Sunday Open Thread
Comments (297) «
Where'd they go pee-wee? Your boss won't pay you? You can sue for that.
Every Jean Schmidt yard sign in the county went down overnight
MAKE SURE YOU PRINT THIS OFF AND CARRY IT WITH YOU IN YOUR PHONE BANKING AND DOOR TO DOORS!
tHEY WANT TO TRY AND RUN ON THE ECONOMY???
LET THEM:
Top Government Official Says US on Verge of Economic Disaster
Written by the AP
Esme: Still thinking about your family!
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{ BIG HUGS }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
Todays big hugs for Esme and all those hard working Democratic Candidate grassroots workers!
You know who you are, and again I thank you!
Keep up the efforts - it all helps.
Pamb - hows everything looking for Lamont? Is he hanging in there o k? I know you all are working really, really hard.
Anyone planning to put up Governor Dean's outstanding appearance on Face the Nation today?
I was looking for it at You Tube under Democratic Videos.
Don't know whether you're going to voter Republican or not? Here, take some government money. Think that will help you decide?
GOP at a loss? Karl Rove has an 11th-hour plan to win.
He taps government resources to boost candidates in need.
During a whirlwind five-hour trip to bolster an endangered GOP congressman's reelection prospects, White House political guru Karl Rove last week delivered a fiery speech to 500 party activists, then shook every available hand and posed for snapshots like a rock star. He toured suburbs recently trashed by a snowstorm. He also found time to huddle with local strategists.
But the most significant element of Rove's effort to help four-term Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds keep his job may have occurred behind closed doors, when the White House strategist met with a federal disaster relief official contemplating how to respond to the storm. Four days later, Reynolds announced that President Bush would authorize millions of dollars in federal disaster aid for the area.
The timing was perfect: Reynolds broke the news hours after testifying before the House Ethics Committee about his role in the Mark Foley sex scandal — knocking reports on the scandal out of the spotlight.
LA Times
I'm still shocked that we are still fighting a tactic, terrorism, after six years and are just now beginning to realize that no central command linking all who use terror to their advantage ever existed. Why can't our president and his administration apply concepts as simple as "know your enemy" before launching a full scale military assualt?
The Wal-Mart puke, Terry Nelsen was forced to resign from Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart, fearing a backlash because of the racist ad against Harold Ford, canidate for the Sanate let Nelsen go. Nelsen, who is a pug consultant was responsible for the ad.
Saudi Arabia is the central front in the War On Terror.
Mississippi is the central front in the War On Poverty.
domingo- guess this schmidt story is going to get some play around the country- glad to see it- i posted the enquirer article at the end of the last marathon thread- the guy at kos is right about the article- here's the thing, no real attempt to grapple with what her record actually is and what it might mean to southern ohio- their pathetic endorsement of her (she knows how to step in it but we're endorsing her anyway because she is such a busy little congresswoman) touts her "experience" when what they really need to be asking are why she consistently sides with corporate interests to the long-term detriment of her constituents- neither the article or their endorsement address this as the reason that she is now apparently beholden to some company that wants to bring nuclear waste to southern ohio
gotta run
Partisan rhetoric even in wartime sets Bush apart.
Bush now routinely labels Democrats "the party of cut-and-run." At a recent Republican fundraiser, Bush went much further. "The Democrat Party … has evolved from one that was confident in its capacity to help deal with the problems of the world to one that … has an approach of doubt and defeat," he declared.
Bush has absorbed his share of body blows from Democrats criticizing his management of the war. But tagging his rivals as the party of "defeat" is nonetheless extraordinary language for a commander in chief to use in a political campaign.
Other wartime presidents have been much more reluctant to argue that only their party was committed to success. Consider the way President Johnson approached the 1966 elections as the Vietnam War was escalating. To begin with, Johnson spent most of that October away from the campaign, on a 17-day tour of Asia that included Vietnam.
Then, at a news conference just before election day, Johnson dismissed the idea that congressional losses for the Democratic Party would affect either the thinking of the North Vietnamese or America's support for the troops in the field. If Republicans gained seats, he continued, "They may talk, and argue, and fight, and criticize, and play politics from time to time, but when they call the vote on supporting the men … in the Senate it will be 83 to 2 and in the House it will be 410-5."
In 1942, the first election after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was even more emphatic about separating war and politics. Roosevelt spent much of that fall visiting defense facilities on a tour during which he barred press coverage and insisted on being accompanied by Republican as well as Democratic local officials. When the chairman of the Democratic National Committee suggested that a GOP takeover of the House would be bad for the country, Roosevelt publicly rebuked him.
Even President Nixon displayed more restraint during the 1970 midterm election. Nixon barnstormed the country asking voters to elect members of Congress who would support his war policy. But he took pains to avoid claiming that only his party wanted to win. "This is not a partisan issue," Nixon declared that October at a rally for a Texas Republican Senate candidate named George H.W. Bush.
LA Times
You bring up a very good point Domingo. By dividing our country so politically, the president turns his back on his role as Commander in Chief. He believes himself to be the leader of the Republican party when he is, in fact, the leader of both. The division he creates extends to our military members as well. Where is our uniter?
One of the first lessons a leader must learn is that he has no favorites, just subordinates. Bush would rather have friends than lead effectively.
Has anyone been looking into the North American Union, I have not heard it come up in any of the debates, and I have listened to many not just in TN.?
Does anyone have any information.
I remember that several companies are involved, such as Fedex, UPS and I believe Wal-mart. I don't like the fact that it allows crossroad long haul drivers to travel from canada all the way through the USA on to Mexico and vice-versa.
Lot's of activity here today I see. Everyone must be out campaigning for losers.
hi dk2
this is the official information from the guvmint
This is too funny. Apple-Bobbing at the Cheney's.
Our spy kids got this one:
Mr. Will, active in left-leaning political causes, was filming the standoff for an organization called Independent Media Center, or Indymedia. He was among the plaintiffs who had won a $120,000 settlement from New York City after officials demolished an East Fifth Street building despite a judge’s order that it remain standing until people squatting there could retrieve their belongings.
Mr. Will worked as a freelance photographer and reporter for the New York City chapter of the Indypendent, a radical collective that published a weekly newspaper and maintained a Web site dedicated to subjects like immigration, the Iraq war and the struggles of the developing world. In recent years he traveled widely in Latin America.
In Manhattan on Saturday night, about 100 people gathered outside the Mexican Consulate for a somber remembrance of Mr. Will. People lighted candles and incense and held a large banner that read, “Bring Brad Will’s Assassin to Justice.”
Witnesses in Oaxaca said a plainclothes police officer was responsible for his death. Protest leaders said such violence by the authorities would only inflame the already volatile situation.
The Oaxaca attorney general, Lizbeth Cana, labeled the protesters urban guerrillas and said it was understandable that local people were lashing out at them violently. “The people are fed up with permanent violence, threats and kidnappings,” she said, according to The Associated Press. But the mayor of a nearby town said the five men being detained for possible involvement in Mr. Will’s killing were not disgruntled ordinary local citizens but police officers and local officials.
There is no central command of terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic used by many independent groups in the Middle East. All fight for their own reasons, sometimes against one another. Because their is no central command of terrorism, we must focus our attention on those groups who threaten the United States specifically.
If we choose to continue to refer to our enemies as simply terrorists, then we will never develop the understanding of them that will allow us to defeat or to otherwise subdue them. We will instead be left running around like chickens with our heads cut off as we despirately attempt to destroy a movement that does not exist. This is where the president has gone wrong.
Recognize your true enemies. Do not confuse them with their tactics or their ethnicity. Do not attack their ethnicity especially, because doing so will only lead to increased interest in their movement by people of that ethnicity and thus greater recruitment. Many Americans are confused and need despirately to learn these lessons.
I thought Sun Tzu was required readign for the MBA.
Terror is an emotion and terrorism a tactic. Neither describes a human organization that can be defeated through military means.
Posted by BlueGirlRedState on October 29, 2006 at 03:15 PM
Thanks - A good laugh was needed
I thought Sun Tzu was required readign for the MBA.
You noticed that I've gone back to basics have you?
Or were you looking over the reading lists posted here earlier?
Outstanding journalistic report on the effects of extreme poverty: Africa’s World of Forced Labor, in a 6-Year-Old’s Eyes
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
Don't miss the short video. This is where we should be focusing our eleven million dollars an hour on war. This is why the most courageous of our humans will stop this insane cycle of violence and evolve. This is why our thrust for world domination is so evil.
Marine,
do you recall the story from last week where the "military experts" couldn't describe the differences between Sunni and Shia? we are geographic in our self-identification. not all cultures are, especially ancient ones like the tribal people of the region where we're flushing eleven million an hour
i am totally opposed to the whole operation in Iraq and was appalled when we bombed Afghanistan. what are your comments on the french intel reports coming out of that quagmire?
Africa is a basket case. They obviously can't govern themselves. Rhodesisa was an exporter of wheat before they kicked the British out and now they can't even feed themselves. They need to invite the colonial powers back in.
Posted by dixiehen on October 29, 2006 at 03:37 PM
dixiehen, did i read you lost your nephew in the war?
I haven't seen everything that the French are reporting, but what little I have seen leads me to believe that what I'm suggesting here is true, that Bush and company went after a tactic and failed to identify their human enemy beforehand. These uneducated politcal leaders thought that a similar tactic meant that a centralized command element existed. Only now do they admit that this was not the case, although they do so far too slowly for strategy to catch up.
Democrats: To fix Iraq, first GOP must go
Full story:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/28/Dems.radio.ap/index.html
Posted by fade2bluz on October 29, 2006 at 03:19 PM
thanks for the info on Brad Will.
Mexican riot police have advanced on the southern city of Oaxaca, where protesters have been rallying against the state governor for five months.
Backed by helicopters and armoured trucks, police destroyed a street barricade erected by demonstrators, but met little initial resistance.
The unrest began when striking teachers and leftists occupied the town centre.
But now some 70,000 teachers, who were demanding higher pay, have reportedly agreed to return to work on Monday. bbc
Bloomberg is an idiot! Look what this moron is doing! Bloomberg raises cash for Lieberman
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/28/lieberman.bloomberg.ap/index.html
The New York Times endorses Ned Lamont! Read and then forward the article to your friends and personal contacts.
As a Canadian general prepares to hand over command of NATO troops in southern Afghanistan, he says the environment has been "more dangerous" than any other he's faced in a 26-year career.
The Canadian Press
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/10/29/afghanistan-fraser.html
Lieberman is just going to divide the Republican and Independant vote, he never was a Democrat.
A roadside blast killed one NATO soldier and wounded eight others in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said Sunday, without disclosing the nationality of any of the soldiers.
Three civilians were wounded in the blast, which occurred Sunday in Uruzgan province, NATO said.
Full story:
Lieberman is just going to divide the Republican and Independant vote, he never was a Democrat.
Posted by Marine on October 29, 2006 at 03:55 PM
Which is exactly why some serious activism is needed by Democrats to help Ned Lamont win this election. We can't afford to lose this Senate seat to Liberman.
Gunmen have kidnapped and killed 17 policemen near the southern Iraqi city of Basra, police sources have said. Full story:
We can't afford to lose this Senate seat to Liberman.
I agree.
from Asia Times:
'Stability First': Newspeak for rape of Iraq
By Pepe Escobar
Marine: On the topic of The Art of WarI'm the wife of a cold-war officer. They won theirs using those principles. It is much better to win without ever firing a shot. That's as basic as it gets. It's all very Zen. I know my Sun Tzu and have been trying to get people to go back to the basics for a long time.
Tony Blair's most trusted military commander yesterday branded as 'cuckoo' the way Britain's overstretched army was sent into Afghanistan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1934413,00.html
Hello Dems,
Feeling a little down today. Just got back from phone banking for Tammy, and I got a lot of people cursing at me. This race is going down to the wire.
On a good note, I got to meet Dick Durbin.
On the Sunni/Shia thing, I was an advisor to the Afghan National Army for a year, and half of my fellow advisors couldn't tell you the difference between the two. It is very similar to Protestant vs. Catholic thing. The Shia believe their religious leaders are actually the descendents of chosen profits--you have to be one of them to be a mullah, while the sunni view their leaders as just representatives. They accuse each other of being radicals and on the wrong path. Oh, how I hate religion.
Posted by DemocratKickingAss on October 29, 2006 at 03:49 PM
God bless Webb and keep his son safe.
marine, your confirmation bias aside:
well, it's not going well in Afghanistan. hello, lockdown?
To those of us here that can't understand that Africa is a continent and not a single political entity, I feel sorry for you.
Actually, some countries in Africa are pretty stable and democratic, (i.e. Ghana)
Oops I stepped in cow dung, sorry.
Feel free to use this if you are so inclined:
We are going to keep winning because we are not out parents democratic party. Rather, we are our grandparents Democratic Party.
{{{ranger}}}
imagine...eh? Durbin is a gem. I met him at St. Louis Kerry HQ and he is so gracious. You're in the trenches.
We stopped our calling, since we met our objectives. There is a danger, as in Claire McKaskill's campaign, that the voters are pestered by too many groups and it does more harm than good.
You're doing what you can. Thank you!
Posted by pee-wee on October 29, 2006 at 04:10 PM
So that a select few contractors with close ties to republicans could get filthy rich....MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
BlueGirl, I expected Iraq to be handled in the same manner. All would be well today if it had.
It just makes me sick, seeing how ignorant some of our political leaders are when it comes to warfare, mainly because they influence our military approach. In six years, I haven't seen one intelligent move accepted by these people.
Oops I stepped in cow dung, sorry.
Posted by ranger995 on October 29, 2006 at 04:09 PM
yes, okay. now wipe your slippers off and grab yourself a cold drink. these things are best ignored. i wish we'd put the "smash the troll" button up again. when we slipped up, we'd donate ten bucks. sometimes i weighed out my options and made that ten bucks count!
again, it's okay. you've earned it
Posted by fade2bluz on October 29, 2006 at 04:08 PM
It breaks my heart to see things going poorly in Afghanistan, I think everyone there had such high hopes. If only we put the effort there and not elsewhere. Now it is starting to look like what I worked hard to do for a year in that place is for nothing. Meanwhile, the Taleban, Al Qaeda, and HIG are growing in popularity both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Just great!!!
ranger - welcome to friendly territory - I promise not to curse you.
Thank for your work helping Tammy and serving this country.
Hope you plan to be here for the celebration on 11/8
Remember it ain't over til the fat lady sings. We need to keep phoning, canvassing, and GOTV
I am g;ad they finally canceled daylight savings time. the extra hour of daylight is what was causing global warming.
