Afghan document dump paints a discouraging picture

I’m on column duty for tomorrow’s newspaper, so I don’t have time to do the topic full justice. It’s already pretty clear, however, the release of more than 90,000 previously secret internal military documents about the war in Afghanistan is likely to echo through the national discussion for weeks if not months.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, the material documents in ground-level detail just how difficult it has been to make lasting progress in just about any endeavor in Afghanistan. Whatever small gain we make today is washed away tomorrow, with little sense that larger goals are within reach.

The Obama administration is understandably downplaying the relevance of the documents, as the Washington Post reports:

White House officials and their allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan sought Monday to play down the political and military impact of the unauthorized release of thousands of classified Afghan war documents, saying they portray a reality on the ground that is already largely known…..

Even as they sought to minimize their significance, senior administration officials acknowledged that they had been anxiously awaiting the long-rumored posting of the documents. “There is not a lot new here for those who have been following developments closely,” one U.S. official said Sunday.

Washington officials are also pointing out that the documents cover a time frame before President Obama’s decision to commit additional manpower and resources to the fight.

“These leaked reports pre-date our new strategy in Afghanistan and should not be used as a measure of success or a determining factor in our continued mission there,” according to Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “… since these reports were issued, Pakistan has significantly stepped up its fight against the Taliban, including efforts that led to the capture of the highest-ranking member of the Taliban since the start of the war.”

“The documents posted by Wikileaks reportedly cover a period of time from January 2004 to December 2009,” National Security Adviser James Jones responded. “On December 1, 2009, President Obama announced a new strategy with a substantial increase in resources for Afghanistan, and increased focus on al Qaeda and Taliban safe-havens in Pakistan, precisely because of the grave situation that had developed over several years.”

The problem is, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence that things have changed in any fundamental way since Dec. 1, 2009, and so far, the mundane if discouraging details contained in those 90,000 documents make a strong argument that they probably never will.

481 comments Add your comment

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
1:52 pm

The problem is, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence that things have changed in any fundamental way since Dec. 1, 2009, and so far, the mundane if discouraging details contained in those 90,000 documents make a strong argument that they probably never will.

We should’ve learned something from Russia. Afghanistan is a fool’s mission. Get out now before we end up going broke morally, financially, and militarily. And if Dusty comes on, let me answer your question now before you bring it up. “NO, Dudley doesn’t feel that way.” But Dudley is a military man, from the top if his head to the bottom of his feet; he’d never admit defeat until there’s no other choice left.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
2:00 pm

DDR
Unmentionable’s is a military family. I can imagine yours and Dudley’s “discussions!” They get pretty heated around here, too!

Dusty

July 26th, 2010
2:02 pm

Awww I was leaving and my patriotism called and said that Bookman was issuing another anti-American diatribe with info furnished by anti-Amrican losers.. Another” Bush did it” and our soldiers are sooo bad. This is right down the liberal firing line of how to undermine your country while our troops are fighting a war. Sick!!.

Go kiss the flag, Bookman. The American flag, that is. Don’t want you to get mixed up.

jconservative

July 26th, 2010
2:04 pm

Except for the details there is not much new here.

The problem has always been the three headed dog in Pakistan. The Paki civilian government sways with the latest check from the US & is subject to Paki public opinion just like anyplace. The military is nationalistic but basically pro US. The Paki secret service is composed to Islamic fundamentalists who basically created the Afghan Taliban in the first place. What they have in common is their hatred for India.

And Afghan is still a 12th century feudal state and will remain so.

There cannot be a US “win” in this scenario.

HDB

July 26th, 2010
2:05 pm

Afghanistan is the place where empires do to DIE!! If we don’t find a way to get out of this place with a modicum of order, this could be the downfall of the US as a nation!! Because of certain moves, we’ve lost world respect…and we’re working to recover that….but economically, we just can’t afford this!!

Dusty

July 26th, 2010
2:05 pm

DDR. Dudley is what we call a real American.

Bye. Can’t stay!!

Fly-On-The-Wall

July 26th, 2010
2:07 pm

Haven’t read it yet but it’s not like I can read 90k worth of pages in a short time either. Guess we’ll have to wait for all the pundits to give us the Cliff Notes version. I’ll withhold comments & judgement until then.

Russ555

July 26th, 2010
2:08 pm

If winning means establishing a stong central government that can control the country, that is not likely to happen. Apparantly, Afgans don’t want that.
We may be able to oust the Taliban from control of the local tribes and give them enough support to keep the Taliban out. That should be our goal now.

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
2:09 pm

“If winning means ”

As far as I’m concerned, we lost that war a LONG time ago. “Winning” should have meant get Bin Laden and get out. That failure happened in the first year.

ralph

July 26th, 2010
2:10 pm

Stay the Course!

Fly-On-The-Wall

July 26th, 2010
2:11 pm

Dusty,

No mention of US soldiers are bad guys here. Never would, never will for people who are doing their job. They’ve got a tough job and they will always have my respect. Doesn’t mean they are heroes either but they are doing very difficult work and they deserve our respect and understanding.

Normal

July 26th, 2010
2:11 pm

Dusty

July 26th, 2010
2:02 pm

I still can’t understand how you think fighting a war with too many rules on our side and none on their side is patriotic? When the Soviets were there, we supplied the Afghans with Stinger missles to shoot down helicopters. There are reports today that our helicopters are being shot down by shoulder fired heat seekers. Want to bet where they are coming from? Anyway, the patriotic thing to do is to bring them home now and live to fight another day. Absolutely nothing can be gained by remaining there except more heart break for American families.

Outhouse GoKart

July 26th, 2010
2:14 pm

The only way to win is to kill em all and make Afgy a territory or possesion of the US. Otherwise forget it.

Finn McCool

July 26th, 2010
2:14 pm

Let’s hope this helps our leaders wrap this thing up soon. Enough waste of money already. End it!

Fly-On-The-Wall

July 26th, 2010
2:14 pm

Doggone (2:09) – I agree. I felt that we really let things go when we stopped hunting OBL and went to Iraq. If we’d gone after him with the same zeal that we were led into Iraq then we would have caught him (or at least a much better chance of it) and then the gratitude of the world plus the Muslim world wouldn’t hate us quite as much as they do now.

Outhouse GoKart

July 26th, 2010
2:15 pm

All these 90K pages will do is lead to additional lying from our DC DicTater.

get out much?

July 26th, 2010
2:16 pm

As so appropriately stated by Vizini in “The Princess Bride”: “You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders – The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia’”

Finn McCool

July 26th, 2010
2:16 pm

Guess we’ll have to wait for all the pundits to give us the Cliff Notes version.

You mean “wait for all the pundits to put their particular spin on it to serve their own political needs. Damn the facts” don’t you?

Fly-On-The-Wall

July 26th, 2010
2:17 pm

OGK – do you really believe that? Do you want Afgy as a terrority of the US?

@@

July 26th, 2010
2:21 pm

World powers react to WikiLeaks’ documents

WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange said the documents are “legitimate,” but he added it is important not to take their contents at face value.

“We publish CIA reports all the time that are legitimate CIA reports. That doesn’t mean the CIA is telling the truth,” he said.

“Similarly, with this material, there is reporting from military units of various kinds, in Afghanistan, U.S. embassies across the world, about matters relevant to Afghanistan. … Those are legitimate reports,” he said. “It doesn’t mean the contents are true.”

If they’re not true, then why publish ‘em?

Full-blown moonbat.

Weirdo!

TM

July 26th, 2010
2:23 pm

once again we get partial information and they are out to get someone. Do we have a complete picture of all this info or were there just select documents. Did we just go through this last week

@@

July 26th, 2010
2:23 pm

So, did everyone come together downstairs?

getalife

July 26th, 2010
2:24 pm

Do you trust our corrupt government to nation build with the Afghan corrupt government?

Really?

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
2:24 pm

“If they’re not true, then why publish ‘em?”

You “publish” them so they can be checked out and verified to see if they are accurate or not. Being published is no guarantee of factualness.

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
2:24 pm

josef: DDR – Unmentionable’s is a military family. I can imagine yours and Dudley’s “discussions!” They get pretty heated around here, too!

At first they were; however as the years have gone by I’ve learned just to love him and support him; no matter if he’s a damn fool or not!! :)

Dusty: DDR. Dudley is what we call a real American.

Yes he is. He was born in America just like I was. And you too I think…..

FLY – ignore him….he’s just our local “fool on the hill”. We let him come out every now and then and scare the kids and bark at the dogs.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
2:31 pm

DDR

“At first they were; however as the years have gone by I’ve learned just to love him and support him; no matter if he’s a damn fool or not!! ”
I passed that on to Unmentionable. He says, “and I’m sure he feels the same way about you!” :-)

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
2:35 pm

josef – he’d BETTER! :wink:

Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)

July 26th, 2010
2:36 pm

Well, I went to that Wikileaks site and couldn’t make heads or tails out of all that junk, but my buddy Jim Earl’s real smart and he says Pakistan’s version of the CIA is playing us for fools. They been helping the Taliban figure out how to kill more of our troops while taking billions of bucks we give them.

So I come up with a Republican solution for the problem. Just sell a pack of lies to Congress and get them to vote to give the President the right to go to war whenever he feels like it and then bomb the heck out of Pakistan before sending about a million of our troops in. End it all by hanging the Pakistan president and about a dozen of his people and then hang around for about 7 years of fighting it out with the holdout rebels. If the Democrats complain about it we can always point out how some of them voted for giving the President the right to go to war.

But hold on for a few days. I need the time to round up as much money as I can so I can invest in Haliburton or Xi or whatever it calls itself these days. No use blowing a chance to make a little money out of the whole thing. And if I got any money left over I want to start up a little company that makes magnet ribbons to put on SUVs that say something like Support Our Troops or Burn Pakistan and Taliban.

Have a good p.m. everybody.

joe matarotz

July 26th, 2010
2:40 pm

No matter how many of our kids get killed, or how long we stay there, we will never be able to leave Afghanistan and say, “We won”. GO back to the covert ops we used to oppose the Soviets and stop wasting American lives.

theyeshaveit

July 26th, 2010
2:48 pm

Dusty,

What did Jay do that was Anti-American? You know, Joe McCarthy is dead and buried. And I have not seen many things as anti-American as a bullet in Afghanistan. It is time to get out of there.

theyeshaveit

July 26th, 2010
2:50 pm

@@ said So, did everyone come together downstairs?

Nope. We seceded.

Normal

July 26th, 2010
2:50 pm

I am glad that we are finally getting the information we need to decide for ourselves. Maybe now popular dissent derived from credible information will help turn the tide of public opinion and force our “Leaders” to bring our children home.

Finn McCool

July 26th, 2010
2:51 pm

This note comes courtesy of my friend David Sirota out in Colorado. This is a classic example of how the Senate works. If the public understood better how rigged this game is, and how few issues are actually left to an honest vote in the legislature, I’m pretty sure the pitchfork factor would be twice even what it is now.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/matt-taibbi/blogs/TaibbiData_May2010/182561/83512

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
2:51 pm

Oh good, McCarthy. What did he do that was so anti-American again?

Maybe Friday we can do a McCarthy thread then an evolution thread. That should get the music one off to a roaring start.

Dave R.

July 26th, 2010
2:52 pm

“Being published is no guarantee of factualness.”

