The Government is the villain in Lee's lens, and the audience of about 8000 booed when President George Bush and Michael Brown, the former director of FEMA, were on screen. Chuckles and jeers erupted at three rapidly repeated shots of Bush saying "Brownie, you did a heck of a job."
While the film shows the raw power of the storm, it blames much of the tragedy on the failure of man-made levees and a negligent government response.
"What happened here was a criminal act, " Lee said.
A review in New Orleans' Times-Picayune criticised the film for focusing on the African-American experience and giving short shrift to white folks.
Lee said any reviewer who didn't see white faces must have slept through the film. Indeed, from a weeping disc jockey to an angry homeowner who said "Go f--- yourself, Mr Cheney" when waylaid by a vice-presidential photo op, white people in the film drew applause from the mostly black viewers.
Giving short shrift to white folks? Sure we all know how people in the south give all the white people such a hard time. Sure. Those homeless needy folks are not one "color" or another.
Kabul, Afghanistan (AHN) - In the bloodiest clash between NATO + Afghanistan's forces and Taliban-connected militants, 72 insurgents were killed in Southern Afghanistan's province of Kandahar on Saturday.
The provincial police official confirmed Sunday that they have recovered 72 bodies of insurgents.
Four policemen were also killed in this clash, which erupted on Saturday when hundreds of Taliban insurgents attacked the district government headquarters, he further informed.
Afghanistan is going through a rise of Taliban insurgent's violence this year, during which over 1,800 people have been killed.
Also, more than 80 soldiers of coalition forces, mostly Americans, were killed in several clashes from the beginning of this year.
One, I thought we did not "do" body counts. When they start counting bodies and reporting those numbers they are trying to create a feeling of "we are winning" see how many we have killed?
Two, I never heard the "Taliban" described as "insurgents"?
I thought the Taliban were plain old terrorists and terrorist supporters? Would a Taliban insurgent be fighting against the Taliban?
The debate is over: By any definition, Iraq is in a state of civil war. Indeed, the only thing standing between Iraq and a descent into total Bosnia-like devastation is 135,000 U.S. troops -- and even they are merely slowing the fall. The internecine conflict could easily spiral into one that threatens not only Iraq but also its neighbors throughout the oil-rich Persian Gulf region with instability, turmoil and war.
A dire picture painted, indeed. One well predicted by individuals of many labels, including the Wush's own father, who fully well recognized the dangers of preceeding to Baghad in Gulf War I and Dick Cheney at the time. The behavior of this administration, considering the known risks involved in initiating conflict at a time of fragile peace can only be considered criminal. If the "what to do now" situation is so bleak as to be world (or at least regional) threatening - a matter of degree surely as regional conflict would disrupt world oil supply - the "how did we get here" question becomes all the more imperative, as surely we do not wish to repeat these mistakes in the future.
There is a great article by Joseph L. Galloway in our daily Sunday newspaper, "Vote 'em out if you are not pleased." He can be reached at jlgalloway2@cs.com or P.O. Box 399, Bayside, Texas 78340. Date of the article is August 20, 2006. It is a must read. I am going to type in Joseph L. Galloway and see if his name comes up and maybe the article, too.
Mr. Galloway's August 20, 2006 article is not in his email or website at this time. His articles are written in the Arizona Daily Star. I will see if I can read the article by typing in Arizona Daily Star.
Opinion
My opinion Joseph L. Galloway : White House, Congress slighting military
My opinion Joseph L. Galloway
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.20.2006
The last guy in the first of those eight-hour London airport security lines searching for mouthwash and hair gel bombs hadn't even gotten close to the point of throwing away everything but his passport and clothing when Republican congressional campaigners were forming a conga line to celebrate a splendid opportunity.
A splendid opportunity to scare the wits out of the American public one more time and, they hope, seize a November victory from the ashes of a well-deserved defeat. They were ready to thank God, the Devil or Osama bin Laden for the chance to paint the Democrats as weak on national security and hang on to absolute control of the public trough for two more years.
If they get away with it again, then there's proof that you can fool all the people most of the time.
The happy members of Congress weren't even around when the news arrived. They had left a lot of important business Ñ including the new defense budget to continue financing the unnecessary war in Iraq and the forgotten war in Afghanistan Ñ undone while they went home to campaign for a month or so.
That was surprising not so much for the jam they leave our soldiers and Marines in as the current fiscal year budget winds down Ñ that's as traditional as apple pie and thieving politicians. But they also left hanging the $14.9 billion worth of pork and payoffs they have so energetically larded into the defense budget for fiscal 2007.
They really were in a hurry to get home and convince folks of the great danger they are in, and how well the Republican administration and Congress have protected them; how much they care about our military men and women; and how much they deserve another term dipping into that river of taxpayer money.
And what have they left behind them?
They didn't provide enough money in the current budget to fight the wars, equip the military and fund the bases where those who wear the uniforms, and those who love them, live when they aren't off fighting.
So at bases like Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, the grass goes unmowed and the swimming pools aren't open and the Army in some places can't even pay the electric and water bills.
That's because the military, at such times, has to rob Peter to pay Paul. The money meant to pay for the small but important things like repairing family housing and running a recreation center for Army kids is siphoned off to pay for the wars.
There isn't nearly enough money to pay for the tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees that have been destroyed or worn out by unceasing duty on the battlefields 24/7.
There aren't enough troops in the ranks to staff all the brigades and divisions. So Peter is robbed in those areas of the budget as well.
The consequences are clear. The units leave their equipment behind in Iraq for their replacements to use. When they get home, they have to turn loose thousands of troops whose enlistments ended months before and who were press-ganged into another combat tour by what is known as "stop-loss," or involuntary service in an all-volunteer military.
Thousands of other troops are "cross-balanced" or transferred into other units headed back to Iraq or Afghanistan, filling up all those vacancies in those outfits.
All of this leaves our nation without a credible reserve force in case of emergencies elsewhere in the world, and it leaves those outfits just home from combat without either the equipment or the troops to train for their next combat tour.
That's how well this Congress and this administration have taken care of our military. They are grinding down equipment and troops and families without a care.
Shame on them for caring so little about those who give so much, including their precious lives, in defense of our country.
Shame on them for simultaneously making certain that hundreds of billions of defense dollars are diverted to the kind of high-dollar aircraft and naval vessels so beloved of the defense contracting industry, which happily fuels the campaign engines of the Republicans and happily provides post-retirement jobs for retired generals and admirals and, yes, out-of-office politicians.
If the latest airline terrorist thing scares you to death, and if you think this much more dangerous world we now have to live in requires a strong, competent, ready and well-equipped military to defend you, vote against the incumbents in Congress. All of them, no matter what party.
You will be safer without their kind of stewardship of national security and our military. A Congress full of rookies always takes a good while figuring out how to get their snouts deep in the right trough, and that's a good thing.
Throw them out in 2006 and again in 2008.
Happy Sunday indeed, to all Corn Squatters & visitors! More on the lengthy article linked by RS (#6), the article's focus is on the perils facing Iraq and its neighbors IF we stepped aside & allow a full-blown Civil War to breakout!
IT is a well-written but decidedly NOT an anti-Bush rehash! Future-oriented, NOT a strong suit of Cornuts or Mr. Corn himself!
I bring you the last parts of this article!
6 RS
What Next?
By Daniel L. Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack
The Washington Post
Sunday 20 August 2006
......requires Americans to endure significant long-term costs -- both in blood and treasure -- in Iraq. The United States would still need to deploy tens of thousands of troops to the nation (albeit on its periphery), as well as supplies to feed and care for hundreds of thousands of refugees. The United States would still occupy parts of Iraq, and the U.S. presence would remain a recruiting poster for the jihadist movement. Finally, all of these costs would have to be endured for as long as the war rages; recall that refugees from the wars in Afghanistan lived away from their homes for more than 20 years.
* * *
No country in recent history has successfully managed the spillovers from a full-blown civil war;......Israel's 1982 invasion was also a bid to end the Lebanese civil war after its previous efforts to contain it had failed, and when this also failed, Jerusalem tried to go back to managing spillover. By 2000, it was clear that this was again ineffective and so Israel pulled out of Lebanon altogether.
Withdrawing from Lebanon was smart for Israel for many reasons, but it did not end its Lebanon problem -- as the latest conflict showed all too clearly. In the Balkans, the United States and its NATO allies realized that it was impossible to manage the Bosnian or Kosovar civil wars and so in both cases they employed coercion -- including the deployment of massive ground forces -- to bring them to an end.
....How Iraq got to this point is now an issue for historians (and perhaps for voters in 2008); what matters today is how to move forward and prepare for the tremendous risks an Iraqi civil war poses for this critical region. The outbreak of a large-scale civil conflict would not relieve us of our responsibilities in Iraq; in fact, it could multiply them. Unfortunately, in the Middle East, one should never assume that the situation can't get worse. It always can -- and usually does.
Daniel L. Byman is director of Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies. Kenneth M. Pollack is research director at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution
Posted by: Happy Sunday
at August 20, 2006 12:39 PM
14
If the latest airline terrorist thing scares you to death, and if you think this much more dangerous world we now have to live in requires a strong, competent, ready and well-equipped military to defend you, vote against the incumbents in Congress. All of them, no matter what party.
You will be safer without their kind of stewardship of national security and our military. A Congress full of rookies always takes a good while figuring out how to get their snouts deep in the right trough, and that's a good thing.
Throw them out in 2006 and again in 2008.
Mr. Happy ignores the point of my commentary, which was to point out the very crimainal folly of initiating this conflict, regardless of the "what to do now" aspect.
I can disagree with the ultimate conclusion of the article or not, my point was that even those who disagree with "what to do now" can agree that where we are is in a mess - a qWagmire with an author who should be held criminally responsible.
I would feel safer and more secure if our elections weren't rigged.
Cornposters and Nazi trolls, there can never be complete safety and security in our mortal world. We will be safe and secure when we rest our head on the shoulder of Jesus Christ in our immortal world. Jesus is our safety and security.
16
Mr. Happy.....my point was that even those who disagree with "what to do now" can agree that where we are is in a mess....
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 12:45 PM
===============================================
You prove my point quite aptly of the Left's focus on the past and the rush for `accountability'! I agree that "where we are is in a mess"! The key differences are:
1) Most Conservatives (me too) have yet to throw in the towel. Most Cornuts (you too) know by now that I'm future focused.....unless you are very different from me, I can't change the past but I CAN influence the future in my tiny HAPPY ways!
2) Most Conseratives remember the aftermath of Vietnam after an almost 10 year period of active war! It wasn't pretty for our country; and incidently, diseasterous for your Party.
3) An immediate pullout or announced schedule of pullouts will absolutely be a propaganda victory for our fanatical Islamist enemies! It happened to Israel after Gaza and now, Lebanon (again)!
I'll bring more cheery news in moments!
Posted by: Happy to RS
at August 20, 2006 01:05 PM
21
Insurgent attacks have become part of daily life in some sections of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The last few months have exceeded the peaks of violence ahead of national elections in January 2005 and the referendum on the constitution in October 2005.
Although about 80% of insurgent attacks are targeted against coalition forces, the Iraqi population suffers about 80% of all casualties, according to US officials in late 2005. - Source BBC News
********************************
If 80% of attacks are targeting the so-called coalition forces (does that include Blackwater and Dyncorps types?) would the violence decrease by 80% by our leaving....?
Is violence measured in attacks or casualties?
Are there other forces, Arab League or whatever, that might replace the so-called coalition forces, where we to exit, indeed could more regional forces act as a more efficient peacekeeping structure, being more attuned to Arab culture?
Are we to disregard the statements of al-Maliki, the so-called Prime Minister, who claims that Iraqi forces are up to the Iraqi security tasks? Is that the democracy we brought to the region?
America was behind all of this tampering with the fate of nations. The U.S. has not come to the region to serve nations but to deal with them as though they were things to experiment with. The recent crisis of the Lebanese people and the flagrant attacks by the Zionists - destroying and killing children and women - left the U.S. administration hardly moved.
Rather, the United States was the one standing in the way of the U.N. Security Council, so that there could be more destruction and killing. Where is the humanitarian and civilized face of the U.S.A. and the West? Generally speaking, why are all these "negatives" attached to Islam, while it stands innocent of all these obscenities.
Thank you, Arab Times!!! We need more honest comments about our devil incarnate nation coming from the Arab world!!!
Make no mistake Nazi America has a monopoly on evil!!!
A `balanced' opinion/perspective below! I took the liberty & left out the `Bad News' that Mr. Peters listed....Cornuts can recite them by heart!
MOMENT OF TRUTH
ISLAMO-FASCIST TERROR COULD TRIGGER A BRUTAL
WESTERN RESPONSE
By: Ralph Peters
August 20, 2006 -- IN the wake of Israel's strategic setback in Lebanon, where's the Middle East headed? (Hint: The road sign doesn't read "Age of Aquarius").
Powerful emotions intoxicate all sides. In the Middle East, only the Israelis have intellectual and moral integrity. Arabs and Persians rely on a culture of blame. The media obscure as much as they illumine.
So what should truly concern us? Bad news first.
.......
So what on earth might give us cause for hope?
* Israel's recent defeat, for one thing. Yes, you read that right. The truth is that Israel got a relatively cheap, if embarrassing, wake-up call.....means that Israel doesn't just wallow in blame - like Americans, Israelis figure out what went wrong and then fix it.....Israel will re-emerge with a renewed sense of mission, a stronger government and a powerfully reformed military - the next time the IDF goes to war, watch the way it devastates its enemies.
* The "unity of Muslims" confronting the West is history.....Sunni-Arab leaders increasingly grasp that the real threat isn't from the United States or Israel, but from the explosion of Shia ambitions, prowess, wealth and desire for vengeance. The future of the Middle East could go a number of ways, but we may find ourselves as bemused spectators, while our sworn enemies and phony friends kill each other. Afterward, we'll pick up the pieces.
* Iraq still could muddle through - but even if it doesn't, our stock in the region is headed up, not down. The paradox is that a future civil war between Iraq's Sunnis and Shias makes our military protection more essential than ever to the effete Gulf emirates and the cowardly Saudis. Avoid linear analysis and reflexive predictions of doom for American interests: The Middle East will always do more harm to its natives than it does to foreign powers. Human beings may hate a distant enemy in theory, but they generally prefer to kill their neighbors.
* Terrorist groups with global aspirations continue to pursue grand, counterproductive gestures rather than effective actions. Plots to blow up a series of airliners, lesser strikes on subways or trains in the West and even the eventual "big one" they'll pull off won't convince the West to surrender. Despite intermittent left-wing lunacy, our debates and disagreements are about how best to solve the problem - not how to capitulate. Bit by bit, the Western mood is turning from disbelief regarding the "terrorist threat" to hard-knuckled realism about extremist Islam.....the Islamists are resurrecting a militant, ruthless West.
The florid American master of horror fiction, H. P. Lovecraft, warned his characters, "Do not raise up what ye cannot put down." Islamist terrorists are reviving the West's thirst for blood. And this time it won't be slaked in Flanders.
Things are going to get uglier east of Suez. And we're going to win.
You prove my point quite aptly of the Left's focus on the past and the rush for `accountability'! I agree that "where we are is in a mess"! The key differences are:
1) Most Conservatives (me too) have yet to throw in the towel. Most Cornuts (you too) know by now that I'm future focused.....unless you are very different from me, I can't change the past but I CAN influence the future in my tiny HAPPY ways!
True to the point about my wishing to hold those responsible for initiating criminal warfare to task. The mess we are in is more the reason to do so, and more that it is correct for it to be illegal to initiate such conflict. This is future focused as it is a deterrent to future conflicts.
2) Most Conseratives remember the aftermath of Vietnam after an almost 10 year period of active war! It wasn't pretty for our country; and incidently, diseasterous for your Party.
It was far prettier after the war than during the war, unless you like 58,000 body bags returning. And before you bring up the disaster in Cambodia, let me remind you of how we precipatated the coup of Prince Sihanouk...
3) An immediate pullout or announced schedule of pullouts will absolutely be a propaganda victory for our fanatical Islamist enemies! It happened to Israel after Gaza and now, Lebanon (again)!
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon was itself the worst self-inflicted propaganda defeat I have witnessed, and now Hezbollah is showing that it can rebuild Lebanon far more effeciently than we can New Orleans...
Here is my recent article to the Catholic News Service.
Dear Editor: On page 6 of the August 18, 2006 edition of the Catholic News Service there are two great articles, one by Tony Magliano, "Give peace a chance" and the second by Douglas W. Kmiec, "We need a way to stop wars." From these two articles I would like to mention the quotations from various sources. In conclusion of my letter I will add another quote.
In "Give peace a chance" Mr. Magliano quotes Pope Benedict XVI, "neither terrorist acts nor reprisals can be justified, especially when there are tragic consequences for the civilian population." Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir says, "It seems that the world has lost its peacemakers. It is more desirable to fight and wage war than to make peace." When John Paul II was pope, he said, "war is a defeat for humanity."
In "We need a way to stop wars" Mr. Kmiec says that the Church "condemns both the terrorist attacks on the one side and the military reprisals on the other." Church leaders are plainspoken: Israel's right to self-defense "does not exempt it from respecting the norms of international law, especially as regards the protection of civilian populations." He concludes his article that "all citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war."