Fade,
From now on, we will only be doing door to door canvassing and GOTV. I hope that has better affects. My mood has definitely grown sour lately.
Marine - Do you know many SAC officers? They are a unique group.
ranger, I just saw a Marine Reserve Unit, one trained specifically for Cold Weather operations, come back from Iraq after 7 months deployed. This was a unit of gunners who could have done a lot of good in Afghanistan this winter who's time was instead wasted in the desert.
Durbin is a great guy, and he made a point to come and speak with everyone individually. He also made a great speech. I am glad he represents us. Glad you were here today fade!
Hi dixiehen, Marine, and others...
Ok, we are going to host a Halloween thing at our place tonight, and I promised to make a pumpkin pie. I have always like making pies. I once had an officer make fun of me for making pies, he said "men don't make no pies in the south where I come from!" I never took shit from officers, so I replied "Maybe if your boys had some better field cookin' you wouldn't have gotten your asses beat in the civil war"
Marine,
I don't know how long ago you were in, but when I was in the Marines we all had to go to cold weather training--all infantry anyway.
I served in Afghanistan as a tactical advisor to the Afghan National Army, and I lived with them in 3/3 and 2/3 area of operations in Afghanistan. I understand the Marines are not doing anymore rotations there. Oh well, the people I worked on the company level with were pretty good, but their BC was a retard, just like the Army. Getting rank has become extremely political--all nay sayers are thrown out. That is why I think we are not getting any fresh ideas out of the military commanders.
Maybe if your boys had some better field cookin' you wouldn't have gotten your asses beat in the civil war"
Posted by ranger995 on October 29, 2006 at 04:25 PM
LMAO and great to see you! Best regards to your wife and our sincere thanks for all that you both do. Enjoy the party and the creativity with pumpkin.
Later, everyone
Posted by fade2bluz on October 29, 2006 at 04:14 PM
{{{FADE}}}
SAC officers can be some insufferable pricks. I used to hear the following, shall we say, ad nauseum...
"Peace Through Strength -- Victory Through Devastation"
"Peace Is Our Profession" or more ferquently "peace is our profession. War is out hobby
"To err is human. To forgive is divine. Neither is SAC policy"
Now I hear constantly...
"The Cold War didn't just end, it was WON!" Motto of the Society of the Strategic Air Command.
But think about it...Never before in history did any group of people have at their fingertips so much raw paower. And neveer has any group of people shown more restraint. I include the cold warriors on both sides in that assessment.
ranger, I know everyone attends cold weather training, but these guys lived in cold weather environments and do much better operating under those conditions because of it. Other units suffer, despite their cold weather training, because there is only so much that infrequent cold weather ops can prepare a unit for.
Steve, you are no longer funny. You are no longer clever. You are a g'd awful nusience. Very tiresome. Why do you like to be hated so?
You must have a horrible personality deficiency. Feeling sorry for you is beyound capacity. Either adapt a new persona or leave.
John Kerry teams up with Ned Lamont at a veterans event. Watch the video:
Getting rank has become extremely political
The most political SOB on the planet is a Bird Colonel with stars in his (or her) eyes.
Blue, I know only one man who worked so close to the power you describe, and he's still serving, just not for this country.
The hardest thing for me to accept when I became a Marine is that the Marine Corps as a whole hasn't got a clue when it comes to Cold Weather Operations.
Marine,
Didn't mean to offend you if I did. Anyway, it would probably have been better for them to go to NTC to get ready for Iraq. However, I think it does get cold there, particulary in western and northern Iraq. Anyway, Marine units are no longer in the rotation for Afghanistan. I think it is going to be the sole work of the 10th Mountain division, which makes sense to me. I worked with both over there, and they were pretty comparable. I just wish we would put more effort into training the ANA.
Oh well, take care Dems
dk, sorry I missed you this morning.
Your question on Lamont.
A supposed Rasmusson poll about to be released, if true, has Lieberman at 48%, Lamont at 40%, and the Republican up to 9%. Lieberman now below 50% mark.
Lamont's own polling has it much closer than that obviously flawed one of Quinnipiac a couple weeks ago.
We shall see on Election day.
I just got my mail from yesterday. There was a Mailer from Lieberman in it. IT IS SO pathetic, inside big red section "Warning, Do not Ned Lamont's Lies".
Now Ned has been playing old Joe Lieberman tapes, word for word. He has been printing articles of Joe's, word for word. He has been showing Joe's voting record, and what they mean.
Yet Joe wants people to think these are LIES?
too freaken pitiful!
I live with one of the cocky bastards.
They do one little thing like win the Cold War, and they get all insufferable.
seriously, at any given time there were 90 ELAB enlisted troops and maybe ten officers, spread over all three Titan II bases. There were maybe 30 enlisted personnel who could be trused in the silos and perhaps 4 or 5 officers. It's a really small club.
ranger, I couldn't agree with you more. And you didn't offend.
Posted by BlueGirlRedState on October 29, 2006 at 04:36 PM
I know that this has always been true, but I have 17 years of experience and it is a lot worse now than when I joined. Commanders use to invite the opinions of PLs, COs, and senior NCOS, now you are reprimanded for voicing your opinion, and I am talking about for tactical reasons, not political. I remember getting threatened with an article 15 when I pointed out some inconsistencies in an OPORD once, it has gotten crazy.
ranger - I think I know your southern officer (or several of his ilk).
marine - my son who was in marine reserve unit said the marines get the navy left overs. The reserves get active duty left overs.
Can anyone explain to me why we can train American military for Iraq in months but can't train Iraqis in years?
That is a good question dixie. I'd say that it has something to do with the fact that we were unwilling to work with the army in existance after Saddam was removed. There is an awful shortage when it comes to experienced leadership because most of it went to militias and insurgent groups then.
Posted by Marine on October 29, 2006 at 04:40 PM
You really think so? I served in both Army and Marines, and I got much better cold weather training in the Marines. That being said, Marine units rarely deploy to cold weather areas for training as a unit. Mostly, just individual stuff. At least the Marines from 2/3 went to the mountain warfare training center before they came to Afghanistan. I went to Fort Hood, not a mountain in site. Oh well, I really have to get cookin' now.
Good luck to all Dems
BGRS,
I am not too sure they should take so much credit for "winning the cold war" I think we owe a little bit of that to people like Boris Yeltsin, who stood on the turret of a tank and convinced them to shoot the Duma instead of the people. Although a drunk, he was pretty heroic. Maybe some of those people in Russia who wanted change should get some credit.
Hey guys did anyone see an article from the LA Times about Rove's plan for the midterms. Interesting read.
Pam B
Hang in there. Anything is possible. Lamont took Joe once, hopefully he can do it again.
NYT endorsement may help.
Thanks for all your hard work!!!!!
ranger, I ran into the same political atmosphere a few times during my time in service. In most cases I considered this to be a result of inexperienced leadership, while in other cases I saw a simple lack of understanding at work. Too many of our leaders were perverted by agressive anti-fraternization regulations that convinced them that simple communication was to be avoided. For whatever reason, many of todays leaders fail to understand that they can communicate and issue orders.
ranger, I might be biased because I've always been use to cold weather.
Sadam's lawyers want verdict held up until after election.
Foley should be out of rehab before the election.
It will be getting interesting.
Got to run- keep the faith
Posted by dixiehen on October 29, 2006 at 04:46 PM
For several reasons, I know because we are not doing a great job in Afghanistan either, and that was part of my mission there.
1) We do not take it seriously. We are not putting a great deal of money or effort into the training. For example, I worked with a team advising an ANA infantry battalion, there were 12 of us, and only 5-6 were infantrymen. Tell me, how can an LTC from the Corps of Engineers teach the Afghan BC to be an Infantry commander? We had two navy guys assigned to our team that had never been on an infantry patrol, not even in training. Yet they were expected to teach these things to the ANA
2) The ANA don't trust us that much, because we give them shitty supplies and bases. While our large bases in Baghram and Kabul were getting dairy queens built on them, we couldn't get materials to build defensive barriers on our bases in the Kunar province, where we were rocketed a lot.
3) The Americans doing the training don't get sufficient cultural training beforehand. This leads to a lot of American advisors despising their ANA counterparts. I found that the Afghans do not respond to yelling or degredation like our soldiers do. This is a big faux paux, you have to sit down have tea and always maintain your cool, then they respect you and will do anything for you. Most Americans scream and yell, because that works with our joes, but this would only make the Afghans not want to do anything at all--then people called them lazy.
4) Lastly, the vast majority of Afhgans were joining the Army to get paid. They were not nationalistic or patriotic. That is not to say that they weren't brave and trustworthy--I learned they were firsthand. However, they tended no to care all that much about routing out the enemy. Also, there is an enormous amount of corruption in the ANA, I mean out right stealing going on.
Credit goes to both sides. have you ever heard of Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov?
I was just saying that theya re an insufferable lot. Especially when you get them together.
The remnants of the Cold War are all gone, just about (We'll always have Incirlik!!!) but we went to a big "Do" as Molly Ivins would say -bby a "Big Do" I mean gowns and mess dress - one night at the O Club when we were at Rhine Mein. It was after the Soviet Union disbanded, and there were Russian officers in attendance. It was surreal to sit at a table with my husbands cold war counterpart and ooh and aah over pictures of one anothers kids.
Hi Pamb:
Don't you all give up yet, man the torpedos and batten down the hatches, it may be a bumpy ride, we must get all the big wig Democrats there this week to help. I hope Tim T is sending out the SOS to Hillary and BIll, and all the others, it would be a smash week if you all could get many big names there to out show the other side.
You all are doing great, many prayers for your success! BIG HUGS TO ALL OF YOU THERE!
Someone needs to tell them to get rid of that slogan because it's well known and documented that Lincoln had absolutely no use for the slaves
Posted by J on October 29, 2006 at 01:26 AM
Well of course Lincoln had no use for the slaves - he lived in a free state. Duh
Posted by FrostyMacCowpie on October 29, 2006 at 01:44 AM
I would hope you didn't intend your response to be funny or to make light of the institution of slavery and the people that endured it. Or maybe you're not intelligent enough to understand the connotation or meaning of the word "use" as it applied to the post.
Lincoln was not a fan of black people and wanted as others of that time for the "negro problem" to go away. I notice that you use the word "negro" in refering to African-Americans. Can it be that you're caught in a loop of that time frame?
Here is a great Radio ad of Ned's about to come out this week! Give it a quick listen.
You will get a chuckle,
"Throw Him Out A Second Time"
Had enough?
Download: (mp3)
Thanks dk, and dixie and all of you.
One of the things that helped so much, was the out of state support that we Lamont supporters got! We won't ever give up, don;'t worry.
Copied from The Washington Monthly
THE GRANDEUR OF THE PRESIDENCY....What's the most addle-brained thing George Bush said during his sit-down with conservative columnists on Wednesday? It's a tough choice, so I'm going to let you make it. Here are the nominees:
Bush: "Iran empowered Hezbollah, Hezbollah takes the attack, and — which creates an interesting dynamic, and it gives us an opportunity to fashion kind of – an alliance of reasonable people headed toward a clash — all kinds of different ways, by the way — with extremists and radicals."
Matt Yglesias: It's easy to get distracted by the fact that Bush doesn't seem familiar with the English language and miss the fact that beneath the garbled syntax Bush is making a clear — and utterly incorrect — factual claim here that the upshot of the war was to cement an alliance between the United States, Israel, and moderate forces in the Arab world.
Bush: "One of the stories — interesting stories I tell is about the fellow that came here. He got kidnapped and he was rescued pretty early by our Delta team. I said, 'What's it like to be kidnapped, man? It must have been weird — Baghdad, to be kidnapped.'"
Steve Benen: For some reason, reading this reminded me an episode of The West Wing called, "Posse Comitatus."....
Bush: "A lot of people are just saying, 'You're not doing enough to win. We're not winning, you're not doing enough to win, and I'm frustrated, I want it over with, with victory.' And I'm trying to figure out a matrix that says things are getting better. I think that one way to measure is less violence than before, I guess...."
Byron York: But that, of course, leads back to the president's statement that the enemy gets to define victory by killing people. If the sectarian forces are able to keep up the killing, then they will determine who wins in Iraq. [Kinda weak, Byron. Needs more snark. You can do better. –ed]
Bush: "If we do not defeat the terrorists or extremists in Iraq, they will gain access to vast oil reserves, and use Iraq as a base to overthrow moderate governments across the broader Middle East."
Marc Lynch: This is just idiotic. The Sunni areas in which al-Qaeda would hope to reconstitute a base don't have any significant oil reserves — this is one of the primary problems with most partition or federalism schemes.
Leave your vote in comments!
—Kevin Drum
Has to be #2, by a mile. I mean, come on:
"One of the stories — interesting stories I tell is about the fellow that came here. He got kidnapped and he was rescued pretty early by our Delta team. I said, 'What's it like to be kidnapped, man? It must have been weird — Baghdad, to be kidnapped."
Not only is this just a stooopidly obtuse thing to say, it reveals Bush's genuine lack of empathic ability and tendency to look on the rest of the world as if it were filled with toys instead of living beings. Gee, fella, what's it like? 'Cause I don't have time to think much about stuff like that. As fatuous as talking heads who ask newly grieving parents what it's like to watch their children die. But since he actually holds the lives of millions in his hands, it's far more dangerous.
Posted by: Riggsveda on October 27, 2006 at 1:44 PM
Agree with him completely, Riggsveda that is.
BEWARE, THEY ARE STARTING ALREADY !
11 in O.C. Charged With Voter Registration Fraud
By Christian Berthelsen and Christine Hanley
The Los Angeles Times
Friday 27 October 2006
Dozens of people who thought they were signing up to be Democrats ended up Republican. Those accused in the case are low-level, per-signature workers.
"As Richard Holbrooke, the broker of the Bosnia peace accords, has observed, the only real choice left for the president now is either "escalation or disengagement." But there are no troops, let alone money or national will, for escalation. Disengagement within a year, however, is favored by 54 percent of Americans and, more important, 71 percent of Iraqis. After Election Day, adults in Washington will step in, bow to the obvious and pull the plug. The current administration strategy - praying for a miracle - is not an option. The current panacea favored by anxious Republican Congressional candidates - firing Donald Rumsfeld - is too little, too late.
You know, I think I'm living in bizarro world . . .
Togetherness In Baghdad By George F. Will
A surreal and ultimately disgusting facet of the Iraq fiasco is the lag between when a fact becomes obvious and when the fiasco's architects acknowledge that fact. Iraq's civil war has been raging for more than a year; so has the Washington debate about whether it is what it is.