All you have to do is read one of CT’s or JB’s columns to know that! :D

John Birch

July 26th, 2010
2:53 pm

I’m so glad this story came out, if only that it led to an easy blog topic for Jay, and one I’ve been waiting for. For an administration rife with errors, basically one blunder after another, this is perhaps the largest one. What’s particularly odorous is that O took his time to make this decision. After weighing all the inputs for weeks and having all the history of our efforts and results in Iraq and Afghanistan to date (something Bush didn’t have when he made the original invasion decisions) the man decides to send 50,000 more troops into this hopeless situation. At a minimum this should be an impeachable offense and should probably also subject O to trial for war cirmes against America and Afghanistan.

Jefferson

July 26th, 2010
3:02 pm

Bring the troops home. Nothing there to win. They don’t think western and never will.

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
3:08 pm

John Birch

July 26th, 2010
3:12 pm

Quit changing the subject doggone. Tell us how your president is doing with this Afghan thing.

[...] chief denies aiding TalibanAljazeera.netISI orchestrated Indian embassy attack in Kabul: ReportSifyAtlanta Journal Constitution (blog) -CNN (blog) -ABC Online -FOXNewsall 3,948 news [...]

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
3:13 pm

“Tell us how your president is doing with this Afghan thing.”

OK…MY president is doing exactly the same thing as YOUR president

Brett

July 26th, 2010
3:23 pm

More of the oily, toxic residue left on the sidewalks of the world by 8 years of the worst & most demeaning period in American history. The BushDrunk years of a quivering mass of ignoble sadness and blighted phlegm. That dumbed down drunk & his cadre of flying monkeys. Today’s Murcuh!!

Scout

July 26th, 2010
3:23 pm

TWO HEADLINES:

TODAY: More NATO troops will die in Afghanistan as violence mounts over the summer, but Washington’s goal of turning the tide against the insurgency by year’s end is within reach, the top U.S. military officer said on Sunday.

1969: More Allied troops will die in South Vietnam as violence mounts over the summer, but Washington’s goal of turning the tide against the NVA and Viet Cong by year’s end is within reach, the top U.S. military officer said on Sunday.

@@

July 26th, 2010
3:24 pm

Doggone:

You “publish” them so they can be checked out and verified to see if they are accurate or not.

What I’d like verified is whether the Obama administration used this moonbat, Assange, to put pressure on Pakistan.

How pathetic would that be?

My personal opinion is that Bush had it right in Afghanistan. Go in, complete the mission (if not kill, then put Al Qaeda on the run) and get out. Only problem I see is we didn’t get all the way out. Satellite surveillance and a promise to return would have been enough.

I don’t know what the hell Obama thinks he’s doin’ with his surge. With the “facts” in front of him, he sends in more troops?

Maybe it’s one of his campaign promises he’s looking to fill.

Gammer

July 26th, 2010
3:24 pm

What was that line by Michael Biehn’s character in ‘Aliens’?

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
3:25 pm

“My personal opinion is that Bush had it right in Afghanistan. Go in, complete the mission (if not kill, then put Al Qaeda on the run) and get out. ”

Yep, he had it right…to bad he didn’t DO that.

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
3:26 pm

@@

July 26th, 2010
3:31 pm

Doggone:

If you think Al Qaeda prime is capable of launching another major attack inside the U.S., then you need to look at all “their” failed efforts in the last nine years. Sympathizers and wannabes…that’s all they’ve got going for ‘em.

The head of the snake has been removed and virtually buried. The body writhes.

Del

July 26th, 2010
3:31 pm

First of all we’ve not fully supported the mission that we’ve tasked our military to fulfill. We’ve encumbered them with foolish rules of engagement. We’ve allowed A.Q. sanctuary in Northern Pakistan, believing that drone attacks are sufficiently effective. We fail to see that the Afghan people just don’t share our values nor care to emulate our culture and never will. We continue to prop up the corrupt Hamid Karzai government and allow Pakistan to play us for fools. I can’t see any justifiable reason for us to waste the lives of our most valuable resource. Advise the Afghan government that we will never again allow their country to become a H.Q. for international terrorism and bring our troops home.

Joe

July 26th, 2010
3:35 pm

Obama will to start pulling troops from Afghanistan beginning next summer. Bet on it.

Scout

July 26th, 2010
3:39 pm

Headline(CBS) – WikiLeaks: “White House Tries to Kill Messenger” :

Jay: Can anyone say Daniel Ellsberg. Funny how it is when libs are in the driver’s seat.

Joe

July 26th, 2010
3:40 pm

John Birch: “After weighing all the inputs for weeks and having all the history of our efforts and results in Iraq and Afghanistan to date (something Bush didn’t have when he made the original invasion decisions) the man decides to send 50,000 more troops into this hopeless situation. At a minimum this should be an impeachable offense and should probably also subject O to trial for war cirmes against America and Afghanistan.

Impeachment? War crimes? I guess times have changed since a couple of years ago when the right was insisting that we support our commander-in-chief in a time of war.

Oh, that’s right. A Democrat is in the White House.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
3:40 pm

Leave Afghanistan. It’s just that simple. There isn’t a single person over there that is worth a damaged hair on one of OUR soldiers. They have been fighting each other for 1000’s of years with the only breaks being when they pause long enough to fight outsiders like us who try to intervene.

Doggone nailed it in his (her?) 2:09 post:

“Winning” should have meant get Bin Laden and get out. That failure happened in the first year.

What else needs be said?

Scout

July 26th, 2010
3:41 pm

“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.”

Rudyard Kipling

Fred

July 26th, 2010
3:45 pm

Nice quote Scout. I think he stole from a Macedonian though lol.

RAMBLE ON!!!

July 26th, 2010
3:47 pm

Joe,

How much did you bet on Gitmo?

Scout

July 26th, 2010
3:47 pm

“OFF TOPIC #1″

WASHINGTON – “The White House says first lady Michelle Obama will travel to Spain next week for a private trip with longtime family friends.

Mrs. Obama will be traveling with her youngest daughter, Sasha. President Barack Obama and daughter Malia will not be on the trip.

The White House says Mrs. Obama pay an official visit to Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia (THIS IS SO THE TAXPAYERS HAVE TO PAY FOR THE TRIP). That meeting, as well as Mrs. Obama’s other activities, will be closed to the press.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV0fmNo7474&feature=related (A LITTLE MUSIC TO GO ALONG)

jt

July 26th, 2010
3:47 pm

Fighting wars is really the only way for corrupt governments to survive. The businessmen who could win Afganistan have been co-opted or fled. (see Button Gwinnett). It happens all the time.

Don’t worry, we have invaded Costa Rica to be on the safe side. The lack of media coverage is fascinating. We can keep the military industrial complex going.

There is also Iran or North Korea. It is always better for those guys to be slaughtered than us IMHO.
Don’t think for a minute that they won’t violently plunder US if all else fails. Been done before.(1861-65)

“In a controversial decision that is likely to fan the flames of regional tensions in Latin America, “Costa Rica recently granted the US permission to move 7,000 troops and 46 warships (along with their accompanying planes and helicopters) into Costa Rican waters. Officially, the act is considered to be part of the “Drug War,” which appears to be increasingly more war-like in nature due to such actions and mounting violence in Mexico and Colombia. Costa Rica’s neighbors, however, see the massive military presence as a potential base for regional strikes.”

R & D voters get what they deserve.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
3:48 pm

(I live in hell. I’m typing to the accompaniment of two little girls singing along to a Selena Gomez cd. Someone PLEASE come poke my ears out………)

RAMBLE ON!!!

July 26th, 2010
3:48 pm

Umm, wasn’t that suppose to be closed 18 mths…err 6 months ago?

@@

July 26th, 2010
3:49 pm

What’s really entertaining is to watch the war between Cryptome and Wikileaks.

They’re ALL loony tunes. Comical characters looking for an audience.

John Birch

July 26th, 2010
3:51 pm

Joe – No party lines here. But Bush had a whole diferent set of circumstances. We were attacked by an enemy that chose to hide among civilians rather than identify itself, one that also moved across national borders with ease. So he tried to combat the terrorists on two fronts. Obama, after seeing the less than stellar result sof both those efforts, REPEATED THE SAME STUPDI, FAILED POLICY. Do you see where there is a diference between trying something in a very difficult situation and repeating soemthing you’ve seen nt work for six years?!!!

Fred

July 26th, 2010
3:52 pm

The taxpayers pay for it Scout, because it’s in the best interests of our Country to protect the First Lady and her children. She’s paying a visit to the Spanish royalty because it would be rude for her not to and would offend an Allie. Are she and her daughters supposed to be held prisoner in the White House 24/7 for the tenure of her husbands term? That’s just stupid.

Also, I find your video choice distasteful.

stands for decibels

July 26th, 2010
3:54 pm

NetBanker

July 26th, 2010
3:57 pm

~As far as I’m concerned, we lost that war a LONG time ago. “Winning” should have meant get Bin Laden and get out. That failure happened in the first year

That about says it all. I grew up as close to military as you can get without being in it (Dad was a scientist on an Army base and all the base kids went to the schools in our area) and I think we need to bring our troops home. The Afghan government is corrupt and only controls the cities anyway. The rest is a land of feudal warlords who won’t give up their power either. It’s hopeless.

@@

July 26th, 2010
3:58 pm

Obama’s Afghanistan surge is nothing more than his chosen codpiece to coddle his left-wing base.

coddle: 1 : to cook (as eggs) in liquid slowly and gently just below the boiling point
2 : to treat with extreme or excessive care

Now that same left-wing base is looking to cook your eggs, Mr. President.

Never trust a left-winger. They stand for nothing and everything all at the same time.

Del

July 26th, 2010
4:02 pm

Obama campaigned on Afghanistan being the war to win and Iraq was the wrong war and he would withdraw troops in his first term. Now that Iraq appears as though it may succeed, Obama wants to take credit for it. He’s really stuck with Afghanistan since he campaigned on winning there and after then attempting to back away was forced into committing more troops to the surge strategy. He now owns the war in Afghanistan and was further committed when Petreus backed him out of a July 011 troop draw down in order to agree to take command. The campaigner and chief is now stuck and unfortunately so are our troops and our country.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
4:03 pm

Here’s a good song to describe this, (and one HELL of a great cover of a stone cold classic):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vy1OoBAL-E&feature=PlayList&p=6332B2C1A05D6223&index=2&playnext=1

@@

July 26th, 2010
4:04 pm

“The DISCLOSE Act would simply require corporate political advertisers to reveal who’s funding their activities,” Obama said during remarks in the White House Rose
Garden.

“Nobody’s saying you can’t run the ads,” Obama said, occasionally slapping the presidential lectern for emphasis. “Just make sure that people know who in fact is behind financing these ads.”

Well we know who’s funding Harry Reid’s…that would be BIG PHARMA.

ralph

July 26th, 2010
4:10 pm

Obama should call Crawford and ask GW if he can borrow his flight suit, land on a carrrier and proclaim, “Mission Accomplished”.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
4:10 pm

And china is sponsoring Pelosi, I mean her husband, I mean china…………

@@

July 26th, 2010
4:10 pm

Not many comments on this topic.

I wonder why?

[...] TalibanAljazeera.netISI orchestrated Indian embassy attack in Kabul: ReportSifyCBS News -Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) -CNN (blog) -Toronto Starall 3,924 news [...]

John Birch

July 26th, 2010
4:13 pm

Del – Campaigner in chief. That really just about says it all. He has proven to be the classic empty suit and a person with that much power who will say or do anything to win votes is very dangerous. Other than vacation days he makes an appearance more than anyone I know with something called the View being next up. Perhaps they can bring Rosie back just for this very special occasion.

TaxPayer

July 26th, 2010
4:13 pm

These leaked documents were written by the same people that wrote all those memos warning us about global warming and that’s the truth.

