accusing Lenin of genocide is rather novel.

It's not. It's a reasonably accurate description of Decossackization.

[liberal]

How is Lenin losing?

Because he wished to destroy both capitalism and liberal government.

Define this word for me please.

Yea, that was an interesting choice of words, since the governments he "destroyed" were anything but.

are you claiming the Russian Provisional Government wasn't liberal?

I don't get how Lenin can be getting this much support.  Thatcher's policies caused economic dislocation and poverty for many people, but nothing compared to what Lenin did on that front.  Thatcher supported repressive and genocidal regimes; Lenin led a repressive and genocidal regime.

Endorsed!

Thank you Inks!

What Obama should have said: "I would like to personally apologize to the groups that were targeted, for the actions of the people within the IRS who committed this, including the conservative groups targeted such as the AFL-CIO, NAACP, and Mother Jones."

I"m pretty sure the status of those groups as 501c4s predate the Obama administration, so their applications weren't stonewalled for months and illegally told they needed to reveal their donor lists to the public.

I actually think you're right on about transportation. High speed rail is good for city to city travel, but that's pretty rare compared to intra-metro travel that is underfunded and lacking, especially in the Mideast region. Northern Virginia in particular is a nightmare but other states have similar problems.

Thank you, Napoleon.  I agree with this assessment, though I'd add that even in Virginia it's not just the Northern region that needs serious help.


I see that voting has begun already.  While parties are not being listed on the ballot, I'll just point out that I am a member of the Liberal Party.  Also, I would like to thank the Light Party for their endorsement, and am optimistic that I will receive an endorsement from the Federalists as well.

Meanwhile, I see that a lot of pretenders are involved in write-in "candidacies" for assembly.  While a few of the write-in candidacies may be valid, I encourage all citizens to vote only for those who are legal residents of the Mideast and have shown a commitment to the region.

boredom

McKinley 342
Bryan 196

Bryan does well among the Bible Belt, Appalachia, and Midwestern farmers, while McKinley does well with the Northeast, the West, the suburbs, and staunch fiscal conservatives and social liberals.  Minorities are split but lean toward Bryan.  Hawaiians can't bring themselves to vote for McKinley for historical reasons.

I can't seem to find it. Where is it again?

Carter
Kennedy
(gap)
Johnson
Obama
Clinton
Truman

Why is Truman at the bottom if you're a Green progressive?

Nuclear radiation isn't good for the environment?

Carter and JFK are oddly enough at the top of my list as well.

I think "go along the street" tends to suggest there's something on the street you are looking for, and typically walking on the sidewalk.  As in "Go along the street until you find the green pub."  It's not absolute though. "Go down the street" is the more common phrase generally.

I think VA will come around about 2019. 

I think Dole and Specter throw their support to their Senate colleague in this scenario.

A four-way anti-Buchanan alliance? That doesn't seem fair.

Nah, only three.  Wilson doesn't join in.

honestly though, I'd support Buchanan over Wilson.

I'll request an endorsement, though Lumine and a Person are good too.

I think Dole and Specter throw their support to their Senate colleague in this scenario.

half of them folk don't even live here.

Greetings fair citizens!  The election for representation in the Mideast assembly being fast upon us, I figured it was time for a little last minute politicking.  To that end, I'll put forward a few of the ideas of my campaign for your perusal and consideration.  

Amendment Process
There's some amount of controversy over how amendments should be approved.  The recently passed federal amendment on the subject gave our region more say as to how federal amendments should be ratified by our region, but left us without a status quo.  If the legislature passes a repeat of what we had before when it came to federal amendments, I'll vote for that in the booth just to get things going again.  I will not support any reduction of time to less than one full week allowed for a ratification vote.  

What I'd like to see ultimately is a consistent standard for the passage of both regional and federal amendments.  I propose having both done by majority vote on the condition that it is supported by 1/3 of the region's voters, per the most recent census.  That way changes can be made so long as there is a real effort to convince people of why it is important.  