In a recent interview with Vice President Cheney, Time magazine asked, "If you had to take back any one thing you'd said about Iraq, what would it be?" Selecting from what one hopes is a very long list, Cheney replied: "I thought that the elections that we went through in '05 would have had a bigger impact on the level of violence than they have ... I thought we were over the hump in terms of violence. I think that was premature."
He thinks so? Clearly, and weirdly, he implies that the elections had some positive impact on the level of violence. Worse, in the full transcript of the interview posted online he said the big impact he expected from the elections "hasn't happened yet." "Yet"? Doggedness can be admirable, but this is clinical.
Anyway, what Cheney actually said 17 months ago was that the insurgency was in its "last throes." That was much stronger than saying we were "over the hump" regarding violence. Beware of people who misquote themselves while purporting to display candor.
Posted by BlueGirlRedState on October 29, 2006 at 03:15 PM
Love that cartoon. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by fade2bluz on October 29, 2006 at 03:10 PM
fade,
So the North America corporate empire is complete?
Posted by Veneita on October 29, 2006 at 05:50 PM
Venitia,
George Will was come out of the Beltway castle long enough to acknowledge one disaster but refuses to face the truth about the true state of the economy.
Go figure.
HEY I HAVE A WAY TO SECURE VOTES. FIRST STAND UP AND GET TOUGH ON BORDER SECURITY, YES AS PAINFULL AS IT IS WE MUST GROW A BACKBONE AND SECURE OUR COUNTRY AT THE RISK OF OFFENDING A FEW. WE DONT HAVE TO KICK OUT ALL THE IMMIGRANTS THAT ARE HERE BUT THEY NEED DOCUMENTATION. HOWEVER IF THEY DO COMMIT A FELONY OR FAIL TO REGISTER THEY SHOULD BE DEPORTED NO QUESTIONS ASKED. NEXT REALIZE THAT WE CANT HELP EVERYBODY ALL THE TIME IT JUST COSTS TOO MUCH. JUST COVER THE BASICS EVERYTHING ELSE IS THE INDIVIDUALS RESPONSIBILITY. RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE WILL REDUCE THE NEED FOR ALOT OF PROGRAMS. SO IF WE CAN GET THE DONE WELL BE LOOKING GREAT IN 08'
True, Unfortunately:
http://www.counterpunch.org/taylor10272006.html
If control of Congress changes hands in January, it will be because the Republicans lost, not because the Democrats won. The national Democratic Party is not trying to win elections this year. It is sitting back, playing it safe, and watching the Republican Party self-destruct. The Democrats have no message beyond tired old clichés they've been spouting for decades. The Republicans are reduced to a different set of clichés-about winning the war and keeping taxes low and standing up for traditional values-but to most Americans these words ring hollow. The Republican record speaks for itself and it contradicts the party's rhetoric.
If Democrats unseat Republicans in Congress, the party should not interpret the result as a mandate for the Clintons, Rahm Emanuel, and the Democratic Leadership Council. It will be nothing of the sort. If Democratic leaders had populist principles and genuine guts, they would bury the Republican hacks in a landslide of 1932 or 1974 proportions. Instead, they will be lucky to eke out a narrow victory. They have pulled their punches and relied on mushy talking points with little popular appeal. They are complicit in the very policies most disliked by Americans: war in Iraq, plutocratic government, dogmatic materialism, runaway federal expenditures, outsourcing of jobs, illegal immigration for the sake of corporate exploitation, and civil liberties sacrificed in a climate of fear.
Democrats in Washington have nothing to offer populist, libertarian, or evangelical Americans, but it's become obvious to many Republicans of those varieties that they've been taken for a ride. So, on Election Day they will either stay home or vote (D) to teach (R) a lesson. But the 2006 results will not change the fact that the Democratic Party has serious ongoing problems.
There has been an organized concerted effort by certain "conservative" Republicans to establish a Republican party that will never again lose control of Congress or the White House. This program started during Reagan's term in office and the effectiveness of this group became evident in the surprising takeover of congress by the Republican Party during the Clinton Administration. Sure, Clinton beat Bush, but the focus was on Congress. If you have that you can either capture or neutralize the presidency. And they did both. It isn't just election politics. It is deeply invasive of every part of Government. Their intent was to eliminate all Democrat sources of money and influence by capturing and controlling the Lobby industry. They purposefully promoted programs that would export manufacturing jobs, the historical strength of the Democrats, overseas, eliminating this base of support. They were far down the road to locking Democrats out when the illusions their program was based on evaporated and it began to implode. De Lay was even travelling to defeated Democratic candidates home areas and attempting to damage their reputations to eliminate them from future races. Although I haven't run across any references suggesting they were trying to establish a one-party system, many of the people central to this effort have spoken about the organized intent to lock Democrats out of power permanently. Hence the rhetoric accusing Democrats of being cowardly, dishonest, disloyal and stupid. Yet this entire effort, so well organized and orchestrated successfully over so many years, is the perfect example of all of those characterizations. The concept of "unethical" pales in comparison to the abominably evil, scheming, piratical plans of this group of Republicans. Fortunately, they don't truly represent the greater body of the Republican Party. Unfortunately, that GOP willingly blinded themselves to the greater moral depravity of this naked assault on our hard-won principles just to be part of the dominant political party for the immediate moment.
http://www.counterpunch.org/taylor10272006.html
True, Unfortunately:
If control of Congress changes hands in January, it will be because the Republicans lost, not because the Democrats won. The national Democratic Party is not trying to win elections this year. It is sitting back, playing it safe, and watching the Republican Party self-destruct. The Democrats have no message beyond tired old clichés they've been spouting for decades.
If Democrats unseat Republicans in Congress, the party should not interpret the result as a mandate for the Clintons, Rahm Emanuel, and the Democratic Leadership Council. It will be nothing of the sort. If Democratic leaders had populist principles and genuine guts, they would bury the Republican hacks in a landslide of 1932 or 1974 proportions. Instead, they will be lucky to eek out a narrow victory. They have pulled their punches and relied on mushy talking points with little popular appeal. They are complicit in the very policies most disliked by Americans: war in Iraq, plutocratic government, dogmatic materialism, runaway federal expenditures, outsourcing of jobs, illegal immigration for the sake of corporate exploitation, and civil liberties sacrificed in a climate of fear.
Democrats in Washington have nothing to offer populist, libertarian, or evangelical Americans, but it's become obvious to many Republicans of those varieties that they've been taken for a ride. So, on Election Day they will either stay home or vote (D) to teach (R) a lesson. But the 2006 results will not change the fact that the Democratic Party has serious ongoing problems.
Sorry for the double post.
Worth emphasizing, however.
Emanuel, Schumer, and the DLC hacks and other DINOs are preventing a Democratic landslide.
Every human enterprise on the face of the earth has problems.
Personally, I am feeling better about the Democratic Party than I even have, and I have been a Democrat all my adult life.
At least we are working on our problems, and rebuilding the party from the grass-roots up. I think I will pass on the hand-wringing and concentrate on growing my party from the local level and building on whats right, rather than setting my hair on fire over the things that need work.
Huron,
I don't think one week before the most important election possibly in our lifetime, that we can afford to be spewing Negativism about the party.
The chips have fallen, and tuesday will tell where they lay.
If we do NOT win this, the Democratic Party might just as well roll up it's tent, the Country accept we have and will always have One Party, that being the Republican Facist Party of the USA, and that from this point on, we will be controlled, physically, mentally, emotionally, religiously, family, by the Ideological ideals of the Far Right Wingers!
WOW, Even George Will gets it! Remember when the rest of us were called Anti-american, and un-patriotic when we talked like this???? Now it is the COOL, intelligent thing to do!
A surreal facet of the Iraq fiasco is the lag between when a fact becomes obvious and when the fiasco's architects acknowledge it.
Nov. 6, 2006 issue - Many months ago it became obvious to all but the most ideologically blinkered that America is losing the war launched to deal with a chimeric problem (an arsenal of WMD) and to achieve a delusory goal (a democracy that would inspire emulation, transforming the region). Last week the president retired his mantra "stay the course" because it does not do justice to the nimbleness and subtlety of U.S. tactics for winning the war.
I think I will...concentrate on...the local level.
Absolutely. That is where the war is won. But you have to be aware of what is happening locally all over the country. Thats how we lost control. The Republicans, in the late 80's and early 90's, didn't try to win over the country to their message. Instead they attacked each Democratic candidate one at a time on their own turf, not just to win that office, but to cripple the local Democratic machine and remove potential candidates. The managed to change voting precinct boundaries and cut local Democratic parties off at the knees. It wasn't all done in the press, and it wasn't all done in the election year. It was constant below-the-radar pressure put on individuals. Not just candidates, but potential financial supporters, and even potential campaign workers. A precinct at a time, they tried to cripple the base of the Democratic Party. And now we wonder why the party seems to be so uncoordinated, so dispassionate. We were chopped to pieces for 20 years, and we are just now recognizing it, but still saying "oh surely it wasn't that extensive, that's not politics". Right, it is the actual destruction of a once-powerful political party. Time will tell how close they came.
This bothers me. About a month after Bill Clinton took office the World Trade Center was bombed. This obviously was not in response to any new approach taken by that administration as it had not been in office long enough to change much of anything. On the other hand George W. Bush had been in office for 9 months and had put into practice many new policies by the time the attacks of September 11, 2001 occurred. I honestly believe that these attacks targetted his administration specifically. I'm sure they felt the pressure he applied and were responding to it.
Not only are we losing the hearts and minds of the middle eastern populations, we are losing jobs (as if you need a reminder) Not only are we exporting jobs, we are exporting the technology needed to perform those jobs. When countries such as China and Vietnam start to take over those factories and facilities which American corporations have extablished in their countries, the economic impact will be staggering. The more bogged down we become in the middle east, the weaker we are perceived by our "not so friendly" allies. A country supported by terciary industry alone is destined to become an ex-superpower. If measures are not taken soon to regulate the outsourcing frenzy of today, we are going to pay a high price.
I personally feel that our current government in control feels that they know best, and Do Not have to held accountable, or that the AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO QUESTION "OUR GOVERNMENT". However, they do not seem to understand that "THEY ARE ONLY ELECTED OFFICIALS, and CAN BE REPLACED" for trying to take away our civil liberties. We the people have the right to watch over and question our government. As the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE states, We The People have an obligation and a right to ensure that Any Government in control can not have too much control or power. And if such government attempts to seek such power, that we have the right to replace and put other gaurds in their place to look out for the welfare, and civil liberties for the people. President Bush seems to think that the American People should not be allowed to think, and by his management of "Our Government" he thinks that he is beyond be held accountable, or questioned. The way I see it, President Bush, and his followers are only looking out for the rich, and seems to act as if the rest of the people in the U.S. are not worth making their lives alittle better. Ofcourse, he is a Republican, and heaven forbid if the gap between the rich and poor were to become too close. I see the Republican party as self proclaimed royalty, who really see the majority of America as peasants who need to remember their place and not dare question their tactics or motivations. We the people need to really be worrying if the republican party keeps control, Our Civil Liberties Are In Serious Trouble.
Marine,
here is the indictment from the first bombing of the WTC.
i. At various times between in or about 1992 and
in or about 1996, the defendants USAMA BIN LADEN, MAMDOUH MAHMUD
SALIM, and other ranking members of al Qaeda, stated privately to
other members of al Qaeda that al Qaeda should put aside its
differences with Shiite Muslim terrorist organizations, including
the Government of Iran and its affiliated terrorist group
15
Hizballah, to cooperate against the perceived common enemy, the
United States and its allies;
{i like links, just sayin'}
We can't go back to the days before the invasion of Iraq, when Saddam was in charge and destroying Scuds in a last ditch attempt to ward off that invasion. This frustrates most of us because we saw his behavior for what it was all along, at first defensive and then appeasing. He behaved much like a troubled child who learns as time goes by that he may only get what he wants through cooperation.
Our friends were impatient and now we must suffer the consequences. That's also very difficult to handle. We know that we would not be in this situation had it not been for their overzealous invasion of Saddam's subdued nation. It's obvious now that they saw only opportunity and were in such a hurry to attack that they didn't even give consideration to the mountain of intelligence discussing post-invasion Iraq and how we might best deal with it.
We can't do anything with all these feelings, but be upset, so we must set them aside and prepare for our future. We must pick up where others, unprepared for their own future, left off and we must do so quick. We will need to develop relationships with those we've alienated since this all began. And so much more, too much to list here.
"Not only are we losing the hearts and minds..."
I agree with most of what you have said. But the Peoples Republic of China doesn't want to nationalize those plants. They are quite happy to take just a share of the profits. Why? Because they are getting ALL of the tax revenues brought in by the workers increased wages, as well as the sales tax revenues generated when these workers spend their new disposeable income. And the jobs that spending creates generates more taxes...
Governments don't make money by owning or running industries. They make money by taxing them. We taught them that, now they are beating us about the head and shoulders with it.
Here is part of what DNC is doing with Democracy Bond dollars! You may not see it, but it is happening:
"DNC state-level organizers have been contacting drop-off Democrats-those who vote in presidential elections but not midterms-and have reached half a million in Pennsylvania alone in the past year and a half. Roughly 4,500 of those contacted have taken an active role in this election, displaying a yard sign or staffing a phone bank. "We're doing exactly what we need to do to be organized ..." says Claire McCaskill, the challenger to Republican Jim Talent in Missouri's tight Senate race. "This year just feels so much different than last time."
Unlike the centralized Republican effort, the DNC and the Democrats' House and Senate election committees are each running separate turnout programs. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has put $10 million into its effort, more than twice as much as in 2002, and started working last summer with 40 Democratic House campaigns-mostly challengers-to create field programs that could replicate the GOP's 72-hour plan. The DCCC is also microtargeting voters for the first time, identifying Democratic voters in majority Republican areas rather than simply working Democratic strongholds.
Simply put, every vote counts in every competitive race. As Mike Podhorzer over at AFL-CIO has emphasized:
Easily forgotten is how close 15 of the Republicans' victories were in 1994. Had Democrats in key districts won a combined 52,000 more votes, there would have been no "Speaker Gingrich." That failure continues to devastate our country.
Every vote counts. Take some time and email everyone in your address book and remind them to vote Democratic on November 7th. Follow up again on Election Day.
Get involved. Stay involved. Make history.
call your local Dem offices. See if you can help pull this information for them. It means going to Towns and cities, going through their past voting records and getting information on these voters. Going back and helping input this information into computers ! We MUST catch up with the Repug GOTV machine that has been far more sophisticated than our's up to this point! Finally, we are catching up. Help with the effort.
...I see the Republican party as self proclaimed royalty, who really see the majority of America as peasants who need to remember their place and not dare question their tactics or motivations. We the people need to really be worrying if the republican party keeps control, Our Civil Liberties Are In Serious Trouble.