Del

July 26th, 2010
4:18 pm

John Birch,

Ever since the campaigner and chief ran for office and won, he’s been running away from his elected office. He doesn’t know how to govern, so continues his endless campaign. You’re right though, he is dangerous.

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
4:23 pm

John Birch

July 26th, 2010
4:24 pm

I don’t get this boots on the ground to win the hearts and minds of the…vietnamese, koreans, Iraqis, Afghans, etc, etc, etc…approach. It’s pretty hard to win the harts of the locals by invading and occupying unless you’re invading France where the people are basically cowards. I say cut down the casualties and the expenses; get the boots off the ground, maintain a strong carrier group in the Gulf, and bomb as necessary.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
4:27 pm

@@

July 26th, 2010
4:10 pm

Not many comments on this topic.

I wonder why?

Maybe everyone agrees we should get out of there? Or maybe too many seceded on the last thread lol.

@@

July 26th, 2010
4:31 pm

Fred:

Maybe everyone agrees we should get out of there?

That’s not what many of jay’s left-wingers were saying before Obama was elected. Afghanistan was the right war, the good war, the just war.

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
4:35 pm

John Birch: “It’s pretty hard to win the harts of the locals by invading and occupying unless you’re invading France where the people are basically cowards.”

Except when we needed their help to win the war that FOUNDED this county in the first place! Because truth be told…we probably would never have won the war for our independence if not for our friends from France… they stood side by side with us in many battles and lost many lives helping is. Cowards you say?

“French involvement proved decisive, with a French naval victory in the Chesapeake leading to the surrender of a British army at Yorktown in 1781. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 ended the war and recognized the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west.”

Maybe you never read that part about our nation’s founding.

Try respecting the very one’s who played a HUGE part in helping us obtain our freedom. Sorry that Glenn Beck never taught you about France’s involvement in our nation’s founding.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
4:37 pm

A lot of lefties were saying that @@ and I never understood it. Not to keep quoting Doggone, but doggone it, that quote just nails it:

“Winning” should have meant get Bin Laden and get out. That failure happened in the first year.”

We can do nothing now except get Americans killed. Bin Laden split from there a long time ago. Iraq is a debacle. But look at the bright side, have combined the mistakes in Viet Nam by US and the mistakes by the Russians in Afghanistan over a 30 year period all at the same time lol. We Americans are ALWAYS in a rush……….

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
4:37 pm

@@ – That’s is SO not true. People said that “compared to IRAQ”, they could undertand the war in Afghan more than they could undertand the Iraq war. Afghan was originally about 9/11 and Al Queada, who knows WHAT Iraq was about.

del: Now that Iraq appears as though it may succeed, Obama wants to take credit for it. He’s really stuck with Afghanistan since he campaigned on winning there and after then attempting to back away was forced into committing more troops to the surge strategy.

Obama never campaigned about winning any war in Afghanistan. That must’ve been one of your dreams from that time you ate that bad sardine sandwich.

Fred- left a post for you downstairs.

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
4:37 pm

“Afghanistan was the right war, the good war, the just war.”

There’s no such thing as a “good” war… One side simply “loses” more then the other. Outcomes may be considered “good”… but war in itself is NEVER a good thing for any and all involved.

@@

July 26th, 2010
4:39 pm

Some elements in Pakistan’s intelligence service maintain contact with and support the Taliban as a way of building influence in Afghanistan and countering Indian influence, but such assistance for militants is being slowly curtailed, U.S. military and intelligence officials said, Reuters reported July 26. Officials also said they were not surprised by the contents of leaked U.S. military reports discussing Pakistani ties with the Taliban.

Assuming that Obama is receiving intelligence and military personnel, this is now Obama’s war…warts and all.

Bud Wiser

July 26th, 2010
4:39 pm

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — ABC’s “The View” has welcomed many notable guests, but none more prominent than President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to visit for Thursday’s edition.

Stinking coward will be interviewed by no one but state run media suck-ups.

I am certain he will paint a rosy picture on the economy, jobs, and Afghanistan, much like his stooges.

@@

July 26th, 2010
4:40 pm

Oops!

…reports from intelligence and military personnel…

John Birch

July 26th, 2010
4:41 pm

Saul – Maybe they didn’t lose their balls until the 20th century, Napoleon was pretty tough. We bailed them out in WWI ann WWII. By most accounts they welcomed the Americans as much as they had the Germans. Oh and there was that little mess in SE Asia. In return they bailed on us in Iraq in a big hurry. Vichy cowards I say.

Del

July 26th, 2010
4:43 pm

DebbieDo,

Never cared for sardines. As for Obama’s campaign inclusion of needing to win in Afghanistan, sorry but he certainly did say so, and still does.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
4:44 pm

La Fayette nous sommes ici…
War of 1812
WW I
WW 2
Vietnam
Lebanon

I think that debt’s been repaid with considerable interest…

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
4:45 pm

here ya go John Birch…. since you believe that the French are “cowards” (your word for them)…perhaps you should read about how those “cowards” helped found this nation… by standing side by side with our own troops.

Try learning a little history and this time…READ it ALL….take your time…and do your best to understand the words forming the sentences. Turn off Foxy News and Rush rambling on the radio in the background. Feel free to send them the same link when done reading…I’m pretty sure that they too missed this part in Social Studies-History Class.

http://people.csail.mit.edu/sfelshin/saintonge/frhist.html

Glad those “cowards” stepped up to the plate… they needed not to do so… yet they did.

John Birch

July 26th, 2010
4:46 pm

I’d like to think Iraq and Afghanistan were to establish semi-permanent bases for the inevitable Iran invasion but who knows. One good thing in Iraq, that disaster was at least mitigated by being able to kill thousands of terrorists who came there for the chance to kill Americans. I’d like to see the terrorists killed in Iraq vs terrorists killed in Afghanistan numbers, I’m guessing it’s about 20 to 1 or more.

John Birch

July 26th, 2010
4:48 pm

saul – Again, that’s so pre-20th century. They wiped all that good out with their extreme cowardice the last 100 years. They wouldn’t stand by us on the battlefield but they sure ran in to gobble up all the business contracts they could get.

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
4:50 pm

del – talk is cheap. find me a link where, when Obama was campaigning, he stated that he would WIN THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN. Oh and don’t b@@tch out and say “find it yourself debbie” or some such crap like that. You made the statement you back it up. Blog rules.

Dave R.

July 26th, 2010
4:50 pm

“NEW YORK — ABC’s “The View” has welcomed many notable guests, but none more prominent than President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to visit for Thursday’s edition.”

Bet there will be more than one cast member having a thrill run up their leg on Thursday! :D

Pump up the A/C ladies!

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
4:53 pm

John Birch: “In return they bailed on us in Iraq in a big hurry”

Baling out on war cooked up on lies, misrepresentations, and fear mongering BS is not “bailing out”… it’s smart. Good for them. Which we could have been so smart…though we had too many idiots watching terror alerts on Foxy News believing that Iraq had something to do with 9-11…. and that Saddam was going to be sending over rubber-band propelled “drones” to spray poison gases on all of our cities… or maybe you were too busy putting up plastic and duct taping your doors and windows (as called for on Foxy News and some of the other propaganda outlets)… oh..btw…it’s okay… you can take that stuff down now. Turns out Saddam never had any WMD’s (besides the one’s the Republicans sold him in the 80’s)…and was never really a threat to us to begin with.

Yeah..the French really screwed up not getting involved in that war…

BTW…starting a war…that’s not “cool” nor does it make someone tough. It’s the “better” man who uses his/her head and avoid the loss of life. (you know…ALL life is sacred right)???

Chris Salzmann

July 26th, 2010
4:55 pm

The key to winning in Afghanistan was to get it right in the first two years we were there. Instead, we dropped the ball to chase down mythical WMDs in Iraq and took our eyes of the ball all those years ago. After all, Bin Laden didn’t try and kill someone’s daddy…………..

Del

July 26th, 2010
4:58 pm

DebbieDo,

Okay Debbie just to make you happy and from what may very well be one of your esteemed publications no less. After this one Google will have to be your friend.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/obamas-promise-to-win-in_b_117719.html

ralph

July 26th, 2010
4:58 pm

If we invaded reality there wouldn’t be a tea-party member insight….

Del

July 26th, 2010
5:04 pm

“After all Bin Laden didn’t try to kill someone’s daddy”

He killed a lot of daddy’s…You may want to share your formula for winning with Obama, as he seems to be agreeing more and more with GWB.

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
5:04 pm

“After all, Bin Laden didn’t try and kill someone’s daddy…………..”

Actually Daddy and his Daddy were doing business together for many years… some might even have called them “friends”…. in the very least “acquaintances”… who enjoyed the finer things in life…

Fred

July 26th, 2010
5:04 pm

By your own link there Saul, the french FINALLY joined us with their meager force in 1781 in a war that ENDED in 1781. Got there just in time for the party in other words, just like I said earlier. And we STILL paid for that stupid statue the “gave” us.

John Birch: Don’t forget that the FIRST battle we Americans fought in WWII was against THE FRENCH.

I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...

