The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Maybe I'm crazy, but can someone tell me how this does not sound scary?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html)

"The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government"

"a cooperative effort among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government, coordinated by the President..."

It seems a little vague. So when the president declares an emergency, he leads activities to fight the emergency, and only "coordinates" the branches. But he doesn't have to listen to them since he's the lead?

Old news. Refer here: http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm (http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm)

You may also want to check out the ACLU's website too.

I know the parallels have been tossed around before, but what I've linked to was just signed by GW within the last couple of weeks!  :o

It's just getting worse and worse...

Can you explain the context to that? I mean, it looks like something congress will just laugh at before they vote it down.

I have  a "what if" scenario that me and my wife have discussed to some length.

Let's say sometime between now and when Bush's term is up that something horrible happens on American soil, be it a nuke, biological or some other mass kill agent. It would give Bush the power to suspend normal government, put him in complete control of the military and enable him to carry out any command without any checks to his power.

I see a very real possibility that could happen whether it a real terrorist act or one that is set in motion by our own president so he can take over.

I know what your thinking... get the tin foil hats it's another conspiracy theory. Really it's not paranoia when you KNOW there out to get you. And being intelligent we can see some serious things going on in America that truly scares the hell out of me. Let's hope I'm wrong...for all our sakes.

 Congress can’t "shoot" it down since it’s an Executive order.   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_order_%28United_States%29)

 Anyways what’s the big deal? Clinton had the same thing and so did presidents before him.   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Directive)

As messed up as we can be sometimes, I do enjoy living North of the
border.

O Canada....

Ususally our nut-jobs are back benchers that toss around crazy ideas to get
attention before they're voted down.

Not being an American, I'm always amazed at how people seem to assume that Bush is setting himself up to be a dictator. Sure, the whole Iraq fiasco isn't exactly a confidence boost, but a dictator? Just because someone is incompetent it doesn't make them evil.

It's just a lot of little things. Did you know that Ashscroft wanted to add more power to the PATRIOT Act? It included things like the government arresting people and not releasing a list of who they've taken.. i.e. it would have been legal for them to abduct people and tell no one.

I think when they all add up, you just start to suspect. It's not necessarily Bush that could be corrupt and abuse what he's put in place. But there's no guarantee someone in the future might not.

Sorry xeno, I don't like President Bush either but you really need to put down more substance if you're going to bash him. Hear-say just doesn't cut it.

For example, take this mile-long list of scandals the white house is involved in with multiple sources backing everything up: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2405178
(The page shows a dogpile of ads to anyone that isn't registered, sorry for this in advance)

No source? It's a web forum, lol.

Patriot act II was real: http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2003/02/57636 (http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2003/02/57636)

Is a good list, though not the official document I admit. Seriously, I don't even see how anyone can defend him at times. And I'm definitely not a flaming liberal. Heck, my fiancee is a registered republican. Sometimes you just gotta think for yourself above political lines, ya know?

Why should his actions be defended? Every single accusation I seen leveled at him have range from peoples’ misunderstanding of the law to unsubstantiated claims to incoherent ravings of lunatics and even outright lies. I have not seen anyone actually have proof of a crime. And you know if there was any proof of actual wrong doing congress would have already started the impeachment process (since it is controlled by the democrats).

Oh boy, this is going to be a fun topic.  ::)


I know. Old news. Remember how that thing didn't come anywhere near becoming law because even the Bush adminstration knew how over the top that was?


What you're saying is essentially an enormous cop-out. "I don't have to actually put any thought into my posts because I'm on TEH INTATNIT." Don't be a fool. Also, I did just give you a treasure trove of all the dirt on Bush that's being investigated, thanks for ignoring it.


You are right. They should not be defended under any circumstances. Leave immediately.

Yes! I see your point! By not defending them you allow all the imbeciles in the world to reveal themselves as who they truly are; and they will all be ridiculed! Shiver you are a genius!

@Shiver

Well I didn't think sources were necessary since I wasn't trying to spark a big debate. Though in retrospect looking at the topic I'd definitely say I'm not sure why I didn't expect a debate. :)

Ya, Patriot Act II is old news. But I was just making the point that there's a lot of little "attempts" at undermining freedom in this administration that it just gets old. I mean, I think we can all agree it's just sad that A: anyone suspects an American government of trying to reduce freedoms and B: there's actually some decent evidence that it's tried. (See the list you linked to.)

The new NSPD that I linked to at the beginning just bugs me because there seems to be a lot of apathy. I don't care if Bush or Clinton or Whoever writes something up like that. It's like Americans are so worn out with terrorist scares, Iraq concerns, Iranian nuclear ambition, etc.. that when something goofy like this gets signed, we all just shrug and say, "Meh, is that it?"

Going OT, I have to say that the word filter on SA is amongst the best things I've ever seen. Being slightly conservative, I've always taken the view that excessive swearing is not only unnecessary, but boorish and primitive. That word filter of theirs makes a very good job in showing just how much people swear, and how unnecessary and retarded it really is. It's also great fun, it took me a bit to figure out "rear end in a top hat" and "stinkyhole". I actually thought of sending lowtax a thank you note for the great extra entertainment, but I never got around to it.

Lukipela: and now look at their "Last edit" text...