In the early 1970s I had a chance to talk to an owner of a job shop. After showing me around his shop we sat in his office and he said, "war is outmoded. It creates more problems than it resolves problems. Maybe I 200 years we will be mature enough to understand that fact." I believe that he was absolutely right. Our world leaders and their citizens are not mature enough to realize that war is outmoded. No mature person would choose war over peace. Sincerely, Gerald
Gerald #11
Thank you for the article. The Republicans are running scared which is why they have nothing left but to peddle fear. Terrorism is real but we have nothing to fear. We have to get smarter much as the rest of the world has done. It would also be smarter to use more diplomacy around the world instead of militarism.
W/your response on #1, let me use football for analogy (Go Horns! & Texans!). I don't remember a coach (or QB) EVER BEING FIRED in the middle of a Game! When a coach (or QB) is fired/released before a season ends, it usually (not 100%) signals that organization has GIVEN UP on the season! While the Left can't literally `fire' Bushco,...well, you get my meaning!
Your response to #2 is way below what I associate you with! Let me just leave it at that!
As for #3, Israel's propaganda loss is perhaps "self-inflicted", as you point out, which is why the soul-searching in Israel today. But you didn't address the very real propaganda issue of the Israeli pullout from Gaza! Secondly, you are way, way too quick to give `credit' to Hezbo, NO? There are still bodies to be found and buried, I think!
Posted by: Happy replies
at August 20, 2006 01:45 PM
30
W/your response on #1, let me use football for analogy (Go Horns! & Texans!). I don't remember a coach (or QB) EVER BEING FIRED in the middle of a Game! When a coach (or QB) is fired/released before a season ends, it usually (not 100%) signals that organization has GIVEN UP on the season! While the Left can't literally `fire' Bushco,...well, you get my meaning!
I can remember plenty of QBs getting pulled for the #2 guy during a game - and it is 3 seasons now in Iraq without sacking the coach - Don Rumsfeld, just to play in your metaphor.
Your response to #2 is way below what I associate you with! Let me just leave it at that!
The history is long and convoluted - surely I could take exception to the actions of both major parties in the 50's to the present. What you call my party, I call the lesser of two evils party, both are Global Corporatist in nature.
As for #3, Israel's propaganda loss is perhaps "self-inflicted", as you point out, which is why the soul-searching in Israel today. But you didn't address the very real propaganda issue of the Israeli pullout from Gaza! Secondly, you are way, way too quick to give `credit' to Hezbo, NO? There are still bodies to be found and buried, I think!
Self-inflicted, and egged on by the neo-cons besides. I try to point out the disturbing issue of the Abramoff types and their contributions to settlements in the Occupied Areas of the West Bank which have consistently been an irritant in the Palestinian Peace process.
#28 Joe, I do have one fear and that is our rigged elections. This 2006 election will be corrupted by rigged electonic voting machines. It is going to be a nasty spectacle on November 7. We will be visiting our son and I will be crying at the results of the election.
While I don't doubt that some man-induced Global Warming is occurring, I seriously doubt the Doom & Gloomers' `Predictions' of our imminent demise (due to man)!
2006 Tropical Storm Season Now Below Normal
From WeatherStreet.com
21 August 2006
What a difference a year makes. After the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the 2006 season is now below normal.
.....In the hurricane category, this year is decidedly below normal, with no hurricanes so far, while by this date 1.5 hurricanes have formed in the average of years 1944 though 2005.
Reason for the Season?: Cooler Sea Surface Temperatures Part of the reason for the slow season is that tropical western Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are running about normal, if not slightly below normal (see graphic below, which shows SST departures from normal).
In contrast, at the same time last year SSTs in the same region were running well above normal.
The cooler SSTs in the Atlantic are not an isolated anomaly. In a research paper being published next month in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists will show that between 2003 and 2005, globally averaged temperatures in the upper ocean cooled rather dramatically, effectively erasing 20% of the warming that occurred over the previous 48 years.
Global Warming? The slow hurricane season and the cooling sea surface temperatures might be somewhat surprising to the public. Media reports over the last year have suggested that, since global warming will only get worse, and last year's hurricane activity was supposedly due to global warming, this season might well be as bad as last season. But it appears that Mother Nature might have other plans.
The Rest of the Hurricane Season
With only 3 named storms compared to 9 on this date last year, it is nearly impossible at this late date to have a season anywhere near as busy as last season, which totaled 27 by the end of the year. The most recent prediction from the National Weather Service (see first graphic, above) is for there to be 12 to 15 named storms by December -- only half of last year's total. It now looks like that prediction might be too generous.
Well it would take GW raping one of these trolls grandmother before they would admit that he is anything but a saint. No problems the disaster that he is leaving behind will be plenty for them to digest when it becomes clear that the repugs have been in charge of the government for six years and done absolutely nothing other than involve us in an illegal war, devastate a soverign nation, bankrupt the economy, usurp our rights and give his cronies unfettered access to the american bank account. Anything else? Oh yeah, spying on it's citizens without a warrant, indefinite imprisonment on the word of the coward in chief,among other things. Yep, criminal is all that they are nothing more, even less, and the toll just goes higher. Any insurgent that they kill is an insurgent but that is their only definition any dead body on the battlefield is an insurgent. And still the trolls don't get it, nothing is going to change until the idiots in DC are thrown out of office and into a prison.
Posted by: What the F**k
at August 20, 2006 03:08 PM
An elderly woman grieves in front of a house destroyed by typhoon Saomai at the Qianzhang Village on August 13, 2006 in Cangnan County of Zhejiang Province, China. The death toll from typhoon Saomai, the strongest storm to strike China in 50 years, has reached 214, according to state media. (China Photos/Getty Images)
As China continues to clean-up after the latest "super typhoon", the worst in over 50 years, scientists are pointing to increasingly unusual weather patterns in the country.
Typhoon Saomai bore down on Zhejiang and Fujian provinces last Thursday August 10 forcing the evacuation of 1.7 million people and destroying more than 50,000 homes, according to official figures.
This is an open letter on If I Was President.
1. I would carry on more dialogue and less talk of shock and awe or nuclear destructions.
2. I would see to it that our troops would have the equipment to fight a war but I would not start a war.
3. Loved ones like wife and children would have decent house, schools, and recreational areas.
4. Our troops would be well paid and if they are killed or maimed their loved ones would receive full military pay of their husbands. If they had children money would set aside for financial aid to go to college or a trade school until the sons and/or daughters were 25 years old. Medical plan would the same as the Congressional medical plan or even better.
5. Every time Congress receives an increase in salary, the minimum wage would increase and so would the increase in soldiersÕ salary or for their loved ones if the soldier was killed or maimed in the military service.
6. I would have a mothers committee of no more than twenty mothers to give recommendations about going to war or not going to war.
7. I would have Cindy Sheehan and Karen Kwiatkowski as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense respectively.
8. I would eliminate the Supreme Court because they are irrelevant. States have their Supreme Court and they are closer to the people; plus, the justices have to run for an elected position.
9. Congress would be given more say in passing laws.
10. I would tax the rich more because they have the most to lose.
11. If the military draft would be reinstated, the sons and daughters of the rich would be drafted first.
12. All athletic contests would be stopped in time of war because overprice athletes should also sacrifice.
13. I would eliminate financial television and radio stations in time of war because I have heard too much talk about is war good for the economy.
14. The Supreme Court building would be renovated into a museum for the holocaust victims of Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine.
15. I would match the money that is given to Israel with Arab countries but not Saudi Arabia.
16. I would eliminate offshore tax shelters for the rich and for corporations.
17. I would tax religious organizations like those of Falwell, Robertson, Hagee, and Dobson.
18. Corporations with rigged electronic voting machines would be tried for treason.
19. I would work closely with countries and governments so they would improve the quality of life for all their citizens.
20. CEO salaries would be similar to the CEO salaries in Japan.
21. Our beautiful environment will be protected and a quality education will be available for all students, K-12 grades. Higher education and trade schools would be affordable for all students.
22. Employers who hire illegal immigrants would be fined heavily, such as $250,000 per illegal immigrant. Employers would also receive a jail sentence of one year per illegal immigrant.
23. I would put Christ back into the word Christianity. I would not be afraid to say the word Jesus because it might offend someone. People who came to the White House during Christmas would be able to see the Christ child in plain view and not given an obscure setting. Our soldiers in Saudi Arabia would be permitted to show the Cross on Saudi soil.
These are some things that I would do If I Was President.
AUSTIN, Texas Ñ Chanting "Try Rove for treason," Cindy Sheehan and more than 50 other war protesters disrupted a reception before President Bush's top adviser Karl Rove spoke at a fundraiser Saturday.
One woman was arrested during a scuffle with police after Sheehan and the anti-war demonstrators rushed toward the closed doors and kept chanting loudly after the guests went into the dinner.
---
---
One protester slipped inside the ballroom during the dinner but was escorted out after shouting about men and women dying, the Austin American-Statesman reported in its Sunday editions.
"Pat, did you get her check before she left?" Rove quipped to the GOP group's executive director, Pat Robbins, as the crowd of 300 laughed, the newspaper reported.
---
---
Earlier Saturday, the group of more than 70 gathered at the hotel entrance, carrying a large banner that read, "Rove: Guilty of crimes against humanity." Ann Wright, a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in 2003 in protest over the war, yelled through a bullhorn, "Karl Rove, you are a criminal!"
"My plan is to appoint the best people I can find, get out of the way and let them work ... people whose only agenda is to do the right thing for the people of Texas.I really believe that musicians can better run this state than politicians."
` Kinky Friedman ` Independant candidate for gov. of Texas
FORT WORTH, Texas Ñ Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman on Friday reiterated his top pick to implement his energy plan that emphasizes renewable sources: Willie Nelson.
Friedman said the country singer/songwriter and benefactor of biodiesel was a natural choice to lead a state energy department or commission, which he wants to create. He also said Nelson "would never have his hand in Texas' pocket."
24. I would encourage Israel to be the Light to the World. I would also encourage the Palestinians to work closely with Israel because they could transform their land in a similar way to be beautiful. I would also hope that Lebanon could again be the Paris of the Middle East.
Kinky Friedman just might win with that many on the playing field. Smart move on his part, too, to make his Willie Nelson announcment this far out. I hope Willie has agreed to this position so Kinky doesn't wear egg on his face, in addition to his ever-present cigar.
You prove my point quite aptly of the Left's focus on the past and the rush for `accountability'! I agree that "where we are is in a mess"!
Posted by: Happy to RS at August 20, 2006 01:05 PM
Happy's view of the world includes the "Left's . . . rush for accountability" which raises the question: At what pace should we expect accountibility in government?
Should we resasonable expect accountability with a Repug president and repub congress or is that rushing accountability?
It's been six years and it can be argued, the executive and congress act with no accountability. Should Americans be more patient?
How about after the midterms, should we expect some accountability then or would the lame-brain right still claim the Left is rushing accountability?
Rnc Chairman ken Melman came out with a new talking point this week "Adapt to win." nobody jumped on board. other republicains even Fox news. Ask yourself why. i have my thoughts Whats yours?
Posted by: Happy replies at August 20, 2006 01:45 PM
Ever noticed the professional atheletes who refer to themselves in the third person diring intervires? Tom, what did it feel like to hit the walk-off homer? Well, first, I owe it all to god, second Tom always tries to win for his team. Third. Tom's family is the mos important part of Tom's life. Thank you all.
It's one war, stupid
Michael Goodwin
New York Daily News
August 20, 2006
......the evolving position of the Democratic Party. The goal is to separate Iraq from worldwide Islamic terrorism in the minds of American voters. As public support for Iraq keeps falling, Dems are getting bolder in saying Iraq is an irrelevant distraction.
If enough people believe them, the party can call for withdrawing our troops from Iraq without appearing soft on terror. Some, like Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, are already there, and others are moving that way. Soon the party's position will be: We're not against the war on terror, only against the war in Iraq!
.....Policy-wise, it's a disaster. It is patently ridiculous to argue that Iraq has nothing to do with the war against Islamic terrorists. There are many fronts in World War III. Each is distinct, yet they are all related because the enemy has the same roots and often the same sponsors.
Israel's fight against Hezbollah proves the point. Its failure to land a knockout punch instantly emboldened Hezbollah and its sponsors, Syria and Iran.
So it is in Iraq. Our failure there would strengthen terror groups everywhere and give Iran and Syria more reason to make more mischief.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair put it brilliantly recently, saying the fight against Islamic terror is a "global fight about global values." He linked disparate groups in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya and Africa in "an arc of extremism."
"It doesn't always need structures and command centers or even explicit communication," Blair said of the enemy. "It knows what it thinks."
It knows what it thinks. That's the simple, straight truth. No parsing required
It has been years ago, but one of my favorite Willie Nelson interviews was when he was asked some questions about his new golf course. The question was "What is par for the course?" Willie answered "Anything I want it to be. One hole is a par 10 and I birdied the sucker yesterday." I am not sure about the 10 but I know it was a high number.
I have seen Willie in concert several times. The last time was in Charleston, WV 1983. I think he and Kinky would make a good team in Texas.
A few of my other favorite Texans include Jerry Jeff Walker and Elvin Bishop. Maybe they could also hold a post in the new government.
I second this sentiment and want to add that I'm getting tired of the anti-war folks who look down their noses at anyone who doesn't agree that OF COURSE the war is a "disaster" and that its getting worse over there by the day. They seem to think folks who don't agree with them are dupes or worse.
I say that they are the ones who have been duped. They have been duped into believing all the anti-war HYSTERIA being fomented by the left in this country. It was no different back in the early 70's with Vietnam. In fact, the anti-war f_ups are still with us, just a lot older (not wiser.)
Anti-war types can be categorized any number of ways, but they have one thing in common: They are all ARMCHAIR QUARTERBACKS!
It's really disgusting at times to read or listen to them blather on about something they only know about by reading liberal rags. They are all EXPERTS! They are so cock-sure that they KNOW all there is to know about why the war is a dismal failure. Hell, they are so damn smart that they KNOW if a Democrat would have been in the White House none of this would have happened.
God, this is a Great Country! Anybody remotely with a `Name', wants some publicity and can talk some folks from throwing some money away, can run for office! This is NOT a slam against Kinky!
40
Kinky backs Willie (Nelson) as Texas energy czar
FORT WORTH, Texas - Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman on Friday reiterated his top pick to implement his energy plan that emphasizes renewable sources: Willie Nelson.
Friedman said the singer/songwriter...."would never have his hand in Texas' pocket."
Posted by: Alan at August 20, 2006 04:46 PM
================================================
Well, Willie DID have, and may still do have, his hands in American taxpayers' pocket to the tune of $17 million unpaid IRS taxes.....back in 1990 when he filed bankruptcy!
All that `Energy' fighting the IRS, more than qualifies him for TX Energy Czar!
55
.....I'm getting tired of the anti-war folks.....
.....no different back in the early 70's with Vietnam. In fact, the anti-war f_ups are still with us, just a lot older (not wiser.)
Posted by: Tim at August 20, 2006 07:46 PM
===============================================
Tim, Brace yourself!
The Anti-War/America/Corporation/God/Israel bunch is counting on wearing a lot of folks out: the slightly Left & Right of Center working folks who don't have the luxury of time to absorb all that's going on and actually think about geo-Terror and politics!
History do repeat themselves and human beings, as a species, have proven incapable of learning fully from the past. I don't blame ourselves...I think that's just the way it is and very likley, will be for decades, if not hundreds more years, to come.
Financial history is the same! Dutch tulip bulb manias repeat themselves over and over and over.... Suckers born every milli-seconds!
Posted by: Happy to Tim
at August 20, 2006 08:22 PM
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History will not repeat, except in the grossest sense: see Jared Diamond's "Collapse" and understand what
Posted by: David B. Benson at August 20, 2006 08:28 PM
=============================================
I beg to differ! Our planet has gone through countless warming/cooling cylces! We maybe hastening the next warming cycle by a few decades and I just can't get excited about that...really, big deal!
Humans throughout its existence, has had resource problems of one kind or another....So far, we have been able to adopt and multiply (boy, have we)!
Who says we are destined to literally cover the earth and still continue our miracle-making to support such cover-the-earth population! Any number of things can wipe us, along with perhaps most mammals, off the face of the earth! Hopefully before such an event, humans will have established a sustainable space-head somewhere in the cosmos!
Posted by: Happy to DBB
at August 20, 2006 08:42 PM
63
"W/your response on #1, let me use football for analogy (Go Horns! & Texans!). I don't remember a coach (or QB) EVER BEING FIRED in the middle of a Game! When a coach (or QB) is fired/released before a season ends, it usually (not 100%) signals that organization has GIVEN UP on the season!"
1978, early July, the Yankees are 8 games out. Billy Martin makes an ass of himself for the millionth time and gets fired in late July. The Yankees fire Billy and hire Bob Lemon(?) and go on to win the World Series. A dedication to win at all costs means you don't run out the string on the season and reload in the offseason. Only losers resign themselves to failure in the interim. Changing quarterbacks mid-game can be an excellent idea. Do you remember a certain QB named Clint Longley and a certain game against the Redskins? Maybe a fauxTexan like you doesn't. I think the Cowboys won the Super Bowl that season. Care to give the analogy thing another try?
"Secondly, you are way, way too quick to give `credit' to Hezbo, NO? There are still bodies to be found and buried, I think!"