July 26th, 2010
5:04 pm

101!

~~~~~

Should we secede from our responsibilities, like good little dummycrats?

laruen

July 26th, 2010
5:07 pm

Look at all the turn-coat conservatives, where’s your patriotism, why do you want to cut and run….

Dave R.

July 26th, 2010
5:08 pm

Saul Good: “Turns out Saddam never had any WMD’s (besides the one’s the Republicans sold him in the 80’s)…and was never really a threat to us to begin with.”

No proven under the first part of your statement, and probably right the second part.

To be intellectually honest, Saul, there is no proof of where the WMD’s that Saddam had actually are. To say he never had them would be to ignore the gassing of the Kurds, and I’m sure you’re not denying THAT, are you?

And I’ll take the provably balanced presentation of the NEWS (not their OPINION programs during prime-time) on Fox News over the cheerleading and lack of reporting on the other news channels.

Del

July 26th, 2010
5:09 pm

Fred@5:04pm,

You’re most correct..good one.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
5:09 pm

Fred
Not the biggest fan of the French foreign policies myself, but it was their navy which bottled up the British and made possible Yorktown. Their on the ground support was vital in the southern campaign. And let’s not count out just how much of the philosophical nature of our republic is from the French…

Dave R.

July 26th, 2010
5:13 pm

Hiya, josef! :)

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
5:16 pm

Hey, Dave!
Howzit goin’?

TaxPayer

July 26th, 2010
5:21 pm

Andrew loves Al Queda. Who woulda ever known. Then again, he is a Republican.

AmVet

July 26th, 2010
5:22 pm

Hey kids. Back from Fla. The beach was fantastic. With a full moon over St. Augustine, no less. Sweet.

I trust the Friday night sing-along was not marred by the predictable rants of the BHO haters?

Looks like the last couple of topics were doozies. The shameless, and often criminal corporate culture that has festered in this land for decades and Tennessee traitors? Woo Hoo! Fergit, Hell!

As for this matter, the writer above hit the neo-con nail on the head. Cut and runners. Chickenhawks everywhere LOVED the botched occupation as long as George was playing fake combat pilot, but now? Nope. They’ve seemingly lost their vision (LOL!) and their collective scrotums.

It must totally suck that the War Party cannot remembered a winning military strategy of theirs since…………….. Grenada!

And it took a non-inhaler to ACTUALLY win a decisive campaign with a lasting peace.

What a burn…

Pogo

July 26th, 2010
5:22 pm

If there were leaked classified reports that were written on every war that has ever occurred in the worlds history there would be facets of them that would not be acceptable to the “public”. But when one is speaking about national defense, what the average “lay-person” thinks is an atrocity may just as well save their ass. World War II is a classic example. So when you see things exposed that are written by military and intelligence people that are supposed to be classified and then those things are dumped to a public that doesn’t have a clue as to the reality of the world and our military situation and they are leaked by some treasonous bastard trying to make a cheap buck or trying to make a political statement, give pause. We have never known all that was going on in the name of our defense and that is as it should be. In this case it kind of like the movie, the public cannot handle the truth. There are too many political prisms to look through at the facts of our defense and political hacks (like Jay) can make fodder of them. Whoever leaked these papers should be tried for treason. Irregardless of the White House’s public stance, Obama certainly didn’t mind this leak. It only plays into his political hands. I mean why else would the Obama admininstration have recently offered guidelines to the NYT’s and some other outlets on managing classified leaked documents? They knew they were coming and they just wanted it done correctly and to their political advantage. There is no correct way to publish classified documents. It is treason and if the White House knew about these papers, they are complicent with the release of classified documents and Obama should be considered treasonous. Of course, we already knew that Obama has been pretty much living on the edge when it comes to law and the constitution. He is relying on the American public to be so ignorant as to not question anything he does. And for a certain portion of the public, he is exactly right. Jay certainly would never question anything Obama does, now would he?

@@

July 26th, 2010
5:23 pm

WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS DOCTORED.

Along with HIS war in Afghanistan, Obama wages war on the gulf states.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7gecdSVXKE&feature=pyv&ad=5747212017&kw=barack%20obama

Too funny!

Fred

July 26th, 2010
5:25 pm

There is no doubt it shortened the war jonix, but the outcome was no longer in doubt. The french waited until that matter was clear before they gave us overt help. As to the “philosophical nature of our republic?” How was it french? The french revolution wasn’t until 17989. That is 8 years AFTER our War of Independence. Benjamin Franklin was negotiating with King Louis XVI (ie monarchy).

As a matter of fact Jonix, it was OUR lead that the french followed on their path to Democracy, not the other way around.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
5:25 pm

AmVet
Hey…glad you had a good time…Friday night was really quite good…want a good, fun read, go check out Doggone’s 10:23 p.m.Friday post to me…! Worth the ride I assure you…

Fred

July 26th, 2010
5:26 pm

LOL 1789, not 17989……….

Fred

July 26th, 2010
5:27 pm

Oh, and Amvet, thanks for the report. Probably heading for the beach around the 4th of August. Good to know it’s not oil infested because of those poor mistreated people from BP……………..

TaxPayer

July 26th, 2010
5:35 pm

This calls for an apology. The Republicans should apologize to the Taliban for the way Obama has been dragging out this war in Afghanistan. All they have to do is take one of their canned apologies to a company like BP and change a few words. They could probably hire GW to hand deliver it for them and even do some hand holding while over there.

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
5:35 pm

Fred…the funds to for the “stupid statue” (which I’;m SURE you’ve never been to)… well it was raised privately…as were the funds to erect it.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
5:36 pm

Fred
The nature of the structure of our republic was based in the Enlightenment and the philosophes those French intellectuals whose ideas formed the core of Enlightenment thought…. Montesquieu, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Condillac, Alembert,D’holbach, Turgot, and Condorcet among others.

We “reexported” it to France where the early revolutionaries did indeed seek to copy us…unfortunately the Jacobins took over and it went to hell in the proverbial handcart and order reestablished under the far from democratic regime of Napolean…it would be the Third Republic before the American style democracy gained a foothold…

The “French path” and how we Americans would relate to it marked/marred the early days of the republic, laying the foundations of our own two-party system, Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans being pro-French and Hamilton’s Federalists taking the opposition side. The feud is what led to the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Genet Affair…

Pogo

July 26th, 2010
5:40 pm

Obama on “The View”. Makes you feel real good when the President of the US has to go on some cheap daytime talkshow, doesn’t it? Especially one comprised of people that worship him and that would agree with him no matter what he does. The people on this show would lick his boots if he asked them. And doesn’t that add lots to his credibility. This pretty much reeks of desperation by a substandard media created president (or figure, whichever you prefer). Newsflash Obama; It won’t work!

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
5:40 pm

Josef…Fred would rather rewrite history… the battle of Yorktown was what won the war and ended the Revolutionary War. It was done side by side with the French… what Fred said is like equating that because the US didn’t land in Normandy until 1944… they played only a MINUSCULE part in winning WWII.

AmVet

July 26th, 2010
5:41 pm

josef, what a hoot! I especially loved how he noted in snarky fashion that 206 years was not sufficient!

Fred, nope the Atlantic beaches are untouched. Did some great body surfing yesterday as the waves were really kicked up. (for Florida.) And there are so many neat, great little places to eat in that town. I swear there is one restaurant for every resident.

I see where brother Bruno showed up Friday night! That’s great. That cat always plays some outstanding stuff. And it looked like he was contrite and trying to bring people together. He’s a good egg that way.

And wherever he is, this one is for him…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ehc6GJ3R7M

Fred

July 26th, 2010
5:49 pm

Thanks Jonix, I think I’ll research those names. I was always under the impression that we got our Republic from the Romans as it was always Romans I saw referenced by the framers of the Constitution.

Saul: bite me. I have yet to see you post one thing that is true and verifiable. Grow some nuts and address me directly like a man don’t be a coward and talk around me, talk TO me. But don’t expect me to let your lies slide. I neither lie, nor cheat, nor steal, nor tolerate those who do.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
5:50 pm

BTW
Well before the French sent “official” aid in the form of naval reinforcements, 12,000 French citizens had already come to join the American forces…particularly coming to the South where there was the strong ties with large French speaking populations in Charleston and the “old Southwest,” centered on Natchez. Their colonial era good relations with the local Indian nations ensured that the Choctaw took a pro-Revolutionary stance and checked the British inroads with the Chickasaw, securing the western frontier…

Dave R.

July 26th, 2010
5:51 pm

Gotta love Edmond-Charles Genet, josef. He was a shrewd operator.

And it’s goin’ OK, thank you for asking.

I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...

July 26th, 2010
5:55 pm

A Wall Street Journal editorial called the written summary of the East Anglia investigation, “a 160-page evasion of the real issues.” Former University of Virginia professor of environmental studies Patrick J. Michaels of the CATO Institute wryly noted, “It’s impossible to find anything wrong if you really aren’t looking.”

There’s still another shoe to drop. Virginia authorities are investigating whether Mann of Penn State used fraudulently manipulated data to win government funding. Investigators won’t set out to protect reputations or to justify funding. It’s a criminal probe.

Claims of academic freedom won’t stop the cop at the door. All that will matter is whether books were cooked to line pockets with taxpayer money.

I think we all know the answer to that question, just sayin…

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
5:56 pm

Fred
The Romans and Greeks had their influence on the philosophes, to be sure, but that was the “classical.” The philosophes, though, were the voices of the contemporary concepts in the Revolutionary Era, heavily influencing the thoughts of Jefferson, Madison, Paine, et al. Rousseau, of course, is the key figure, but it was Montesquieu whose ideas were most at work…

@@

July 26th, 2010
5:58 pm

Del:

Thanks for responding to Debbie’s “that is SO not true” post.

I rarely linger waiting for responses. They’re all too predictable.

“SO not true”???? is SOOOO valley girl(ISH).

Fred

July 26th, 2010
5:59 pm

Saul, once again your “logic” borders on stupidity. Are you really this confused?

Yes, the Americans landed in Normandy on Jun 6th 1944, before that however we landed in in Africa, near Casablanco as well as in Algiers in 1942 where our first battle was with THE FRENCH. After we pacified Africa, we invaded Sicily. Sicily led to Italy. Then in 1944 we did in fact invade at Normandy. But that wasn’t our first participation in the war. We were aiding the Europeans much earlier than that.

I don’t rewrite history Saul, I am however well versed in it so you BS ramblings are evident when they are so far from the truth.

Just sad……..

md

July 26th, 2010
5:59 pm

“and checked the British inroads with the Chickasaw, ”

Yeh, getting my inroads rebuffed by the Chickisaw is always a bummer……….

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
6:03 pm

Fred…you don’t Lie???

Sure ya don’t…and being the honorable “tough guy” behind your Commador64…you certainly like to throw around the word “coward” a lot. For someone whose never even been to France…you certainly have such a well formed opinion about the people, culture, and history of france…

Yeah..I lie huh? I’ve posted so many links, charts, etc to back up what I say/post and it’s always “tough guys” like you and Dusty who never do anything but what you just did…go on the attack personally. That’s okay “tough guy” Fred… you have no fear of ANYONE thinking that you’re a closeted homosexual here. No need to act so tough…(most of all when behind that keyboard)…. you can still be a member of Glenn Beck,s Militia and student at his University without fear of retribution.

Lighten up… it’s a friggin’ blog… k tough guy?

Fred

July 26th, 2010
6:05 pm

Well that fits jonix, given the whole french painting thing and the “Renaissance.” I love reading the old histories and seeing the french referred to by the Brits as “decadents.” Much as I love to hate them, the french were “socially” ahead of the rest of the world in the late 1600’s and 1700’s, (maybe culturally would be a better term).

Like I said, I’ll read up on that a tad. Thanks again for the info. I know the names you have mentioned, i just have never explored them as much as I probably should have.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