Transportation

The assembly has just passed an expensive high speed rail project in one corner of the region. So much for any surplus! The money involved just this year is nearly as large as all other annual transportation funding by the Mideast combined. This to me is a serious misallocation of funds, and I'll make no bones about it - if elected I will seek to repeal that bill and send that money where it is most needed.  

Now don't get me wrong - I have nothing against high speed rail.  I wish we could have it everywhere.  But the funds needed for somewhat less glamorous transportation projects are sorely lacking.  There are plenty of people who don't have cars and live in cities with spotty, low quality public transit.  These people, often poor, are the ones who need public transit most, and have to spend hours just catching one bus and then another just getting to work - what does a high speed rail line do for them?   How does about people who are stuck in traffic for hours in their own metropolitan areas?  These people have jobs they don't need high speed rail to get to, but they won't use public transit in its current state unless they are desperate.  We need to focus on the basics first - providing quality transit that all people will want to use, and get people where they need to be.

NC

I'm not sure if I should vote for Lugar or not participate at all. I'm certainly not an asshole and won't vote for Buchanan just to sabotage the GOP (though I'm pretty sure most Buchanan voters are Republicans).

So fellow Republicans, do you mind if I help you get a somewhat electable candidate?

Your vote for Lugar can balance out Seatown's vote for Wilson.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/government-subpoenas-obtains-wide-set-of-ap-phone-records-in-investigation/2013/05/13/cec4065c-bc0a-11e2-b537-ab47f0325f7c_story.html?hpid=z1

Sadly.......this is legal.

questionable.

There's a reason the government isn't supposed to have broad powers of surveillance over the internal workings of the media.  Goes back in part to something that happened almost exactly 40 years ago.   
Is the Atlas Forum really less concerned about this issue than are both parties in Congress?   Who'da thunk? 

As stated above, the government didn't get the internal workings. They just got the dates; there was no actual content in the records they got.

Cite?  I'm pretty sure they got the phone numbers involved.  And that reveals plenty when it comes to the ability of news media to have confidential sources.  Thankfully Pat Leahy gets it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/government-subpoenas-obtains-wide-set-of-ap-phone-records-in-investigation/2013/05/13/cec4065c-bc0a-11e2-b537-ab47f0325f7c_story.html?hpid=z1

Sadly.......this is legal.

questionable.

There's a reason the government isn't supposed to have broad powers of surveillance over the internal workings of the media.  Goes back in part to something that happened almost exactly 40 years ago.   
Is the Atlas Forum really less concerned about this issue than are both parties in Congress?   Who'da thunk? 

^Only in Asheville and Boone, and to a very small extent, Brevard and Tryon.  Most mountain counties gave Amendment One (gay marriage ban) more than 70% of the vote.

There are some hippie types in Henderson County as well.  Nice little hemp enthusiast store on main street Hendersonville, right next to the arthouse cinema and the fairy sculpture shop.

I thought Smash was black.

in 1936, probably something like this:



Hitler 277
Stalin 254

[1] Lugar
[2] Dole

will transfer my VP support to Weld.

nice, they need to keep improving the northeast corridor line. Is there anyway to make the trains go faster, they really should try to improve travel time. How long is the trip from New York city to Washington D.C. Improving rail travel is probably the best idea to improving travel on this corridor. Traveling interstate 95 is horrible and adding more lanes probably would make it worse, not to mention would cost billions. My brother and I drove up 95 a few years ago from Norfolk to Philadelphia and back down and traffic was awful. Traffic jams at all times plus lots of tolls. My parents drove from Connecticut to Norfolk but took several back ways but when they were on 95 is was pretty bad.

I was born in Connecticut and live in Norfolk now.  When my family has traveled between here and New England, we've usually gone the Eastern Shore and the NJ Turnpike.  A few years back I took the train from Newport News to Norwalk, and then from there up to White River Junction, VT, and it was a long and bumpy ride.  Hopefully these new trains will improve things.  They just put in a station recently in Norfolk.