Posted by: Happy replies at August 20, 2006 01:45 PM
As long as Nasrallah is breathing and Hezbollah gets to reload and keep attacking Israel, it is a failure. The presumptive mission in Lebanon was to root out Hezbollah and obliterate it as a threat to Israel. Destroying buildings and killing a few only serves the terrorists' cause. The surviving Lebanese get "humanitarian" aid from Hezbollah and live to hate the Israelis even MORE.
Also, you mentioned earlier that I was on the Lamont bandwagon. Go back and reread my posts. I've only been pointing out that Republicans are lining up to decide which Dem will kick Republican ass in Connecticut. It is a phenomena with which I still haven't fully come to grips. As I said earlier, it does my heart good. Give to Joe Lieberman. I hear he only votes with the liberals 90% of the time and promises to caucus with them as a Dem if he gets reElected. What about the Republican candidate? Does he vote with the liberals 90% of the time? Donate to Joe Lieberman here.
Especially now that the Allen race is tightening up with his Macaca-head remarks. That could be the 6th race that does the trick. What does the Washington Post have to say about Allen? They are reporting: "Some high-level Republicans warn that if he's not careful, he may wind up branded as Bush without the brains."
Bush without the Brains! That's a quip worthy of my Thursday Night Funnies!!
Posted by: Pandemoniac
at August 20, 2006 08:42 PM
64
Timmiee, dude, I'm with ya man.
I am so tired of pacifist, kumbaya-singing losers like Buckley, Hagel, and the host of former-Generals and military brass of all ranks and affiliations (and other chickenhawks on the Right like Jonah Goldberg) ragging on Mr. Bush. And if another anti-war wuss comes out for the retirement of Field Marshal von Rumsfeld, I'm gonna puke:
Here are the words of a sensible moderate like Joe Lieberman in May 2004 on Rummy: "[I]t is neither sensible nor fair to force the resignation of the secretary of defense, who clearly retains the confidence of the commander in chief, in the midst of a war. . . . Secretary Rumsfeld's removal would delight foreign and domestic opponents of America's presence in Iraq."
I believe I speak for both of us when I say that if there's a lesson that we learned from the events of 9-11, it's that we cannot correct our failures. It only emboldens the terrorists. We have to fight them over there in Eye-raq, so that they only periodically hatch plots to attack America and bomb faraway places like Madrid, London and underdeveloped places in Indonesia. It is with a terrible heaviness in my heart that I read today:
Sen. Joe Lieberman on Sunday called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and backed an international conference to find a way out of the crisis in Iraq.
[...] "I think it's still time for new leadership at the Pentagon," he said on CBS's Face the Nation. Lieberman, an early supporter of the Iraq war, said he called for Rumsfeld to step down in 2003. "With all respect to Don Rumsfeld, who has done a grueling job for six years, we would benefit from new leadership to work with our military in Iraq," he told Bob Schieffer.
The nerve of a cheese-eater like Lieberman calling for the surrender, er um, retirement of Field Marshal von Rumsfeld then eating his words, only to spit them out again is galling, to say the least.
Posted by: Pandemoniac
at August 20, 2006 09:08 PM
65
Happy, the news only gets worse. After the killing of the one-legged Jordanian (Zman) in Iraq and the multiple terror plots hatched (?) and foiled, the GOP is losing its position in the hearts and minds of security moms. I guess they're tired of the deficits, corruption, and mendacity of the Conservatives. As I mentioned earlier, you myopic Conservatives have gotten yourself so wound up defending a Democrat that you've ceded the tight races like Chafee's. Chafee was ahead just a couple of months ago.
As with the Israel thing, I'm just trying to help your side out. But if you must: Contribute all you have to Joe Lieberman. Lamont trailed him by a million points in the primaries and somehow caught up and won. You need to give from the heart to make sure that Lamont doesn't pull off the upset in the general election. The future of our great country depends on it.
Posted by: Pandemoniac
at August 20, 2006 09:28 PM
66
Timmee, aren't you tired of all the bad news that the liberal press is practically manufacturing in Iraq? The one that gets me is the one about Iraq having to IMPORT fuel. Wasn't Iraq the second-largest supplier of oil for the US before we, you know, Rumsfeldized it? Those patriots and uber-Americans that can't take the lies from the liberal press should avert their eyes here: Iraq faces fuel crisis amid the violence Nation aims to boost imports to counter pipeline sabotage: "Iraqi officials announced plans to double the amount of money spent to import fuel to combat the country's worst oil and gasoline shortages in years."
Few have struck a nerve more than Scarborough, who questioned the president's intelligence on his show, "Scarborough Country." He showed a montage of clips of Bush's famously inarticulate verbal miscues and then explored with guests John Fund and Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. whether Bush is smart enough to be president. "While the country does not want a leader wallowing in the weeds, Scarborough concluded on the segment, "we do need a president who, I think, is intellectually curious." "And that is a big question," Scarborough said, "whether George W. Bush has the intellectual curiousness -- if that's a word -- to continue leading this country over the next couple of years." In a later telephone interview, Scarborough said he aired the segment because he kept hearing even fellow Republicans questioning Bush's capacity and leadership, particularly in Iraq. Like others, he said, he supported the war but now thinks it is time to find a way to get out. "A lot of conservatives are saying, 'Enough's enough,' " he said. Asked about the reaction to his program, he said, "The White House is not happy about it."
I'd say it's about time that you Conservatives took it easy on the President. He's your president too, after all.
Posted by: Pandemoniac
at August 20, 2006 09:48 PM
67
63
Self to RS: "W/your response on #1, let me use football....it usually (not 100%) signals...."
(Panty) "...A dedication to win at all costs means you don't run.....Care to give the analogy thing another try?"
The Yankees, to my recollection (not a big baseball fan even if Minute Maid Park is my `career'), has always been a Big Money team! They can buy pricy-but-great players off of losing teams at will! As for "another try", don't need to...covered that with "(not 100%)"! Exceptions are what give hope where hope is not `logical'!
Self to RS: "Secondly, you are way, way too quick to give `credit' to Hezbo, NO?"
Neither you, nor RS, dealt w/the heart of my `issue' of RS giving yet UNEARNED CREDIT to Hezbo! However, I won't argue your comments except to say (and which you know) that Israel misjudged the non-Shiite Lebanese' (lack of) `power of persuasion' to get Hezbo to back off and clear out of the south.
Lieberman: Schlesinger has less chance to win in Nov. than the Texans getting to the Super Bowel! No sense to throw money or time/energy away! For all CT non-Hard Left Dems and Indies, it's obvious who is the best qualified! For the GOP, also easy to go for the `lesser of two evils'! As Joe now campaigns and takes in contributions (with strings), I'll bet that he will vote something less than 90% Dem in his next term...He's free! When he wins, his national stature will be at a peak!
Lastly, I don't track the running/changing count of the `takeover' possibilities except in some general readings. My prediction is for GOP holding the Senate and quite possibly losing the House, let's call it 50/50! My `lottery' hope is something good (for all) happening before Nov. which will keep the House in GOP hands. But if we lose the House, 2 more years of nothingness out of DC! Lots of hearings but still NOT enough votes to censure/impeach!
David Corn, thank you for the consideration. We who are stuck with the primitive dial up are especially appreciative! I have a bit of good news. Towards the end of the Sierra season my husband and I head up into the mountains, one major goal is to pick up trash left by the "tourists" who don't seem to agree with the "pack it in, pack it out" philosophy. I am happy to report we only found two pieces of tin foil and a bright red mylar balloon, along with it's ribbon several hundred yards away, on our trek today. On a less positive note, someone thought it necessary to build two large fire rings 3 feet apart, in one of these we found a piece of foil. In the past we have hauled out some very strange items, one being a large orange shag carpet remnant and one tent. Maybe people are learning a little respect for the wilderness? We will see what future forays reveal, but I am hopeful. DEN, bring your bike, we have some awesome trails to explore!
I have suspected a trend all summer. Look at Bush's approval ratings:
http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm
Start at the bottom of the chart and scroll upwards. Mostly 40s with scattered 30s. But then, at one point in time, it went to mostly 30s with only scattered 40s.
The date? 22 February 2006. The date of the Golden Shrine bombing, when people began to realize that we were in the middle of a civil war.
Just a theory.
The approval ratings would rise into the 40s after 22 Feb, but only after weeks of going on the offensive, giving lots of speeches, putting all of the dogs out there. But it doesn't last. He seems not to be getting a bounce from the UK terror plot raids.
Bush's approval ratings seem to have a floor of about 33%. But, if things get worse, and the approval ratings hit the mid 20s, the Republicans are in BIG trouble...that is the same percentage of people who think that Elvis is still alive.
An epiphany? (Not in the Eastern church, Magi, religious sense of the word). But possibly in the intuitive grasp of reality sense of the word -- something usually simple and striking, like picking up your damned trash and being good stewards of the Earth.
"The Yankees, to my recollection ..., has always been a Big Money team! They can buy pricy-but-great players off of losing teams at will!"
Thanks for conceding my point. On the world stage, we are the Yankees, the biggest of the big money teams. We shouldn't have to settle for half-assed management in the War Dept. Wouldn't you rather be kicking ass and taking names in the middle east rather than hoping and praying that we can just ride out "the rest of the season" and wondering if things will get worse? This isn't a game we're talking about afterall.
Try this scenario out (I've gone over it a few times with my Conservative pals here in San Antonio). What if we never went into Iraq; but instead, we went along the Litani River and cut off the escape of Hezbollah while the Israelis cut off flight into Syria? Instead of going door to door in Sadr City or Ramadi and driving over IEDs in Fallujah, we strangled Hezbollah in its nest? No more rockets into Haifa. No more Nasrallah to taunt Olmert. Payback for the barracks bombing to boot. Bring in the UN to wipe up the blood of the dead terrorists and to provide real humanitarian aid (bringing an end to the "hearts and minds" campaign of the Terrorists). Not so many refugees or dead civilians because it would be a ground-based invasion rather than an aerial attack (like the Israelis did). And no disruption to the flow of oil from Iraq (ergo lower inflation, lower energy prices and an economy that middle and lower class Americans would be less grumpy about).
That would be two exterminations (Afghanistan and Lebanon). We could turn to Damascus, Tehran and Baghdad (or NK) and ask, "who wants next?" Neither of them would know where we were or where we were going. We wouldn't be bogged down, isolated or limited in any way to deal with the rest of the crazies.
I know. I sound like a blood thirsty warmonger, wanting to fight them over there rather than fight them over here. It's not like that. It's doing what Wes Clark told Richard Perle many moons ago. We have to learn to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Lebanon is a smaller mission compared to Iraq with fewer complications. And as Sun Tsu says, the most excellent form of victory on the battlefield is the victory of the sheathed sword. After cleaning up Lebanon and Afghanistan, the Islamoclowns would take our saber-rattling seriously. As it is, it's harder to tell who the bigger clown is, Rumsfeld, Nasrallah or Olmert. We're the laughingstock of the middle east.
Joe voting less than 90 percent with the liberals after he gets elected? He's already trying to lynch Rumsfeld. He's already pandering to the war critics. He's even talking about exit strategies. Shouldn't he be going further to the right to cater to his new base? Looks like you've been had. You'd think a bought and paid for politician like Joe the Ho would know which side his bread was buttered.
Me? I don't take this whole Dem takeover of Congress too seriously. I think it's mostly baloney. It's good for laughs, but as badly as the GOP has screwed this country (domestically and on the international stage), it's getting harder and harder to keep the sense of humor.
Posted by: Pandemoniac
at August 20, 2006 11:28 PM
72
Saladin, I really appreciate that you are concerned about the health of your local, natural environment. It's good news for all of us when we get involved at the local, regional level. In my lovely part of this country, my husband and I are helping with the Centennial 2013 Connections projects -- celebrating the 100th anniversary of the state parks system in Washington State.
Today we helped with the "heron hut" project at one of our favorite state parks. Great day.
There are those who differ with George Bush's goals and aspirations, others like me who differ with his abilities.
As I have said before, I think he is a fine, decent man who is simply incapable of being president. Unlike both Reagan and Clinton, both of whom were successful presidents, W has never been molded by any fitful events in his life like Depression or rampant alcoholism in the family.
He has never had to make a tough decision, and he should have fired Rumsfeld and the generals, a la Lincoln, when the Iraqi war became bogged down. He should have called for another 200,000 troops to quell the insurgencies.
But he has always lead a soft life, and is unprepared to make tough decisions. Jack Welch was absolutely ruthless at GE in firing incompetent/underperforming managers, but he turned that company into one of the great success stories. W needed to have the same attitude, but he flinched at the most important time.
In all probability, he has cost his party the mid-term elections; the outcome of two years hence is still problematic.
Posted by: factchecker
at August 20, 2006 11:43 PM
74
The Anti-War/America/Corporation/God/Israel bunch is counting on wearing a lot of folks out: the slightly Left & Right of Center working folks who don't have the luxury of time to absorb all that's going on and actually think about geo-Terror and politics!
Look, I try to scroll past your idiocy as much as possible but...what does this mean? It's incomprehensible. Do other people understand you when you speak to them? Or do they cock their heads and squint their eyes at you, kind of like the way my yellow Lab, Daisy, does when she's trying to figure something out?
Of course, Daisy knows more about "geo-Terror and politics" than you do. Conversation with her is much more enlightening.
In all probability, he has cost his party the mid-term elections; the outcome of two years hence is still problematic.
Whoa! factchecker feelin' the reality!
Now, of course, as Digby always points out, it will be Bush who has failed conservatism, and not conservatism (or at least contemporary conservatism) that has failed.
Or do they cock their heads and squint their eyes at you...
Haha His words and train of thought effect me the same way. I usually have no idea what he's trying to say. I couldn't put it in words as good as you tho.
Hey fella, GWB was a raging drunk himself, so where do you get off saying W has never been molded by any fitful events in his life like Depression or rampant alcoholism in the family
If that is Depression with a capital "D" okay. But GWB is DEPRESSED. That's one of the things that makes him so ineffective and incompetent, because his depression has never been addressed properly. He's an alcoholic and there are rumors that Babs hits the G&Ts very early in the day.
Helps pass the biggest government entitlement program of all time (Medicare prescriptions)
Does nothing to defend our borders
Allows federal spending to explode without ever issuing a spending veto
Acquiesces to every earmark placed in front of you
Gets in bed with the libertine Ted Kennedy on federal aid to education
He is no conservative.
Posted by: factchecker
at August 21, 2006 12:06 AM
79
74
Self: "The Anti-War/America/Corporation/God/Israel bunch...."
DDDon: "Look, I try to scroll past your idiocy as much as possible but...what does this mean? It's incomprehensible. Do other people understand you when you speak to them?"
....Conversation with her is much more enlightening.
Posted by: Don at August 20, 2006 11:43 PM
==============================================
DDDon:
You are trying too hard to become the new "Corky"!
My "Anti-everthing" response was directed to Tim and as long he understands, I've communicated well enough!
If you wish to have direct conversations w/me, I will try my best to bring it DOWN to your level and be very, very, very deliberate and wordy!
As far as your having geo-conversations w/your dog, she is one lucky dog! Do you enjoy geo-sex w/her?
The "D"epression I addressed was the economic one in the 30's (Reagan), not the personal one. And the alcoholism I mentioned had to do with coping with others in the family (Clinton). Bush has had neither of those experiences.
As Socrates taught us, "The unexamined life is not worth living." I think W has lived the unexamined life.
And please believe me that "Babs" as you call her is the second coming of Margaret Thatcher. She is the iron fist in that family. I don't know if I've ever even see her with a drink in her hand.
Posted by: factchecker
at August 21, 2006 12:15 AM
81
78
....a president
He is no conservative.
Posted by: factchecker at August 21, 2006 12:06 AM
==============================================
Correct! At least NOT in the mold of our all-time favorite, the Gipper!
His waterloo was the Medicare Rx program! Cost so damn much and yet, the elderly didn't understand/appreciate it enough to back him, or at least, not oppose him, on SS Privatization!
In his PLUS column: His 9/11 response was tremendous! His tax cuts gave us the 5-year (and still going) long economic expansion!
Incomplete: Iraq, with outcome yet unknown!
He WAS soft on holding back increases in domestic spending but he does have balls to stick w/it on Iraq!
71 Panty
....We shouldn't have to settle for half-assed management in the War Dept....
I'm far more forgiving of people today than I was 10~20 years ago! The US fought the 1991 Gulf War w/spectacular success and that was bound to have influenced the 2003 version. Where the "management" went off the rail was not sending enough troop, IF the pre-invasion plan was to disband the Iraqi Army. The Iraqi Army (& Police) most certainly could've kept order and prevented widespread looting. The potential (now actual) Sectarian problems were probably NOT understood! As long as we are on a witch hunt, I still nominate Saddam for top honor! He had a second lease-on-life and blew it, for 12 years!
Panty: "I know. I sound like a blood thirsty warmonger, wanting to fight them over there rather than fight them over here."
Your war gaming was exciting to dream of! Frankly, I suspect we both recognize the dangers of Islamic fanatics; especially to our children's future! Given what has transpired with the wasted 30+day Hezbo/Israel War, I'm guessing, unless Hezbo get a grip on what's good for all people in the region, there will be a much more determinate war within ~5 years. For that War, Israel will not put fighting a `humane' war as a strategic priority!
