-cut design is smoothly integrated into an easily navigated, easily acceptable, always fast, forum. The Forum boasts over 1,000,000 posts and over 18,000 registered members. This is a well established Forum that has stood the test of time, going strong since 2003. If you are looking for a political forum to call home, this is definitely that kind of forum.

$5,000 Reward for Rice

Michaelr posted an article @ Political Hotwire concerning several New Zealand students who plan on arresting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Obviously many people support these kinds of over-hyped publicity stunts and seek to encourage them. I'm not sure its a very good idea.

How would you feel having the citizens of another nation arresting or detaining a public official of yours?

Another Stupid Thread by sdbest...

This time questioning the stupidity of Americans. This Volconvo critic and Canadian native seems to believe that there is a high degree of probability that Americans just might be the stupidest bastards in the civilized world, and what a shame, given all their wealth and opportunity that they suffer under such horrible conditions.

According to Development: US fails to measure up on 'human index', Americans lag far behind other countries on most measures of quality of life.

Not to be too provocative, but given America's absolute wealth doesn't this suggest that the average American is basically an idiot to accept these conditions. Isn't it clear yet to the majority of Americans that the "American Dream" of their mythology is, in fact, one big con?

Will Americans ever get it that the capitalist, free market system they've been indoctrinated to think is the best in the world is, in fact, a scam to rip off the majority of Americans who clearly are suckers?

The rich get richer thanks to the government they bought. The poor get poorer. And, the middle class gets sold to the Chinese, Indians, and the oil industry.

And most Americans just watch the TV as they're bled of everything of value, including their lives.

How sad. How sad. How sad.

It's amazing that Americans can still put their pants on one leg at a time. Damn! And could Americans defend themselves in this thread? Of course not. Americans pity themselves nearly as much as the Social Democrats and Canadian Liberals do. Frankly, I think Americans do suffer from a great deal of ignorance and apathy, which is a dangerous combination when considering the power and scope of our supposedly representative government. But if sdbest is correct, Canada and Europe should take pity on us lowly Americans and start giving us free energy like our pal Hugo Chavez, or maybe free prescription drugs for our seniors. Come on guys, step up. Save us from our stupidity!

John McCain's Age

Pragmatist published a post at Political Hotwire drawing attention to John McCain's age as a realistic issue in the 2008 election. Offering no thoughts of his own, he refers to a Daily Kos article instead.

NotMyRealName responded:

I'm not really going to judge McCain on these videos alone... but that's not to say this point doesn't have some teeth.

McCain is getting old, and you can tell he has some medical problems. I believe it will play a role in the campaign, rightly so.

And so it proves what I say... if Obama loses this election it really won't have anything to do with Republicans. It will be because Obama couldn't get the white democrat vote.

I think he makes a good point here. Frankly, I think McCain's age should be an issue and we should consider his physical and mental health. However, because Obama has made himself out to be such a fantastically polarizing figure in American politics, the election will come down to those who support him and those who do not. A vote for McCain will typically be a "not Obama" vote. This is why it will be so important for McCain to choose his running mate wisely. He may want to pick someone much younger than himself to say, "If something happens to me, this guy looks healthy!". Of course, this would further draw attention to McCain's age. So he may want to find a healthy 55 year old, who while being younger than McCain, is not so young that he makes McCain look old and decrepit himself.

Have We Won the Iraq War?

Starfish, of Religious Forums, quotes Michael Yon's contention that for all intents and purposes the war in Iraq is finished and the United States has been victorious:

"The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a relatively violent place long before Coalition forces moved in. I would go so far as to say that barring any major and unexpected developments (like an Israeli air strike on Iran and the retaliations that would follow), a fair-minded person could say with reasonable certainty that the war has ended. A new and better nation is growing legs. What's left is messy politics that likely will be punctuated by low-level violence and the occasional spectacular attack. Yet, the will of the Iraqi people has changed, and the Iraqi military has dramatically improved, so those spectacular attacks are diminishing along with the regular violence. Now it's time to rebuild the country, and create a pluralistic, stable and peaceful Iraq. That will be long, hard work. But by my estimation, the Iraq War is over. We won. Which means the Iraqi people won."

Starfish didn't go on to give an interpretation of the validity or meaning of those quotation. He merely left it there to settle in and annoy the liberals.