6:09 pm

DAVE R

Wasn’t Genet a pip! Even the taciturn Washington needed 8000 words to lodge his complaint! One of my “other screen” projects this summer was running a fact check on an article dealing in part with the Genet Affair…whoo!

I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...

July 26th, 2010
6:12 pm

The result of this is now clear. We see, in the rampant indebtedness of our country and the European countries, what Yuval Levin has called a “gluttonous feast upon the flesh of the future.” We see the infantilization of pu-blics that become inert and passive, waiting for the state to take care of them. One statistic: 50 percent of all Americans 55 years old or older have less than $50,000 in savings and investment. The feast on the flesh of the future is what debt is.

Chris Salzmann

July 26th, 2010
6:13 pm

Del July 26th, 2010 5:04 pm SAID: “After all Bin Laden didn’t try to kill someone’s daddy”

He killed a lot of daddy’s…You may want to share your formula for winning with Obama, as he seems to be agreeing more and more with GWB.

CHRIS SAYS: Like I said earlier, the window to win in Afghanistan was in the first couple of years when the Taliban were on the run. We could have won and withdrawn and called it a great American victory. Anyone who claims we can win in Afghanistan at this point is dead wrong. That includes Obama.

BTW, do you think GWB cared about anyone elses daddy? All GWB and the right-wing cared about back then was to “finish” the job that they believed that his father should have done during the first Gulf War. Right after 9/11, all they could think about was, “How can we pin this on Saddam?”. In fact, the words 9/11 and Iraq were pretty much ALWAYS said in the same sentence. Remember that? Bin Laden and Afghanistan was never the end…..it was a means to an end, which was ALWAYS Saddam. That’s pretty much sums up the period between 2002 and 2009.

THAT’S why we are in the mess we are in now. We screwed up Afghanistan for 8 years straight. The dam went from being cracked to plain broken. Sticking a finger in it isn’t going to fix it anymore.

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
6:15 pm

Freddie? (can I call you Freddie or is that too effeminate for you)? I didn’t realize I needed to post the whole history of our involvement in WWII… I was talking about our massive invasion that helped to END the war going on in Europe. Just like France who came to our aid towards the end of OUR war.

With regards to our own Revolution… France was involved right from the beginning of our war Freddie…from the very moment that Franklin signed the Treaty of Alliance with them in 1776. France gave us considerable financial support. France also supplied us with arms and loaned us money to fight against the British…. right there from the very start. had they not done that for us… we’d have never won that war.

So Mr. Student of history….please explain to everyone how that’s a “lie” I simply “made up”…

Fred

July 26th, 2010
6:18 pm

I’ve been to france you old depends wearing wind bag. I’ve climbed the Eiffel tower (on the outside one night lol), had coffe on the west bank, and walked through the Arc De’ Triomphe. As a matter of fact, there are few COuntries I haven’t been to you old depends wearing wind bag.

Again you lie and talk out your ass. I have never listened to Glenn Beck. I’m not really sure who he is. But then i guess anyone who doesn’t kiss your depends MUST be a Republican right? Well wrong. It’s funny, I now got an old fart Republican and an old fart lefty accusing me of being a pub AND a lefty. You ain’t too good at arguing are you? You post lies and half truths then get all willowy and pouty when you get called out. and if ANYONE calls you on your lies and lack of logic then they MUST be an evil republican. Once again you show the limits of your mental capabilities.

LOL I never had a commodore64 but I wanted one back in the day. It was a step up from the TRS80 I got. But no, actually I’m currently using a computer I built for myself a couple of years ago. Since you are so interested in my rig, it has a Q9450 (intel quad-core) bedded in an nVidia 790i ulta with 8GB’s of DDR3 1600 RAM with a Velociraptor for the HDD. All in an Antec 900 with a thermaltake 1200 toughpower to power it all. A pair of 5850’s in cross fire provide the graphics and I’m using 64 bit Vista Ultimate. As for my optical drive? It’s an LG DVD HDD/Bluray burner.

Whoops, that lightning strike was close. better turn this thing off before it gets fried………

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
6:24 pm

“I’ve been to france you old depends wearing wind bag.”

Stay Classy Fred…

Well I DID have a Commodore 64…not sure why my Dad when and bought that…guess he thought us kids “needed” one…. Know what else I had? A friggin’ Atari PONG game! Easily WAY more fun compared to the C64! There’s some “history” for ya!

Watch out for that lightening… blew out a BUNCH of stuff here last year… dishnetwork system… cell phone that was charging, etc…

okay…time to go some “Freedom Fries”…anyplace still selling those down here? ;-)

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
6:30 pm

md
Heh, heh!

Fred…
Like you, I have a love-hate relationship with the French. My own family background is very French, I grew up with the language and culture “ours.” So, to a great extent when I go off on the French, it’s “personal!”

Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)

July 26th, 2010
6:32 pm

Well, I’m hanging around to see if Fred and Saul really get it on. I think it’s probly a Mexican stand-off, but you never know. I think describing a person’s PC is a start and calling somebody a old depends wearing windbag is getting a little closer, but it’s a mighty weak start to a fight. When they get around to “mine is bigger than yours,” we might be on to something.

Have a good night everybody. The lightning is striking all over the place, and I’d hate to see my PC get blowed out. I need it for work, if you know what I mean. Y’all would hate to do without me tomorrow, wouldn’t you?

md

July 26th, 2010
6:34 pm

There is a difference between winning militarily and culturally. We can claim victory any time we want with the first, probably never with the second.

All we can do is plant the seed and let it grow – like everything in life, it will grow or it will die.

Pull the ground troops, tell the afghanis to implement the draft and patrol with drones – end of story.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
6:35 pm

Storm’s blowing in here, too, so I better close out for a bit…back (I hope!) in a bit…

md

July 26th, 2010
6:38 pm

The French are pissed for one reason – the rest of the world doesn’t want to speak french.

Same with many countries that don’t like the fact that English is the predominant language. And since we americans already speak english, we are considered “uncultured”. Truth is, they learn english out of necessity, where we learn languages for the culture.

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
6:40 pm

Getting dark up here in the foothills…but no lightening yet…had some a few hours ago… but anyway…Freddie can call me anything he wants…well except for a republican…That would hurt….I mean are there any republicans out there that still call themselves that anymore?… or have ALL of you simply switched over to calling yourselves Libertarians and Tea Party Conservatives in the post Bush world? Best part…is that every vote cast by those using those titles…the person has an (R) behind their name.

Sincerely,

Old depends wearing wind bag (AKA Saul Good…who will NEVER be confused with being a republicanlibertarianteapartier)…

Ninja

July 26th, 2010
6:41 pm

Saul it’s just like with Soothsayer and NJ. They disregard it out of hand with nary a fact to back up their argument. Then come the insults.

Jimmy Joe Bob

July 26th, 2010
6:44 pm

Well, if ‘em Talibans would just put on some kinda uniforms or something, then we could just kill ‘em and be done with it. No, they sneak around and blend in with the regular folk and shoot us when we’re not lookin’. I say until ‘em Talibans is willin’ to put on some uniforms and fot far & squar we oughta just pull out!

Dave R.

July 26th, 2010
6:46 pm

Saul, are there any liberals still calling themselves that?

I believe the cover term for you guys is now “Progressives”.

Just sayin’.

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
6:47 pm

“Then come the insults.”

pretty much the same everywhere… standard “format” these days to be expected.

It’s the computer generation’s version of “beer muscles” … ;-)

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
6:50 pm

I pretty much only hear the right calling us Progressives…I’m still a lib.

Progressive is the 2010 version of “Elites”… who knows what it will be in 2011
maybe we’ll all be “old depends wearing wind bags” in the lead up to the 2012 elections. :)

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
6:51 pm

“we oughta just pull out!”

For a second I thought you were talking about “abstinence only education” birth control methods….

Scout

July 26th, 2010
6:57 pm

Daddy, is Afghanistan going to be another Vietnam ?

Dave R.

July 26th, 2010
6:59 pm

Saul, please. Can we get just a LITTLE intellectual honesty from you tonight?

The “right” calling you “progressives”?

The MSNBC lineup is not made up of the right. Donna Brazile is not on the right. James Carville. Howard Dean. The list goes on and on.

Soothsayer

July 26th, 2010
7:01 pm

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
7:03 pm

I said “pretty much”… anyway…as I said, I still call MYSELF a lib. No sugar coating ANYTHING (nor is there any reason to)… I have nothing to hide with my political views leanings. Though I do feel that in the next year or two that “Progressives” WILL in fact be overshadowed by the newer Old Depends Wearing Windbags. Catchy.

Valley Girl

July 26th, 2010
7:07 pm

““SO not true”???? is SOOOO valley girl(ISH).”

I yike it!!!!!!!!

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
7:10 pm

“There is a difference between winning militarily and culturally. We can claim victory any time we want with the first, probably never with the second”

Or, to put it another way, what good is it to win the war…if you lose the peace? And that, I think, is what is going to happen in both Afghanistan and Iraq. We’re going to lose the peace.

theyeshaveit

July 26th, 2010
7:11 pm

Saul,

I would not take ownership of that appellation as yet. Most of us here are of the generation that can well identify with folks in their dotage wearing a pair of “depends”. And, who among us here is not a bona fide “windbag”.? ;-)

Del

July 26th, 2010
7:16 pm

Saul,

I’ve been critical of Bush on issues. I don’t believe nor do most that he went to war with Iraq because of his father GHWB. I don’t think you really believe that either.

Del

July 26th, 2010
7:16 pm

@@,

Well I gave Debbie a link as she requested. Haven’t seen her reply.

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
7:18 pm

“I don’t believe nor do most that he went to war with Iraq because of his father GHWB.”

I do, but not because of any kind of “attack” on him. I think it DOES come down to “finishing the job” that GHWB didn’t. I can remember the reactions of those around me at work when we didn’t go ahead an invade Iraq during the Kuwait war. Well, we did…it just took a few extra years to get there.

md

July 26th, 2010
7:19 pm

“And that, I think, is what is going to happen in both Afghanistan and Iraq. We’re going to lose the peace.”

And there in lies the problem, for “we” will lose nothing. The good folks of those 2 countries need to decide how much “they” want it, for only they can achieve it.

Del

July 26th, 2010
7:19 pm

josef,

Never let a good storm go to waste.

Del

July 26th, 2010
7:25 pm

Doggone/Ga,

I disagreed a lot with GWB but I truly believe that he believed that he was doing the best for America. He may have thought that his father didn’t finish the job but I don’t think correcting a paternal mistake is what motivated him. I think he believed Saddam was indeed a threat. I believe that too, I just think it could have been dealt with differently.

md

July 26th, 2010
7:25 pm

“I do, but not because of any kind of “attack” on him. I think it DOES come down to “finishing the job” that GHWB didn’t. I can remember the reactions of those around me at work when we didn’t go ahead an invade Iraq during the Kuwait war. Well, we did…it just took a few extra years to get there.”

A little problem called the UN stood in the way of GHWB, and then the weenie UN lead #2 to do his thing. Getting rid of the worthless UN is a good starting point.

@@

July 26th, 2010
7:26 pm

Valley Girl:

“I YIKE IT” is/has been a phrase used by of my students. One that I refuse to correct because I find the enthusiasm behind it so contagious. Eyes wide, jumping up and down with a big smile on their little faces…I YIKE IT!

what’s not to YIKE? I’ll let the speech therapist worry about that one.

@@

July 26th, 2010
7:26 pm

….many of my students.

IHB

Del

July 26th, 2010
7:28 pm

“Getting rid of the worthless UN is a good starting point”

Amen to that…the UN isn’t our friend.

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
7:31 pm

“I think he believed Saddam was indeed a threat”

I wouldn’t argue with that, it was his ACTIONS, not his beliefs that angered…and still to anger…me. I have long held the belief that what he did was not only immoral, but criminal. But I won’t hold my breath waiting to see him tried for it.

@@

July 26th, 2010
7:31 pm

Del:

And I’ll add to yours, just in case Debbie is lurking. From an article submitted by Veterans for Peace, found at Common Dreams:

The President went on to say, “I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That’s the goal that must be achieved. That is a cause that could not be more just. And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: We will defeat you.”

Obama’s just war.

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
7:32 pm

Daddy, why didn’t Bush even catch bin Laden?

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