Joe's campaigning message serves him, and perhaps the country, well! He is trying to peel away some of the Dems that are Anti-War but not nearly to the nutroos' level!
I don't know if you read or recall something I said way back....that I'm OK w/withdrawl from Iraq after giving them a reasonable amoount of time to get their shit together! Early next year, on the anniversary of their Unity election, I would tell them in no unceretain term and publicly, we could leave at anytime; but without being explicit on timetable. This will give us an honorable way out if they insist on killing each other and some of ours! If they don't see the light of a unified Iraq, our troops home by X'mas 07, except perhaps 10~20,000 in Bagdad (depends) where the international diplomats are!
Posted by: Happy to bed
at August 21, 2006 12:53 AM
84
A nation with an anesthetized conscience
Diary Entry by Populist Party
...Nine-eleven gave Bush the anesthetics to put the nation to sleep, to get the population ready to go under the knife. And while the long protracted botched-surgery seems to keep going on with no end in sight, the anesthesia seems as effective today as it was five years ago, without any indication that it's loosing any strength. How can we tell? ...
::::::::
Click Here for More Related Commentary
Athletes' performances today are outshining those of yesterday in just about every sport. Not in a gradual evolutionary way that could be logically explained, but in major leaps that make a mockery of past records, or statistical comparisons. Half of those people breaking records, or achieving prodigious results, are found to have done so thanks to performance enhancing "supplements" or drugs. while the other half simply managed not to get caught. Sport heroes and sport goats all sucking from the same illicit udder to achieve wealth and/or stardom.
And why are athletes caught "cheating" so adamant in declaring their innocence? Could it be that they resent being penalized for something "most everyone" is guilty of? It's not far-fetched to say their conscience is not telling them they're doing something wrong, so when they defend themselves they appear to do it with true conviction; which tells us they either lack a conscience. or their conscience is inoperative.
Somewhere between having a clear conscience and no conscience at all there seems to be a status that places morality in limbo, one that either freezes or anesthetizes our conscience. And, unfortunately, this status is not just one peculiar to fame seekers but the population at large; one that's prevalent in much of the materialistic and wasteful world - otherwise known as the "developed world" - one which particularly afflicts the United States. The Bush administration has apparently done a creditable job in anesthetizing the American conscience in preparation for surgical procedures that permit unchallenged expansion of the empire, internationally; and major socio-economic restructuring, nationally.
Nine-eleven gave Bush the anesthetics to put the nation to sleep, to get the population ready to go under the knife. And while the long protracted botched-surgery seems to keep going on with no end in sight, the anesthesia seems as effective today as it was five years ago, without any indication that it's loosing any strength. How can we tell?
All we need to do is evaluate what has happened during the last five weeks as the infra-structural mutilation of Lebanon was taking place, and innocent Lebanese were either becoming direct Israeli targets, or the now acceptable "collateral damage" in human terms. It was obvious from the start that most Americans were just as defensive of any criticism on Israel as the Israelis themselves. Of course, it was also obvious that the electronic media assumed much responsibility for that. For all the talked-about recent improvement in walking away from being a self-censored media, when it comes to the Star of David, it shines equally as bright as the fifty stars over the field of blue in our flag. It made little difference whether one was listening to hate-spewers at Fox, or was tuned-in to Wolf Blitzer and his comical "situation room" at CNN, or "progressive radio" with one of its principal commentators, Al Franken, stating in Air America that he is pro-Israel. Al, please. shouldn't neutrality render a far more progressive stand?
Americans have been told that Israel's actions were planned and executed with the unequivocal consent of the Bush administration. perhaps even a step beyond consent.
Yet, Americans could care less. It seemed ok to most that Lebanon would have to pay a price for not having neutralized Hezbollah and its stockpiles of katyusha rockets. This from people whose knowledge of the region and its problems is in most cases nil, or that could even identify the geographical location of the player-nations.
Lebanon has been devastated. but not Hezbollah, or its self-confidence. Israel will no longer be the feared adversary it once was. Not to Hamas, not to Hezbollah, not to all the Arab nations in the region, friend or foe, including Syria. And, definitely, not to Nasrallah. for the Wizard of Middle East Oz has been found out to have little more than a megaphone, notwithstanding the smart bombs and state-of-the-art weaponry provided by the United States. [Comment reserved as to Israel's nuclear arsenal.]
Lebanon was definitely a loser; as were Osmert and his war chief Halutz for not achieving their prewar objectives, and by default the Kadima Party in Israel. But perhaps the biggest loser of all was the United States. through Bush and his Motley crew; and an American Congress that has proven to be a collection of dolts.
There is another loser here: the Republican Party. The majority of Lebanese Americans I have known, the entrepreneurial type, have been for the most part conservative and, politically, Republican. Those that I have contacted during the past month would not vote for a GOP candidate today - even for dog catcher. That's how embittered they are.
But rest assured that things haven't changed at all. America remains a nation with an anesthetized conscience. And the next botched surgery that Bush is likely to perform on us is a shock-and-awe spectacle on another sovereign nation: Iran.
Written by Ben Tanosborn, (email - ben@tanosborn.com) who writes a weekly column at www.tanosborn.com and www.populistamerica.com
The Populist Party of America is a political party that seeks solutions to our problems through the establishment of a Constitutional Democracy and strict adherence to the Bill of Rights.
Guys,
the point that Don is making and you seem to be missing (and Don correct me if I'm missing something here) is that all of the things that you say make GWBush's presidency non-Conservative have been implemented (or expressly endorsed) by the GOP congress. This was your list, with minor adjustments:
~Pass the biggest government entitlement program of all time (Medicare prescriptions) ~Does nothing to defend our borders ~Allows federal spending to explode without ever issuing a spending veto ~Give birth to every earmark possible under the sun ~Gets in bed with the libertine Ted Kennedy on federal aid to education
So... are you saying that the Republicans in Congress aren't "conservative?" If Congressional reps aren't conservative and the president isn't conservative, where are these mythical conservatives of which you speak?
Posted by: Pandemoniac
at August 21, 2006 01:04 AM
86
He WAS soft on holding back increases in domestic spending but he does have balls to stick w/it on Iraq!
Stick with what? What is he sticking with on Iraq?
Explain your idiotic self. What are we sticking with in Iraq?
It is now time to start killing them in large quantities.
Posted by: factchecker at August 13, 2006 11:41 PM
Posted by: spy on this!
at August 21, 2006 01:56 AM
88
[...and Pan, you're right on the money as far as the point I was trying to make re: conservatives and conservatism. The word doesn't have the same definition anymore. Thankfully, the definition for liberal hasn't changed!]
Lured by huge checks handed out by the country's top lobbyists, members of Congress could soon strike a blow against Internet freedom as they seek to resolve the hot-button controversy over preserving "network neutrality." The telecommunications reform bill now moving through Congress threatens to be a major setback for those who hope that digital media can foster a more democratic society.
Posted by: spy on this!
at August 21, 2006 02:12 AM
90
micki, I have always been concerned about the health of the environment, both locally and worldwide, I grew up in Portland Oregon where conservation, as in all the great Northwest, is a priority. What would we have without our habitat?
It's health is the lifeblood of all living creatures, picking up the trash is the least we can do.
I am so curious as to why these so-called "republicans" insist on hanging out here on a blog called " bushlies." In all the months they've been posting no minds have been changed on either side. What do they expect to accomplish? Some say it is for humor, I guess I have missed the joke. I don't read right wing blogs for a laugh, honestly I find their rhetoric depressing when I run across it. Are they some kind of masochists? They moan and complain endlessly about the anti-bush sentiment but they keep coming back. What's up with that anyway?
Drop some acid, as in LCD, then wait a half an hour; then read the following post. It'll make sense.
Tim, Brace yourself!
The Anti-War/America/Corporation/God/Israel bunch is counting on wearing a lot of folks out: the slightly Left & Right of Center working folks who don't have the luxury of time to absorb all that's going on and actually think about geo-Terror and politics!
History do repeat themselves and human beings, as a species, have proven incapable of learning fully from the past. I don't blame ourselves...I think that's just the way it is and very likley, will be for decades, if not hundreds more years, to come.
Financial history is the same! Dutch tulip bulb manias repeat themselves over and over and over.... Suckers born every milli-seconds!
Posted by: Happy to Tim at August 20, 2006 08:22 PM
55 I second this sentiment and want to add that I'm getting tired of the anti-war folks
Posted by: Tim at August 20, 2006 07:46 PM
My heart goes out to you dude. . . right after my heart goes out to the american soldiers killed in Iraq, the 61,000 maimed now all home, and the 140,000 iraqi civilians.
The good news is there were no WMDs so we're safe from Saddam. The bad news is, we're still in Iraq and no one knows why.
Short but the posts (setting aside one or two) have been completely HIGH Quality!
You guys do rock!
I was going to clip the real good lines but there are too many! On a short thread that is awsome!
One of the most profound (IMHO):
"Now, of course, as Digby always points out, it will be Bush who has failed conservatism, and not conservatism (or at least contemporary conservatism) that has failed."
It is fun to talk about but even if (and that is a mighty big IF) the neocons manage to mess up on the vote stealing and disenfranchisement thing and IF November IS by some miracle a free and fair election, the idea of a major take-over is a pipe-dream. One would have to assume many of the mindless that vote for someone because they might like to have a beer with them have become educated or had some political epiphany. Not a bet I would be willing to make.
Too many delusional registered to vote. Too many potential Democrats not registered and too many willing to disenfranchise themselves out of dismay over the results of previous elections and the negative impact those elected have wrought.
The best thing we all can do is vote, encourage others to vote and make sure the nefarious vote stealing bastards HAVE to steal the election. To do otherwise just gives them the election.
One scary thought I have had is the MSM playing up the potential takeover as a ploy to further dishearten the progressives? To create an atmosphere of the infallibility of the Nazis . .er . .um . . neocons?
On Aug. 9 at the Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York's Central Park, Murtha appeared at a rally for Eric Massa, a retired Navy commander who's trying to unseat Rep. John "Randy" Kuhl, R-N.Y.
Massa said Murtha "couldn't speak, the applause and the standing ovation was so prolonged and intense. He speaks the truth. He's not deterred by critics. As the failures of the Bush administration in Iraq have become more obvious, his credibility has significantly increased."
Murtha said he was too old to consider running for president, but that he'd try to become majority leader if Democrats gained the 15 seats they needed to take charge of the House.
"I'm on a mission here, and the mission is to help change the direction of the country," he said.
Murtha doesn't think there are war-related grounds to impeach President Bush. But he likens Bush's weakened status to President Richard Nixon's in 1974 before Watergate forced him to resign.
"He lost all his power in that one year," recalled Murtha, who won his seat that year in a special election. "What a limitation there is on the power of a president, or any public official. When people lose confidence in that official, they have no power at all."
Murtha's outspokenness has made him a target. A North Carolina-based group called Vets for the Truth has launched a "Boot Murtha" campaign, inviting protesters to an Oct. 1 rally in Johnstown.
In all honesty I have taken issue with MurthaÕs readiness to support all or any military action. I am anti-war to my core and have been for many years. THAT is why MurthaÕs position on Iraq is more true and more sincere in my eyes, not less so.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, attacked by fellow Democrats as being too close to the White House on the Iraq War, on Sunday called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign but said the United States cannot "walk away" from the Iraqis.
Lieberman, the one-time Democratic vice presidential candidate, is running as an independent in his bid for a fourth term since losing the Democratic nomination to newcomer Ned Lamont, who harnessed voters' anger against the war in Iraq.
Lieberman, an early supporter of the Iraq war, said he had called for Rumsfeld to step down in 2003.
"With all respect to Don Rumsfeld, who has done a grueling job for six years, we would benefit from new leadership to work with our military in Iraq," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Lieberman said the Bush administration should have sent more troops into Iraq "to secure the country."
"We had a naive vision that the Iraqis were going to embrace us and then go on and live happily ever after," he said.
Lieberman said the administration must "put severe pressure on the Iraqis to contain sectarian violence."
"There is still hope in Iraq and as long as there is we cannot just pick up and walk away and leave them to the sure disaster that would follow and would compromise our security in the war on terrorism," he said.
The Lamont campaign issued a statement Sunday criticizing Lieberman for trying to "paint himself as courageous for clinging to the failed 'stay the course' policy in Iraq and not listening to the voters of Connecticut on the need to change course."
"His new found 'criticism' of the war won't convince Connecticut voters after so many years of stubbornly rubber-stamping Bush's failed policies," the statement said
The idea that HE wants Rummy's job is not lost in the muddled statements he makes. Seems like he is running for Indy Senator AND Sec. Defense at the same time - a familiar tact, eh?
Comments
Thanks!
Posted by: capt at August 20, 2006 11:41 AM
Bush the villain of Katrina film
The Government is the villain in Lee's lens, and the audience of about 8000 booed when President George Bush and Michael Brown, the former director of FEMA, were on screen. Chuckles and jeers erupted at three rapidly repeated shots of Bush saying "Brownie, you did a heck of a job."
While the film shows the raw power of the storm, it blames much of the tragedy on the failure of man-made levees and a negligent government response.
"What happened here was a criminal act, " Lee said.
A review in New Orleans' Times-Picayune criticised the film for focusing on the African-American experience and giving short shrift to white folks.
Lee said any reviewer who didn't see white faces must have slept through the film. Indeed, from a weeping disc jockey to an angry homeowner who said "Go f--- yourself, Mr Cheney" when waylaid by a vice-presidential photo op, white people in the film drew applause from the mostly black viewers.
More HERE
*****end of clip*****
Giving short shrift to white folks? Sure we all know how people in the south give all the white people such a hard time. Sure. Those homeless needy folks are not one "color" or another.
capt
Posted by: capt at August 20, 2006 11:48 AM
What are DIYers? Thank you for any help!!!
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 11:52 AM
Do it yourself - ers?
Posted by: capt at August 20, 2006 11:57 AM
72 Taliban Insurgents Killed In Afghanistan
Kabul, Afghanistan (AHN) - In the bloodiest clash between NATO + Afghanistan's forces and Taliban-connected militants, 72 insurgents were killed in Southern Afghanistan's province of Kandahar on Saturday.
The provincial police official confirmed Sunday that they have recovered 72 bodies of insurgents.
Four policemen were also killed in this clash, which erupted on Saturday when hundreds of Taliban insurgents attacked the district government headquarters, he further informed.
Afghanistan is going through a rise of Taliban insurgent's violence this year, during which over 1,800 people have been killed.
Also, more than 80 soldiers of coalition forces, mostly Americans, were killed in several clashes from the beginning of this year.
More HERE
*****end of clip*****
One, I thought we did not "do" body counts. When they start counting bodies and reporting those numbers they are trying to create a feeling of "we are winning" see how many we have killed?
Two, I never heard the "Taliban" described as "insurgents"?
I thought the Taliban were plain old terrorists and terrorist supporters? Would a Taliban insurgent be fighting against the Taliban?
capt
Posted by: capt at August 20, 2006 11:57 AM
What Next?
By Daniel L. Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack
The Washington Post
Sunday 20 August 2006
The debate is over: By any definition, Iraq is in a state of civil war. Indeed, the only thing standing between Iraq and a descent into total Bosnia-like devastation is 135,000 U.S. troops -- and even they are merely slowing the fall. The internecine conflict could easily spiral into one that threatens not only Iraq but also its neighbors throughout the oil-rich Persian Gulf region with instability, turmoil and war.
More.
***********************************
A dire picture painted, indeed. One well predicted by individuals of many labels, including the Wush's own father, who fully well recognized the dangers of preceeding to Baghad in Gulf War I and Dick Cheney at the time. The behavior of this administration, considering the known risks involved in initiating conflict at a time of fragile peace can only be considered criminal. If the "what to do now" situation is so bleak as to be world (or at least regional) threatening - a matter of degree surely as regional conflict would disrupt world oil supply - the "how did we get here" question becomes all the more imperative, as surely we do not wish to repeat these mistakes in the future.
Happy Sunday, world.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 12:04 PM
#4 capt, thank tou!
There is a great article by Joseph L. Galloway in our daily Sunday newspaper, "Vote 'em out if you are not pleased." He can be reached at jlgalloway2@cs.com or P.O. Box 399, Bayside, Texas 78340. Date of the article is August 20, 2006. It is a must read. I am going to type in Joseph L. Galloway and see if his name comes up and maybe the article, too.
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 12:21 PM
#6 Robert Schwartz, thank you for the post!
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 12:23 PM
RS,
I bet they are avoiding the "civil war" label until after they steal the midterms.
UGH!
capt
Posted by: capt at August 20, 2006 12:28 PM
Mr. Galloway's August 20, 2006 article is not in his email or website at this time. His articles are written in the Arizona Daily Star. I will see if I can read the article by typing in Arizona Daily Star.
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 12:29 PM
Here is Mr. Galloway's August 20, 2006 article.
Opinion
My opinion Joseph L. Galloway : White House, Congress slighting military
My opinion Joseph L. Galloway
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.20.2006
The last guy in the first of those eight-hour London airport security lines searching for mouthwash and hair gel bombs hadn't even gotten close to the point of throwing away everything but his passport and clothing when Republican congressional campaigners were forming a conga line to celebrate a splendid opportunity.