Posted by Tim_WV on October 29, 2006 at 07:10 PM
Peasants, indeed. You are very likely already some Republican run company wage-slave. That is your place in their scheme of things.
Posted by coeur-de-fer on October 29, 2006 at 07:21 PM
You are correct, of course. The point I wanted to make was that "We Are At The Mercy Of Foreign Governments". If Japan, China, and Korea would close their plants here in the U.S. (I'm not saying that they will) the effect on unempolyment figures would be unimaginable. I say that to say this: We Are At The Mercy Of Foreign Governments". That is not a good position to be in.
fade, that link displayed quite well both the case being made for future prosecution of enemies of the state and the military action taken in an attempt to capture or kill them. That strategy appears to have been more effective than our present course. Their levels of recruitment remained low, aside from those areas surrounding American military operations which should also explain why recruitment has skyrocketed since military operations began in Afghanistan and Iraq.
yesterday there was a story at msnbc or somewhere about a break in the violence marking the end of ramadan and how childern played in parks and laughed for awhile. i hope so hard that finally the incomprehensible nightmare might life for these poor people but it seems not....god help them:
33 Iraqis slain as chaos deepens across country
23 policemen shot to death; Sunni vice president threatens to resign
Updated: 1 hour, 49 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Suspected Sunni Arab gunmen killed 23 policemen Sunday, including 17 in one attack in the predominantly Shiite southern city of Basra, signaling the possible start of an intensified insurgent campaign against Iraq’s predominantly Shiite Muslim security forces.
Political tension deepened in Baghdad when Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, the country’s highest-ranking Sunni politician, threatened to resign if Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not act quickly to eradicate two feared Shiite militias.
oh yeah, kids...the martial law thingie...h/t Mike at Crooks and Liars
SEC. 1076. USE OF THE ARMED FORCES IN MAJOR PUBLIC EMERGENCIES.
(a) USE OF THE ARMED FORCES AUTHORIZED.--
(1) IN GENERAL.--Section 333 of title 10, United States
Code, is amended to read as follows:
`` 333. Major public emergencies; interference with State and
Federal law
``(a) USE OF ARMED FORCES IN MAJOR PUBLIC EMERGENCIES.--
(1) The President may employ the armed forces, including the
National Guard in Federal service, to--
``(A) restore public order and enforce the laws of the United
States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or
other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or
incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the
United States, the President determines that--
``(i) domestic violence has occurred to such an extent
that the constituted authorities of the State or possession
are incapable of maintaining public order; and
``(ii) such violence results in a condition described in
paragraph (2); or
``(B) suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic
violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy if such insurrec-
tion, violation, combination, or conspiracy results in a condition
described in paragraph (2).
``(2) A condition described in this paragraph is a condition
that-- ``(A) so hinders the execution of the laws of a State or
possession, as applicable, and of the United States within that
State or possession, that any part or class of its people is
deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named
in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted
authorities of that State or possession are unable, fail, or refuse
to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that
protection; or
Brad Will was assinated in Oaxaca. Dangerous work, indy media. Rest in peace.
i recommend you go to crooks and liars. page down to michael j fox talking to stephapoulos. watch a hero. watch the future of discourse in america on stem cell research. watch a brave shakey man stick a dagger into the beast of our national soul that rush and hannity and the rest represent without ever mentioning their names. know that in tanks of liquid nitrogen at medical centers around our country there are batches of cells that will be not ever become "snowflake babies" but that will rather become stuff swirling down the toilet.
That is the modified Insurrection Act? I'm wondering, what besides the name was changed? It appeared to me as though our government had the authority to do everything stated here under the previous edition. What am I missing?
The polls now show Linda Stender is a tie with Mike Ferguson for NJ-7th race.
Today, Linda wiped the floor with Fergie in a debate:
Ah, yes, just maybe, Ladybluz, you have me. Some time ago, before blogs, in a group, some discussions about personal pain and a healing heart? Maybe not?
Oaxaca protests are heating up. the people are not giving up. they continue to mourn Brad Will's death.
the answer to the old joke's question " but who is minding the store?"
is "no one"
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly one of every 25 weapons the U.S. military bought for Iraqi security forces is missing and many others cannot be repaired because parts or technical manuals are lacking, a government audit said Sunday.
The Defense Department cannot account for 14,030 weapons — almost 4% of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003, according to a report from the office of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
The missing semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns and other weapons will not be tracked easily: The Defense Department registered the serial numbers of only about 10,000 of the 370,251 weapons it provided — less than 3%.
Posted by gregg on October 29, 2006 at 08:00 PM
gregg, I strongly suspect that most of the missing 14,030 weapons are now being used against our troops.
Fade: thanks so much for the Links on the North American Union. It is something that I really want to get an understanding on.
I went to a Fund raise/silent auction/house party thing Friday night and there were some powerful Democrats from the other end of the state there, when I mentioned that in the Debate coming up they should start asking about the North American Union - some eye brows went up and the remarks were "it is something we should all be afraid of"! So I am going to spend alot of time getting a good understanding of it.
Sounds like some may have overstepped the rights of the government, almost like they just threw the USA completely out the window. I want to know exactly which companies are involved.
Thanks again for the links.
Maybe I missed it in the press, but has anyone seen anything in the press about potential abuse of the Presidents latest "Signing statement"? It appears that the President (or those under his authority) could declare an author writing critical articles or books as a tratorous enemy combatant, imprison her/him without notice or notification, never a trial, for as long as he is President. Of course, all we have to do is "trust him".
Under this act, the President may also deploy troops as a police force during a natural disaster, epidemic, serious public health emergency, terrorist attack, or other condition, when the President determines that the authorities of the state are incapable of maintaining public order.
I think that this is the major change.
brad will's most recent work is here
He was a part of this movement of independent journalists who go where the corporate media do not or stay long after they are gone. Perhaps Brad's death would have been prevented if Mexican, international, and US media corporations had told the story of the Oaxacan people. Then those of us who live in comfort would not only be learning now about this 5 month old strike, or about this 500 year old struggle. And then Brad might not have felt the need to face down those assassins in Oaxaca holding merely the ineffective shields of his US passport and prensa extranjera badge. Then Brad would not have joined the fast-growing list of journalists killed in action, or the much longer list of those killed in recent years by troops defending entrenched, unjust power in Latin America.
live footage and radio stream here
This is a topic that we should have seen in some debates.
"North American Union Already Starting to Replace USA"
"In March 2005 at their summit meeting in Waco, Tex., President Bush, President Fox and Prime Minister Martin issued a joint statement announced the creation of the “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America” (SPP). The creation of this new agreement was never submitted to Congress for debate and decision. Instead, the U.S. Department of Commerce merely created a new division under the same title to implement working groups to advance a North American Union working agenda in a wide range of areas, including: manufactured goods, movement of goods, energy, environment, e-commerce, financial services, business facilitation, food and agriculture, transportation, and health."
read it here
Posted by Marine on October 29, 2006 at 08:13 PM
that's the one
entrenched, unjust power
If that doesn't describe the Mexican government, then I don't know what does. They are too wealthy not to be taking care of their people, especially those running here so that we can. I believe it is time that we sent the Mexican government a clear message, we are not your answer to social security.
Posted by dk2 on October 29, 2006 at 08:14 PM
be careful with Corsi. he's a twit on the swiftboat liars crew
this is one of those issues that will require some investigation, for sure. the Cancun signatures are significant and more recent, too.
i have a lot to learn on this one, dk2...it does seem to be a big topic among the right wingers, though...
how i love living in a state where our governor is raising the minimum wage another dollar...
when the President determines that the authorities of the state are incapable of maintaining public order
This part of the modified Insurrection Act appears to be of greatest significance because it allows the president to act even when local authorities suggest that they have everything well in hand.
Marine, this one's a keeper. when Sensenbrenner is skeptical...
Someone needs to tell them to get rid of that slogan because it's well known and documented that Lincoln had absolutely no use for the slaves
Posted by J on October 29, 2006 at 01:26 AM
Well of course Lincoln had no use for the slaves - he lived in a free state. Duh
Posted by FrostyMacCowpie on October 29, 2006 at 01:44 AM
I would hope you didn't intend your response to be funny or to make light of the institution of slavery and the people that endured it. Or maybe you're not intelligent enough to understand the connotation or meaning of the word "use" as it applied to the post.
Lincoln was not a fan of black people and wanted as others of that time for the "negro problem" to go away. I notice that you use the word "negro" in refering to African-Americans. Can it be that you're caught in a loop of that time frame?
Posted by J on October 29, 2006 at 05:20 PM
Negro is the name of the race, It is still the Negro race. There is no African American race. Negro applies to Negroes everywhere. African American only applies to Negroes here. Negro means black in Spanish.
Lincoln wanted to send the Negroes to Africa but very few wanted to go. It is time for Negroes to forget about slavery - it has been 140 years now - and get on with the work of trying to ammount to something.
New money for the US - no wonder Bush doesn't want anyone sending back any illegals - he plans for us all to be one country - sort of - Bush fashion!
Impeachment better be on the table.
"The Plan to Replace the Dollar With the 'Amero"
"The idea to form the North American Union as a super-NAFTA knitting together Canada, the United States and Mexico into a super-regional political and economic entity was a key agreement resulting from the March 2005 meeting held at Baylor University in Waco, Tex., between President Bush, President Fox and Prime Minister Martin."
"A joint statement published by the three presidents following their Baylor University summit announced the formation of an initial entity called, “The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America” (SPP). The joint statement termed the SPP a “trilateral partnership” that was aimed at producing a North American security plan as well as providing free market movement of people, capital, and trade across the borders between the three NAFTA partners:
We will establish a common approach to security to protect North America from external threats, prevent and respond to threats within North America, and further streamline the secure and efficient movement of legitimate, low-risk traffic across our borders."
read it here
fade- what's the deal with that story on the north american union?- it's written by this shit-boat corsi guy- what is it with these people anyway? are they like double-agents or what?
evening, by the way
evening jef...yeah, that plum evades me...anyway...
here's a hilarious, yet scary, video of brad singing "i really like the cops"
he was killed in Oaxaca by a someone in plain clothes
Hi fair dems. Wanted to share if'n it hasn't already been posted. Bush Moves Toward Martial Law
media matters on corsi from '04- thought some might find this worth perusing- seems to be someone who is fairly unhinged from reality- hence his support for the very guy that is doing this awful north american union?
hi deb
posted the bill upstream, but this is a good source.
nice to see you.
hi Deb - he must have something coming down the pike to want that kind of power.
Not good, Not good, it makes we want to hide with a pillow over my head, thinking I will wake up from a very bad nightmare.
Posted by jefro on October 29, 2006 at 08:48 PM
given the fact that guys like this are armed to the teeth, those big guns are lookin' to be under my tree this year...might be like bringing a knife to a gunfight, considering the helicopters and all...but still...these freeper flockers are totally nuts
mr corsi wrote ken blackwell's book for him- i read through those quotations from him at media matters- the only question one should ask is why anyone would have anything to do with this guy- and yet he had an unprecedented influence on the 2004 election with the swift-boat garbage- and this from the party that is always railing against relativism
jerome corsi, another unstable, failed intellectual who has made his career on the extreme fringes of the far right
Yep, Fade...I posted first and then started scrolling up. I'm living at my county dem HQ these days and the phones are usually filled with phone bankers and there isn't wifi. This is my first day this week to try and catch up on what the neocons are slipping in under the radar prior to the election.
THis all makes me feel like this election is in more trouble than we all know.
dk...I know...I fear that too.
Hi Jefro...tell Jen that her blog is my main news source lately, it's awesome!
notice anything potentially relevant in this one?
~snip~
Before his murder today, Brad Will had been in Oaxaca taking video and reporting on the state wide popular uprising and teacher strike that began in June with the violent attempted removal of the striking teachers from their encampment in the center of Oaxaca City by federal police forces. Since then, the teachers and other groups formed the APPO, the Popular Assembly of the Oaxacan People, and have called for the removal of the governor of state Ulises Ruiz of the PRI. Will is believed to be the first indymedia.org journalist to be killed while reporting.
There is a long history of Mexico using government sponsored paramilitaries to repress social movements, including a massacre of hundreds of students in Mexico City in 1968.
And this really really scares me
Greenland Ice Sheet Losing Mass
I read several days ago where the ice melt from the arctic and Iceland have cooled the oceans in the northern hemisphere considerably and the northeast USA and EU should have a much colder winter. The article also stated that the cooling will provide a temporary slowdown to the arctic and Iceland ice. I cannot find the link again, but if I run across it I will post it.
Fade - that is terrible, are we one step from the same here?
But the Peoples Republic of China doesn't want to nationalize those plants.
Don't bet on it.
The indigenous, the poor and people of conscience resist exploitation. It was on January 1, 1994, the day NAFTA began, that the Zapatistas rose up in Chiapas.
Here's where the School of the Americas (SOA) comes in. This school at Ft. Benning, Georgia, trains the Latin American soldiers whose job it is to impose neo-liberalism on their own people. They are trained in a US military specialty: counter-insurgency, i.e. civilian-targeted warfare.
Coinciding with the increasingly louder calls for social and economic justice in Mexico, the number of Mexican soldiers at the SOA escalated sharply. At least 18 high-level officers involved in the government's ongoing eight-year war against the people in southern Mexico are SOA grads. In Nicaragua, as PPP plans for a transportation corridor across the isthmus advance, soldiers are being sent to the SOA for the first time in 20 years. Without these men with guns there would be no NAFTA, FTAA or PPP
Throughout Latin America, the SOA and the multinational agreements are the military and economic sides of the same coin.
According to SOA Watch, the Pentagon recently told Congress that SOA training supports US policy towards Latin America. This training "seeks to develop stable, free market democracies throughout the region." The mission of the US Army's Southern Command (encompassing the SOA) includes "...protecting the supply of strategic natural resources and access to markets."
Negroes, potatoes, tomatoes, sometimes careers are decided by the vagaries of words. However, as negro is synonymous with black in Spanish, there shouldn't be any difference with the use of either. However, African Americans in the main are proud of both heritages. The proper name Negro probably carries unpleasant connotations of discrimination. It is not a term in common use now, although technically proper. As in Native American vs. Indian, the person born carrying the moniker should probably have their wishes respected as to which is the current culturally correct title.
Fade - that is terrible, are we one step from the same here?