Troublemane contends that,

I predict there will be a declaration of victory by september, october at the latest, if only to deprive the obama camp of the privalege. there may be some optimism that mccain will win (not likely) but i think the polls are showing a greater probability obama will win, so---that means (just to be on the safe side) victory will be declared before the election, just to ensure bush gets the glory.

Not a bad contention, even though I don't think such an obvious ploy would go over well with our troops or the American people. No one wants to think of our military action as politically driven, and when we do, we tend to get rather pissed off about it.

I think we are a long way off from victoriously securing a democratic and peaceful Iraq, which seems to be our current military objective. Did the surge work? Of course it did and things are much better now than they were two years ago, but we've still got no viable exit strategy. Regardless of what the Bush Administration does in its waning days of its' White House occupancy, the future of Iraq will be left to the next occupant to deal with.

Is Senator Obama an Idiot? Well, some people would like to know!

SDBest has started a thread at Volconvo questioning the intelligence of the Messiah himself, Senator Obama. Ballsy.

SDBest writes that,

Barack Obama promises to withdraw from Iraq, but increase American troops in Afghanistan. Obama said, "As president, I will make the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be. This is a war that we have to win."

In my view, Obama is as big a fool and idiot as Bush to think that the US and its allies can prevail in Afghanistan. Throughout history, Afghanistan has resisted all attempts by invaders to subdue it. It is insane hubris to think that the US can prevail where all others failed, particularly when the U.S. loses most of its wars except those it wages on small islands like Grenada.

So, is Obama an idiot?

Certainly SD here isn't the only one questioning Obama's new foreign policy positions. Many of Obama's most ardent supporters are wondering what happened to their Great Pacifist Hope. The News Media, as it follows Obama around the world in awe of his grandeur, youth, and increasingly apparent inexperience, are trying to figure out how to report on Obama contradictory remarks.

HelioPrime, I think, pretty much spelled it out though:

I'd say he's just doing what it takes to get elected. Independent voters who oppose the war will support him over his Iraq drawdown while more conservative independents will support his continues fight against terrorism.

That's not cynicism folks. That's just reality of our political culture; and before you start bitching about it, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Communist Applause for Obama

From Political Hotwire:

Burning Giraffe posted a link and quote from the Communist Party website, outlining from the Communist point of view, the benefits of the Obama candidacy. Unsurprisingly the debate has taken a rather defensive tone.

Kyryahn responds by saying,

And I'm pretty sure the KKK is strongly supporting McCain, and have speeches on how it's the 1st step towards an all white America without immigration etc, so what? You're not responsible for others' interpretation of you, of your message, of your actions.

Inkslinger retorts,

So what? Communism certainly isn't a threat today, no more than it was a threat in the 40's and 50s. Just a bunch of Ooga Booga the gullible right still clings to.
You guys are really having a tough time trying to get shit to stick to Obama, arent ya? Amusing...

Colin writes,

Somehow I doubt that the Obama Administration would nationalize American industry, erect an isolationist trade policy, promote workers cooperatives, implement massive wealth redistribution(as in the destruction of social class) and facilitate workers seizing the means of production.

Seriously some of you guys are just out to lunch on these issues.

I think it speaks to the commonality of conservatives throwing out the "communist" or "socialist" labels at Democrats every time Democrats support some government welfare program that instigates this kind of blind defensiveness. The inference drawn here is that the original poster was implying that Obama was a Communist or "Communist-Light". Of course, that wasn't what the article was about, and having read it myself, it is plain as day that what the Communist Party Chair is so enthusiastic about is America's embrace of the Leftward shift the Obama candidacy represents.

While it is usually the Republicans screaming that Democrats are moving left, this serves as a more objective verification of that, since the Communist Party (being at the extreme left) is also noticing such a shift. Then consider that one of the most liberal (big government) Republicans is now the Republican Nominee, it is evident that the fulcrum of American Politics has shifted leftward, which means that we can expect to see a more Social Democratic agenda in this country.

As Burning Giraffe would go on to say,

This isn't about sticking anything to Obama. I'm not calling him a communist. I'm very simply pointing out why the Communist Party is excited about Obama's candidacy, because of a philosophical overlap that should absolutely concern libertarians and maybe some Republicans as well. You can poo poo the issue all you like, but this is relevant.

But again, in their defense, if Republicans and Libertarians were less likely to irrationally accuse Democrats of being closet-communists, they probably wouldn't react so defensively to such an innocent post.