A splendid opportunity to scare the wits out of the American public one more time and, they hope, seize a November victory from the ashes of a well-deserved defeat. They were ready to thank God, the Devil or Osama bin Laden for the chance to paint the Democrats as weak on national security and hang on to absolute control of the public trough for two more years.
If they get away with it again, then there's proof that you can fool all the people most of the time.
The happy members of Congress weren't even around when the news arrived. They had left a lot of important business Ñ including the new defense budget to continue financing the unnecessary war in Iraq and the forgotten war in Afghanistan Ñ undone while they went home to campaign for a month or so.
That was surprising not so much for the jam they leave our soldiers and Marines in as the current fiscal year budget winds down Ñ that's as traditional as apple pie and thieving politicians. But they also left hanging the $14.9 billion worth of pork and payoffs they have so energetically larded into the defense budget for fiscal 2007.
They really were in a hurry to get home and convince folks of the great danger they are in, and how well the Republican administration and Congress have protected them; how much they care about our military men and women; and how much they deserve another term dipping into that river of taxpayer money.
And what have they left behind them?
They didn't provide enough money in the current budget to fight the wars, equip the military and fund the bases where those who wear the uniforms, and those who love them, live when they aren't off fighting.
So at bases like Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, the grass goes unmowed and the swimming pools aren't open and the Army in some places can't even pay the electric and water bills.
That's because the military, at such times, has to rob Peter to pay Paul. The money meant to pay for the small but important things like repairing family housing and running a recreation center for Army kids is siphoned off to pay for the wars.
There isn't nearly enough money to pay for the tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees that have been destroyed or worn out by unceasing duty on the battlefields 24/7.
There aren't enough troops in the ranks to staff all the brigades and divisions. So Peter is robbed in those areas of the budget as well.
The consequences are clear. The units leave their equipment behind in Iraq for their replacements to use. When they get home, they have to turn loose thousands of troops whose enlistments ended months before and who were press-ganged into another combat tour by what is known as "stop-loss," or involuntary service in an all-volunteer military.
Thousands of other troops are "cross-balanced" or transferred into other units headed back to Iraq or Afghanistan, filling up all those vacancies in those outfits.
All of this leaves our nation without a credible reserve force in case of emergencies elsewhere in the world, and it leaves those outfits just home from combat without either the equipment or the troops to train for their next combat tour.
That's how well this Congress and this administration have taken care of our military. They are grinding down equipment and troops and families without a care.
Shame on them for caring so little about those who give so much, including their precious lives, in defense of our country.
Shame on them for simultaneously making certain that hundreds of billions of defense dollars are diverted to the kind of high-dollar aircraft and naval vessels so beloved of the defense contracting industry, which happily fuels the campaign engines of the Republicans and happily provides post-retirement jobs for retired generals and admirals and, yes, out-of-office politicians.
If the latest airline terrorist thing scares you to death, and if you think this much more dangerous world we now have to live in requires a strong, competent, ready and well-equipped military to defend you, vote against the incumbents in Congress. All of them, no matter what party.
You will be safer without their kind of stewardship of national security and our military. A Congress full of rookies always takes a good while figuring out how to get their snouts deep in the right trough, and that's a good thing.
Throw them out in 2006 and again in 2008.
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 12:37 PM
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/142703
Is that what you are looking for?
capt
Posted by: capt at August 20, 2006 12:37 PM
Happy Sunday indeed, to all Corn Squatters & visitors! More on the lengthy article linked by RS (#6), the article's focus is on the perils facing Iraq and its neighbors IF we stepped aside & allow a full-blown Civil War to breakout!
IT is a well-written but decidedly NOT an anti-Bush rehash! Future-oriented, NOT a strong suit of Cornuts or Mr. Corn himself!
I bring you the last parts of this article!
6 RS
What Next?
By Daniel L. Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack
The Washington Post
Sunday 20 August 2006
......requires Americans to endure significant long-term costs -- both in blood and treasure -- in Iraq. The United States would still need to deploy tens of thousands of troops to the nation (albeit on its periphery), as well as supplies to feed and care for hundreds of thousands of refugees. The United States would still occupy parts of Iraq, and the U.S. presence would remain a recruiting poster for the jihadist movement. Finally, all of these costs would have to be endured for as long as the war rages; recall that refugees from the wars in Afghanistan lived away from their homes for more than 20 years.
* * *
No country in recent history has successfully managed the spillovers from a full-blown civil war;......Israel's 1982 invasion was also a bid to end the Lebanese civil war after its previous efforts to contain it had failed, and when this also failed, Jerusalem tried to go back to managing spillover. By 2000, it was clear that this was again ineffective and so Israel pulled out of Lebanon altogether.
Withdrawing from Lebanon was smart for Israel for many reasons, but it did not end its Lebanon problem -- as the latest conflict showed all too clearly. In the Balkans, the United States and its NATO allies realized that it was impossible to manage the Bosnian or Kosovar civil wars and so in both cases they employed coercion -- including the deployment of massive ground forces -- to bring them to an end.
....How Iraq got to this point is now an issue for historians (and perhaps for voters in 2008); what matters today is how to move forward and prepare for the tremendous risks an Iraqi civil war poses for this critical region. The outbreak of a large-scale civil conflict would not relieve us of our responsibilities in Iraq; in fact, it could multiply them. Unfortunately, in the Middle East, one should never assume that the situation can't get worse. It always can -- and usually does.
Daniel L. Byman is director of Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies. Kenneth M. Pollack is research director at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution
Posted by: Happy Sunday at August 20, 2006 12:39 PM
If the latest airline terrorist thing scares you to death, and if you think this much more dangerous world we now have to live in requires a strong, competent, ready and well-equipped military to defend you, vote against the incumbents in Congress. All of them, no matter what party.
You will be safer without their kind of stewardship of national security and our military. A Congress full of rookies always takes a good while figuring out how to get their snouts deep in the right trough, and that's a good thing.
Throw them out in 2006 and again in 2008.
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 12:41 PM
My fellow Cornposters and Nazi trolls, are you feeling safer this Sunday, August 20, 2006, with our current Congress members and Hitler in the WH???
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 12:45 PM
Mr. Happy ignores the point of my commentary, which was to point out the very crimainal folly of initiating this conflict, regardless of the "what to do now" aspect.
I can disagree with the ultimate conclusion of the article or not, my point was that even those who disagree with "what to do now" can agree that where we are is in a mess - a qWagmire with an author who should be held criminally responsible.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 12:45 PM
#12 capt, I posted the complete article at #11.
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 12:46 PM
I am not afraid of the terrorist because I have the stick!
Posted by: Whitey has the stick at August 20, 2006 12:55 PM
I would feel safer and more secure if our elections weren't rigged.
Cornposters and Nazi trolls, there can never be complete safety and security in our mortal world. We will be safe and secure when we rest our head on the shoulder of Jesus Christ in our immortal world. Jesus is our safety and security.
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 01:03 PM
16
Mr. Happy.....my point was that even those who disagree with "what to do now" can agree that where we are is in a mess....
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 12:45 PM
===============================================
You prove my point quite aptly of the Left's focus on the past and the rush for `accountability'! I agree that "where we are is in a mess"! The key differences are:
1) Most Conservatives (me too) have yet to throw in the towel. Most Cornuts (you too) know by now that I'm future focused.....unless you are very different from me, I can't change the past but I CAN influence the future in my tiny HAPPY ways!
2) Most Conseratives remember the aftermath of Vietnam after an almost 10 year period of active war! It wasn't pretty for our country; and incidently, diseasterous for your Party.
3) An immediate pullout or announced schedule of pullouts will absolutely be a propaganda victory for our fanatical Islamist enemies! It happened to Israel after Gaza and now, Lebanon (again)!
I'll bring more cheery news in moments!
Posted by: Happy to RS at August 20, 2006 01:05 PM
Insurgent attacks have become part of daily life in some sections of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The last few months have exceeded the peaks of violence ahead of national elections in January 2005 and the referendum on the constitution in October 2005.
Although about 80% of insurgent attacks are targeted against coalition forces, the Iraqi population suffers about 80% of all casualties, according to US officials in late 2005. - Source BBC News
********************************
If 80% of attacks are targeting the so-called coalition forces (does that include Blackwater and Dyncorps types?) would the violence decrease by 80% by our leaving....?
Is violence measured in attacks or casualties?
Are there other forces, Arab League or whatever, that might replace the so-called coalition forces, where we to exit, indeed could more regional forces act as a more efficient peacekeeping structure, being more attuned to Arab culture?
Are we to disregard the statements of al-Maliki, the so-called Prime Minister, who claims that Iraqi forces are up to the Iraqi security tasks? Is that the democracy we brought to the region?
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 01:06 PM
Mr. Bush...
America was behind all of this tampering with the fate of nations. The U.S. has not come to the region to serve nations but to deal with them as though they were things to experiment with. The recent crisis of the Lebanese people and the flagrant attacks by the Zionists - destroying and killing children and women - left the U.S. administration hardly moved.
Rather, the United States was the one standing in the way of the U.N. Security Council, so that there could be more destruction and killing. Where is the humanitarian and civilized face of the U.S.A. and the West? Generally speaking, why are all these "negatives" attached to Islam, while it stands innocent of all these obscenities.
Thank you, Arab Times!!! We need more honest comments about our devil incarnate nation coming from the Arab world!!!
Make no mistake Nazi America has a monopoly on evil!!!
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 01:14 PM
A `balanced' opinion/perspective below! I took the liberty & left out the `Bad News' that Mr. Peters listed....Cornuts can recite them by heart!
MOMENT OF TRUTH
ISLAMO-FASCIST TERROR COULD TRIGGER A BRUTAL
WESTERN RESPONSE
By: Ralph Peters
August 20, 2006 -- IN the wake of Israel's strategic setback in Lebanon, where's the Middle East headed? (Hint: The road sign doesn't read "Age of Aquarius").
Powerful emotions intoxicate all sides. In the Middle East, only the Israelis have intellectual and moral integrity. Arabs and Persians rely on a culture of blame. The media obscure as much as they illumine.
So what should truly concern us? Bad news first.
.......
So what on earth might give us cause for hope?
* Israel's recent defeat, for one thing. Yes, you read that right. The truth is that Israel got a relatively cheap, if embarrassing, wake-up call.....means that Israel doesn't just wallow in blame - like Americans, Israelis figure out what went wrong and then fix it.....Israel will re-emerge with a renewed sense of mission, a stronger government and a powerfully reformed military - the next time the IDF goes to war, watch the way it devastates its enemies.
* The "unity of Muslims" confronting the West is history.....Sunni-Arab leaders increasingly grasp that the real threat isn't from the United States or Israel, but from the explosion of Shia ambitions, prowess, wealth and desire for vengeance. The future of the Middle East could go a number of ways, but we may find ourselves as bemused spectators, while our sworn enemies and phony friends kill each other. Afterward, we'll pick up the pieces.
* Iraq still could muddle through - but even if it doesn't, our stock in the region is headed up, not down. The paradox is that a future civil war between Iraq's Sunnis and Shias makes our military protection more essential than ever to the effete Gulf emirates and the cowardly Saudis. Avoid linear analysis and reflexive predictions of doom for American interests: The Middle East will always do more harm to its natives than it does to foreign powers. Human beings may hate a distant enemy in theory, but they generally prefer to kill their neighbors.
* Terrorist groups with global aspirations continue to pursue grand, counterproductive gestures rather than effective actions. Plots to blow up a series of airliners, lesser strikes on subways or trains in the West and even the eventual "big one" they'll pull off won't convince the West to surrender. Despite intermittent left-wing lunacy, our debates and disagreements are about how best to solve the problem - not how to capitulate. Bit by bit, the Western mood is turning from disbelief regarding the "terrorist threat" to hard-knuckled realism about extremist Islam.....the Islamists are resurrecting a militant, ruthless West.
The florid American master of horror fiction, H. P. Lovecraft, warned his characters, "Do not raise up what ye cannot put down." Islamist terrorists are reviving the West's thirst for blood. And this time it won't be slaked in Flanders.
Things are going to get uglier east of Suez. And we're going to win.
Ralph Peters' new book is "Never Quit the Fight."
Posted by: Happy News Service at August 20, 2006 01:22 PM
You prove my point quite aptly of the Left's focus on the past and the rush for `accountability'! I agree that "where we are is in a mess"! The key differences are:
1) Most Conservatives (me too) have yet to throw in the towel. Most Cornuts (you too) know by now that I'm future focused.....unless you are very different from me, I can't change the past but I CAN influence the future in my tiny HAPPY ways!
True to the point about my wishing to hold those responsible for initiating criminal warfare to task. The mess we are in is more the reason to do so, and more that it is correct for it to be illegal to initiate such conflict. This is future focused as it is a deterrent to future conflicts.
2) Most Conseratives remember the aftermath of Vietnam after an almost 10 year period of active war! It wasn't pretty for our country; and incidently, diseasterous for your Party.
It was far prettier after the war than during the war, unless you like 58,000 body bags returning. And before you bring up the disaster in Cambodia, let me remind you of how we precipatated the coup of Prince Sihanouk...
3) An immediate pullout or announced schedule of pullouts will absolutely be a propaganda victory for our fanatical Islamist enemies! It happened to Israel after Gaza and now, Lebanon (again)!
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon was itself the worst self-inflicted propaganda defeat I have witnessed, and now Hezbollah is showing that it can rebuild Lebanon far more effeciently than we can New Orleans...
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 01:23 PM
#23 - Brought to you by:
Charge Forth, Inc.
"Gettin' to charge, by bein' in charge. No charges filed, and gettin' a charge outta it!"
Purveyors to the Apocalypse
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 01:30 PM
ISLAMO-FASCIST?
Benito Mussolini was clear: "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power."
*************************************
An interesting read. There were many Arab-Nazi connections, of course, but the Islamo-fascist label is very misleading.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 01:40 PM
Here is my recent article to the Catholic News Service.
Dear Editor: On page 6 of the August 18, 2006 edition of the Catholic News Service there are two great articles, one by Tony Magliano, "Give peace a chance" and the second by Douglas W. Kmiec, "We need a way to stop wars." From these two articles I would like to mention the quotations from various sources. In conclusion of my letter I will add another quote.
In "Give peace a chance" Mr. Magliano quotes Pope Benedict XVI, "neither terrorist acts nor reprisals can be justified, especially when there are tragic consequences for the civilian population." Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir says, "It seems that the world has lost its peacemakers. It is more desirable to fight and wage war than to make peace." When John Paul II was pope, he said, "war is a defeat for humanity."
In "We need a way to stop wars" Mr. Kmiec says that the Church "condemns both the terrorist attacks on the one side and the military reprisals on the other." Church leaders are plainspoken: Israel's right to self-defense "does not exempt it from respecting the norms of international law, especially as regards the protection of civilian populations." He concludes his article that "all citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war."
In the early 1970s I had a chance to talk to an owner of a job shop. After showing me around his shop we sat in his office and he said, "war is outmoded. It creates more problems than it resolves problems. Maybe I 200 years we will be mature enough to understand that fact." I believe that he was absolutely right. Our world leaders and their citizens are not mature enough to realize that war is outmoded. No mature person would choose war over peace. Sincerely, Gerald
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 01:41 PM
Gerald #11 Thank you for the article. The Republicans are running scared which is why they have nothing left but to peddle fear. Terrorism is real but we have nothing to fear. We have to get smarter much as the rest of the world has done. It would also be smarter to use more diplomacy around the world instead of militarism.
Posted by: Joe at August 20, 2006 01:43 PM
To 24 RS
W/your response on #1, let me use football for analogy (Go Horns! & Texans!). I don't remember a coach (or QB) EVER BEING FIRED in the middle of a Game! When a coach (or QB) is fired/released before a season ends, it usually (not 100%) signals that organization has GIVEN UP on the season! While the Left can't literally `fire' Bushco,...well, you get my meaning!
Your response to #2 is way below what I associate you with! Let me just leave it at that!
As for #3, Israel's propaganda loss is perhaps "self-inflicted", as you point out, which is why the soul-searching in Israel today. But you didn't address the very real propaganda issue of the Israeli pullout from Gaza! Secondly, you are way, way too quick to give `credit' to Hezbo, NO? There are still bodies to be found and buried, I think!
Posted by: Happy replies at August 20, 2006 01:45 PM
W/your response on #1, let me use football for analogy (Go Horns! & Texans!). I don't remember a coach (or QB) EVER BEING FIRED in the middle of a Game! When a coach (or QB) is fired/released before a season ends, it usually (not 100%) signals that organization has GIVEN UP on the season! While the Left can't literally `fire' Bushco,...well, you get my meaning!
I can remember plenty of QBs getting pulled for the #2 guy during a game - and it is 3 seasons now in Iraq without sacking the coach - Don Rumsfeld, just to play in your metaphor.
Your response to #2 is way below what I associate you with! Let me just leave it at that!
The history is long and convoluted - surely I could take exception to the actions of both major parties in the 50's to the present. What you call my party, I call the lesser of two evils party, both are Global Corporatist in nature.
As for #3, Israel's propaganda loss is perhaps "self-inflicted", as you point out, which is why the soul-searching in Israel today. But you didn't address the very real propaganda issue of the Israeli pullout from Gaza! Secondly, you are way, way too quick to give `credit' to Hezbo, NO? There are still bodies to be found and buried, I think!