Posted by dk2 on October 29, 2006 at 09:06 PM
i don't know, dk2. we could be. seems to me that we have a lot of politicians but not too many leaders with vision.
i'm old enough to remember the lies about Laos and Cambodia. the lies about Central America. the lies about Iran.
i've come to expect the lies. what would shock me is if the people in this country would wake up, before it's too late.
if it's not already. looks to me like they've stolen two presidential elections and have plans for martial law in place. i hope...and will continue to lead with my hope. i've worked my ass off. but i will not be blindsided nor will i be shocked at whatever might happen. i was a girl scout. i learned to be prepared.
As in Native American vs. Indian, the person born carrying the moniker should probably have their wishes respected as to which is the current culturally correct title.
I believe you are correct coeur-de-fer. Wouldn't it also be nice if the English among us could properly begin American History with the colonization of its nation by French Acadians in 1604 on St. Croix Island. Like those English who taught that the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 was the first in our nations history by ignoring the French contribution, Frosty will most likely ignore the logic you present.
For Immediate Release: October 26th, 2006
Contact: Joao Da Silva, 202-234-3440, media@soaw.org
School of the Americas Graduate Responsible for Priest Murders Found in U.S.
Former Salvadoran Soldier convicted for the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests and two Salvadoran women arrested in California
WASHINGTON – The shocking event that galvanized opposition to the U.S. relationship with Central American death squads and that sparked the movement to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas is making headlines again. Former Salvadoran army officer Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos, convicted for the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper and her 14-year-old daughter, was arrested by federal agents on October 18 in Los Angeles, California.
Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos, a sub-lieutenant in the notorious Atlacatl Battalion, took part in the November 16, 1989 massacre at the Central American University (UCA) in San Salvador. Less than a year before the brutal killings, Guevara Cerritos received military training at the U.S. Army School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia.
A United Nations Truth Commission cited 26 Salvadoran officers for the 1989 "execution-style" massacre. Nineteen of those, including Guevara Cerritos, were trained at the School of the Americas, renamed in 2001 the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation or WHINSEC. After its role in training human rights abusers came to light, Central Americans frequently dubbed the SOA the "School of Assassins.”
guess corsi is not unlike some of the other nutjobs on the right who couldn't find a job in academia if they tried- the only thing left was for them to take corporate money to pretend that all that work they did getting the PhD was actually worth it- resentment is their primary emotion- some of them never actually got that graduate degree (david horowitz comes to mind)- failed intellectuals all just looking for the easy buck from a corporate america that doesn't have time for objectivity or real debate- and why not? after all, the money is good and it allows them to pretend that they actually amounted to something after all
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/the-demons-of-david-horow_b_19827.html
I have faith that if the illegal orders come down, the military will refuse them. There would of course be a few megalomaniacs, but they would end up hanging.
And we are a nation of pretty heavily armed civilians. I don't think Tienanmen Square could happen here. Not without heavy casualties on both sides.
Those Generals who have spoken out?
I hope I'm just paranoid, but I have a different take on just why they chose to take that unprecedented action, and I'll bet Marine has let his thoughts go there too on one or two occasions.
(david horowitz comes to mind)
Posted by jefro on October 29, 2006 at 09:23 PM
In your case, does David Horowitz ever not come to mind?
(david horowitz comes to mind)
Posted by jefro on October 29, 2006 at 09:23 PM
In your case, does David Horowitz ever not come to mind?
Generals speaking out? Are you saying that we might yet live up to the example our World War II military set? If those Generals had not spoken out, we might well have lost that war. So much for blind obedience.
this should suffice- had thought of it earlier (that i would get a response, that is) when thinking about the above post which is a serious concern of mine because i actually happen to have a higher degree unlike said former communist turned moron for the radical right
Posted by BlueGirlRedState on October 29, 2006 at 09:27 PM
I think you are just a little naive - one canister of the right stuff would do in several hundred if not a couple of thousand.
Re: Greenland. Greenland is the worlds largest single mass of ice. If it melts, Indiana may be shore-front property. Seriously, though, a great danger we may be facing fairly soon is a major shift in the Gulf Stream. Currently a giant river of very warm ocean water, it runs up the eastern seaboard and takes off across the Atlantic to hit Europe and bring mild temperatures to an area the same latitude as Labrador. A major change in overall ocean depth may cause it to shift back west, assuring a complete melting of Greenland. And the Gulf Stream is a major controlling factor in overall world weather. People who invest their lives studying this are perturbed because they can't begin to predict the effect of this. Rivers, deserts, grasslands and jungles have shifted restlessly across the planet for eons. And the shifting of the weight of both water and ice has been a major stimulus for geological change, measured by us as earthquakes. The one thing we know we can't predict is the time frame for these changes. Earth scientists know major changes took place a long time ago, but not necessarily over a long period of time. Visit sunny Florida...while it's still there.
THOSE TRICKY NEOCONS.....Remember how Joe Leiberman passed himself off after he lost the 2006 Democrat Senate primaries in Connecticut?
He called it a "DEMOCRAT SECOND ROUND." But is it?
So what did Cheney offer when he met with Leiberman to offer? Well, it seems the offer was that the RNC would cut loose Schlesinger, the Republican Senate candidate in Connecticut, and support Leiberman for the job secretly (with a slush fund that Joe L calls "petty cash" of about $300,000), even though Leiberman is playing it as the DEMOCRAT who won't accept primary defeat in a Democrat state but will run a "second round" as a supposed Democrat. Then, when Leiberman beats Lamont and is re-elected, Rumsfeld quits as Secretary of Defense and Leiberman is offered the job.
Now keep in mind that since he almost became VP in 2000, Leiberman has come to see Connecticut as small potatoes. He got the bug to become a national lime-light rock star, even though he was throunced in the 2004 Democrat Presidential Primaries, therein singing the Republican Iraq War tune....And what would make him that sure that he will be replacing Rumsfeld, besides his Rumsfeld-clone Middle East "kill an Arab for democracy" policy?
The Rassmusen Oct. poll in the Connecticut Governor's race makes Jodi Rell a shoe-in for re-election (Rell-59%, Destephano 33%) and, when Leiberman replaces Rummy, she gets to pick the next Senator to replace Leiberman. And guess what she'll pick: you got it, a REPUBLICAN-- GIVING THE REPUBLICANS A SENATE MAJORITY....Tricky people those neocons. They get everybody to send their kids to die in Iraq and in their so-called "World War IV" while their sons stay safe at homes writing articles in the WEEKLY STANDARD or NY POST demanding that Bush send in more troops and expand the war to Iran and Syria....That would just about get World War IV well on its way....So let's make a special unit for drafted neocons so they can kill more "Islamo-fascists" to their heart's content!
I have faith that if the illegal orders come down, the military will refuse them.
BlueGirl, surely you're joking. ROTFLMAO yeah, like Abu Grahib...LMAO
you're a real prankster tonight
Negro is the name of the race, It is still the Negro race. There is no African American race. Negro applies to Negroes everywhere. African American only applies to Negroes here. Negro means black in Spanish.
Lincoln wanted to send the Negroes to Africa but very few wanted to go. It is time for Negroes to forget about slavery - it has been 140 years now - and get on with the work of trying to ammount to something.
Posted by FrostyMacCowpie on October 29, 2006 at 08:33 PM
And this response puts you square in the category that you so deservedly belong to. Don't ever attempt to tell me or for that matter any black person for that matter what "race" we are derived from.
And as for amounting to something - we already have and will continue to do so as long as we always remember and never forget that 140 years is not that long ago.
It's your ignorant mindthought that has pushed "black" people or "African-Americans" (and yes we ARE Americans with an African ancestry) to excel and prosper.
Lets all make a special effort to get Lamont that seat, Monday start calling all the Democrat big notables and ask when they are going to CT this week.
Our USA depends on Lamont winning!
Think about this, though. Abu Ghraib was undertrained reservists - and officers should have been prosecuted too.
The troops remaining stateside are part of the communities they would be asked to turn on. I have to believe it would be harder to turn on ones own than on "the other." But I also have to sleep at night, so maybe I tell myself what I have to.
j- don't take it personal- frostie just salivates whenever you push certain buttons- that's the way the authoritarian mindset works
You must not know the Code for the military if you think it was a reservist issue.
Ever been to Ft. Benning?
My brother is a graduate of the Benning School for Wayward Boys. My husband is retired Air Force.
Posted by Danielet on October 29, 2006 at 09:41 PM
Do you mind if I use your post - I would like to post you idea on some other blogs?
Stanley Milgram, anyone?
Sharpelbowed woman mentioned his work. It was 1961, however, not in the fifties.
BlueGirl, we'll agree to disagree. I do not have the mind of a military person and you do. We were trained to think differently. It takes all kinds, etc.
No one mentioned China, either. The things I mentioned are linked. They happened. It's happening now. Did you see the film of the indy journalist's death? Those people had sticks and stones. It was a hit.
It's your ignorant mindthought that has pushed "black" people or "African-Americans" (and yes we ARE Americans with an African ancestry) to excel and prosper.
Posted by J on October 29, 2006 at 09:45 PM
I did not realize my mindthought was that powerful but, you're welcome.
I know too many people in uniform that are honorable and reasonable. I'm related to some of them, and they wouldn't follow those orders.
But yeah, somebody has to be considering the other what-ifs because it is impossible for any one position to consider them all.
Isn't the realization of this part of what sets us apart from the Publican party?
Next I shall try my mindthought out on the lottery.
But I also have to sleep at night, so maybe I tell myself what I have to.
Posted by BlueGirlRedState on October 29, 2006 at 09:49 PM
Uncle Colin Powell rose to the higher ranks when he claimed that My Lai massacre didn't happen. He witnessed it not happening. It happened.
Those of us who are old enough to remember that episode were not disappointed when he lied in front of the U.N. The real hero of that story died quietly last year.
My grandparents and uncles were in the wars and they never spoke of it. I always wonder what goes wrong when generations follow in that path, like it's an honor. It was something they were called to do. They hung up when it was over. It wasn't something they wanted any of us to repeat. I guess i was just lucky like that.
i had professors that railed against the "double dipping" when military people retired and took civil service jobs so they could draw hefty retirements. courage.
this is our tax dollars at work funding these pavlovian morons who believe all that garbage that they and their cronies tell each other at those goofie corporate seminars- it is a threat to our academic institutions, our military and most certainly our government- it is truly pathetic in its short-sightedness and ignorance:
The critical moment, one planner said, came last fall, during the buildup for the war, when Rumsfeld decided that he would no longer be guided by the Pentagon’s most sophisticated war-planning document, the TPFDL—time-phased forces-deployment list—which is known to planning officers as the tip-fiddle (tip-fid, for short). A TPFDL is a voluminous document describing the inventory of forces that are to be sent into battle, the sequence of their deployment, and the deployment of logistical support. “It’s the complete applecart, with many pieces,” Roger J. Spiller, the George C. Marshall Professor of military history at the U.S. Command and General Staff College, said. ....... It’s the redundancy that saves lives.”
Rumsfeld’s personal contempt for many of the senior generals and admirals who were promoted to top jobs during the Clinton Administration is widely known. He was especially critical of the Army, with its insistence on maintaining costly mechanized divisions. In his off-the-cuff memoranda, or “snowflakes,” as they’re called in the Pentagon, he chafed about generals having “the slows”—a reference to Lincoln’s characterization of General George McClellan. “In those conditions—an atmosphere of derision and challenge—the senior officers do not offer their best advice,” a high-ranking general who served for more than a year under Rumsfeld said. One witness to a meeting recalled Rumsfeld confronting General Eric Shinseki, the Army Chief of Staff, in front of many junior officers. “He was looking at the Chief and waving his hand,” the witness said, “saying, ‘Are you getting this yet? Are you getting this yet?’”
....According to a dozen or so military men I spoke to, Rumsfeld simply failed to anticipate the consequences of protracted warfare.
....“Hope,” a retired four-star general subsequently told me, “is not a course of action.”
“This is tragic,” one senior planner said bitterly. “American lives are being lost.” The former intelligence official told me, “They all said, ‘We can do it with air power.’ They believed their own propaganda.” The high-ranking former general described Rumsfeld’s approach to the Joint Staff war planning as “McNamara-like intimidation by intervention of a small cell”—a reference to Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and his aides, who were known for their challenges to the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Vietnam War. The former high-ranking general compared the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Stepford wives. “They’ve abrogated their responsibility.”
There had been an expectation before the war that Iran, Iraq’s old enemy, would side with the United States in this fight. One Iraqi opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress, led by Ahmed Chalabi, has been in regular contact with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or sciri, an umbrella organization for Shiite groups who oppose Saddam. The organization is based in Iran and has close ties to Iranian intelligence. The Chalabi group set up an office last year in Tehran, with the approval of Chalabi’s supporters in the Pentagon, who include Rumsfeld, his deputies Wolfowitz and Feith, and Richard Perle, the former chairman of the Defense Policy Board. Chalabi has repeatedly predicted that the Tehran government would provide support, including men and arms, if an American invasion of Iraq took place.
I know attrocities happen. I am still pissed at Jimmy Carter for Calley. He should still be busting rocks at Leavenwrth. Or he should have hung. He tarnished the brass for everyone, and he should have been villianized, not Hugh Thompson. That Thompson was ostracized is shameful.
Me too Fade, I have personal experience with the "We are not in Laos" phrases of the Viet Nam war. No, Oh No, No helicopters were shot down there. M I A mean anything to anyone?
I knew and have talked to Calley, If you think he was totally to blame then you should ask Colin Powell about it.
Uh...in case anyone is interested we are all originally from Africa:
Atlas of the Human Journey
BTW, the "average" genome of different "races" are more similar than any two unrelated individuals of the same "race". We are the human race...but, I'm not sure anyone has done a genome project on pugs...has to be sadistic, fascist genes in that study.
I jsut think he had a bigger debt to pay than 3 years house arrest and life as a jewelry salesman.
And I have never been a Powell fan either. Not even durign the first Gulf War when everyone was ready to anoint him the second coming. He's a politician, not a soldier.
And that Brass needed to be exposed, not covered for.
However, those "double dippers" did have to put in 40 years to get double pensions. And most of them spent their first 20 in the military. As we have seen lately, that is not a guarantee of even collecting the first pension. And the thought of 20 years in the military is pretty daunting. A very low percentage of recruits end up doing 20 years. From a management perspective, anyone making it through 20 is probably pretty good middle management material.
Powell sold his soul and knows it. The other neocons never had a soul to begin with. I do not know how Powell sleeps at night, the current war could have never happened without him.
Hugh Thompson manned up, and he was a Warrant officer.
I did not realize my mindthought was that powerful but, you're welcome.
Posted by FrostyMacCowpie on October 29, 2006 at 09:59 PM
Oh it definitely isn't, but when collectively worked together with others that think as you do, it has played a part in African-Americans rising to the top.
