Some good economic policies don't make up for the other stuff..

Why not?

Would you support a Neo-Nazi Holocaust-denying German Chancellor if he/she were also pro-stimulus?

No, of course not. But Abe is nowhere near that bad.

The Pacific government has been disrespecting itself, lately. I like Superique, for instance, and think he's doing good work there.. but let's all be fair, here: there has been every indication in the last couple months that the Pacific has had trouble governing itself.

I have no desire to make the Pacific some sort of "kingdom" for anyone; that was arguably the biggest problem with the Pacific to begin with under Wolfentoad's rule for the last several months. (Have you read the Pacific Constitution? It's kind of a hot mess.)

Like I said, I'll cancel the executive order when things are in order, but the regional Constitution grants me power that is specifically allowed to be "interpreted liberally" and when a majority of your elected council have gone completely inactive and your Governor's activity lately has been dead until the last couple days, and only spotty since then, I'd say that you guys don't really have a well functioning government.

I was on a leave of absence for a week, I didn't exactly have time hear people talk about carpetbagging. I came back to see the Pacific in a mess and most of the government basically dead, and decided to use a power that was in the regional Constitution made for cases just like this. If this declaration speeds things up, I don't honestly understand what the problem is. All my declaration did was fast-track the process of opening up necessary voting booths as quickly as possible; who does that hurt?

I come from a region that has had many problems exactly like this in the past, and I promise you, my actions only come from wanting regions to reform themselves as soon as possible, because when the Midwest was trying to reform itself, it took weeks because we had no emergency procedures. I want to help in wasting as little time as possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbWgUO-Rqcw

Everything around the next Xbox sounds unimpressive at best and completely repulsive at worst. I really have no love for Microsoft at the moment and don't understand the lengths some people go to make excuses for their recent decisions.

Some good economic policies don't make up for the other stuff..

Why not?

I don't think I feel more conflicted about any other leader of a major power, at the moment.

Really? What has he done/said outstanding enough to compensate his ultranationalistic stances? I admit I haven't been following recent Japanese politics at all.

Well, I should probably preface this by saying that I'm not as reflexively abhorring of nationalistic overtones the way many on Atlas tend to be, but Abe has demonstrated a very serious attitude when it comes to structural reforms (some good, some bad) in a ferociousness that has eluded Japanese leaders for a long, long time, and his approach to the economy (which can basically be summed up as "grow the economy, at all cost") has been fairly effective thusfar.

It's hard to hate his moxie, I suppose. Japan faces a lot of challenges very unique to them, and Abe has presented an agenda that he seems to be completely serious about implementing, which, in it's own right, is hard to not be impressed by. I suppose the best way I can compliment him is that, while he has a lot of negatives, he seems like the kind of leader Japan desperately needs.

His nationalism is a concern, his proposals for Constitutional reform are a little scary, his cabinet is pretty right-wing, and his party doesn't exactly have an impressive record in the last couple decades, to put it mildly, but Abe is a very interesting high-risk/high-reward kind of figure at the moment. He's a radical, to be sure.. but sometimes you have to take a chance with a radical.

I don't think I feel more conflicted about any other leader of a major power, at the moment.

[Executive Order #29-003]

I didn't know things were such a complete disaster in the Pacific while I was on my leave of absence, and I want to help things get back in order as soon as humanly possible. One of the few things in your Constitution that actually serves a good purpose, allows me to declare you guys in anarchy when there is a lack of real functioning government and mass confusion over how and when to hold votes, or there exists a failure to do so.

Since Xahar is among those taking point on this, I'm declaring you guys in a State of Anarchy and granting Xahar the power to open necessary voting booths for a month, which should give you guys time to recall the Governor, your legislature, and vote on any Constitutional fixes. I'll end this declaration sooner than the date inscribed in this executive order if necessary, but I wanted to give you guys a wide birth to get this stuff in order.

So, please, get fixing!

Executive Order #29-003

The Pacific Region's Governor has undergone a severe lack of activity, and a majority of the Pacific Council is now MIA as well. This has left the government of the Pacific Region effectively non-functional, and citizen efforts to reform the region are being stymied by lack of leadership and confusion over who is to open voting booths for a variety of recall efforts.

Article 1, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Pacific Constitution grants the federal government the power to declare a new elections Administrator to assist in restoring order when a state of anarchy, defined in the Constitution "as a lack of elections and/or a lack of any comprehensible regional Government."

Therefore, as the citizens of the Pacific have requested a recall of their Governor and are undergoing efforts to restore order to the Pacific government, and there is mass confusion over who is to restore order to the situation, I declare the Pacific Region as existing in a State of Anarchy, and hereby appoint Xahar, as a resident of the Pacific Region, to open and administer necessary Pacific voting booths until June 30th, 2013.

[Executive Order #29-003]

Executive Order #29-003

The Pacific Region's Governor has undergone a severe lack of activity, and a majority of the Pacific Council is now MIA as well. This has left the government of the Pacific Region effectively non-functional, and citizen efforts to reform the region are being stymied by lack of leadership and confusion over who is to open voting booths for a variety of recall efforts.