Self-inflicted, and egged on by the neo-cons besides. I try to point out the disturbing issue of the Abramoff types and their contributions to settlements in the Occupied Areas of the West Bank which have consistently been an irritant in the Palestinian Peace process.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 02:00 PM
#28 Joe, I do have one fear and that is our rigged elections. This 2006 election will be corrupted by rigged electonic voting machines. It is going to be a nasty spectacle on November 7. We will be visiting our son and I will be crying at the results of the election.
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 02:24 PM
Gerald,
We will be visiting our son and I will be crying at the results of the election.
Reminded me of Joe Hill's comments at his execution:
Don't Mourn, Organize.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 02:35 PM
While I don't doubt that some man-induced Global Warming is occurring, I seriously doubt the Doom & Gloomers' `Predictions' of our imminent demise (due to man)!
2006 Tropical Storm Season Now Below Normal
From WeatherStreet.com
21 August 2006
What a difference a year makes. After the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the 2006 season is now below normal.
.....In the hurricane category, this year is decidedly below normal, with no hurricanes so far, while by this date 1.5 hurricanes have formed in the average of years 1944 though 2005.
Reason for the Season?: Cooler Sea Surface Temperatures Part of the reason for the slow season is that tropical western Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are running about normal, if not slightly below normal (see graphic below, which shows SST departures from normal).
In contrast, at the same time last year SSTs in the same region were running well above normal.
The cooler SSTs in the Atlantic are not an isolated anomaly. In a research paper being published next month in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists will show that between 2003 and 2005, globally averaged temperatures in the upper ocean cooled rather dramatically, effectively erasing 20% of the warming that occurred over the previous 48 years.
Global Warming? The slow hurricane season and the cooling sea surface temperatures might be somewhat surprising to the public. Media reports over the last year have suggested that, since global warming will only get worse, and last year's hurricane activity was supposedly due to global warming, this season might well be as bad as last season. But it appears that Mother Nature might have other plans.
The Rest of the Hurricane Season
With only 3 named storms compared to 9 on this date last year, it is nearly impossible at this late date to have a season anywhere near as busy as last season, which totaled 27 by the end of the year. The most recent prediction from the National Weather Service (see first graphic, above) is for there to be 12 to 15 named storms by December -- only half of last year's total. It now looks like that prediction might be too generous.
Posted by: Happy's Sunday Reads at August 20, 2006 03:05 PM
Well it would take GW raping one of these trolls grandmother before they would admit that he is anything but a saint. No problems the disaster that he is leaving behind will be plenty for them to digest when it becomes clear that the repugs have been in charge of the government for six years and done absolutely nothing other than involve us in an illegal war, devastate a soverign nation, bankrupt the economy, usurp our rights and give his cronies unfettered access to the american bank account. Anything else? Oh yeah, spying on it's citizens without a warrant, indefinite imprisonment on the word of the coward in chief,among other things. Yep, criminal is all that they are nothing more, even less, and the toll just goes higher. Any insurgent that they kill is an insurgent but that is their only definition any dead body on the battlefield is an insurgent. And still the trolls don't get it, nothing is going to change until the idiots in DC are thrown out of office and into a prison.
Posted by: What the F**k at August 20, 2006 03:08 PM
Heavy Typhoon Season Hits China
By Sonya Bryskine
Epoch Times Australia Staff Aug 19, 2006
An elderly woman grieves in front of a house destroyed by typhoon Saomai at the Qianzhang Village on August 13, 2006 in Cangnan County of Zhejiang Province, China. The death toll from typhoon Saomai, the strongest storm to strike China in 50 years, has reached 214, according to state media. (China Photos/Getty Images)
As China continues to clean-up after the latest "super typhoon", the worst in over 50 years, scientists are pointing to increasingly unusual weather patterns in the country.
Typhoon Saomai bore down on Zhejiang and Fujian provinces last Thursday August 10 forcing the evacuation of 1.7 million people and destroying more than 50,000 homes, according to official figures.
More.
****************************
Let us only be hopeful that this side of the globe continues to be spared this season, it is not the same elsewhere.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 03:11 PM
p.s. The Epoch Times appears to be an
Anti-Communist Party newspaper.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 03:20 PM
If I Was President
Dear Cornposters:
This is an open letter on If I Was President.
1. I would carry on more dialogue and less talk of shock and awe or nuclear destructions.
2. I would see to it that our troops would have the equipment to fight a war but I would not start a war.
3. Loved ones like wife and children would have decent house, schools, and recreational areas.
4. Our troops would be well paid and if they are killed or maimed their loved ones would receive full military pay of their husbands. If they had children money would set aside for financial aid to go to college or a trade school until the sons and/or daughters were 25 years old. Medical plan would the same as the Congressional medical plan or even better.
5. Every time Congress receives an increase in salary, the minimum wage would increase and so would the increase in soldiersÕ salary or for their loved ones if the soldier was killed or maimed in the military service.
6. I would have a mothers committee of no more than twenty mothers to give recommendations about going to war or not going to war.
7. I would have Cindy Sheehan and Karen Kwiatkowski as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense respectively.
8. I would eliminate the Supreme Court because they are irrelevant. States have their Supreme Court and they are closer to the people; plus, the justices have to run for an elected position.
9. Congress would be given more say in passing laws.
10. I would tax the rich more because they have the most to lose.
11. If the military draft would be reinstated, the sons and daughters of the rich would be drafted first.
12. All athletic contests would be stopped in time of war because overprice athletes should also sacrifice.
13. I would eliminate financial television and radio stations in time of war because I have heard too much talk about is war good for the economy.
14. The Supreme Court building would be renovated into a museum for the holocaust victims of Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine.
15. I would match the money that is given to Israel with Arab countries but not Saudi Arabia.
16. I would eliminate offshore tax shelters for the rich and for corporations.
17. I would tax religious organizations like those of Falwell, Robertson, Hagee, and Dobson.
18. Corporations with rigged electronic voting machines would be tried for treason.
19. I would work closely with countries and governments so they would improve the quality of life for all their citizens.
20. CEO salaries would be similar to the CEO salaries in Japan.
21. Our beautiful environment will be protected and a quality education will be available for all students, K-12 grades. Higher education and trade schools would be affordable for all students.
22. Employers who hire illegal immigrants would be fined heavily, such as $250,000 per illegal immigrant. Employers would also receive a jail sentence of one year per illegal immigrant.
23. I would put Christ back into the word Christianity. I would not be afraid to say the word Jesus because it might offend someone. People who came to the White House during Christmas would be able to see the Christ child in plain view and not given an obscure setting. Our soldiers in Saudi Arabia would be permitted to show the Cross on Saudi soil.
These are some things that I would do If I Was President.
Sincerely,
Gerald
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 04:29 PM
#32 Robert Schwartz, good suggestion!
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 04:32 PM
Sheehan, others protest at Rove event
AUSTIN, Texas Ñ Chanting "Try Rove for treason," Cindy Sheehan and more than 50 other war protesters disrupted a reception before President Bush's top adviser Karl Rove spoke at a fundraiser Saturday.
One woman was arrested during a scuffle with police after Sheehan and the anti-war demonstrators rushed toward the closed doors and kept chanting loudly after the guests went into the dinner.
---
---
One protester slipped inside the ballroom during the dinner but was escorted out after shouting about men and women dying, the Austin American-Statesman reported in its Sunday editions.
"Pat, did you get her check before she left?" Rove quipped to the GOP group's executive director, Pat Robbins, as the crowd of 300 laughed, the newspaper reported.
---
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Earlier Saturday, the group of more than 70 gathered at the hotel entrance, carrying a large banner that read, "Rove: Guilty of crimes against humanity." Ann Wright, a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in 2003 in protest over the war, yelled through a bullhorn, "Karl Rove, you are a criminal!"
Posted by: Alan at August 20, 2006 04:37 PM
"My plan is to appoint the best people I can find, get out of the way and let them work ... people whose only agenda is to do the right thing for the people of Texas.I really believe that musicians can better run this state than politicians."
` Kinky Friedman ` Independant candidate for gov. of Texas
Kinky backs Willie as Texas energy czar
FORT WORTH, Texas Ñ Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman on Friday reiterated his top pick to implement his energy plan that emphasizes renewable sources: Willie Nelson.
Friedman said the country singer/songwriter and benefactor of biodiesel was a natural choice to lead a state energy department or commission, which he wants to create. He also said Nelson "would never have his hand in Texas' pocket."
Posted by: Alan at August 20, 2006 04:46 PM
24. I would encourage Israel to be the Light to the World. I would also encourage the Palestinians to work closely with Israel because they could transform their land in a similar way to be beautiful. I would also hope that Lebanon could again be the Paris of the Middle East.
Posted by: Gerald at August 20, 2006 04:53 PM
Willie for PREZ! SMOKIN' IDEA!!!
-T
Posted by: Hajji at August 20, 2006 04:57 PM
Gerald:
DIY Do It Yourself
DIY Diyarbakir, Turkey - Diyarbakia Airport Code
DIY Don't Involve Yourself
Appears likely capt's first guess is the correct guess.
Posted by: caroline at August 20, 2006 05:30 PM
Kinky Friedman just might win with that many on the playing field. Smart move on his part, too, to make his Willie Nelson announcment this far out. I hope Willie has agreed to this position so Kinky doesn't wear egg on his face, in addition to his ever-present cigar.
Posted by: caroline at August 20, 2006 05:38 PM
20
You prove my point quite aptly of the Left's focus on the past and the rush for `accountability'! I agree that "where we are is in a mess"!
Posted by: Happy to RS at August 20, 2006 01:05 PM
Happy's view of the world includes the "Left's . . . rush for accountability" which raises the question: At what pace should we expect accountibility in government?
Should we resasonable expect accountability with a Repug president and repub congress or is that rushing accountability?
It's been six years and it can be argued, the executive and congress act with no accountability. Should Americans be more patient?
How about after the midterms, should we expect some accountability then or would the lame-brain right still claim the Left is rushing accountability?
Posted by: jlc at August 20, 2006 06:07 PM
Rnc Chairman ken Melman came out with a new talking point this week "Adapt to win." nobody jumped on board. other republicains even Fox news. Ask yourself why. i have my thoughts Whats yours?
Posted by: miker at August 20, 2006 06:07 PM
Posted by: Happy replies at August 20, 2006 01:45 PM
Ever noticed the professional atheletes who refer to themselves in the third person diring intervires? Tom, what did it feel like to hit the walk-off homer? Well, first, I owe it all to god, second Tom always tries to win for his team. Third. Tom's family is the mos important part of Tom's life. Thank you all.
Happy the cornblog superstar- Chaaa!
Posted by: jlc owes it all the financial intution at August 20, 2006 06:13 PM
Happy trys to distract!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: miker at August 20, 2006 06:15 PM
Micki, yes. Corn flakes with plenty of melted butter...
Seems the process has already started: hot air and some flakey comments. Don't notice much butter, melted or not.
Posted by: David B. Benson at August 20, 2006 06:16 PM
Mr. Happy ignores the point of my commentary, which was to point out the very crimainal folly of initiating this conflict
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 20, 2006 12:45 PM
Of course. He has no answer for that. Ask him what he thinks we can reasonabley accomplish there and at what cost.
Posted by: jlc owes it all the financial intution at August 20, 2006 06:17 PM
On TomPaine today: Kurds Flee as Iran Shells Northern Iraq.
Posted by: David B. Benson at August 20, 2006 06:51 PM
He doesn't have to be a saint, since he is the one with the stick.
Posted by: Whitey has the stick at August 20, 2006 07:02 PM
It's one war, stupid
Michael Goodwin
New York Daily News
August 20, 2006
......the evolving position of the Democratic Party. The goal is to separate Iraq from worldwide Islamic terrorism in the minds of American voters. As public support for Iraq keeps falling, Dems are getting bolder in saying Iraq is an irrelevant distraction.
If enough people believe them, the party can call for withdrawing our troops from Iraq without appearing soft on terror. Some, like Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, are already there, and others are moving that way. Soon the party's position will be: We're not against the war on terror, only against the war in Iraq!
.....Policy-wise, it's a disaster. It is patently ridiculous to argue that Iraq has nothing to do with the war against Islamic terrorists. There are many fronts in World War III. Each is distinct, yet they are all related because the enemy has the same roots and often the same sponsors.
Israel's fight against Hezbollah proves the point. Its failure to land a knockout punch instantly emboldened Hezbollah and its sponsors, Syria and Iran.
So it is in Iraq. Our failure there would strengthen terror groups everywhere and give Iran and Syria more reason to make more mischief.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair put it brilliantly recently, saying the fight against Islamic terror is a "global fight about global values." He linked disparate groups in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya and Africa in "an arc of extremism."
"It doesn't always need structures and command centers or even explicit communication," Blair said of the enemy. "It knows what it thinks."
It knows what it thinks. That's the simple, straight truth. No parsing required
Posted by: Happy Daily (not really) News at August 20, 2006 07:39 PM
It has been years ago, but one of my favorite Willie Nelson interviews was when he was asked some questions about his new golf course. The question was "What is par for the course?" Willie answered "Anything I want it to be. One hole is a par 10 and I birdied the sucker yesterday." I am not sure about the 10 but I know it was a high number.
I have seen Willie in concert several times. The last time was in Charleston, WV 1983. I think he and Kinky would make a good team in Texas.
A few of my other favorite Texans include Jerry Jeff Walker and Elvin Bishop. Maybe they could also hold a post in the new government.
Posted by: TRH at August 20, 2006 07:42 PM
Happy,
I second this sentiment and want to add that I'm getting tired of the anti-war folks who look down their noses at anyone who doesn't agree that OF COURSE the war is a "disaster" and that its getting worse over there by the day. They seem to think folks who don't agree with them are dupes or worse.
I say that they are the ones who have been duped. They have been duped into believing all the anti-war HYSTERIA being fomented by the left in this country. It was no different back in the early 70's with Vietnam. In fact, the anti-war f_ups are still with us, just a lot older (not wiser.)
Posted by: Tim at August 20, 2006 07:46 PM
Flakier and flakier... Still no butter, either.
Posted by: David B. Benson at August 20, 2006 07:48 PM
Anti-war types can be categorized any number of ways, but they have one thing in common: They are all ARMCHAIR QUARTERBACKS!
It's really disgusting at times to read or listen to them blather on about something they only know about by reading liberal rags. They are all EXPERTS! They are so cock-sure that they KNOW all there is to know about why the war is a dismal failure. Hell, they are so damn smart that they KNOW if a Democrat would have been in the White House none of this would have happened.
They are full of it (and you what "it" is...)
Posted by: Tim at August 20, 2006 07:51 PM
God, this is a Great Country! Anybody remotely with a `Name', wants some publicity and can talk some folks from throwing some money away, can run for office! This is NOT a slam against Kinky!
40
Kinky backs Willie (Nelson) as Texas energy czar
FORT WORTH, Texas - Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman on Friday reiterated his top pick to implement his energy plan that emphasizes renewable sources: Willie Nelson.
Friedman said the singer/songwriter...."would never have his hand in Texas' pocket."
Posted by: Alan at August 20, 2006 04:46 PM
================================================
Well, Willie DID have, and may still do have, his hands in American taxpayers' pocket to the tune of $17 million unpaid IRS taxes.....back in 1990 when he filed bankruptcy!
All that `Energy' fighting the IRS, more than qualifies him for TX Energy Czar!
Here's to Kinky & Willie!
On the Road Again,.....
Posted by: Happily Amused at August 20, 2006 08:00 PM
Israel's raid into Lebanon was a failure, according to Juan Cole. Reasoning seems sound...
Juan Cole's Informed Comment
Posted by: David B. Benson at August 20, 2006 08:03 PM
55
.....I'm getting tired of the anti-war folks.....
.....no different back in the early 70's with Vietnam. In fact, the anti-war f_ups are still with us, just a lot older (not wiser.)
Posted by: Tim at August 20, 2006 07:46 PM
===============================================
Tim, Brace yourself!
The Anti-War/America/Corporation/God/Israel bunch is counting on wearing a lot of folks out: the slightly Left & Right of Center working folks who don't have the luxury of time to absorb all that's going on and actually think about geo-Terror and politics!
History do repeat themselves and human beings, as a species, have proven incapable of learning fully from the past. I don't blame ourselves...I think that's just the way it is and very likley, will be for decades, if not hundreds more years, to come.
Financial history is the same! Dutch tulip bulb manias repeat themselves over and over and over.... Suckers born every milli-seconds!
Posted by: Happy to Tim at August 20, 2006 08:22 PM
History will not repeat, except in the grossest sense: see Jared Diamond's "Collapse" and understand what
Hotter and hotter!
is going to mean regarding resource availablity: water, food, energy, etc.
Posted by: David B. Benson at August 20, 2006 08:28 PM
61
History will not repeat,....
Posted by: David B. Benson at August 20, 2006 08:28 PM
=============================================
I beg to differ! Our planet has gone through countless warming/cooling cylces! We maybe hastening the next warming cycle by a few decades and I just can't get excited about that...really, big deal!
Humans throughout its existence, has had resource problems of one kind or another....So far, we have been able to adopt and multiply (boy, have we)!
Who says we are destined to literally cover the earth and still continue our miracle-making to support such cover-the-earth population! Any number of things can wipe us, along with perhaps most mammals, off the face of the earth! Hopefully before such an event, humans will have established a sustainable space-head somewhere in the cosmos!