What you say we aren't - we will be
What you say we can't accomplish - we do
What barriers you place in our way - we move them
Put this together, it's called - survival
You better get QuickPick on that lottery.
Yea well Thompson was from the air, Callie was in the bush.
A big difference being a pilot and feeling like GOD.
j- don't take it personal- frostie just salivates whenever you push certain buttons- that's the way the authoritarian mindset works
http://www.powells.com/biblio/18-0670037745-0
Posted by jefro on October 29, 2006 at 09:50 PM
Oh I most certainly don't take him/her (whatever) personally. I usually don't "engage" trolls, but I thought I would throw some comments out there for him to continue to knaw on.
The likes of him can never rattle me. I've taken on too many of them traveling the pathways of life and brushed them aside.
I was all of five years old at the time, but my Dad was over there. It had to be hard to set that chopper down and order your men to draw their weapons on Americans, but he did the right thing in a split second. It took the Army thirty years to do the right thing.
Posted by jefro on October 29, 2006 at 10:06 PM
good grab, jef...and not to mention that this quagmire has a meter running at eleven million dollars per hour. so let's see, we're almost up a hundred million since the thread was posted.
I have a war-cost calculator running on my site. It ticks off just over $3K per second.
We are the human species. In spite of apparent visual differences, the genetic divergence one might expect just isn't there. In fact, we have less genetic variation, that is a smaller gene pool, than most other mammalian species. I know there are some irresistable jokes here, but I'm trying to be serious. It is comforting in a way, to know that a redneck Georgia cracker is more closely related to Malcom X than an east rim Grand Canyon Squirrel is to a west rim one.
A SKELETON PROPOSAL FOR IRAQ EXIT
Please permit me to put forward a proposal that pulls
together numerous Iraqi perspectives I have gathered
over three months this year. The canvased Iraqis are
all ONE Iraq nationalists. This is the proposal:
(1) US announces compliance with Maliki's request for
total and orderly US withdrawal within 18 months.
(2) Maliki announces an unconditional and absolute
amnesty for anyone presenting him/herself to several
designated sites within a 6 months period. The
amnesties will be computer processed, with records
maintained by the UN Security Council, and run by UN
representatives-- providing an amnesty document once
an oath of good and loyal Iraqi citizenship is sworn
on video and signed.
(3) A 21 nations Board of Steps and Standards from
Mideast and Western nations convenes to develop steps
to Iraqi development to stable and orderly nationhood.
The members of this board are selected by the UN
Security Council. Each step has clear "metrics" and a
time limit. The Board establishes the standards for
each step.
(4) A Competence Board composed of USA, Iran and Saudi
Arabia, based on majority decision, decides if each
step has been reached. As each step is achieved, a
part of financial and material aid to Iraq is
released. Thus, Iran and the Saudis or the US and
another or all three can make the decision as to what
is provided as reward for having achieved the step at
issue.
(5) All Iraqis are registered by census under NGO
operation, selected and designated by the 21 nations
board. Upon full registration and designation of all
citizens, a new Parliament is elected that decides on
national order and local government functions. Local
administrative elections, also under NGO supervision
will follow.
The withdrawal of US troops is unconditional by 18
months. But the exact pattern is to be worked out with
the Maliki Govt.
Saddam Hussein is granted pardon and is exiled abroad,
losing his Iraqi citizenship. His prosecution for
human rights violations will be decided by the World
Court.
The three members of the Competence Board are allowed
to provide police and military training teams from
nations subcontracted by them, by majority vote.
Lastly, all foreigners in Iraq without proper passport
and permits must leave within 6 months or face arrest
and/or deportation. No amnesty will apply to
foreigners remaining in Iraq beyond the 6 months.
Daniel E. Teodoru
You may think he did the right thing and maybe he did, but he wasn't apart of the orders that were passed down. It is one thing to know all the details and another to think you do.
I lived during the V N war had many friends who died there, and or came back maimed, my brother in law was a chinook pilot so I think I have heard as much or more than you about it and how hard it is to set down a copter - not only from him but all the other Warrants I knew.
I knew most every WO in his graduating class and the class after his at FT Rucker, he and my sister were married at the OFC club there, the day after he graduated. They all reported to V N. The first military funeral I went to was for a very dear friend, as we stood to the back of the group at the cemetary, the 21 gun salute went off just a small distance behind where I was standing. I wasn't ready for the guns, to this day I can not stand to hear balloons break, and rarely ever let any of my 3 boys have them and that included their birthday parties. I went to so many military funerals, I can't even count them for you.
Posted by coeur-de-fer on October 29, 2006 at 10:37 PM
LMAO oh yeah, that's really comforting
Night {{{{fair dems}}}}
Tomorrow will be another long day...the start of eight long days where "they" are going to throw everything they can at us.
Thank all of you bloggers and blog posters...you are why Dems have a chance at taking the House and Senate. Don't let up. This blog is frequented and read for opinion, links and ideas. Each of you is making a profound difference. Even *Sally* because s/he shows the true mentality of a pug lemming, or who "they" really are.
"We" are people with no goal greater than to regain Democracy for the USA.
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” Abraham Lincoln
Well I see this is slam Colin Powell night. No I don't defend him because he's African-American, but because of what happened to him in the Bush adminsitration because he was black. But that's a long story that doesn't need opening.
What I will say is this - It has always served the purpose well to look at the big picture and not at the little side drawings. Better still, back track for a moment - who is profiting from the war in Iraq? Answer that question and you will eventually come to the very reason for the war and why the Bush adminstration got elected.
Money, just plain old money - the moneymongerers of the world (the folks that own 95% of the world's resources) wanted to make a ton of it. Not revenge for Bush Jr.'s daddy, or WMD, or oil and the so called freedom for the Iraqi people were the reasons for invading Iraq. Money - it's as simple as that. And oh by the way, that war didn't just sprout up over a couple of years. It was in the making at least 5 to 6 years ago.
G'night DK. Eight days to go. Get some good rest. We're all going to need it.
see frosty is back. I can agree with him on one statement
"Lincoln wanted to send the Negroes to Africa but very few wanted to go."
That's all the reason one needs to not vote repub.
I think the Skeleton proposal is well thought out, but too complex to put into operation. Too many committees, steps, metrics, registrations, etc. It will require everyone to stop shooting at everyone else. I don't think that's going to happen for quite awhile, regardless of the situation. Remember that there is a daunting number of individuals there from outside Iraq whose primary purpose is to prevent any government from working. The most likely outcome in Iraq, if you don't consider partitioning, is the sudden appearance of a strong man government again, who will use brutal force to stop the fighting. It will be someone most definitely not of U.S. choosing, but if he gathers power quickly enough, he will be able to dictate terms to the U.S. just because it offers an opportunity to get out and leave a standing government behind. He will most likely come from the tribal Shi'a community, but will not allow a theocracy. He will probably use the various religious leaders, offering them the illusion of power and influence on his government (sound familiar?) and once having their tacit approval, will surround them with his people to assure they "stay the course". This man could be Maliki, but I doubt it. Nor is it any of the mullahs such as Sadhr. I don't know if such a man exists or will appear, but the situation is ripe for such a man who is charismatic and ruthless. So far the only ones over there like that are Americans. Saddam could possibly come back, if he isn't executed before the Americans pull out. I'm not convinced his time is over, unfortunately. He is not only both of the above, he is a psychopath as well. But he is an aberration. Most mideast and asian strong men have been charismatic, ruthless, smart, but not crazy. And if such a man appears in Iraq and is successful...Nostradamus, what was that you said?
I am not making my cost of living selling ideas. I am posting ideas in the hope that this America I was draged to from half-way around the Earth because my parents thought it the PARADISE OF FREEDOM can become that again. I had the fortune of knowing three US Presidents from both parties and of seeing them age with worry about the wars to whixh they were sending youg Americans. I supported GW Bush in 2000 heart and soul thinking that he is modest...Now I see him starting terrible wars that kill young Americans needlessly. As an American I consider every US soldier as MY child and wold not allow to be done with them what I would not allow to be done with my biologic children. So, when I see a President who, unlike the three I knew, sleeps soundly because he follows his gut, I am enraged, both as citizen and physiologist. For I know that when you follow your gut all the way through, all you get is well known...In this case it is just a lot of BUSHIT....AND I DIDN'T COME HALF WAY AROUND THE WORLD TO THIS PARADISE OF FREEDOM TO SEE ITS YOUTH DIE FOR BUSHIT!
So if anything I write-- that's about all I can do now as an old fart living off my children's future pensions-- can do some good, please feel free to use it with my thanks and hopes. My dad was buried in this country believing in it after a life of fighting Communism. After a life of the same, I too want to die here beleiving in it. I am a Republican, but my first duty is to the freedom my dad believed in and we both fought for. Right now ONLY you Democrats have any inkling of what that word means....AS NY and NJ State Chairman of Young Americans for Freedom in the 70s I got to see freaks like Rove and perverts like Melhman and brain dead "what me worry" kids like Bush grow up. But I would have never thought they would get to rip into the Constitution like worms into an apple the way the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld crooks did.
We Republicans need you Democrats to save us from our Abramov-Reed selves. The Bush cancer needs Democrat control of House and Senate in 2006 so we can be healed by 2008 and face you as fellow Americans, not as carnivores attacking herbivores. Please help us by beating us now....Towards that end I started REPUBLICANS FOR A DEMOCRAT CONGRESS IN 2006...We started with less than ten and a one page explanation of the disease and the cure based on Acton's: POWER CORRUPTS, ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY. The Republican support for a Dem victory as a cure to what ailes our party was amazing. We go mouth-to-ear and face-to-face so we know what we are dealing with-- Republicans are not all BUSHIT...Most are willing to pay the price. But we've got to believe that you are better than us; otherwise how could you be a cure for our ills?
WE ARE ALL AMERICANS and should face eachother as brothers, not competitors at the trough. We count on you to appreciate your historical role.
On 9/11 I escaped from the World Trade Center. But I feel lke a victim when I see that Menendez and Brown both voted for Bush's anti-democratic removal of your habeas corpus bill at the president's caprice. Shumer and Clinton didn't vote for it and they are from NY, where 9/11 happened....Even the Dem Party had the courage to oppose it....What happened to Menendez-- whom I supported fuly as part of the cure?
When he supported that Bill he spit on his parents, refugees from Cuba, by voting tro bring Castrois one step closer to America.
Please get your principles lined up. Better to lose with honor than to surrender opportunistically. My parents made that decision in 1944 and we spent two decades on the run as refugees. Even though I had no childhood, having to leave every country where I learned the language and became accustomed to the culture, because they were adamant about reaching the Paradise of Freedom, I never resented that. And I passed it on to my American kids who pass it on to my American grandkids....WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY FELLOW REFUGEE FROM COMMUNISM MENENDEZ?
He almost killed me with depression and regret. But he will win and will get a chance to reafirm the freedom commitment of his parents. I hope you all will also because you can't kill freedom a little. You kill it completely or die defending it....Let's not degrade America while OUR-- ALL OUR-- children heroes die in Iraq thinking that they are defending OUR freedom and theirs when they get back....BE REAL DEMOCRATS...STAND BY AND DIE POLITICALLI, IF NECESSARY, FOR FREEDOM!
I agree with J except for perspective. Money is definitely a major factor, but not the goal. Money doesn't buy power, but power creates vast amounts of money. Bill Gates, for all of his money, can't buy a country. But history is replete with poor men, corporals, sergeants, etc. becoming the "Great Leader" and assuming the wealth of the country as his own.
DEAN SAYS WE WILL STAY THE COURSE
good one MacHahon!
Democratic head says party win won't force change in Iraq policy
The Associated Press
Published: October 29, 2006
The head of the opposition Democratic Party said Sunday that a Democrat-controlled Congress would not be able to force a change in Republican President George W. Bush's Iraq policy.
The war in Iraq is a leading issue with U.S. voters as Nov. 7 congressional elections approach. Many Democrats have called for a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq , something Bush rejects as defeatist.
Howard Dean said that if Democrats wrest control of the House and Senate away from Republicans, Bush "will still be in charge of foreign policy and the military."
"I don't imagine that we're suddenly going to force the president to reverse his course. We don't have the ability to do that," Dean
DEAN SAYS WE WILL STAY THE COURSE
good one MacHahon!
Democratic head says party win won't force change in Iraq policy
The Associated Press
Published: October 29, 2006
The head of the opposition Democratic Party said Sunday that a Democrat-controlled Congress would not be able to force a change in Republican President George W. Bush's Iraq policy.
The war in Iraq is a leading issue with U.S. voters as Nov. 7 congressional elections approach. Many Democrats have called for a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq , something Bush rejects as defeatist.
Howard Dean said that if Democrats wrest control of the House and Senate away from Republicans, Bush "will still be in charge of foreign policy and the military."
"I don't imagine that we're suddenly going to force the president to reverse his course. We don't have the ability to do that," Dean
Congress can turn off the money tap, and they can issue subpoenas. I'll take that for starters.
Posted by Danielet on October 29, 2006 at 10:42 PM
You have obviously done a lot of thinking and research. You have all the elements covered except a US President that is capable of handling the task or possesses the will to do it.
He cannot work with others. He's is uncompromising and lazy. He is preceived by other nations as irresponsible and not trustworthy.
Perhaps another world leader can take your plan and make it work by applying pressure on Bush. We are now weak economically and militarily. Everyone knows it but the White House.
But unless another power sees an advantage for them to get involved, it won't happen. ...most would prefer to just wait and watch us get weaker.
I'm afraid Bush is right about one thing...the next President will have to advance a plan such as your's. He's content to wait for divine intervention.
Thanks for sharing your ideas. I think I'll file them for further thought.
sandy,
file this one with it, carefully. we've got lots of new company.
for the crowd who continue to come here pretending that their own party isn't in disarray over this administration and others in their party who have lost their way- note his comment that "he is a decent man"- amazing how someone can have as much clarity as he obviously does and still make a statement like this, but there it is:
http://www.antiwar.com/bandow/?articleid=9847
That the conservative movement has lost its philosophical guts is evident from a simple thought experiment. Imagine President William Jefferson Clinton going to war on grounds that subsequently proved to be false. Imagine him sending the secretary of state before the UN Security Council to make a speech wrong in every detail.
Imagine President Clinton, after invading Iraq, making a series of erroneous projections about the ease of occupation and progress in guerrilla operations, and failing to send adequate numbers of troops or quantities of equipment to do the job. Imagine him ignoring Congress and concentrating power in his own hands.