7:33 pm

Del
Storm seems to have past. Didn’t go to waste. Had a good conversatio with the little one about G-d, thunder and lightening…

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
7:33 pm

Daddy, why are there no pictures of Al Qaeda terrorists in that deck of 52 cards?

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
7:34 pm

Daddy, why did Rumsfeld shake hands with Saddam?

Soothsayer

July 26th, 2010
7:36 pm

md

July 26th, 2010
7:36 pm

“Daddy, why didn’t Bush even catch bin Laden?”

And how do we know he didn’t…………………….

There is a lot that us common folk will just never know. Remember when Clinton campaigned on releasing all the info on JFK?? Well……….he didn’t.(or couldn’t?)

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
7:36 pm

Del, I’d agree with Doggone (about there being some unfinished business)…but most of all…i believe he did it because of Project For A New American Century… his administration and his team of advisers were made up of MANY of the members of PFANAC… I mean there’s a whole section just about Iraq…and how it was centrally located in the middle east…and it’s oil reserves, etc…also about how if they could set up a “democracy” in Iraq…the other surrounding nations would follow suit (I mean who wrote THAT part… must have been Kristol)… I believe that W was always a bit of a Daddy’s boy…and though he wanted to “finish” the job started there years before…that alone was not reason enough to invade.

With all I’ve read on the subject…THIS is why I believe we went to Iraq:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century

“On January 16, 1998, following perceived Iraqi unwillingness to co-operate with UN weapons inspections, members of the PNAC, including Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Robert Zoellick drafted an open letter to President Bill Clinton, posted on its website, urging President Clinton to remove Saddam Hussein from power using U.S. diplomatic, political, and military power. The signers argue that Saddam would pose a threat to the United States, its Middle East allies, and oil resources in the region, if he succeeded in maintaining what they asserted was a stockpile of Weapons of Mass Destruction. ”

WHAT’S THAT??? WMD’S MENTIONED BACK IN 1998???!!!

“They argue that an Iraq war would be justified by Hussein’s defiance of UN “containment” policy and his persistent threat to U.S. interests.[10]”

On November 16, 1998, citing Iraq’s demand for the expulsion of UN weapons inspectors and the removal of Richard Butler as head of the inspections regime, Kristol called again for regime change in an editorial in his online magazine, The Weekly Standard: “…any sustained bombing and missile campaign against Iraq should be part of any overall political-military strategy aimed at removing Saddam from power.”[11] Kristol states that Paul Wolfowitz and others believed that the goal was to create “a ‘liberated zone’ in southern Iraq that would provide a safe haven where opponents of Saddam could rally and organize a credible alternative to the present regime … The liberated zone would have to be protected by U.S. military might, both from the air and, if necessary, on the ground.”

BASICALLY… the plans were in place for years… all they needed was to start the drum beat to launch the invasion… “fear”…and “patriotism” was what they used in their propaganda machine to lead the charge. The whole you’re “with us or against us” BS… yeah…like opposing that war before it started was “Un-American”… a majority of the propaganda fed fearful public still hurting immensely from 9-11 and still wanting others to “pay” bought it up like hot dogs at a baseball game. to “support” the troops and slap a silly magnet on your SUV was the “patriotic” thing to do for this nation…

Well everything started off as planned…but boy did they ever get SO MUCH of it wrong…

okay…lightening in full force and it’s time to ponder dinner ideas…

maybe after that I’ll head out to the local depends store… wonder if they have any “obamacare approved” models yet. ;-)

md

July 26th, 2010
7:39 pm

“Have they killed the goose that lays the golden eggs? They took all of our jobs now there’s no one left to buy anything.”

Out of curiosity, who’s jobs did we take before they took ours?? Life is nothing but a giant cycle – round and round we go……………

Soothsayer

July 26th, 2010
7:43 pm

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
7:43 pm

A real quick one on the Americans and the North Africa campaign…the North African Jews were certainly glad to see them. Rommel had done what he could to protect them, but Vichy was ready to send them packing…

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
7:44 pm

Daddy,

What mission did Bush accomplish?

Del

July 26th, 2010
7:45 pm

Doggone/Ga

I couldn’t agree with immoral or criminal. We had a saying in Marines called the pp’s “proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance” We did a poor job of planning and assessing consequences. We failed to acknowledge are serious lack of dependable intelligence in the region and we didn’t think through other alternative strategies. As they say “wisdom is always 20 20 hind sight” but you never want that syndrome to occur in war.

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
7:50 pm

Daddy,

Who did the Taliban visit when they went to Texas?

Dave R.

July 26th, 2010
7:51 pm

Man, just watched Chris Matthews get his head handed to him again on Hardball by a Republican. Last time it was an Alabama congressional candidate on his support for the FairTax, and tonight it was Paul Ryan on the subject of deficit reduction.

Matthews needs to stop reading his own material and LISTEN to his guests.

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
7:51 pm

“I couldn’t agree with immoral or criminal”

And I wouldn’t try to convince you, but it is my opinion…and always has been. I’ve seen nothing since to make me change my mind.

And as far as I am, and have been, concerned…NONE of the issues you raise matter. We should NOT have been there to begin with. If we hadn’t gone where we did NOT need to go…poor planning and all that other stuff would NEVER have come into it.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
7:52 pm

Del
When the latest Iraqi venture started, Unmentionable said, “and there go the Yankees uninvited again to go and tell somebody else how to live using military force and having no plan at all for reconstruction. Best case scenario, 150 years from now two fat and sassy Iraqi will be cursing the Yankee invaders in Arabic from their balcony in a prestige zip code in Baghdad and it will lose little or nothing in the translation.”

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
7:53 pm

Daddy,

What is Made in America?

Soothsayer

July 26th, 2010
7:53 pm

barbara's bush

July 26th, 2010
7:54 pm

Daddy,

Why did GW hold hands with Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia after 9/11 when 19 of the 21 hijackers were saudi arabian…

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
7:54 pm

Dave
Matthews gets on my last nerve. He’s such a conceited and pompous ass with the manners of a yard dog…

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
7:55 pm

Daddy,

Are they going to leak all those photos of those people that were killed in Afghanistan after 911 too?

Del

July 26th, 2010
7:55 pm

Doggone/Ga,

You’re certainly entitled to your opinion but don’t believe that Saddam wasn’t a a danger to this country and the free world. He was.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
7:57 pm

barbara’s bush
And why does the current POTUS go bowing to the same who put me and “my kind” to death simply for being?

O-I-L…human rights be d*mned…

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
7:57 pm

“You’re certainly entitled to your opinion but don’t believe that Saddam wasn’t a a danger to this country and the free world. He was”

I said I wouldn’t try to convince you…do me a favor, and DO NOT try to convince me of that. I flatly disagree.

Dave R.

July 26th, 2010
7:58 pm

Agreed, josef, but he USED to be relatively prepared for his show, and tried to at least see another side of an argument.

Now he just resembles most of the unsavory bloggers on this site. ;)

(and you know who you are . . . .)

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
7:58 pm

“You’re certainly entitled to your opinion but don’t believe that Saddam wasn’t a a danger to this country and the free world. He was.”

And if you don’t believe it, ask a Kurd…

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
8:00 pm

Dave
Unsavory bloggers? Sh*t! I thought I was spicey! :-)

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
8:00 pm

“And if you don’t believe it, ask a Kurd…”

And while you’re at it…ask a Kurd how dependable WE were.

neo-Carlinist

July 26th, 2010
8:01 pm

Scout, you beat me to the punch. I can’t decide if this is the Pentagon Papers, or the Tet Offensive. This was Bush’s war, but now it’s Obama’s. Can anyone say; “LBJ”? And what bothers libs and paleo-conservatives is the fact that regardless of the timetable (2004-2009), Obama knew the score and he still “surged”. The neo-cons will love this because it is a “crisis” they can’t pass up, and it will all be worth it when we (well, Haliburton) mine the lithium for the Chinese, so they can manufacuture and sell it back to us as batteries for our laptops, PDAs and electric cars. Lithium is the new petroleum!

md

July 26th, 2010
8:02 pm

As I recall, that toothless UN had several – more than several – resolutions stating Saddam was a problem.

In reality, Saddam and the UN were both the problem.

What good is a toothless world governing body??

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
8:02 pm

Daddy,

Why do some people dress you up to look like Hitler?

Del

July 26th, 2010
8:03 pm

Doggone/Ga,

Copied you 5, I’m out

WTH?

July 26th, 2010
8:03 pm

Cell phones paid for by the government?

https://www.safelinkwireless.com/EnrollmentPublic/Home.aspx

How to Qualify

The process to qualify for Lifeline Service depends on the State you live in. In general, you may qualify if…

1. You already participate in other State or Federal assistance program such as Federal Public Housing Assistance, Food Stamps and Medicaid.
OR

2. Your total household income is at or below of the poverty guidelines set by your State and/or the Federal Government.
AND

3. No one in your household currently receives Lifeline Service through another phone carrier.

4. You have a valid United States Postal Address. In order for us to ship you your free phone you must live at a residence that can receive mail from the US Post Office. Sorry, but P.O. Boxes cannot be accepted.

In addition to meeting the guidelines above you will also be required to provide proof of your participation in an assistance program, or proof of your income level.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
8:04 pm

Doggone
DO go and ask a Kurd how dependable we were…they’ll be glad to give you an ear full. Seriously, go and do your homework there. It’s the ONE success story out of the whole affair and the Americans and Israelis are their heroes…

md

July 26th, 2010
8:05 pm

“O-I-L…human rights be d*mned…”

that is one of those catch 22 phrases. Take away the oil, and the economy grinds to a halt, and then how many more humans suffer??

Soothsayer

July 26th, 2010
8:05 pm

[N]one of this growth in communist China would have been possible without all of the globalism and free trade that U.S. politicians from both parties have been pushing on us for the last 40 years. When they were selling us on the benefits of “free trade” they didn’t tell us that we would end up shipping our economy, our jobs and our prosperity over to China.

American consumers never seemed to be able to put two and two together. As we were busy running out and filling up our shopping carts with cheap plastic crap made in China, we didn’t seem to realize that a “global economy” meant that we would be competing for jobs and wages with workers on the other side of the world.

So now the U.S. economy, with its high wages and repressive government regulations, is suffering while China’s economy is thriving.

As tens of millions of American workers sit at home collecting unemployment checks, U.S. companies are busy making plans to invest billions more in China.

Also, many Chinese military strategists believe that it is inevitable that there will be a war between the United States and China someday. So could China end up using all of the technology and manufacturing capacity that they have gained at our expense against us someday?

The truth is that all of the money and technology that we have poured into China could end up being one of the greatest national security blunders of all time.

So in the end the United States may look back and realize how incredibly stupid it was to build up communist China at the expense of our own economy.

But this is the world our leaders have built for us. A world where globalism and “free trade” force us to compete for jobs against sweatshop laborers around the globe.

The reality is that this “new world” is not very good at all for the American middle class. The economic realities of the 21st century are very cruel for Americans who are seeking to live a middle class lifestyle.

Or how greed triumphed over common sense.

md

July 26th, 2010
8:06 pm

“And while you’re at it…ask a Kurd how dependable WE were.”

As I recall, we had a no fly zone protecting the Kurds, it was the shia that we betrayed…….

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
8:08 pm

Daddy,

Why did we help Saddam by giving him WMDs?

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
8:09 pm

neoCarlist
That lithium comment is one that we’re not looking at…your point is WELL made…and if you look at where those deposits are located…

Finn McCool

July 26th, 2010
8:11 pm

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
8:11 pm

Daddy,

Did the people in Iraq welcome us with open arms before or after we shocked and awed them?

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
8:12 pm

md