Posted by: Happy to DBB at August 20, 2006 08:42 PM
"W/your response on #1, let me use football for analogy (Go Horns! & Texans!). I don't remember a coach (or QB) EVER BEING FIRED in the middle of a Game! When a coach (or QB) is fired/released before a season ends, it usually (not 100%) signals that organization has GIVEN UP on the season!"
1978, early July, the Yankees are 8 games out. Billy Martin makes an ass of himself for the millionth time and gets fired in late July. The Yankees fire Billy and hire Bob Lemon(?) and go on to win the World Series. A dedication to win at all costs means you don't run out the string on the season and reload in the offseason. Only losers resign themselves to failure in the interim. Changing quarterbacks mid-game can be an excellent idea. Do you remember a certain QB named Clint Longley and a certain game against the Redskins? Maybe a fauxTexan like you doesn't. I think the Cowboys won the Super Bowl that season. Care to give the analogy thing another try?
"Secondly, you are way, way too quick to give `credit' to Hezbo, NO? There are still bodies to be found and buried, I think!"
Posted by: Happy replies at August 20, 2006 01:45 PM
As long as Nasrallah is breathing and Hezbollah gets to reload and keep attacking Israel, it is a failure. The presumptive mission in Lebanon was to root out Hezbollah and obliterate it as a threat to Israel. Destroying buildings and killing a few only serves the terrorists' cause. The surviving Lebanese get "humanitarian" aid from Hezbollah and live to hate the Israelis even MORE.
Also, you mentioned earlier that I was on the Lamont bandwagon. Go back and reread my posts. I've only been pointing out that Republicans are lining up to decide which Dem will kick Republican ass in Connecticut. It is a phenomena with which I still haven't fully come to grips. As I said earlier, it does my heart good. Give to Joe Lieberman. I hear he only votes with the liberals 90% of the time and promises to caucus with them as a Dem if he gets reElected. What about the Republican candidate? Does he vote with the liberals 90% of the time? Donate to Joe Lieberman here.
Especially now that the Allen race is tightening up with his Macaca-head remarks. That could be the 6th race that does the trick. What does the Washington Post have to say about Allen? They are reporting: "Some high-level Republicans warn that if he's not careful, he may wind up branded as Bush without the brains."
Bush without the Brains! That's a quip worthy of my Thursday Night Funnies!!
Posted by: Pandemoniac at August 20, 2006 08:42 PM
Timmiee, dude, I'm with ya man.
I am so tired of pacifist, kumbaya-singing losers like Buckley, Hagel, and the host of former-Generals and military brass of all ranks and affiliations (and other chickenhawks on the Right like Jonah Goldberg) ragging on Mr. Bush. And if another anti-war wuss comes out for the retirement of Field Marshal von Rumsfeld, I'm gonna puke:
Here are the words of a sensible moderate like Joe Lieberman in May 2004 on Rummy:
"[I]t is neither sensible nor fair to force the resignation of the secretary of defense, who clearly retains the confidence of the commander in chief, in the midst of a war. . . . Secretary Rumsfeld's removal would delight foreign and domestic opponents of America's presence in Iraq."
I believe I speak for both of us when I say that if there's a lesson that we learned from the events of 9-11, it's that we cannot correct our failures. It only emboldens the terrorists. We have to fight them over there in Eye-raq, so that they only periodically hatch plots to attack America and bomb faraway places like Madrid, London and underdeveloped places in Indonesia. It is with a terrible heaviness in my heart that I read today:
Sen. Joe Lieberman on Sunday called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and backed an international conference to find a way out of the crisis in Iraq.
[...]
"I think it's still time for new leadership at the Pentagon," he said on CBS's Face the Nation.
Lieberman, an early supporter of the Iraq war, said he called for Rumsfeld to step down in 2003.
"With all respect to Don Rumsfeld, who has done a grueling job for six years, we would benefit from new leadership to work with our military in Iraq," he told Bob Schieffer.
The nerve of a cheese-eater like Lieberman calling for the surrender, er um, retirement of Field Marshal von Rumsfeld then eating his words, only to spit them out again is galling, to say the least.
Posted by: Pandemoniac at August 20, 2006 09:08 PM
Happy, the news only gets worse. After the killing of the one-legged Jordanian (Zman) in Iraq and the multiple terror plots hatched (?) and foiled, the GOP is losing its position in the hearts and minds of security moms. I guess they're tired of the deficits, corruption, and mendacity of the Conservatives. As I mentioned earlier, you myopic Conservatives have gotten yourself so wound up defending a Democrat that you've ceded the tight races like Chafee's. Chafee was ahead just a couple of months ago.
Now the race to replace Cat-killah Frist is getting weird. They're rehashing the old Wal-mart Deal that Corker made millions off of. With Ford hot on his ass, he can ill afford to have another scandal replayed on the front pages (especially this close to the election).
As with the Israel thing, I'm just trying to help your side out. But if you must: Contribute all you have to Joe Lieberman. Lamont trailed him by a million points in the primaries and somehow caught up and won. You need to give from the heart to make sure that Lamont doesn't pull off the upset in the general election. The future of our great country depends on it.
Posted by: Pandemoniac at August 20, 2006 09:28 PM
Timmee, aren't you tired of all the bad news that the liberal press is practically manufacturing in Iraq? The one that gets me is the one about Iraq having to IMPORT fuel. Wasn't Iraq the second-largest supplier of oil for the US before we, you know, Rumsfeldized it? Those patriots and uber-Americans that can't take the lies from the liberal press should avert their eyes here:
Iraq faces fuel crisis amid the violence
Nation aims to boost imports to counter pipeline sabotage:
"Iraqi officials announced plans to double the amount of money spent to import fuel to combat the country's worst oil and gasoline shortages in years."
If that wasn't bad enough, there's that whole eruption on that Comedy Network TeeVee Joe Scarborough show: Is George Bush a Moron? Rarely is the question asked, and Americans want to know, is our Conservative punditocracy learning? Or have they just lowered their "Standars" (sic)
Few have struck a nerve more than Scarborough, who questioned the president's intelligence on his show, "Scarborough Country." He showed a montage of clips of Bush's famously inarticulate verbal miscues and then explored with guests John Fund and Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. whether Bush is smart enough to be president.
"While the country does not want a leader wallowing in the weeds, Scarborough concluded on the segment, "we do need a president who, I think, is intellectually curious."
"And that is a big question," Scarborough said, "whether George W. Bush has the intellectual curiousness -- if that's a word -- to continue leading this country over the next couple of years."
In a later telephone interview, Scarborough said he aired the segment because he kept hearing even fellow Republicans questioning Bush's capacity and leadership, particularly in Iraq. Like others, he said, he supported the war but now thinks it is time to find a way to get out. "A lot of conservatives are saying, 'Enough's enough,' " he said. Asked about the reaction to his program, he said, "The White House is not happy about it."
I'd say it's about time that you Conservatives took it easy on the President. He's your president too, after all.
Posted by: Pandemoniac at August 20, 2006 09:48 PM
63
Self to RS: "W/your response on #1, let me use football....it usually (not 100%) signals...."
(Panty) "...A dedication to win at all costs means you don't run.....Care to give the analogy thing another try?"
The Yankees, to my recollection (not a big baseball fan even if Minute Maid Park is my `career'), has always been a Big Money team! They can buy pricy-but-great players off of losing teams at will! As for "another try", don't need to...covered that with "(not 100%)"! Exceptions are what give hope where hope is not `logical'!
Self to RS: "Secondly, you are way, way too quick to give `credit' to Hezbo, NO?"
Neither you, nor RS, dealt w/the heart of my `issue' of RS giving yet UNEARNED CREDIT to Hezbo! However, I won't argue your comments except to say (and which you know) that Israel misjudged the non-Shiite Lebanese' (lack of) `power of persuasion' to get Hezbo to back off and clear out of the south.
Lieberman: Schlesinger has less chance to win in Nov. than the Texans getting to the Super Bowel! No sense to throw money or time/energy away! For all CT non-Hard Left Dems and Indies, it's obvious who is the best qualified! For the GOP, also easy to go for the `lesser of two evils'! As Joe now campaigns and takes in contributions (with strings), I'll bet that he will vote something less than 90% Dem in his next term...He's free! When he wins, his national stature will be at a peak!
Lastly, I don't track the running/changing count of the `takeover' possibilities except in some general readings. My prediction is for GOP holding the Senate and quite possibly losing the House, let's call it 50/50! My `lottery' hope is something good (for all) happening before Nov. which will keep the House in GOP hands. But if we lose the House, 2 more years of nothingness out of DC! Lots of hearings but still NOT enough votes to censure/impeach!
Posted by: Happy to Panty at August 20, 2006 10:08 PM
David Corn, thank you for the consideration. We who are stuck with the primitive dial up are especially appreciative! I have a bit of good news. Towards the end of the Sierra season my husband and I head up into the mountains, one major goal is to pick up trash left by the "tourists" who don't seem to agree with the "pack it in, pack it out" philosophy. I am happy to report we only found two pieces of tin foil and a bright red mylar balloon, along with it's ribbon several hundred yards away, on our trek today. On a less positive note, someone thought it necessary to build two large fire rings 3 feet apart, in one of these we found a piece of foil. In the past we have hauled out some very strange items, one being a large orange shag carpet remnant and one tent. Maybe people are learning a little respect for the wilderness? We will see what future forays reveal, but I am hopeful. DEN, bring your bike, we have some awesome trails to explore!
Posted by: Saladin at August 20, 2006 10:18 PM
BOB SEES A TREND
I have suspected a trend all summer. Look at Bush's approval ratings:
http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm
Start at the bottom of the chart and scroll upwards. Mostly 40s with scattered 30s. But then, at one point in time, it went to mostly 30s with only scattered 40s.
The date? 22 February 2006. The date of the Golden Shrine bombing, when people began to realize that we were in the middle of a civil war.
Just a theory.
The approval ratings would rise into the 40s after 22 Feb, but only after weeks of going on the offensive, giving lots of speeches, putting all of the dogs out there. But it doesn't last. He seems not to be getting a bounce from the UK terror plot raids.
Bush's approval ratings seem to have a floor of about 33%. But, if things get worse, and the approval ratings hit the mid 20s, the Republicans are in BIG trouble...that is the same percentage of people who think that Elvis is still alive.
Bob
Posted by: Bob in North Dakota at August 20, 2006 10:53 PM
#68 but I am hopeful.
Wow! Music to the ears!
An epiphany? (Not in the Eastern church, Magi, religious sense of the word). But possibly in the intuitive grasp of reality sense of the word -- something usually simple and striking, like picking up your damned trash and being good stewards of the Earth.
Now...let's give some thought to global warming.
Posted by: Micki at August 20, 2006 11:20 PM
"The Yankees, to my recollection ..., has always been a Big Money team! They can buy pricy-but-great players off of losing teams at will!"
Thanks for conceding my point. On the world stage, we are the Yankees, the biggest of the big money teams. We shouldn't have to settle for half-assed management in the War Dept. Wouldn't you rather be kicking ass and taking names in the middle east rather than hoping and praying that we can just ride out "the rest of the season" and wondering if things will get worse? This isn't a game we're talking about afterall.
Try this scenario out (I've gone over it a few times with my Conservative pals here in San Antonio). What if we never went into Iraq; but instead, we went along the Litani River and cut off the escape of Hezbollah while the Israelis cut off flight into Syria? Instead of going door to door in Sadr City or Ramadi and driving over IEDs in Fallujah, we strangled Hezbollah in its nest? No more rockets into Haifa. No more Nasrallah to taunt Olmert. Payback for the barracks bombing to boot. Bring in the UN to wipe up the blood of the dead terrorists and to provide real humanitarian aid (bringing an end to the "hearts and minds" campaign of the Terrorists). Not so many refugees or dead civilians because it would be a ground-based invasion rather than an aerial attack (like the Israelis did). And no disruption to the flow of oil from Iraq (ergo lower inflation, lower energy prices and an economy that middle and lower class Americans would be less grumpy about).
That would be two exterminations (Afghanistan and Lebanon). We could turn to Damascus, Tehran and Baghdad (or NK) and ask, "who wants next?" Neither of them would know where we were or where we were going. We wouldn't be bogged down, isolated or limited in any way to deal with the rest of the crazies.
I know. I sound like a blood thirsty warmonger, wanting to fight them over there rather than fight them over here. It's not like that. It's doing what Wes Clark told Richard Perle many moons ago. We have to learn to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Lebanon is a smaller mission compared to Iraq with fewer complications. And as Sun Tsu says, the most excellent form of victory on the battlefield is the victory of the sheathed sword. After cleaning up Lebanon and Afghanistan, the Islamoclowns would take our saber-rattling seriously. As it is, it's harder to tell who the bigger clown is, Rumsfeld, Nasrallah or Olmert. We're the laughingstock of the middle east.
Joe voting less than 90 percent with the liberals after he gets elected? He's already trying to lynch Rumsfeld. He's already pandering to the war critics. He's even talking about exit strategies. Shouldn't he be going further to the right to cater to his new base? Looks like you've been had. You'd think a bought and paid for politician like Joe the Ho would know which side his bread was buttered.
Me? I don't take this whole Dem takeover of Congress too seriously. I think it's mostly baloney. It's good for laughs, but as badly as the GOP has screwed this country (domestically and on the international stage), it's getting harder and harder to keep the sense of humor.
Posted by: Pandemoniac at August 20, 2006 11:28 PM
Saladin, I really appreciate that you are concerned about the health of your local, natural environment. It's good news for all of us when we get involved at the local, regional level. In my lovely part of this country, my husband and I are helping with the Centennial 2013 Connections projects -- celebrating the 100th anniversary of the state parks system in Washington State.
Today we helped with the "heron hut" project at one of our favorite state parks. Great day.
Posted by: Micki at August 20, 2006 11:31 PM
Cornposters,
There are those who differ with George Bush's goals and aspirations, others like me who differ with his abilities.
As I have said before, I think he is a fine, decent man who is simply incapable of being president. Unlike both Reagan and Clinton, both of whom were successful presidents, W has never been molded by any fitful events in his life like Depression or rampant alcoholism in the family.
He has never had to make a tough decision, and he should have fired Rumsfeld and the generals, a la Lincoln, when the Iraqi war became bogged down. He should have called for another 200,000 troops to quell the insurgencies.
But he has always lead a soft life, and is unprepared to make tough decisions. Jack Welch was absolutely ruthless at GE in firing incompetent/underperforming managers, but he turned that company into one of the great success stories. W needed to have the same attitude, but he flinched at the most important time.
In all probability, he has cost his party the mid-term elections; the outcome of two years hence is still problematic.
Posted by: factchecker at August 20, 2006 11:43 PM
The Anti-War/America/Corporation/God/Israel bunch is counting on wearing a lot of folks out: the slightly Left & Right of Center working folks who don't have the luxury of time to absorb all that's going on and actually think about geo-Terror and politics!
Look, I try to scroll past your idiocy as much as possible but...what does this mean? It's incomprehensible. Do other people understand you when you speak to them? Or do they cock their heads and squint their eyes at you, kind of like the way my yellow Lab, Daisy, does when she's trying to figure something out?
Of course, Daisy knows more about "geo-Terror and politics" than you do. Conversation with her is much more enlightening.
Posted by: Don at August 20, 2006 11:43 PM
In all probability, he has cost his party the mid-term elections; the outcome of two years hence is still problematic.
Whoa! factchecker feelin' the reality!
Now, of course, as Digby always points out, it will be Bush who has failed conservatism, and not conservatism (or at least contemporary conservatism) that has failed.
Posted by: Don at August 20, 2006 11:48 PM
Or do they cock their heads and squint their eyes at you...
Haha His words and train of thought effect me the same way. I usually have no idea what he's trying to say. I couldn't put it in words as good as you tho.
Posted by: Alan at August 20, 2006 11:51 PM
Hey fella, GWB was a raging drunk himself, so where do you get off saying W has never been molded by any fitful events in his life like Depression or rampant alcoholism in the family
If that is Depression with a capital "D" okay. But GWB is DEPRESSED. That's one of the things that makes him so ineffective and incompetent, because his depression has never been addressed properly. He's an alcoholic and there are rumors that Babs hits the G&Ts very early in the day.
Posted by: Observer at August 21, 2006 12:05 AM
Don,
Any time a president, among other things:
Helps pass the biggest government entitlement program of all time (Medicare prescriptions)
Does nothing to defend our borders
Allows federal spending to explode without ever issuing a spending veto
Acquiesces to every earmark placed in front of you
Gets in bed with the libertine Ted Kennedy on federal aid to education
He is no conservative.
Posted by: factchecker at August 21, 2006 12:06 AM
74
Self: "The Anti-War/America/Corporation/God/Israel bunch...."
DDDon: "Look, I try to scroll past your idiocy as much as possible but...what does this mean? It's incomprehensible. Do other people understand you when you speak to them?"
....Conversation with her is much more enlightening.
Posted by: Don at August 20, 2006 11:43 PM
==============================================
DDDon:
You are trying too hard to become the new "Corky"!
My "Anti-everthing" response was directed to Tim and as long he understands, I've communicated well enough!
If you wish to have direct conversations w/me, I will try my best to bring it DOWN to your level and be very, very, very deliberate and wordy!