Imagine a continuing stream of rosy predictions despite a steadily rising body count. Then imagine the emergence of a series of crises – rising Taliban activity in Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea steadily pursuing nuclear arms, the Mideast teetering on the brink of widespread war – with the U.S. tied down in Iraq.
What would conservative Republicans be saying about President Clinton? Just imagine.
I just heard on the CBS news that Chuck Schumer has introduced a bill to return the tax deduction for families with college expenses for their children. It seems that the ahole repugs eliminated this deduction when they gave the oil companies all the big tax breaks. They snuck it into the oil largess bill and the MSM did not even mention it.
bush has the unmitigated gall to say that the Democratics will raise taxes and eliminating the child deduction. I am livid. WE MUST VOTE OUT ALL REPUGS IN CONGRESS AND THE WHITE HOUSE. Any fool that votes for these conniving bastards needs to lose their citizenship and be deported.
just imagine- "not gonna do it, wouldn't be prudent"-
oh that we could hear those words again, eh?
bedways is rightways
Posted by coeur-de-fer on October 29, 2006 at 11:14 PM
Hey, this skeleton plan takes a logical approach to a chaotic situation. Sometimes that is what is needed to make the warring factions stop and consider their options. They have to see there is a way out. Right now all they can do is try to survive an insane foreign occupier-in-chief.
But for this or any other plan to come to pass, there needs to be a strong willed leader in place who can pull it off.
We don't have one. Clinton or Bush Sr. could have done it. But not this frat boy. He talks tough but delegateseverything to a ruthless bunch of sadistic shit heads who are as arrogant as they are stupid.
With no oversight by the Republican-controlled Congress, we are back to the future in Vietnam for at least another three years. I wonder how many of our troops will survive the mental fatigue of four or five redeployments? It's damn dirty shame they are being jerked around like this.
canvas, phone bank, light candles. we ain't won nothing yet...but we just might. see you in the morning friends.
Posted by jefro on October 29, 2006 at 11:46 PM
bush is the biggest loser we have ever had running our country. Running it into the ground that is. And to think, we have two more years of bullshit, lies, criminal activity, crimes against humanity, alcoholism, pedophelia, sexual perversions of various kinds, arrogant behavior, appointing illiterate cronies and on and on and on.
Posted by fade2bluz on October 29, 2006 at 11:43 PM
fade,
I'm with Marine. I'm getting burned out. I want to believe that their are rational ways to conduct government besides always having a permanent campaign going on.
It's obvious to me that even if we take over Congress, we will need all the ideas from both sides to put this nightmare to bed.
I'm in it with the party for the long haul...but I sure as hell don't want the country fighting the Hundred Years War in the Middle East. It's not an option. I'll look at anyone's plan to end it.
fade, ouch! no but roman candles pointed up karl rove's ass do...
sandy,
you lost me, but beware. this is what i linked:
Re: 1970--A sign of the times
Posted By: daniel e teodoru
Date: 10/5/2000 9:59 p.m.
In Response To: 1970--A sign of the times (dorinda harmon)
And military men do even more than you. And yet, even though the most dangerous thing in Vietnam was "pacification" duty, draft-evader and anti-US protester (even marching in Soviet Bloc Countries) Bill Clinton, as president, sent poorly armed young Americans in harm's way on "pacification" duty. But that's o.k. because there's no more draft and all the guys who go into the army are dumb niggers and stupid rednecks. The YUPPIES are safe watching the horrors in Bosnia while smoking pot, snorting coke and making lots of money on the Internet. Old Bill, therefore, did "someting" because something had to be done to stop the horrors we were watching on TV. Thank God we've got so many patriotic dumb niggers and stupid rednecks so that old Bill can make you all feel so good that *your* president is doing "something" about all the TV horrors:
What would conservative Republicans be saying about President Clinton? Just imagine.
Posted by jefro on October 29, 2006 at 11:46 PM
I can't imagine Clinton or even Rocky the Squirrel being stupid enough to do what these neocons did. The village idiot might indeed by a "decent man"...but I don't want him running my village. Come to think of it, village idiots often ride around on bikes. Why hadn't I noticed this before?
Good night. later.
okay, gregg--good to know. i think i've got a couple for our new buddy Danielet.
it does pay to google before responding to folks, sometimes. sometimes, trust is foolishness.
then again, that kind of explains why we're in the shape we're in now, doesn't it?
goodnight beautiful dreamers, imagine...
Bears remain unbeaten with rout of 49ers
CHICAGO – Scoring early and often in record fashion, the Bears ensured that they wouldn’t need a second straight miraculous comeback to remain undefeated Sunday at Soldier Field.
I agree with J except for perspective. Money is definitely a major factor, but not the goal. Money doesn't buy power, but power creates vast amounts of money. Bill Gates, for all of his money, can't buy a country. But history is replete with poor men, corporals, sergeants, etc. becoming the "Great Leader" and assuming the wealth of the country as his own.
Posted by coeur-de-fer on October 29, 2006 at 11:21 PM
There are really two tiers of folks making jillions of dollars or "profiteering from the war in Iraq. There are the visible such as Halliburton and those connected with it such as Bush and Cheney (and whoever else) and then there are those that take great effort to stay invisible yet command and own vast sums of money, resources or whatever. The first category of folk make tons of money and the invisible crowd makes amounts you can't even count.
Unfortunatley money was the only goal in this sad episode. The real moneymongerers or the invisble folk only want to make money to command power so as to be able to control events and whatever else in the world. The first tier of folks only want to make money to run off with once they vacate their various offices. They will definitely live the good life.
The truly sad part in this entire situation is that the people that are prospering from the war effort couldn't care less about the loss of American life or any life for that matter. These folks worship at the altar of the almighty dollar and have and will continue to use any means necessary to keep their money tap running. Who other than an uncaring idiot (Bush) would consistently say "we will stay the course" when the loss of life and the battles are not showing any accomplishment or progress. Bush has also stated that we (US) will not leave Iraq during his "watch". Well of course not! That's the time frame that was projected for the war to last and the moneymongerers would make said amounts of money.
Money is the root of it all.
fade,
Of course theyare all coming over here to post. They have no where else to go.
And they're singing the same song that didn't make the hit parade 30 years ago. But at least this time they admit "stay the course" is not an option. Score one for our side.
Unless we can unload this wad of gum on some other sucker, our country will have to find a way out of Iraq on its own. I'm willing to listen to others in the hopes we can convert them enough to listen to us on ocassion.
In the meantime, I'm tired. My mother-in-law broke her hip last month; and I'm sick of dealing with doctors, hospitals, and physical theraphy....in addition to canvassing and phoning and all the rest. So Iraq will just have to wait before I can do anything about it.
In the meantime, I'm banking on Dean keeping the 50 state agenda moving along, since it's obvious that our side isn't going to get an opportunity to try any plan in Iraq till 2009. And neither will any of their new flirts flocking here seeking sanctuary from the nitwits in their own party.
They can't beat us, so we might as well let them join us. Let them think they are the ones seducing someone. And if they sometimes experience a moment of clarity, let's exploit it.
Good night. Sleep tight.
USMC Professional Reading Program
From the Marine Corps' list of recommended reading.
Fields of Fire
The Classic Novel of the Vietnam War
Written By Webb, James
The novel is about the reality of war that Marines must come to grips with today as we prepare for the future. Fields of Fire is the story of the young, enlisted Marines who fought under then Lieutenant Webb. The reader should note carefully their emotions, motivations, courage, and fears for they are the men who have served us best in every war. Their social backgrounds vary, and many of our best warriors came from the lowliest of stations. In terms of the brotherhood of those who bleed together and the nobility of sacrifices made for friends, the characters in Webb's novel are timeless. He succeeds brilliantly in making them real. Webb creates a doctrine of combat leadership and a creed for the succeeding generation on how and why Marines fight.
via Josh
George Allen also voted against upgrading force protection (body armor)
He's really a dodo it seems.
It's driving me nuts will people finally get through to their canidates it is NOT up to a Senator or Congress person to have a plan for Iraq it is up to the Defense Dept. and the White House to offer them plans and if they don't work whose fault is that? Don't take the bait don't start rattling off this or that you may slip up and say something to be used against you just say it is Bush and Rummy's job to make a plan. the ask so how you liking the plan they got so far?
Posted by dorsano on October 30, 2006 at 01:00 AM
It doesn't matter in what context Webb's kiddy porn was written. The typical voter is not that bright or nuanced. Webb's kiddy porn is out there now and he is toast.
Now for Allen it is on to the Presidency! He will be a good one too.
The Maryland Senate race is all tied up with the momentum in Steeles court, Steele will win and that will end any hope of the Dems winning the Senate as that will be the Republicans taking a Dem seat away. That may happen in NJ as well. Minnesota is up for grabs too - don't believe the Star ribune poll - they are always wrong and they always favor Dems.
Gregg disputes my poll data but I have access to better polls than he does. By Tuesday even his polls will reflect the data I am predicting from.
My keyboard will not do capital t's anymore -ribune should have been tribune with a capitol t. I shall go to Walmart and get a new keyboard this very day.
verily
Here is the passage from lynn Cheney's book that Webb's Kiddie Porn smut is being compared to:
This is the extent of the "Explicit Steamy Lesbian" scene from Lynn Cheney's "Sisters":
The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve crossing a dark cathedral stage -- no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were. She felt curiously moved, curiously envious of them. She had never to this moment thought Eden a particularly attractive paradise, based as it was on naiveté, but she saw that the women in the cart had a passionate, loving intimacy forever closed to her. How strong it made them. What comfort it gave.
Pretty benign lesbian seen from Lyn Cheney's book eh, no large women with buzz cuts and flannel shirts removing the overalls from other large women with buzzcuts - just eve and eve skipping down the road to who knows where.
see frosty is back. I can agree with him on one statement
"Lincoln wanted to send the Negroes to Africa but very few wanted to go."
That's all the reason one needs to not vote repub.
Posted by Veneita on October 29, 2006 at 11:06 PM
Lincoln offered the Negroes a chance to move to Africa because he thought they would be happier there. He didn't insist that they go there. He just didn't think they would ever be able to assimilate into society.
History, thus far, has not proven Mr Lincoln wrong by and large.
Media Elites Snub Clintons 60th Birthday Party
This one is way too funny. Britains the Daily Mail reported on Saturday that the Clintons are having a hard time selling tickets to Bills upcoming 60th birthday party, so much so that they have now twice reduced the price. In fact, compared to what they were originally charging, in particular to Hollywood elites, prices have been drastically slashed, and are now being offered to the public (hat tip to Drudge):
When America's liberal elite were offered the chance to pay up to $500,000 each (about 260,000) to attend Bill Clinton's 60th birthday extravaganza tonight - with the added promise of a private Rolling Stones concert - a packed house was expected.
Wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea sent out about 10,000 invitations to Hollywood tycoons, movie stars, captains of industry and Wall Street - with all proceeds to go to the former President's charitable foundation.
Sadly for the Clintons, there werent a lot of takers:
The minimum price, with inferior concert seats and no brunch, was set at $60,000 (31,000). But with many rich Democrats sending their regrets, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that last Wednesday the Clintons drastically slashed prices to $12,500 (6,500) for one reception and the concert, or $5,000 (2,600) for just the Stones.
It seems the new price didnt attract many buyers either: With the looming possibility of Bill and his long-suffering wife and daughter finding themselves amid a sea of empty chairs at the 2,900-seat Manhattan venue, tickets then went on sale to the public for as little as $1,710 (900).
The news is even worse, as the headliner may not be able to perform: And there is a danger that the Clintons' plans may end in a total fiasco, after the Stones cancelled Friday's show in Atlantic City when Mick Jagger complained of a sore throat and was ordered to rest by a doctor.
This sets up quite an embarrassment for the birthday boy:
A friend of the Clintons said last night: "It is all highly embarrassing for Bill and Hillary. When they created the idea, they thought it would go like wildfire. What's not going to please some who did come up with $500,000 is finding regular Stones fans there who got last-minute tickets on the internet."
In the end, its possible this will turn out like that E-Trade commercial where promoters are walking through the streets of Manhattan grabbing bums, drunks, and homeless people to fill the empty seats. Actually, that wouldn't be much different than what normally happens in such areas on Election Day.
Happy birthday, Mr. President!
U.S. military death toll in Iraq climbs to 100
Number marks deadliest month since Nov. 2004 for American troops
Updated: 1:31 a.m. ET Oct 30, 2006
WASHINGTON - U.S. military deaths in Iraq climbed to 100 on Monday, making October the deadliest month for American troops in a year as militias and al-Qaida stage fierce battles in Baghdad and elsewhere.
The violence, unrelenting despite a four-month security crackdown in the capital and additional U.S. troops on the ground, had been blamed on the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when attacks generally rise and on increased patrols in tense areas.
Bomb kills more than 30 in Baghdad
Day laborers targeted in Sadr City slum
MSNBC
BREAKING NEWS
Updated: 1:14 a.m. ET Oct 30, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A bomb targeting poor Iraqi Shiites lining up for day jobs in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum killed at least 31 people and wounded more than 50 others, police said.
The bomb tore through a collection of food stalls and kiosks at about 6:15 a.m., cutting down men who gather there daily hoping to be hired as laborers. Police Maj. Hashim al-Yasiri put the casualty figure at 31 killed and 51 injured.
There were conflicting reports as to whether the blast was caused by a suicide bomber or a device concealed amid debris by the roadside. The overwhelmingly Shiite area is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia blamed for much of the sectarian violence rocking the city.
The Explosion At Texas City
2005 Refinery Explosion In Texas Killed 15, Injured 170
(CBS) Next week, one of the world’s largest oil companies, BP, will go to court in Galveston, Texas, to face a young woman who says the company killed her parents. As correspondent Ed Bradley reports, the woman’s parents were among 15 oil workers who died in an explosion last year at BP’s refinery in Texas City, Texas. At least 170 others were also injured in the blast. It was the worst workplace accident in this country since 1989.
60 Minutes spent the last three months investigating the explosion at Texas City, and what we found was a failure by BP to protect the health and safety of its own workers, even though the company made a profit of $19 billion last year.
60 Minutes also found evidence that BP ignored warning after warning that something terrible could happen at Texas City.
oil, black blood
Here it is again!
The Democrat Party Poster about the Civil War one year before the war was won. Note the reference the "Useless War". Sound familiar? The Democrats wanted to surrender in 1864. This is the war that freed the slaves and saved the nation.
Nikkei falls nearly 2 pct after U.S., Japan data
Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:50am ET
By Eriko Amaha
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Nikkei average fell 1.90 percent on Monday to post its biggest one-day percentage loss in nearly three months, with blue-chips such as Toyota Motor Corp. down after weak U.S. growth data and sluggish Japanese industrial output fueled worries about a slowdown in Japan.
