2012-01-17, 14:19 | Link #2021 | |
Shadow of Effilisi
Join Date: Oct 2011
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Now we have Obama who looks weak. He no longer seems to stand for anything. The Congress during his term is the worst in living history, even though it's not entirely his fault. Personally I'd like to see a Democrat challenge him, but that is not going to happen. On the other side Republicans candidates are almost all unelectable. Huntsman has dropped. Ron Paul is too radical to win. Romney never has more than 25% support but his nomination looks inevitable, mostly because he is the only one that can seriously challenge Obama. So unseating Obama becomes the primary objective, and whoever has the best chance to do so gets nominated. Romney's views (which changes with every passing season) are not important. |
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2012-01-17, 14:53 | Link #2022 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Foreigners??? Hell, no - I'm talking about US Citizens. Actually, even a few distant relatives who told me "I should watch him because he has some really important good ideas" O.o They utterly thought he was serious and who am I to interfere? (muhahahahahahaha).
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2012-01-17, 15:45 | Link #2024 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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That's because you probably have a full deck The number of people considered "normal" who actually can't critically analyze/process is large enough I try not to brood on it too often because otherwise I'd avoid driving altogether.
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2012-01-17, 16:42 | Link #2025 | |
Carpe Diem
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: ||At the edge of finality.||
Age: 34
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Its not like I was a "kid" all that long ago, I'm only 22 but when I was in school we asked questions, we interacted with our teacher, we went outside and played with a ball and stick. No one does these thing anymore.
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2012-01-17, 17:28 | Link #2026 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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FACT CHECK: Distortions in GOP debate
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...01-17-17-16-21 Rick Perry affirm than Turkey is run by islamist terrorist . ( Sorry, text in french) http://nouvelles.sympatico.ca/monde/...nkara/dfaf552d
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2012-01-17, 17:35 | Link #2027 |
Gamilas Falls
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
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In looking up something else I came across something about Ron Paul.
Would you like to be a Privateer? Would it be within the Executive Powers to get Congress to start issuing Letters of Marque and Reprisal? Well Ron Paul did want to start using Privateers against Terrorists instead of using the military. As a Privateer can target individual terrorists without forcing a war between nations using military force (at least in theory).
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2012-01-17, 17:39 | Link #2028 | ||
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
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2012-01-17, 18:03 | Link #2029 | |
Shadow of Effilisi
Join Date: Oct 2011
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2012-01-17, 18:26 | Link #2030 | |
Gamilas Falls
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
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True (mostly..there is debate over the Privateer status of a pair of sub hunting blimps in the Second World War). However this has come up in recent times:
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2012-01-17, 18:36 | Link #2031 |
Shadow of Effilisi
Join Date: Oct 2011
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That only makes it more confusing. Hunting down Somali pirates does not lead to a war against foreign state. And being the strongest navy in the world by far, the US navy is in best position to patrol the waters. There just isn't a need to subcontract out the work to privateers.
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2012-01-17, 18:38 | Link #2032 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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2012-01-17, 18:50 | Link #2033 |
Gamilas Falls
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
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The US Navy might be the most powerful, but it does not have the ship types for close in work against small fast boats. You can't effectively use attack submarines against those kinds of pirates. An Aircraft Carrier is a very large asset to use against small targets. Frigates, Destroyers, and Cruisers of today are not designed for gun fights in coastal waters, but to engage Soviet vessels at sea with missiles, or prevent missiles or submarines from hitting the carriers. You typically don't use a million dollar tomahawk cruise missile against a pirate speed boat. There are no battleships in service, and they too are too large of an asset to place against small targets. The LPD and Marines assets might be viable, but those are more for invading land than engaging pirates.
The idea of using Privateers is that the privateer would already have a small boat or ship that could be fitted with some guns and used either to patrol the coastal areas, hunt down pirate bases in territorial waters that the US Navy isn't suppose to enter. Or act as decoys to bring the pirates to them to be captured or killed. This would save funds and the Navy would not need to have new ships and boats built to deal with the situation, nor woud they need to expand naval spending to get more sailors.
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2012-01-17, 18:59 | Link #2034 | |
Shadow of Effilisi
Join Date: Oct 2011
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2012-01-17, 19:13 | Link #2036 | |
Shadow of Effilisi
Join Date: Oct 2011
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2012-01-17, 19:14 | Link #2037 | |
Knight Errant
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Age: 35
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Quote:
He's very believable, particularly if you don't know any background on him. He's been getting a bit more wacky of late, so it's a bit easier to tell. Still, he plays the part of a complete right wing jingoistic idiot extremely well. If he just toned it down a little, and removed the openly comedic segments, it would be impossible to tell that it's satire. |
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2012-01-17, 19:35 | Link #2038 |
Gamilas Falls
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
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2009 is rather recent. and I'm under the impression Ron Paul wants to pull military forces out of those areas, thus the concept of Privateers. Judging from his stance on the military anyway.
Though again, those ships are not designed for that kind of work, and those are rather expensive assets. Hense the development of the Littoral Combat Ship. This is an expense that I assume Ron Paul would rather we didn't have. However a smaller number of these smaller ships should be able to do the job of the 20 or so odd larger warships currently involved in anti-piracy warfare.
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2012-01-17, 19:44 | Link #2039 |
Knight Errant
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Age: 35
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I think the idea should be to keep 1 or 2 large ships in a central location, that can quickly come in if necessary, but do the majority of the patrolling with coast guard sized boats, with a decent level of small arms ordinance.
Somalia is the new Barbary coast. The americans defeated Pirates once before... |
2012-01-17, 19:58 | Link #2040 | |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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Quote:
Nw, it's rather badly seen to sink ship on sight, especialy if they could be just some fishing boats.
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2012 elections, us elections |
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