As far as your having geo-conversations w/your dog, she is one lucky dog! Do you enjoy geo-sex w/her?
Posted by: Happy at Night at August 21, 2006 12:08 AM
Observer,
The "D"epression I addressed was the economic one in the 30's (Reagan), not the personal one. And the alcoholism I mentioned had to do with coping with others in the family (Clinton). Bush has had neither of those experiences.
As Socrates taught us, "The unexamined life is not worth living." I think W has lived the unexamined life.
And please believe me that "Babs" as you call her is the second coming of Margaret Thatcher. She is the iron fist in that family. I don't know if I've ever even see her with a drink in her hand.
Posted by: factchecker at August 21, 2006 12:15 AM
78
....a president
He is no conservative.
Posted by: factchecker at August 21, 2006 12:06 AM
==============================================
Correct! At least NOT in the mold of our all-time favorite, the Gipper!
His waterloo was the Medicare Rx program! Cost so damn much and yet, the elderly didn't understand/appreciate it enough to back him, or at least, not oppose him, on SS Privatization!
In his PLUS column: His 9/11 response was tremendous! His tax cuts gave us the 5-year (and still going) long economic expansion!
Incomplete: Iraq, with outcome yet unknown!
He WAS soft on holding back increases in domestic spending but he does have balls to stick w/it on Iraq!
Posted by: Happy to factchecker at August 21, 2006 12:21 AM
Please excuse my intrusion here...
I don't know if I've ever even see her with a drink in her hand. Say again #80?
It's not like they call in AP or Reuters or your run-of-the-mill irritating paparazzi to snap candids of Ma Bush getting tanked for the cameras!
"Iron fist" -- great. Mom, apple pie, the gin bottle, and the iron fist. Makes for a stable son.
Cue factchecker to claim he regularly attends "happy hour" with the Bush Dynasty -- because he is Happy.
Posted by: Micki at August 21, 2006 12:39 AM
71 Panty
....We shouldn't have to settle for half-assed management in the War Dept....
I'm far more forgiving of people today than I was 10~20 years ago! The US fought the 1991 Gulf War w/spectacular success and that was bound to have influenced the 2003 version. Where the "management" went off the rail was not sending enough troop, IF the pre-invasion plan was to disband the Iraqi Army. The Iraqi Army (& Police) most certainly could've kept order and prevented widespread looting. The potential (now actual) Sectarian problems were probably NOT understood! As long as we are on a witch hunt, I still nominate Saddam for top honor! He had a second lease-on-life and blew it, for 12 years!
Panty: "I know. I sound like a blood thirsty warmonger, wanting to fight them over there rather than fight them over here."
Your war gaming was exciting to dream of! Frankly, I suspect we both recognize the dangers of Islamic fanatics; especially to our children's future! Given what has transpired with the wasted 30+day Hezbo/Israel War, I'm guessing, unless Hezbo get a grip on what's good for all people in the region, there will be a much more determinate war within ~5 years. For that War, Israel will not put fighting a `humane' war as a strategic priority!
Joe's campaigning message serves him, and perhaps the country, well! He is trying to peel away some of the Dems that are Anti-War but not nearly to the nutroos' level!
I don't know if you read or recall something I said way back....that I'm OK w/withdrawl from Iraq after giving them a reasonable amoount of time to get their shit together! Early next year, on the anniversary of their Unity election, I would tell them in no unceretain term and publicly, we could leave at anytime; but without being explicit on timetable. This will give us an honorable way out if they insist on killing each other and some of ours! If they don't see the light of a unified Iraq, our troops home by X'mas 07, except perhaps 10~20,000 in Bagdad (depends) where the international diplomats are!
Posted by: Happy to bed at August 21, 2006 12:53 AM
A nation with an anesthetized conscience
Diary Entry by Populist Party
...Nine-eleven gave Bush the anesthetics to put the nation to sleep, to get the population ready to go under the knife. And while the long protracted botched-surgery seems to keep going on with no end in sight, the anesthesia seems as effective today as it was five years ago, without any indication that it's loosing any strength. How can we tell? ...
::::::::
Click Here for More Related Commentary
Athletes' performances today are outshining those of yesterday in just about every sport. Not in a gradual evolutionary way that could be logically explained, but in major leaps that make a mockery of past records, or statistical comparisons. Half of those people breaking records, or achieving prodigious results, are found to have done so thanks to performance enhancing "supplements" or drugs. while the other half simply managed not to get caught. Sport heroes and sport goats all sucking from the same illicit udder to achieve wealth and/or stardom.
And why are athletes caught "cheating" so adamant in declaring their innocence? Could it be that they resent being penalized for something "most everyone" is guilty of? It's not far-fetched to say their conscience is not telling them they're doing something wrong, so when they defend themselves they appear to do it with true conviction; which tells us they either lack a conscience. or their conscience is inoperative.
Somewhere between having a clear conscience and no conscience at all there seems to be a status that places morality in limbo, one that either freezes or anesthetizes our conscience. And, unfortunately, this status is not just one peculiar to fame seekers but the population at large; one that's prevalent in much of the materialistic and wasteful world - otherwise known as the "developed world" - one which particularly afflicts the United States. The Bush administration has apparently done a creditable job in anesthetizing the American conscience in preparation for surgical procedures that permit unchallenged expansion of the empire, internationally; and major socio-economic restructuring, nationally.
Nine-eleven gave Bush the anesthetics to put the nation to sleep, to get the population ready to go under the knife. And while the long protracted botched-surgery seems to keep going on with no end in sight, the anesthesia seems as effective today as it was five years ago, without any indication that it's loosing any strength. How can we tell?
All we need to do is evaluate what has happened during the last five weeks as the infra-structural mutilation of Lebanon was taking place, and innocent Lebanese were either becoming direct Israeli targets, or the now acceptable "collateral damage" in human terms. It was obvious from the start that most Americans were just as defensive of any criticism on Israel as the Israelis themselves. Of course, it was also obvious that the electronic media assumed much responsibility for that. For all the talked-about recent improvement in walking away from being a self-censored media, when it comes to the Star of David, it shines equally as bright as the fifty stars over the field of blue in our flag. It made little difference whether one was listening to hate-spewers at Fox, or was tuned-in to Wolf Blitzer and his comical "situation room" at CNN, or "progressive radio" with one of its principal commentators, Al Franken, stating in Air America that he is pro-Israel. Al, please. shouldn't neutrality render a far more progressive stand?
Americans have been told that Israel's actions were planned and executed with the unequivocal consent of the Bush administration. perhaps even a step beyond consent.
Yet, Americans could care less. It seemed ok to most that Lebanon would have to pay a price for not having neutralized Hezbollah and its stockpiles of katyusha rockets. This from people whose knowledge of the region and its problems is in most cases nil, or that could even identify the geographical location of the player-nations.
Lebanon has been devastated. but not Hezbollah, or its self-confidence. Israel will no longer be the feared adversary it once was. Not to Hamas, not to Hezbollah, not to all the Arab nations in the region, friend or foe, including Syria. And, definitely, not to Nasrallah. for the Wizard of Middle East Oz has been found out to have little more than a megaphone, notwithstanding the smart bombs and state-of-the-art weaponry provided by the United States. [Comment reserved as to Israel's nuclear arsenal.]
Lebanon was definitely a loser; as were Osmert and his war chief Halutz for not achieving their prewar objectives, and by default the Kadima Party in Israel. But perhaps the biggest loser of all was the United States. through Bush and his Motley crew; and an American Congress that has proven to be a collection of dolts.
There is another loser here: the Republican Party. The majority of Lebanese Americans I have known, the entrepreneurial type, have been for the most part conservative and, politically, Republican. Those that I have contacted during the past month would not vote for a GOP candidate today - even for dog catcher. That's how embittered they are.
But rest assured that things haven't changed at all. America remains a nation with an anesthetized conscience. And the next botched surgery that Bush is likely to perform on us is a shock-and-awe spectacle on another sovereign nation: Iran.
Written by Ben Tanosborn, (email - ben@tanosborn.com) who writes a weekly column at www.tanosborn.com and www.populistamerica.com
The Populist Party of America is a political party that seeks solutions to our problems through the establishment of a Constitutional Democracy and strict adherence to the Bill of Rights.
Posted by: Gerald at August 21, 2006 01:01 AM
Guys,
the point that Don is making and you seem to be missing (and Don correct me if I'm missing something here) is that all of the things that you say make GWBush's presidency non-Conservative have been implemented (or expressly endorsed) by the GOP congress. This was your list, with minor adjustments:
~Pass the biggest government entitlement program of all time (Medicare prescriptions)
~Does nothing to defend our borders
~Allows federal spending to explode without ever issuing a spending veto
~Give birth to every earmark possible under the sun
~Gets in bed with the libertine Ted Kennedy on federal aid to education
So... are you saying that the Republicans in Congress aren't "conservative?" If Congressional reps aren't conservative and the president isn't conservative, where are these mythical conservatives of which you speak?
Posted by: Pandemoniac at August 21, 2006 01:04 AM
He WAS soft on holding back increases in domestic spending but he does have balls to stick w/it on Iraq!
Stick with what? What is he sticking with on Iraq?
Explain your idiotic self. What are we sticking with in Iraq?
Posted by: Don at August 21, 2006 01:07 AM
It is now time to start killing them in large quantities.
Posted by: factchecker at August 13, 2006 11:41 PM
Posted by: spy on this! at August 21, 2006 01:56 AM
[...and Pan, you're right on the money as far as the point I was trying to make re: conservatives and conservatism. The word doesn't have the same definition anymore. Thankfully, the definition for liberal hasn't changed!]
Posted by: Don at August 21, 2006 01:56 AM
Congress Poised to Unravel the Internet
Lured by huge checks handed out by the country's top lobbyists, members of Congress could soon strike a blow against Internet freedom as they seek to resolve the hot-button controversy over preserving "network neutrality." The telecommunications reform bill now moving through Congress threatens to be a major setback for those who hope that digital media can foster a more democratic society.
Posted by: spy on this! at August 21, 2006 02:12 AM
micki, I have always been concerned about the health of the environment, both locally and worldwide, I grew up in Portland Oregon where conservation, as in all the great Northwest, is a priority. What would we have without our habitat?
It's health is the lifeblood of all living creatures, picking up the trash is the least we can do.
I am so curious as to why these so-called "republicans" insist on hanging out here on a blog called " bushlies." In all the months they've been posting no minds have been changed on either side. What do they expect to accomplish? Some say it is for humor, I guess I have missed the joke. I don't read right wing blogs for a laugh, honestly I find their rhetoric depressing when I run across it. Are they some kind of masochists? They moan and complain endlessly about the anti-bush sentiment but they keep coming back. What's up with that anyway?
Posted by: Saladin at August 21, 2006 02:13 AM
Hagel: ÔDonÕt Feed More Troops to IraqÕ
As told to the dipshyt Chris Wallace.
Posted by: Alan at August 21, 2006 02:15 AM
Jeanne, my apologies to your friend, but...
hunt the lawyer
Posted by: Alan at August 21, 2006 02:26 AM
Drop some acid, as in LCD, then wait a half an hour; then read the following post. It'll make sense.
Tim, Brace yourself!
The Anti-War/America/Corporation/God/Israel bunch is counting on wearing a lot of folks out: the slightly Left & Right of Center working folks who don't have the luxury of time to absorb all that's going on and actually think about geo-Terror and politics!
History do repeat themselves and human beings, as a species, have proven incapable of learning fully from the past. I don't blame ourselves...I think that's just the way it is and very likley, will be for decades, if not hundreds more years, to come.
Financial history is the same! Dutch tulip bulb manias repeat themselves over and over and over.... Suckers born every milli-seconds!
Posted by: Happy to Tim at August 20, 2006 08:22 PM
Posted by: jlc through the looking glass at August 21, 2006 02:45 AM
55 I second this sentiment and want to add that I'm getting tired of the anti-war folks
Posted by: Tim at August 20, 2006 07:46 PM
My heart goes out to you dude. . . right after my heart goes out to the american soldiers killed in Iraq, the 61,000 maimed now all home, and the 140,000 iraqi civilians.
The good news is there were no WMDs so we're safe from Saddam. The bad news is, we're still in Iraq and no one knows why.
Posted by: jlc through the looking glass at August 21, 2006 02:59 AM
"Drop some acid, as in LCD, then wait a half an hour; then read the following post. It'll make sense."
Was that suppose to be one tab or three?
Note - one tab does not help that piffle make any sense!
HA!
capt
Posted by: capt at August 21, 2006 04:22 AM
Captain Kiss butt here:
Been down all day. I read the thread and WOWSER!
Short but the posts (setting aside one or two) have been completely HIGH Quality!
You guys do rock!
I was going to clip the real good lines but there are too many! On a short thread that is awsome!
One of the most profound (IMHO):
"Now, of course, as Digby always points out, it will be Bush who has failed conservatism, and not conservatism (or at least contemporary conservatism) that has failed."
Digby and Don - excellent!
Thanks
capt
Posted by: capt at August 21, 2006 04:37 AM
Re: The Democratic takeover?
It is fun to talk about but even if (and that is a mighty big IF) the neocons manage to mess up on the vote stealing and disenfranchisement thing and IF November IS by some miracle a free and fair election, the idea of a major take-over is a pipe-dream. One would have to assume many of the mindless that vote for someone because they might like to have a beer with them have become educated or had some political epiphany. Not a bet I would be willing to make.
Too many delusional registered to vote. Too many potential Democrats not registered and too many willing to disenfranchise themselves out of dismay over the results of previous elections and the negative impact those elected have wrought.
The best thing we all can do is vote, encourage others to vote and make sure the nefarious vote stealing bastards HAVE to steal the election. To do otherwise just gives them the election.
One scary thought I have had is the MSM playing up the potential takeover as a ploy to further dishearten the progressives? To create an atmosphere of the infallibility of the Nazis . .er . .um . . neocons?
But what do I know?
capt
Posted by: capt at August 21, 2006 05:04 AM
Months after making headlines, John Murtha's popularity booming
[..]
On Aug. 9 at the Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York's Central Park, Murtha appeared at a rally for Eric Massa, a retired Navy commander who's trying to unseat Rep. John "Randy" Kuhl, R-N.Y.
Massa said Murtha "couldn't speak, the applause and the standing ovation was so prolonged and intense. He speaks the truth. He's not deterred by critics. As the failures of the Bush administration in Iraq have become more obvious, his credibility has significantly increased."
Murtha said he was too old to consider running for president, but that he'd try to become majority leader if Democrats gained the 15 seats they needed to take charge of the House.
"I'm on a mission here, and the mission is to help change the direction of the country," he said.
Murtha doesn't think there are war-related grounds to impeach President Bush. But he likens Bush's weakened status to President Richard Nixon's in 1974 before Watergate forced him to resign.
"He lost all his power in that one year," recalled Murtha, who won his seat that year in a special election. "What a limitation there is on the power of a president, or any public official. When people lose confidence in that official, they have no power at all."
Murtha's outspokenness has made him a target. A North Carolina-based group called Vets for the Truth has launched a "Boot Murtha" campaign, inviting protesters to an Oct. 1 rally in Johnstown.
More HERE
*****end of clip*****
In all honesty I have taken issue with MurthaÕs readiness to support all or any military action. I am anti-war to my core and have been for many years. THAT is why MurthaÕs position on Iraq is more true and more sincere in my eyes, not less so.
capt
Posted by: capt at August 21, 2006 05:56 AM
Lieberman calls for Rumsfeld's resignation
Sen. Joe Lieberman, attacked by fellow Democrats as being too close to the White House on the Iraq War, on Sunday called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign but said the United States cannot "walk away" from the Iraqis.
Lieberman, the one-time Democratic vice presidential candidate, is running as an independent in his bid for a fourth term since losing the Democratic nomination to newcomer Ned Lamont, who harnessed voters' anger against the war in Iraq.
Lieberman, an early supporter of the Iraq war, said he had called for Rumsfeld to step down in 2003.
"With all respect to Don Rumsfeld, who has done a grueling job for six years, we would benefit from new leadership to work with our military in Iraq," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Lieberman said the Bush administration should have sent more troops into Iraq "to secure the country."
"We had a naive vision that the Iraqis were going to embrace us and then go on and live happily ever after," he said.
Lieberman said the administration must "put severe pressure on the Iraqis to contain sectarian violence."
"There is still hope in Iraq and as long as there is we cannot just pick up and walk away and leave them to the sure disaster that would follow and would compromise our security in the war on terrorism," he said.
The Lamont campaign issued a statement Sunday criticizing Lieberman for trying to "paint himself as courageous for clinging to the failed 'stay the course' policy in Iraq and not listening to the voters of Connecticut on the need to change course."
"His new found 'criticism' of the war won't convince Connecticut voters after so many years of stubbornly rubber-stamping Bush's failed policies," the statement said
More HERE
*****end of clip*****
What as guy Lieberman is, eh?
The idea that HE wants Rummy's job is not lost in the muddled statements he makes. Seems like he is running for Indy Senator AND Sec. Defense at the same time - a familiar tact, eh?
capt
Posted by: capt at August 21, 2006 06:19 AM
I meant "What A guy" not "what as guy"
When will the spellchecker actually correct the use of the wrong word in the wrong place?
capt
Posted by: capt at August 21, 2006 06:21 AM
HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY
For the past t