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OT: American Politics

Jake Tapper @jaketapper
The Al Smith dinner is billed as part roast/part comedy stand-up...so take these tweets in that spirit

Jake Tapper @jaketapper
Romney says Obama looks around the room at the white ties in the Waldorf and thinks "So little time, so much to redistribute"

Jake Tapper @jaketapper
Romney: in the spirit of Sesame Street, the president's remarks tonight are brought to you by the letter O and the number 16 trillion

Byron York @ByronYork
Romney on press: 'My job is to lay out positive vision for the future of the country. Their job is to make sure no one finds out about it.'

Jake Tapper @jaketapper
Obama: in a few weeks this election will be decided by voters in Ohio, VA, and Florida, which begs the question What are we doing here?

Jake Tapper @jaketapper
Obama on first debate: I learned there are worst things that can happen to you on your anniversary than forgetting to buy a gift

Jake Tapper @jaketapper
Obama on Yankee stadium, the house that Ruth built -- "he really did not build that"

Jonah Goldberg @JonahNRO
Yup RT @jpodhoretz: "I don't have a joke here, I just thought I'd remind everybody that the unemployment rate is the lowest..." Good stuff

Lauren Luxenburg @LaurenC_Lux
Too soon? RT @mollyesque Obama: "Actually, Mitt is his middle name. I wish I could use my middle name."

Piers Morgan Tonight @PiersTonight
"I felt nice and rested after the long nap I had in the first debate" @BarackObama #AlSmith dinner
 
food for everyone in this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/world/africa/suspect-in-benghazi-attack-scoffs-at-us.html?_r=1&hp

Suspect in Libya Attack, in Plain Sight, Scoffs at U.S.

Witnesses and the authorities have called Ahmed Abu Khattala one of the ringleaders of the Sept. 11 attack on the American diplomatic mission here. But just days after President Obama reasserted his vow to bring those responsible to justice, Mr. Abu Khattala spent two leisurely hours on Thursday evening at a crowded luxury hotel, sipping mango juice on a patio overlooking the Mediterranean and scoffing at the threats coming from the American and Libyan governments.

Libya’s fledgling national army is a “national chicken,” Mr. Abu Khattala said, using an Arabic rhyme. Asked who should take responsibility for apprehending the mission’s attackers, he smirked at the idea that the weak Libyan government could possibly do it. And he accused the leaders of the United States of “playing with the emotions of the American people” and “using the consulate attack just to gather votes for their elections.”

Mr. Abu Khattala’s defiance — no authority has even questioned him about the attack, he said, and he has no plans to go into hiding — offered insight into the shadowy landscape of the self-formed militias that have come to constitute the only source of social order in Libya since the fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

A few, like the militia group Ansar al-Shariah that is linked to Mr. Abu Khattala and that officials in Washington and Tripoli agree was behind the attack, have embraced an extremist ideology hostile to the West and nursed ambitions to extend it over Libya. But also troubling to the United States is the evident tolerance shown by other militias allied with the government, which have so far declined to take any action against suspects in the Benghazi attack.

Although Mr. Abu Khattala said he was not a member of Al Qaeda, he declared he would be proud to be associated with Al Qaeda’s puritanical zeal for Islamic law. And he said that the United States had its own foreign policy to blame for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “Why is the United States always trying to impose its ideology on everyone else?” he asked. “Why is it always trying to use force to implement its agendas?”

Owing in part to the inability of either the Libyans or the Americans to mount a serious investigation, American dissections of the assault on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi have become muddled in a political debate over the identities and motivations of the attackers. Some Republicans have charged that the Obama administration initially sought to obscure a possible connection to Al Qaeda in order to protect its claim to have brought the group to its knees.

Mr. Abu Khattala, 41, wearing a red fez and sandals, added his own spin. Contradicting the accounts of many witnesses and the most recent account of the Obama administration, he contended that the attack had grown out of a peaceful protest against a video made in the United States that mocked the Prophet Muhammad and Islam.

He also said that guards inside the compound — Libyan or American, he was not sure — had shot first at the demonstrators, provoking them. And he asserted, without providing evidence, that the attackers had found weapons, including explosives and guns mounted with silencers, inside the American compound.

Although Mr. Abu Khattala’s exact role remains unclear, witnesses have said they saw him directing other fighters that night. Libyan officials have singled him out as a commander in the attack, and officials in Washington say they are examining his role that night.

But Mr. Abu Khattala insisted that he had not been part of the aggression that took place at the American compound. He said he had arrived just as the gunfire was beginning to crackle and had sought to break up a traffic jam around the demonstration. After fleeing for a time, he said, he entered the compound at the end of the battle because he was asked to help try to rescue four Libyan guards working for the Americans who were trapped inside. Although the attackers had set fire to the main building, Mr. Abu Khattala said he had not noticed anything burning.

At the same time, he expressed a notable absence of remorse over the assault, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including J. Christopher Stevens, the American ambassador. “I did not know him,” he said.

He pointedly declined to condemn the idea that the demolition of a diplomatic mission was an appropriate response to such a video. “From a religious point of view, it is hard to say whether it is good or bad,” he said.

In Washington, a Republican member of the House committee investigating the attack scoffed at Mr. Abu Khattala’s account. “It just sounds fishy to say you are on the scene and not participating,” said Representative Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican. “It was pitch black at 9:40 at night.”