O-I-L and that is the point. GB senior made it quite clear that that was the causus belli of the first Gulf War. Liberation of Kuwait was secondary. I could respect that whether or not I morally agreed with it, it was the truth.

And, yes, it WAS the Shia we sold down the river…

md

July 26th, 2010
8:12 pm

“So in the end the United States may look back and realize how incredibly stupid it was to build up communist China at the expense of our own economy.”

Or was it???

The worker bees in China now have a good taste of “freedom” – only a matter of time before the commies lose their grip – capitalism may very well fuel their democracy…….the box has been opened.

neo-Carlinist

July 26th, 2010
8:14 pm

Michelle, WAR is about the only left “made in America”. We didn’t “give Saddam WMDs” – we gave the Mujahdeenn (al Qeda v 1.0) Stinger missiles. We supported Saddam in his war with Iran (1979 – 1988), opposed him when he invaded Kuwait – with our blessing (1991), then we told the world he had WMDs so we could invade Iraq in 2003. Good question about no Saudis, al Qeda, or Taliban in the “deck of cards”.

Finn McCool

July 26th, 2010
8:14 pm

In reality, Saddam and the UN were both the problem.

hehe. Conservatives have no idea who the bad guys are. “Hey, Fox News will tell you!”

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
8:15 pm

“Did the people in Iraq welcome us with open arms before or after we shocked and awed them?”

The Kurds did.

md

July 26th, 2010
8:16 pm

“As tens of millions of American workers sit at home collecting unemployment checks, U.S. companies are busy making plans to invest billions more in China.”

Let’s not forget the tens of millions of americans that want their 401k’s to do well. The old can’t have your cake and it it too.

Soothsayer

July 26th, 2010
8:16 pm

md

July 26th, 2010
8:18 pm

“hehe. Conservatives have no idea who the bad guys are. “Hey, Fox News will tell you!””

Why not debate the issue vs post snide remarks??

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
8:19 pm

md
What do you mean can’t have our cake and eat it, too? We can cuss the American foreign policy in Iraq AND drive our internal combustion engine…this is the land of the double standard, left and right…

md

July 26th, 2010
8:24 pm

Jo,

Hear, hear.

Too many like to see only one half of the equation – reinforces their “side”.

Del

July 26th, 2010
8:26 pm

“capitalism may very well fuel their democracy……..the box has opened”

Would be great if we could count on it but we can’t. The PLA,(Chinese Peoples Liberation Army) is a strong influence that is extremely difficult for the Western Intel community to penetrate. I’ve been in China and they recruit their soldiers from the rural areas with a contract that say’s a recruit must serve 8 years in the military and then he and his family can move into one of the major cities and participate in the workers paradise. Without serving the rural farmers aren’t allowed to move into the cities. They must survive on their own. Rural China is the real China and it isn’t pretty.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
8:28 pm

Redneck Convert: It ain’ta gonna be a fight. I’m 0-2 here on my reads, first Scout and now Saul. If Saul’s dad bought him a commodore 64, then I’m older than he is lol, he’s a young man………….

Dammit Saul, you just READ like an old man. I beat the lightening by about 3 minutes. I hit enter, shut down, and barely made it up the stairs before the power went. I got some catching up to do, but I disagree with your basic french premis. They DIDN’T send us help. They talked about it, they promised it, but other than individual efforts by those like Lafayette, it didn’t come from the Government until late in the war. Even the French fleet showing up at Yorktown was a fluke. They (the fleet) initially came over but after they dropped off the 5 battalions, they went haring off to the West Indies to chase rumors of the British fleet down there even though Washington BEGGED them to stay and help. They only came back after they lost the British fleet and as I said, it was only happenstance that they were able to be at the right place at the right time to do us any good. I still need to investigate that 12,000 troops I think it was jonix talked about. 12,000 troops was a HUGE number in that war.

Now I gotta catch up. I just wanted to respond to the first couple of posts first. Oh the power just came back, but I think you might have figured it out. AND…………

As much as I despise the french (and the reason they didn’t help us in the war in Iraq was because they were stealing too much money in blackmarketing to Saddam), I never called them “freedom fries” lol. I call things what they are. Them’s be french fries, and McDonalds still has the best, when they are hot and fresh that is…………

Del

July 26th, 2010
8:28 pm

Hey josef,

What’s happening?

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
8:30 pm

Josef…support like this: “US President George Bush, under scrutiny from the United Nations and the Human Right Commission called on the people of Iraq, including the Iraqi Kurds to rise up against the dictatorship. Unfortunately U.S. forces – who temporarily occupied a large strip of southern Iraq at the time once again–did nothing to support the post-war rebellion and stood by while thousands of Iraqi Kurds, Shiites, and others were slaughtered”

http://hubpages.com/hub/www-hubpages-com-hub-xb7076-The-United-States-Kurdistan-and-the-Future-of-Iraq

I’m surprised they ever came to trust us again.

md

July 26th, 2010
8:31 pm

Del,

But since taking back Hong Kong, the “people” have been awakened to what could be. The genie is out of the bottle – may take awhile, but eventually the human spirit see the chains and will do what is necessary to remove them. Same seems to be happening in Iran.

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
8:33 pm

Mick

July 26th, 2010
8:36 pm

**The genie is out of the bottle – may take awhile, but eventually the human spirit see the chains and will do what is necessary to remove them.**

That’s why the cuban embargo is the biggest loser of a foreign policy starting with kennedy right thru obama, no one has the cajones to cast this garbage aside and open that market so it will collapse from within.

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
8:38 pm

Daddy,

Are you going to take poor people’s social security money and use it to pay for the Bush tax cuts like the Republicans want?

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
8:40 pm

“no one has the cajones to cast this garbage aside and open that market so it will collapse from within”

I’ve been saying something like that for years. I think sanctions are a waste of time and are generally counter-productive anyway. I think we should be fighting hostility with consumer goods. Every time we get threatened start flooding that country with consumer goods. How can the population be affected by sanctions on stuff they never had to begins with? Give them an idea of what we CAN take away. Heck, if it’s necessary – “bomb” them with stuff they can’t get any other way.

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
8:40 pm

“and if you look at where those deposits are located…”

The LARGEST being in Bolivia… dubbed the “Saudi Arabia of lithium”…

“The United States Geological Survey says 5.4 million tons of lithium could potentially be extracted in Bolivia, compared with 3 million in Chile, 1.1 million in China and just 410,000 in the United States. Independent geologists estimate that Bolivia might have even more lithium at Uyuni and its other salt deserts, though high altitudes and the quality of the reserves could make access to the mineral difficult.”

I wonder just witch president in the future will go skipping through the daises holding hands with some former drug lord who controls the lithium fields output/production…

Mick

July 26th, 2010
8:42 pm

**Heck, if it’s necessary – “bomb” them with stuff they can’t get any other way.**

Now, thats what I call creative bombing…

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
8:44 pm

That comment that “thousands of Iraqi Kurds…” is not the case. The Iraqi Kurds met BLOOD genocide during the regime of Ronald Reagan and it came as a shock to all concerned. Following that the IDF and Mosaad sent in military advisors to the Peshmerga and created a force capable of defending their people and keeping the Baghdad regime at bay. The United States put pressure on Turkey to back off on the Iraqi invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan…the Clinton administration’s strict enforcement of the no-fly zone gave the Iraqi Kurds the chance to develop democratic institutions and create an economic infrastructure favorable to outside investment. The Kurds welcomed the US and is very pro US in thanks for giving them the breathing space to take matters into their own hands.

Do not confuse the blood genocidal attacks and policies of the Reagan era with those against the Shia in the Bush II years. The Huff-Po article referenced blurrs the two into a single event. It was not.

md

July 26th, 2010
8:46 pm

**Heck, if it’s necessary – “bomb” them with stuff they can’t get any other way.**

Yep, Playboy all over Iran, and the mad mullahs won’t be able to control it.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
8:46 pm

Doggone
I agree with you on the “bomb them” with consumer goods. We just have to be the ones producing those consumer goods for it to be effective…

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
8:48 pm

SAUL
Former drug lord? Like the rum runner Joseph Kennedy, Sr?

Del

July 26th, 2010
8:49 pm

md,

I can only hope you’re right and I’m wrong.

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
8:50 pm

Josef: “Former drug lord? Like the rum runner Joseph Kennedy, Sr?”

Absolutely! Dealing with Mobsters was GOOD to him.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
8:52 pm

Saul
And his sons became statesmen…who’s to say the same won’t happen in Bolivia?

md

July 26th, 2010
8:54 pm

“I agree with you on the “bomb them” with consumer goods. We just have to be the ones producing those consumer goods for it to be effective…”

Sorry, can’t have that…….then the common folk would be part of the “military industrial complex” (even though they already are) and that would be bad, bad, bad…………

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
8:55 pm

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
8:56 pm

md
@ 8:54
Not to mention, the Chinese might not like it…!

md

July 26th, 2010
9:00 pm

No need to worry Jo, we can’t afford the goods we make………………

Del

July 26th, 2010
9:01 pm

Michelle,

here’s something equally as stupid as you seem to be stuck on.

ttp://www.apfn.org/apfn/pearl_harbor.htm

Saul Good

July 26th, 2010
9:03 pm

Josef….you’re right… both those dealings with mobsters came with lots and lots of conspiracy theories attached to the fates of those same sons/statesmen… not that “I” believe them… but they make for good folklore and made for TV movies…

Speaking of movies…

i’m out for the night…

Oh btw…Fred…glad your computer didn’t get fried out… talking about fries…McDonald fries? The BEST? I’ll just have to disagree with you on that one…being vegan…I’ve not stepped into one of those “places” for over 10 years now. Not the most “vegan” friendly place one can find… but based upon popularity… i’m FAR in the minority when it comes to that kind of dining establishment.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
9:04 pm

Doggone and md, During Desert Shield (which became Desert Storm) the objective was NEVER to invade Iraq and over throw Saddam Hussein. It was merely to get him out of Kuwait and to prevent him from attacking Saudi Arabia. Let me give you a little history/culture/religious lesson.

Islam has two major factions like Christianity does, the Sunni and the Shi’ites (Christianity has the Catholics and the Protestants). What funny is in simplistic terms, the Sunni’s and the Shi’ites are divided among the same lines as the Catholics and the Protestants, who has access to God. The Shi’ites (Shia) like the Catholics believe that access to God is not for the great unwashed. Only the “leaders” have direct access to God. Sunni’s, like Protestants belief that EVERYONE has access to God and they don’t need a mediator. Now how does this apply to what we are talking about you are now asking. It’s like this.

Iran is Shia while Saudi Arabia is Sunni. While there are major “religious sites” in both Countries, Mecca, the holiest of holies is in Saudi Arabia. Iran wants control of that and will use any means needed to get it. Unfortunately for them, Iraq stands between them. Saddam Hussien was a damn heathen. Although technically a Sunni, he cared only for himself and didn’t care one whit about religion. Through him, the Sunni’s “ruled” the majority Shia population and prevented Iran from getting to Mecca and taking it for themselves. He created an military buffer zone that the Iranians couldn’t penetrate (remember the war between Iraq and Iran). The WHOLE middle east liked the way things were. As long as the Iranians couldn’t conquer Saudi Arabia because they couldn’t get to them, they didn’t care what Saddam did to his people. They DID however want him contained in his own borders so when he struck Kuwait and moved towards Saudi, everyone wanted him back in his own yard. That’s where we came in. We were only supposed to put the mad dog back into his own yard and keep him fenced in. That’s what George HERBERT did. He was an international affairs EXPERT. He knew that we didn’t want to over throw Saddam and then deal with the mop up. Unfortunately his idiot son didn’t and that’s why we are in this mess.

I hope this simplistic overview of world religion and politics helps. Any questions, feel free to ask. :)

Del

July 26th, 2010
9:05 pm

Scout

July 26th, 2010
9:10 pm

Daddy, why didn’t President Clinton kill Bin Laden when he had him ?

Scout

July 26th, 2010
9:12 pm

Del:

This 22 year old dog face was arrested awhile back.

Headline: “A young Army analyst and an ex-hacker may have played roles in exposing classified secrets.”