Article 1, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Pacific Constitution grants the federal government the power to declare a new elections Administrator to assist in restoring order when a state of anarchy, defined in the Constitution "as a lack of elections and/or a lack of any comprehensible regional Government."

Therefore, as the citizens of the Pacific have requested a recall of their Governor and are undergoing efforts to restore order to the Pacific government, and there is mass confusion over who is to restore order to the situation, I declare the Pacific Region as existing in a State of Anarchy, and hereby appoint Xahar, as a resident of the Pacific Region, to open and administer necessary Pacific voting booths until June 30th, 2013.

x Marokai Blue

x Marokai Blue

Alrighty, I hereby declare the leave of absence to be over. I'll take some time tonight to get back on track with what's up for debate, what's been going on, and so on. Thanks for the patience, everyone. Real life comes before here, etc etc.

Just a note that I'll return to my official duties tomorrow afternoon. Sorry for the delay; it super sucks, here and elsewhere.

My only regret about that post was that I didn't include homophobic, as well.

Edit: or that I could've pointed out the other multiple instances of Koenkai calling random stuff racist.

FF, he was really friendly with me! I don't have to judge the controversies with other guys!

Calling Duke a rapist doesn't bother you? Okay.

He was depressive and he apologized. All people can make mistakes.

You're more forgiving than I am. I've never suffered from depression but I know plenty of people who do/have and they've never turned into borderline sociopaths who spread disgusting rumours about people for no reason.

To be fair, he backed up that accusation with some disgusting comments from Duke.

One comment, it being a really stupid joke, that Duke made something like 6 years ago, and has since apologized for practically every year.

Clearly, this is compelling evidence of Duke having rapist tendencies.

I can't think of any good rationale for voting FF, here. His age is no excuse. What Oakvale and Nix said.

All of Annies posts were delightful.

That's all well and good, and I respect that completely since I understand the feeling, but it'd be nice if we could at least drop the condescending aura of the whole thing. Calling people who do care about issues "spergy" when you're willing to spend forever and a day writing treatises on obscure political histories of Latin America just comes off like overcompensating.

All-my-posts-here-TLDR: It's okay for others to care about some s**t even if you no longer do. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. So sperg on, bro.

Mulcair thinks Kinder and unanswered Liberal attacks did it. Certainly part of it IMO.

Certainly part of it, for sure, though the broader point I've picked up from the provincial elections in the last couple years is that Canadian voters seem to require serious convincing from challenging parties before they switch course. In Ontario, in Manitoba, in Quebec, Alberta, and here, all government parties either over-performed expectations from the start of the campaign, or just flat-out defied all polling, and only in Quebec did it just barely result in a change in government, and that seems to have reversed in the polling since.

The message I see in all of those for prospective challenging parties is that you can gain ground with a hope & change sentiment, but it's damn hard to win if that's all you're going to provide. The BC NDP, the PCs in Manitoba and Ontario, Wildrose in Alberta, just straight-up weren't specific and convincing enough, and if the voters in Canada aren't completely convinced, they'll side with the devil they know, even if they want something different deep down. You're a fascinating bunch.

The Benghazi thing is an investigation in search of something to investigate, and the AP records story sounded a lot more sinister until I actually read more about it, and now it just seems mildly uncomfortable, if anything, but the IRS story should actually result in some firings at the very least, because that was at least an outright wrong and possibly illegal thing to do.

I wouldn't just say pernicious, but in many cases, utterly pretentious. Labels for all things exist for a reason, they're not out to restrict growth and intellectual thought, they exist, like Xahar said, as clear and consistent shorthand for what you, with an exception or two, are.

I know it's very popular and almost edgy sounding to sit here and talk about how we "don't conform to what people want us to be, man, we're just free and independent" (which reminds me of people who do that "no labels" thing for sexuality, making me want to strangle them in their sleep) but opposing having an ideology just for the sake of it, while not Moderate Hero-esque, is just kind of stupid in it's own right.

If you don't perfectly fit into an ideology as a natural progression of how your beliefs fit together, that is fine. If you take from the outset a stubborn refusal to "fit in, man" then I kind of just think you need to get over yourself, because implicit in that belief is the idea that anyone who does fit in neatly within the confines of an ideology is somehow not legitimate or smart. It's a holier than thou sentiment that, like Xahar mentioned, just leads to the Max Baucuses or Francois Bayrous (who's entire persona consists of "centristcentristcentristcentristcentrist") of the world. Because I concisely and simply just refer to myself as a Socialist doesn't mean I'm not completely willing and capable to defend any aspect of my beliefs to anyone who challenges them, it is just the simplest way to describe my positions to an outsider and the best approximation of what my positions add up to.

I don't mean for it to sound like I feel like people have to pick an ideology to be taken seriously, because I don't, all I care about is people take clear and consistent positions (which Hash pretty much does), but we all need to get over our fascination with trying to come up with special sounding just-for-us alternative labels because it comes off as childish at best and aggressively snobbish at worst.

Absolutely fascinating.

Canada has a fascinating set of electorates.

If you think I'm a partisan hack, you know even less about me than I thought you did.