Hey Obama Partisans, remember all this fun http://theforvm.org/diary/brooks-and-b-rational/whos-on-first-forvm-obam... ?

As I’ve mentioned on a thread or two, I’m boycotting the “Genocide Olympics.” I will not watch one second of Olympic games hosted – and thus granting a prestige boost to – a regime that supports and defends atrocious regimes in Sudan and Burma, that is still oppressing the people of Tibet (albeit with material advances), and that deprives its own people of democracy and of basic human rights.

Here's what came of my efforts to get a straight answer to a straight-forward question, first on a few threads under diaries of others, then here http://theforvm.org/diary/brooks-and-b-rational/senator-obama-please-giv... and here, where I introduce the easy-to-use (or so one would think) multiple choice format http://theforvm.org/diary/spartacvs/open-thread#comment-107119

Nick Kristof shows once again why he's a step above (and ahead) of other columnists in raising awareness of mass cruelty that should disturb our conscience and compel us to act. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinio...

I’m going to be somewhat hypocritical. I suggested a week or so ago that folks here stop creating new threads addressing the same question (all within a day or two), and instead offer their arguments as comments on one of the threads that already existed (for the sake of clarity and efficiency of discussion/debate).

I originally posted this "glossary" on 4/25/07 on TownHall http://rationalguy.blogtownhall.com/ (scroll down to see it there) and posted a slightly updated version (with clearer column headings) on SwordsCrossed on 11/12/07 http://swordscrossed.org/node/1721, which I'll paste below (below dotted line).

I think it's still a useful guide, and will be for a long time, IMHO.

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This just in from Newsweek: Obama may have as much relevant experience for the presidency as McCain, or perhaps even more! This insight comes courtesy of “Special Guest Columnist” Alan Ehrenhalt in his column http://www.newsweek.com/id/142892

Context -- The Problem: Our Unsustainable OVERALL Long-term Fiscal Imbalance

There is nearly universal agreement among economists and budget policy experts that under current spending policies, and at anything anywhere close to our current level of taxation, we are on an unsustainable fiscal course, with deficits (and, debt-to-GDP ratio) growing out of control and eventually devastating our economy. Long-term projections are obviously debatable, but, as CBO put it in the CBO Long-Term Budget Outlook, December 2007: