tommytomlin

Al Qaeda can take over countries now? What, with their Armoured Divisions and extensive Air Force?

Based on my deep research into American politics (watching Fox News and reading this site mainly), and comparing it with my own country, there's so much more anger in American politics. I don't know when it started, don't know why it started, but the anger leads to less of an emphasis on a person's politics and a bigger emphasis on their character, which reduces political discourse to fatheads like Moore, Hannity and Rush performing blatant character assassination instead of arguing for or against specific policies. For example, the leader of the Opposition Party in my country, Mark Latham, was recently the victim of witchhunt by certain segments of the media in regards to his divorce and a rumoured physical altercation twenty years ago. I have no doubt that if this was America, this would have been the media's focus for a few months. But in Australia, character politics is pretty much unheard of, so the news was on the front page for three days and then disappeared when Latham announced some policy. I don't think you'd see that in America. Platinumboy's point about not hating Edwards because he has a different economic policy is a good one too. If Edwards was a Republican, would the Tories on this board be in outrage that he was a trial lawyer? If Jack Ryan was a Democrat, would they have been professing their absolute disgust at his actions? And vica versa, if Dick Cheney just happened to be on the other side of politics, would the liberals here care so much about him dropping the F-Bomb? So in closing, American politics would be a whole lot better if you focused less on what John Kerry did to his ribbons/medals and more on what his economic policy was.

And the fact America was two years late to the war kind of diminishes your argument that the left would sit on their hands. Both sides of politics sat on their hands until Pearl Harbour.

An alarming number of Islamic extremists commit terrorist attacks. Should we condemn ALL Islamic extremists because of this?

I don't see why this is interpreted as some sinister Bush plot, when a terrorist attack on or before Election Day is MORE likely to get him elected. A week's delay might turn the ultra-patriotism immediately after an attack into anger towards the Administration.

Wrestling boner?!

I don't know much about American political customs, but surely a debate is required before an election? Who organises the debates?

Does this mean America now has to install a right-wing, authoritarian dictator in Iraq? AGAIN?

So WWE advertising their product is going to cause their downfall? O-KAY.

Whenever Vince dies + 10 years.

(That was kind of the point of the war, dude.)

What are you, a terrorist?!

Dude, I had a two hour lecture about that subject a few weeks ago at university. It's not exactly top secret business, and even then, a whole bunch of other countries funded Saddam. As for the sound, apparently it was removed to protect the identity of the judge.

Absolutely fantastic movie. X-Men 2 was a touch better, but that's only because I'm an X-men mark. The CGI was so much better than the first, there were only one or two scenes where it looked a bit iffy, and even then I was looking pretty hard. I think it stands out from the first Spidey because of the increased emphasis on the characters. Even J.J Jameson gets fleshed out more, it's fantastic. My only problem was with the handling of Aunt May. I really think May should have found out that Peter was Spidey. I mean, MJ, Harry, and a train full of people found out, so why not May? The scene with her talking to Peter about how 'there's a hero in all of us' showed that she had an inkling that something was up, but I think the film would have been better if she found out (and then told Peter she knew all along, like in the comics). I guess they want to save that for Spidey 3.

What a retarded system. Why must you register with a party before you vote in a regular election?

Weren't you arguing the same thing during the Abu Ghraib prison scandal Mike? That it was all about personal accountability?

Mainly that you can't defend yourselves if you withdraw from international affairs.

Because partisan bitching > hard news stories.

And I'm completely sure if it was President Clinton or Gore reading to kids for 11 minutes during 9/11, everyone in this thread would have a completely different view.

All monarchies do is teach little English and Australian and Canadian boys and girls that some people are just BORN lucky, and that all the hard work in the world won't change that. OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!@w

Wow, a real life wrestling master! Posting HERE! Wow!

Or he can go back to blaming the 'international left'. That was fun.

It hasn't been raised since 1997?!

Why is everyone in this thread talking about how to deal with terrorism like their opinion actually matters? Is Marney going to borrow an assault rifle from her Pentagon chums, fly to Saudi Arabia and pop some terrorist skulls, or are we all just going to sit behind our computer desks and talk tough?

Dwindling quality?! Right now, the competition is as close as it's ever been. The quality of play is better than ever. Watch games like Thursday's Origin, the 2003 Grand Final, Roosters/Dragons from a few rounds ago, or Sharks/Broncos from 2 rounds ago. It's absolutely fantastic stuff, and it's happening nearly every week. I fail to see how League is suffering 'dwindling quality'.