Mr. Abu Khattala contended that the United States had ulterior motives for helping Libyans during their revolution, and he asserted that it was already meddling in Libya’s planned constitution, even though the recently elected Parliament had not yet begun to discuss it.

He also said he opposed democracy as contrary to Islamic law, and he called those who supported secular constitutions “apostates,” using the terminology Islamist radicals apply to fellow Muslims who are said to disqualify themselves from the faith by collaborating with corrupt governments.

He argued that Islamists like those in the Muslim Brotherhood who embraced elections committed a “mix up” of Western and Islamic systems. And he acknowledged that his opposition to elections had been a point of dispute between his followers and the other Libyan militia leaders, most of whom had protected and celebrated the vote.

Still, he said, “we have a very good relationship” with the leaders of Benghazi’s largest militias — which constitute the only security force for the government — from their days fighting together on the front lines of the revolt against Colonel Qaddafi. He even pointedly named two senior leaders of those important and usually pro-government brigades, whom he said he had seen outside the mission on the night of the attack.

Witnesses, Benghazi residents and Western news reports, including those in The New York Times, have described Mr. Abu Khattala as a leader of Ansar al-Shariah, whose trucks and fighters were seen attacking the mission. Mr. Abu Khattala praised the group’s members as “good people with good goals, which are trying to implement Islamic law,” and he insisted their network of popular support was vastly underestimated by other brigade leaders who said the group had fewer than 200 fighters.

“It is bigger than a brigade,” he said. “It is a current of Islamic thought.”

Mr. Abu Khattala acknowledged closeness to the group, but said he was not an official part of it. Instead, he said he was still the commander of an Islamist brigade formed during the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi and known as Abu Obeida Al-Jarah. Some of its members are believed to have joined Ansar al-Shariah, but Mr. Abu Khattala said that even though his brigade had disbanded he was still its commander.

During the revolt, the brigade was accused of killing a top general who had defected from Colonel Qaddafi. Mr. Abu Khatalla acknowledged that the general had died in the brigade headquarters, but declined to discuss it further.
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heheheh. how did I miss this?

Romney's son during the debate, staring down Obama:

KPY1k.jpg
 
Romney Roasts President Obama, Himself At The Al Smith Dinner

On Thursday night, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney delivered a lighthearted address to the guests at the Alfred Smith Dinner in New York City. During his address, Romney roasted both himself and President Barack Obama with some hard-hitting humor and biting criticisms.

scroll down for video



***************************************​


Obama Roasts Himself, Jabs At Romney And Even Elbows Chris Matthews During Al Smith Dinner

Following the conclusion of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s address to the Alfred Smith Dinner in New York City on Thursday night, President Barack Obama took to the stage to deliver his light-hearted jabs at himself and at his opponent. The president joked about the election, he took jovial swipes at his opponent and even poked fun at MSNBC host Chris Matthews.

scroll down for video
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Some good laughs for all here, at tonight's Alfred Smith Dinner in New York City.
 
lecoqsportif said:
Let me get this straight. One party basically takes its toys and goes home, offering zero cooperation. Gridlock.

So, the best practical option (i.e. not voting for a third party) is to vote for the candidate of grumpy party, despite his economic policies that are vacuous fantasies and a foreign policy centered on maintaining a creaking oil empire and Kristian end-of-time rabble-rousing.

Gotcha. Makes sense to me!
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Yes, for many that is so. Welcome to American politics. When you only have two players this can be used effectively and they have used it effectively. Just look at what's going on this election. This is precisely why a viable third party is needed.
 
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zeke said:
yup, blackmail works, it seems.

if only the dems would put party ahead of country like that, then they'd win Habsy's vote too.
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So you mock me for speaking the truth? When did I ever say it was the right thing to do? I stated the bold faced truth is the Pubs won't let Obama get anything done in a second term. If you dispute that you're delusional.

truth_2.png
 
Bleedsblue&white said:
Kind of ****ed up isn't it?
What's even more ****ed up is the people defending it...even the ones who are trying hard to pretend they aren't. I said it was treason and damn it I'll stand by it.
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You think I am defending it? If so you're out to lunch. Why is it upsetting? Because it's the truth.
 
I should simply stop discussing the election and let HA and KB entertain you with their posts. Seems you guys prefer it.
 
Here is the Al Smith Dinner roasts for both candidates. Some funny stuff.

[video=youtube;kSznL29JyhQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSznL29JyhQ[/video]

[video=youtube;S6g2YkTAYQ4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6g2YkTAYQ4[/video]
 
Habsy said:
I should simply stop discussing the election and let HA and KB entertain you with their posts. Seems you guys prefer it.
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I want to hear your opinions, they carry a lot more weight than those two, that is for sure. I want to hear them after the emotion has been removed, though. Look at it like it's at least a possibility that you have misjudged the man, and just analyze the facts.

I acknowledge it's very hard for all of us to remove "emotion" from the equation right now, though. It always gets hysterical (on both sides) right before an election.
 
Habsy said:
Yes, for many that is so. Welcome to American politics. When you only have two players this can be used effectively and they have used it effectively. Just look at what's going on this election. This is precisely why a viable third party is needed.
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Except that Obama's gridlock is likely a better outcome than Romney's action.
 
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