I suspect that their filter actually increases swearing.

Yeah, that's theone place that it doesn't change. That changes every now and then anyway though. Also, why would the filter encourage swearing? Any logged in user who posts there isn't going to see that stuff, it's strictly for us lurkers. I mean, if this forum turned the word "Ur-Quan" into a obscene vulgarity for anyone who wasn't logged in, it'd hardly effect us, since we wouldn't see it anyway.

Well, I can imagine people will want to try out the filter, just to see what it comes up with.

Based on some discussions there, I'm guessing most members don't even know they have a filter. Still, I suppose you could be right.

They aren't trying to be witty, at least not with that. That's a guest filter so that people can look at SA from work without getting the site blocked.


If you mispell certain words, the word filter will force something to the effect of "NOTE: I AM TOO STUPID TO SPELL 'DEFINITELY' CORRECTLY" onto your post. I've seen that one in particular very frequently. This kind of filter affects everyone, not just guests.


You'd hate us, we all cuss like sailors actually.

Speak for yourself, interneter.

*Sigh*

Do you ever think about what you're doing before pressing that big shiny "Post" button? Valaggar, try taking like a few seconds to read into the subtext of a topic before you blunder into it and piss someone off. I do NOT want to see you pretend to represent my beloved Something Awful again.

Valaggar=Troll

...

Good recovery, I suppose.

Not really, I rather enjoy SA. Don't make the assumption that just because I think swearing is a bit juvenile/oafish I'm some sort of pretty little flower who can't stand to see a curse-word written. It's pretty much the same as with cigarettes. I think smoking is pretty stupid thing to do, and I'll mentally file away people who smoke as "there's something wrong with them". That doesn't mean I wont associate with people who smoke though, or that I cannot genuinely enjoy the company of a smoker (well, unless they are blowing smoke at me). Everyone has some sort of character flaw(s). Some people curse, or smoke. Other people hang around far too much on the internet. Some people care insanely much about a local sports team, or something else. That doesn't make them bad unenjoyable people.

EDIT: Also, why cant Valaggar represent a site he goes too equally as well as you (assuming he goes there)? It's not like every goon is a shining beacon in the dark.

The dictatorship thing is a crazy conspiracy theory. The country is run by rich corporations through lobbying. If Cheney became dictator through Bush, he'd still be corporate america's bitch.
(JSYK Luki, bitch is not a real curse and I don't smoke). ;)

Shiver

Is this a joke or are you seriously upset about whatever this is? Either way this must be one hell of an inside conversation because it is like you are both speaking martian.

Valaggar isn't goon.

Okay new topic. If you had to pick someone on this forum to be dictator of the world, who would it be?

If you vote for me you can have Antartica.

Why, Fred, of course. ;)

Galvennmeister.

Assuming that you haven't asked him, how do you know? SA is chock full of people, and people of all sorts.

Intuition.


I have adjusted your post to better convey what you seem to be trying to get across.

No, you've edited in a useless image. I can see how that could be confusing. Or I see what you did there. Unless that is the point you wish to get across. How witty and urbane. All my base are indeed belong to you.

Edit: Also,


Intuition tells me how to live my day
Intuition tells me when to walk away
Could have turned left
Could have turned right
But I ended up here
Bang in the middle of real life

Hehehe.

But alas, Luki does bring up the inarguably necessary need for unlimited diversity in all places, which is completely relevant to the subject at hand. For if today, a young romanian vampire cannot get access to an elitist adult humor website, then tomorrow a cannibal will no longer be able to run a day-care center. And then someday we will be living in a time when a europan cnidarian no longer celebrates earth day, and the literacy rate of chimpanzees has dropped below the 0% line.

Without this kind of foresight, without Intellectualism in its most abstractly vague and politically motivating form, this would be our future. And so for this, I thank you, good sir. (Applause)

Where did that come from? I thought I got the last of them when I cleared out Spathiwa.

You must have forgotten the Crystal Planet.

Aww those stars are so adorable. I'd pick one of them to be dictator, just so through all the speeches I could say "awwww so cute!"

You have been fooled. The bear is not naturally violent. But the stars subtly and quietly drive it down that path, until it snaps and becomes a soulless killing machine.

Beware the stars. Tha stars are evil.

So it would seem, if not for the star tatoo on the subject bear's abdomen, that you have failed to notice. This indicates that the bear has such an affinity for stars, that its exterior has evolved to attract them. I believe we might be looking at an entirely new species of bear, one that depends on stellar energies for its survival. A photosynthesis bear. A new phase in bear evolution, if you will.

This is not as foreign a concept as one might presume. The Panda bear has evolved to eat leaves, as has the Koala bear. The Teddy bear survives off a diet of wuv. The now extinct Commie bear ate nationalism and political prisoners in the harsh climate during the cold war.

I guess since i started this thread that I thought I'd toss out that I wrote my local state representative about this and he responded. Basically was a vanilla response, but said he agreed there was potential for abuse there. I guess that satisfied me just to see he acknowledged there might be an issue.

In all honesty though, the erosion of democracy is sadly only my secondary concern. In all truth I'm terrified at the thought about how much money Americans dump into the middle east every day for energy. That's a trend I hope we can fix!