I guess Gregg won't be able to attempt to refute my figures in the morning since he does not do so now when I am still here.
Human induced global warming is nonsense.
DSCC Press Release: Allen Arrest Records Controversy
ALLEN ARREST RECORDS CONTROVERSY: ALLEN REFUSES TO RELEASE DOCUMENTS DETAILING HIS ARREST RECORD
Allen’s Multiple Arrest Warrants Could Have Been for Anything From Assault to Disorderly Conduct to Battery
October 28, 2006
By: Phil Singer, DSCC
Democrats are demanding that George Allen stop stonewalling and immediately release records addressing why multiple warrants were issued for his arrest in 1974 while he was a student at the University of Virginia.
Democrats are demanding that George Allen stop stonewalling and immediately release records addressing why multiple warrants were issued for his arrest in 1974 while he was a student at the University of Virginia.
Posted by gregg on October 30, 2006 at 05:10 AM
Republicans want to know why Webb is writing kiddie porn in 2001.
Liberal Republican Suburb Turns Furious With G.O.P.
BELLEVUE, Wash., Oct. 24 — The M.B.A.’s have had it. The engineers are fuming.
For as long as anyone here can remember, Bellevue has been a stronghold of socially liberal Republicanism. First, it was a prosperous Seattle bedroom community, then a technological boomtown, where employees of Microsoft and Internet start-ups consistently voted for fiscal restraint and hands-off government.
But now, voters here are accusing the party in power of overspending and overreaching — and when they do, they sound like people who write manifestos, not software code.
“I’m a mild-mannered guy,” Michael Mattison, a partner in a software venture development firm, said as he stabbed a piece of halibut in the sunlit dining room of a local bistro. “But we can no longer be subdued.”
Bellevue has been growing more Democratic for several years, thanks to an influx of liberal voters and a professional class that is changing teams. This year, Bellevue may send its first Democrat to Congress. Darcy Burner, who even supporters admit is inexperienced, may unseat Representative Dave Reichert, a well-liked, longtime public servant, simply because constituents want Democratic control of the House of Representatives.
drip, drip, drip
Evolution is nonsense, It takes more faith to believe in evolution than it takes to believe in creationism. They have never found a single example of a one creature evolving into another. It is not just people where the missing link doesn't exist - it is all and any species.
New Prediction!
The Republicans will lose 1 Senate seat and 8 House seats - revisions may follow.
Missing Links and Found Links
In and out of the water, transitional forms from the fossil record illuminate the nuts and bolts of evolution
Pat Shipman
Though missing links are often talked about, it's the found ones that hold a special place in my heart. Found links are fossils that illustrate major transitions during evolutionary history. More than that, such creatures offer unexpected glimpses of the never-predictable twists and turns taken by evolution. Their discovery and surprise bring sheer fun to paleontology and biology.
I have always loved the iconic Archaeopteryx, a beautiful fossil recognized in 1860 that unmistakably combines features of two major groups of animals: birds and reptiles. The exquisite feathered wings of Archaeopteryx bear most unbirdlike claws; its birdlike skull contains an avian brain but carries sharp reptilian teeth, not a beak; and its feathered tail is underlain by a long bony tail typical of a small dinosaur, not a bird. Still, the feathers and wings on these 150-million-year-old fossils qualify Archaeopteryx for the title of First Bird.
Archaeopteryx is a found link in another sense, because the anatomy of this extraordinary species reveals how creatures evolved from propelling themselves along solid substrates, such as the ground or tree limbs, to moving through the air. It was a difficult transition. Archaeopteryx fascinates me in part because its anatomy is not that of a skillful, modern bird, yet it competed with contemporary pterodactyls, which flew using different anatomical structures. I often wonder why birds survived and those wonderful pterodactyls went extinct.
At the time of its discovery, Archaeopteryx was hailed by the anatomist Thomas Henry Huxley as stony proof of evolutionary theory. Decades later, Archaeopteryx was trumped by an extraordinary plethora of feathered dinosaurs—some nonflying—that tell different stories about the evolution of avian features.
Enter the Fishapod
I am equally enamored of another found link, the fossil skeleton of Tiktaalik roseae, described on April 6, 2006, in the journal Nature. Tiktaalikis a name suggested by the elders of the Nunavut people, who live where the fossils were found on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic; it means "large, shallow-water fish." This 375-million-year-old fish shows a delicious combination of unexpected features, some inherited from its fishy ancestors and some typical of later land-dwelling tetrapods (four-footed animals). Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago, co-leader of the discovery team, jokingly calls the newly discovered species a "fishapod."
Tiktaalik's fins, gills, scales and primitive jaw show it was a fish. Unlike fish and like tetrapods, it had a distinct neck, so its head moved independently of its body. Its flattened head and broad body make Tiktaalik look somewhat like a weird, scaly crocodile, an impression enhanced by its four-to-nine-foot length. Its skeleton differs markedly from those of crocodiles or alligators, though, despite the overall resemblance in body shape. Tiktaalik's front fins hold the biggest surprise. Each was a sort of half-fin, half-leg containing the bony elements found in a limb—with a functional wrist, elbow and shoulder—and yet retaining the bony "rays" of a fish fin. According to team member Farish Jenkins, Jr., of Harvard University, the front fins were sturdy enough to support the creature in very shallow water or on land for brief trips.
Its broad and robust ribs were imbricated, like tiles on a roof. They helped to support the body on land and probably housed lungs to supplement the gills. The presence of lungs is expected because many of the primitive fish in Tiktaalik's ancestry had lungs for gulping air at the water's surface as well as gills. Soft tissues are rarely preserved in fossils, so the lack of fossilized lungs is unremarkable. With or without lungs, Tiktaalik was uniquely adapted to moving between land and water.
"We were absolutely surprised at the features of the specimens," Ted Daeschler of the Academy of Natural Sciences, co-leader of the team, told me. "That is one of the beauties of this material. We knew the end points—fish at the beginning and tetrapods at the end—but we could not have predicted the sequence in which those anatomical changes occurred." Discovering the unexpected is one of the joys of paleontology.
A dramatic change in habitat—becoming a land animal when your ancestors lived in water—required many anatomical changes. Sturdy limbs replaced flexible fins. New foods had to be found, and new means of getting them had to be developed. In this case, when Tiktaalik crawled up on land it probably preyed upon insects. Predatory fish in the past and present often suck aquatic food into their mouths using the same mechanism that passes water across the gills. But Tiktaalik does not have a bony gill cover, which means there was less water flow over the gills and a less effective sucking mechanism. Too, its snout is longer than in its predatory ancestors. Both of these changes suggest that Tiktaalik was snapping up prey, perhaps from the air, rather than gulping down prey along with water.
Eventually tetrapods left the water and relied solely on lungs for respiration, abandoning their gills. By simply being, Tiktaalik not only proves that such major adaptive changes occurred but also reveals how this specific transition from water to land occurred.
This remarkable fossil shows us something else: that the transition was not an all-or-nothing affair. "Land" or "water" is too simple a dichotomy for the realities of ecosystems. There are many habitats—swamps, or shallow, plant-choked streams, or ponds that shrink seasonally and occasionally dry up—that require a range of adaptations to both land and water. Tiktaalik may have been at home in such places.
Longer and Longer Swims
Tiktaalik's discovery made me reconsider the much later and opposite transition—from land back to the sea—which is documented in the excellent record of fossil whales. For example, Pakicetus is a 50-million-year-old species with whalelike teeth and a whalelike skull. Its skull possesses neither the anatomical adaptations for deep diving nor those for hearing underwater as well as modern whales do, suggesting Pakicetus used both land and shallow water environments. Most of its skeleton is still unknown, but the part of its pelvis that is known shows aquatic adaptations. Whether or not its limbs and feet were adapted for land or sea won't be known until a more complete specimen is found. Phil Gingerich of the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan has found remains of Pakicetus and many other spectacular whale fossils. "We are looking for a skeleton of Pakicetus," he says with a grin, emphasizing the need for an intact specimen, "knowing that what we find might turn out to be quite different from what we expect."
american scientist on-line
Okay, that's it - I'm going night night now. But be careful Gregg cause I might be tricking you.
OK Greggy, If you make comments about me in the morning as you always do, they will look pretty silly even amongst this pack of jackels.
see frosty is back. I can agree with him on one statement
"Lincoln wanted to send the Negroes to Africa but very few wanted to go."
That's all the reason one needs to not vote repub.
Posted by Veneita on October 29, 2006 at 11:06 PM
Lincoln offered the Negroes a chance to move to Africa because he thought they would be happier there. He didn't insist that they go there. He just didn't think they would ever be able to assimilate into society.
History, thus far, has not proven Mr Lincoln wrong by and large.
Posted by FrostyMacCowpie on October 30, 2006 at 04:27 AM
Common sense would tell anyone that Lincoln couldn't insist to send blacks back to Africa after he emancipated them, not unless he was prepared to load them back up on the ships they came over on which he actually wanted to do after he had played his emancipation card and crippled the South.
"Assimilate into society"? Blacks played a large role in shaping society as it developed, but then how could we as people blend as you say. It's that same mindthink they you just displayed in your comment as to why we were kept to the forefront and never allowed to live as full fledge citizens for decades.
Good morning, everyone.
Thanks to those who sent an e-mail & posted here. Pretty Bird made it through ok and is doing great. We watched "scary" movies all weekend.
Here's an All Hallow's Eve eve news article.
As 'goblins' knock, evangelicals answer the door
"If they want supernatural, let's give them Godly supernatural"
Jacque, thanks for the update. I was just thinking about you and Pretty Bird. Very happy to hear she is doing well and hope you are, too.
Human induced global warming is nonsense.
Posted by FrostyMacCowpie on October 30, 2006 at 05:08 AM
The Almighty has allowed us free will. I think most use it.
Saturday afternoon, I was hanging laundry out...50+ mph winds and all that jazz. We had a "freak" snow fall. Odd looking flakes if I do say so myself. Not normal.
Hmmm. Why am I surprised?
Two former House committee investigators who were examining Capitol Hill security upgrades said a senior aide to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert hindered their efforts before they were abruptly ordered to stop their probe last year.
The former Appropriations Committee investigators said Ted Van Der Meid, Hastert’s chief counsel, resisted from the start the inquiry, which began with concerns about mismanagement of a secret security office and later probed allegations of bid-rigging and kickbacks from contractors to a Defense Department employee.
Ronald Garant and a second Appropriations Committee investigator who asked not to be identified said Van Der Meid engaged in “screaming matches” with investigators and told at least one aide not to talk to them. Van Der Meid also prohibited investigators from visiting certain sites to check up on the effectiveness of the work, the investigators said.
All eyes on Ohio, the King of Swing
"Stay the course isn't a strategy, it's a slogan," she said.
Big {{{hug}}} to you, bluzy. (and cyn, j, gg...others)
South Asia, Oct 31, 2006
Another deadly blow for Pakistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf wanted to draw a line in the sand in his struggle for the spiritual soul of the country by early next month, ramming through parliament a controversial bill regarding women's rights that is seen as a move to purge Islamic laws from the constitution.
Instead, helicopter gunships raining death on a village in the remote Bajour agency tribal area on Monday morning significantly escalated Musharraf's battle with militant Islamic forces fiercely
opposed to any softening of the state's Islamic legislation.
A pre-dawn attack on a madrassa (Islamic seminary) in a village in the Bajour tribal district in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) claimed the lives of scores of people.
{{{Essie and Pretty Bird}}}
as you know, you've been in our hearts...and our prayers
wonderful to see you and {{{Cyn}}} this morning.
i've got an early meeting--a week from tomorrow it is!
{{{Fade}}}, it's getting close, isn't it? I am too afraid to think we have it made, so work, work, work on GOTV!!!
The Miami Herald is reporting that vote switching is already occurring in early voting on electronic voting machines. Link Here (Another link on Daily Kos).
What is the DNC doing to do about this. We need to confiscate the memory cards in machines that are acting up. IS THAT GOING TO HAPPEN?
When the War Comes Home
"The whole reason I didn't stay in Iraq was I would've killed people that didn't deserve to die," Zierk said, "and it wouldn't have served any greater good."
good morning fade, cyn, j, jauq. i hope sally studies that piece i posted on evolution. there will be a quiz tonite.
jauq we had the weather you had saturday yesterday. wierd little ice balls half way between too soft to be hail and too big too be flakes. thinking of you and yours.
Wanted to share if'n it hasn't already been posted. Bush Moves Toward Martial Law
Posted by xdebx on October 29, 2006 at 08:47 PM
General post to all...watch and listen what is happening to your local elected sheriff and your local government.
First step, martial law, second, joining the EU. Ten heads & all that jazz.
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Time to get to work. I'm sure I have piles of telephone messages and sticky notes gallore! sigh...I'm out of the office last Fri. with Bird...you would have thought it was a crisis when the printer ribbon broke while printing acknowledgement notices last Fri. Do ya ever wanna ask, "where's your head at?"
Lots of fun going on here this week..GOTV rally tonight, driving in a parade for Z tomorrow, trade/union rally this Thurs prior to our monthly Democratic Club meeting.
Enjoy the day, everyone.
Morning, gg. My daughter was finally able to get a Gillibrand sign for her lawn!
Bush Appointee Said to Reject Advice on Endangered Species
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 30, 2006; Page A03
A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has rejected staff scientists' recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act at least six times in the past three years, documents show.
In addition, staff complaints that their scientific findings were frequently overruled or disparaged at the behest of landowners or industry have led the agency's inspector general to look into the role of Julie MacDonald, who has been deputy assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks since 2004, in decisions on protecting endangered species.
just one more reason to beat these bastards
yeah cyn they are rare as hen's teeth. i had one left and i was phone banking and this woman really wanted one and her house was in a good spot to get alot of traffic going by so the next day when i was in town i put it up for her.
Good morning, all.
Hi, Essie. Glad to hear your daughter is feeling better and the healing process has set in. Nothing like horror movies to scare the devil and anything else out of the system. Maybe the popcorn and Goopers does the real cleansing?
Posted by gregg on October 30, 2006 at 05:10 AM
Tax evasion or drug charges? Hate crimes? Suicide killings? Stealing elections or election yard signs?
Republican battle cry, and rhetorical question, for the closing days, mostly in districts that poll favorably on Iraq
DO YOU WANT TO WIN IN IRAQ?
Isn't this just another version of "stay the course"? A new lead in question to the now famous continued failure policy aka "stay the course"?
To quote Chris Matthews "if this is winning I'd hate to see losing." Don't worry Chris in about a week you will "see losing" in a large way as the results come in.
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