I apologize for the snideness of my reply, since there is precedent for talk of politics being discouraged even though it's always open season on religion. It had slipped my mind.

However, re-reading Eliezer's original post, I interpret it as advice, not as a prohibition: "I'm not saying that I think Overcoming Bias should be apolitical, or even that we should adopt Wikipedia's ideal of the Neutral Point of View. But try to resist getting in those good, solid digs if you can possibly avoid it." I think my use of a political example here falls within those guidelines, particularly since I'm not a Republican or an Obama-basher and therefore conclude that I'm not trying to jab anybody other than the irrational.

As to the Wiki saying we have a gentleman's agreement not to discuss politics, I don't recall agreeing to that. I could easily have missed it; or this may be a case of wikiocracy (government by whomever edited the wiki last).

My interepretation is that "politics is the mind-killer" it's up to the discretion of the poster to post, and up to the discretion of everyone else to vote up or down. In this case, I wouldn't have posted at all if I were required to reframe everything to not refer to political events. I don't think the question of repayments to unemployed oil workers is a political flashpoint, and I don't know what you mean about spending a significant amount of the article on the political predicates.