If he’s quilty of releasing classified documents (especiall in wartime that will cause the deaths of Americans) …………. I say “firing squad” !!!

md

July 26th, 2010
9:12 pm

Fred,

Thanks for the lesson, now what does it have to do with what I have previously posted??

I said what you said – in 2 sentences.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
9:12 pm

FRED
Don’t leave out the Sufi…who, thank G-d, are at last standing up and demanding to be heard…

Scout

July 26th, 2010
9:13 pm

Del:

Michelle can’t be orginal so she copies my routine.

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
9:13 pm

“We just have to be the ones producing those consumer goods for it to be effective…”

Yep! And I have no doubt we could give away literally TONS of stuff and it would still be cheaper than fighting a war…not to mention how many lives it would save.

What the heck? Conventional bombing doesn’t seem to be working very well, might as well try something else.

Del

July 26th, 2010
9:15 pm

Fred,
You make a cogent argument except you’ve left out 9-11 and the collective belief by most western world leaders and our own congressional leaders of both political stripes that believed Suddam did indeed possess WMD’s. That has never been disproved and in fact has been proved by way of the Kurd gassing. The only thing that has been proved is that we couldn’t find the WMD’s in Iraq. Not a very strong argument that GWD was an idiot.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
9:20 pm

**Not a very strong argument that GWD was an idiot**

Disagree. His father knew best and so did cheney at that time. The french warned us about an insurgency but what did bush2 have to say about that? “Bring it on”, indefensible.

barbara's bush

July 26th, 2010
9:21 pm

Daddy,

Why did Uncle Dick say we would be greeted as liberators and why did you wrap yourself in Jesus while directing American soldiers to torture prisoners of war in violation of the Geneva Convention? I thought you taught us America was different then our sworn enemies. Also, Daddy why did you use granpa’s silver spoon to abuse cocaine in alabama while avoiding the draft?

Del

July 26th, 2010
9:23 pm

Scout@9:12pm,

I’d say ship the little puny necked SOB over to Saudi Arabia and have them administer 500 lashes and then ship is screaming little a$$ to Singapore for 500 more and then turn him loose in Borneo to survive for 45 days in the bush. If he makes it offer him a job with the United States Marine as a rifleman to walk point on every operation until death do they part.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
9:23 pm

Del
For some reason we’ve decided that WMD is nuclear…ask the Kurds whether or not Sadaam had WMDs and whether or not he used them. There was no reason at the time of Shock and Awe to assume that he did not—highly portable and highly secretable…

BTW
Has Sister Hillary been making rumbles about running in 2012? Any references? I’ve heard some comments that direction by the talking heads, but nothing substantial…

Del

July 26th, 2010
9:24 pm

Scout,

Do I get an Amen and Semper Fi on my last?

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
9:25 pm

Del
@ 9:23
Tell us how your really feel! :-)

Del

July 26th, 2010
9:27 pm

josef,

I think if the “One’s” approval numbers keep falling particularly if the Dem’s take a big hit in November, Hillary will challenge for the 012 nomination.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
9:28 pm

**There was no reason at the time of Shock and Awe to assume that he did not—highly portable and highly secretable…**

So, by that logic we have the right to invade any country in possession…..weak.

Mr Right

July 26th, 2010
9:30 pm

The problem is, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence that things have changed in any fundamental way since Dec. 1, 2009, and so far, the mundane if discouraging details contained in those 90,000 documents make a strong argument that they probably never will.

Jay, this reminds me so much about what you said about Iraq and you were so wrong!

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
9:31 pm

Daddy,

Is Scout my step brother and do you have a copy of his birth certificate?

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
9:32 pm

Daddy,

Why doesn’t Del like my questions?

Fred

July 26th, 2010
9:32 pm

md

July 26th, 2010
9:12 pm

Thanks for the lesson, now what does it have to do with what I have previously posted??

I said what you said – in 2 sentences.
+++++++++
You did? Which two sentences? I don’t see them. you don’t mean THESE two sentences do you?

A little problem called the UN stood in the way of GHWB, and then the weenie UN lead #2 to do his thing. Getting rid of the worthless UN is a good starting point.
++++++++

Because if you mean THOSE two sentences, then you need to hone up on those reading comprehension skills. The UN didn’t stand in the way of George HERBERT, his prior knowledge of what would happen did. If you meant two OTHER sentences, please point them out…….

wendy

July 26th, 2010
9:32 pm

del your real tough sitting in your barcalounger counting your rolls of fat, chicken-hawk.

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
9:32 pm

“believed Suddam did indeed possess WMD’s. That has never been disproved and in fact has been proved by way of the Kurd gassing. ”

It isn’t possible to prove a negative. The evidence that he did not have a working arsenal of WMDs is two-fold: he didn’t use any, and none have ever been found. Anyone who thinks he DID have them…produce YOUR proof? Where are they? It’s been nearly 8 years, they must be SOMEWHERE…right?

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
9:34 pm

Mick
Don’t mistake that for agreement…I didn’t agree at the time and I don’t agree now…and for the record my boy, IED disposal in Iraq, has had to take the medical regimen for exposure to…

Mick

July 26th, 2010
9:34 pm

**Hillary will challenge for the 012 nomination**

Really? After watching “the one” get burned by the vast right wing conspiracy on just about every thing he does, hillary is probably sleeping quite nicely. Why would she want to climb into the lions den knowing it would not be any better for her or for that matter any democrat who is becomes president?

wendy

July 26th, 2010
9:34 pm

scout is a self-hating queer…semper fi fag

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
9:34 pm

del nice try at 4:58; but this is where the fine print gets ya…..I stated (refer to my 4:50 pm post for the accuracy of the statement if you wish) del – talk is cheap. find me a link where, when Obama was campaigning, he stated that he would WIN THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN.

You provided a link where PRESIDENT O said la de da not SENATOR O while he was campaigning.

Also refer back to your post where you said (at 4:43 p.m.) which stated : DebbieDo,
Never cared for sardines. As for Obama’s campaign inclusion of needing to win in Afghanistan, sorry but he certainly did say so, and still does.

That little thing called accuracy will get ya every time………..

popeye

July 26th, 2010
9:36 pm

Ah geez Wendy…Now you have set off a sh*t storm of vindictives coming your way

The other night I mentioned atrocities we as Americans had committed against the Vietnamese, and Del had to excuse himself to go punch a wall!

Mick

July 26th, 2010
9:38 pm

josef

I had no intel and I knew that iraq would be a fiasco. They used 911 to accomplish an objective they had right after being sworn in – invade iraq.

I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...

July 26th, 2010
9:38 pm

Majority of Small Business Sector
Facing Higher Taxes Under Obama Plan

It’s all a lie, ain’t it?

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
9:40 pm

wendy

I doubt Scout is a queer…but I can say this, for all our argument over any number of issues he has always treated me as a gentleman and you might want to watch your language…I take far more offense at what you just posted than anything Scout has ever said to me…

ELSEWISE

I will say this for Sister Hillary, she said and has stuck by that given the information she had at her disposal at the time, she’d vote the same again. Hindsight is 20-20…

Del

July 26th, 2010
9:40 pm

Doggone/GA,

As I indicated at your request, I’ll respect your opinions and do nothing to try and change them. I honor your request knowing full well that you lack an acceptable grasp of facts and have proven yourself largely ignorant on most topics in my view. Having said that I wish you only the best in your endeavors.

Scout

July 26th, 2010
9:41 pm

Wendy:

Is that you?

Scout

July 26th, 2010
9:42 pm

Michelle:

LOL ! Look ………….. there goes a puppy !

Scout

July 26th, 2010
9:42 pm

Del:

Yes you do because that would certainly take longer …………… and do it all barefooted.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
9:43 pm

Do we not have a deficit? When my credit card balance starts getting too high you know what I do?
Pay more and reduce the balance. Higher taxes for the wealthiest 2 percent? No problem, right tea partiers who worry so much about the national debt?

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
9:44 pm

Daddy,

Do you like my singing, Del and Scout sitting in a tree, kissing! Aren’t I a good singer. I don’t understand Daddy. Don’t ask, Don’t tell what?

Del

July 26th, 2010
9:44 pm

Wendy,

If I am all that fat and lolly gagging around in a comfortable chair, I’d say I’ve earned it, so thanks for your compliment. Bless your heart now.

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
9:44 pm

@@: Del: Thanks for responding to Debbie’s “that is SO not true” post. I rarely linger waiting for responses. They’re all too predictable. “SO not true”???? is SOOOO valley girl(ISH).

Yes — for you sure. YOu probably haven’t been a girl since Betsy sewed and patched together the flag…………… (ish)

josef: And why does the current POTUS go bowing to the same who put me and “my kind” to death simply for being?

At least he wasn’t kissing his azz like the Bushies did. One thing you can say about Obama, he wasn’t in bed with the Saudis as the Bushes STILL are. Bowing is one thing, sooking their little pr(i)ks is another.

SPQR(laissez Faire)

July 26th, 2010
9:45 pm

You can’t commit attrocities against a culture of people who eat dogs, because the members of that culture are the lowest filth on earth, next to muslims. Is it a genocidal act to wipe out a fire ant colony? Nope..

so, when south east asians give up the canine cuisine, their lives may have value to me. Until then, o.o% value.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
9:46 pm

wendy

In the battle of ideas, one thing is for sure – you are a loser.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
9:46 pm

Jonix: Again you are educating me. I had never heard of the Sufi before (did a quick google). You also are intriguing me. At first I thought you were a died in the wool lefty, but reading your comments here, you come across as an independent like me, guided by truth, not by preconceived notions that force the “facts” to be fit in to political ideology. I’ll have to read you more lol.

Del: I was explaining the realities of a political/religious situation, not the fantasies that the right propagated to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq by George WALKER Bush. Maybe had we gone in with the WHOLE plan of invasion, (hammer and anvil tactic, look it up) instead of the half-assed plan we DID invade with, some WMD’s would have been found. I highly doubt it though. There is good evidence that Saddam used up all the chemical/biological weapons we gave him on the Kurds. As to the September 11th (I REFUSE to call it 911) attack? I may be mistaken, but there were Iraqi’s involved in that? I thought a majority of the piece of chicken dung that did THAT were Saudi. I don’t see your point.

Also, while I never called GWB an idiot while he was my President, (I feel it demeans us as a Nation to talk about our sitting President in such terms, but that’s just me), I feel no such restraint now. He IS and WAS an idiot. I’ll explain my reason for that conclusion in a later post if you wish, but the half assed invasion on faulty intelligence was not the only poor judgment he showed in his 8 years in office. Would that it were………..

SPQR(laissez Faire)

July 26th, 2010
9:47 pm

Daddy, when can we go back to school?

We’ve been on vacation forever:(

popeye

July 26th, 2010
9:47 pm

josef..

.I have no qualm with you, but who are you to say to another blogger to watch their language?
Did Jay appoint you as second in command

Del

July 26th, 2010
9:47 pm

Popeye,

It truly saddens me, however, “about face”

Finn McCool

July 26th, 2010
9:48 pm

interesting…
http://www.truth-out.org/the-silent-killing-americas-workforce-an-interview-with-patrice-woeppel-deadly-inadequacy-workers-co

There are also lessons to be learned from the language in the Canadian corporate manslaughter law (An Act to Amend the Criminal Code, C-45, 2004), which makes it possible to convict the organization on the basis of the actions (or failure to act) of any employee and a “relevant senior officer;” the definition of the latter to include “members of management with operational, as well as policy-making, authority.”

popeye

July 26th, 2010
9:50 pm

Del .. Your 9:47

I have no clue what you are talking about .. enlighten me?

Ira Say Gent

July 26th, 2010
9:50 pm

Majority of Small Business Sector
Facing Higher Taxes Under Obama Plan

So, you’re saying that you had rather continue making nothing under the Bush plan so you can continue paying no taxes.

larry

July 26th, 2010
9:50 pm

wendy,

scout is the bravest homophobe to ever bloviate with honor on this blog bar none.

SPQR(laissez Faire)

July 26th, 2010
9:51 pm

Ah, leftist progressives..the gift that keeps on giving..like mestasticizing cancer and a tapeworm..

Oliver Stone: ‘Jewish-Dominated Media’ Prevents Hitler from Being Portrayed ‘in Context’…

Doggone/GA

July 26th, 2010
9:53 pm

“proven yourself largely ignorant on most topics in my view”

Well, I can’t say thank you…but I *can* refuse to play your game.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
9:54 pm

popeye
Why? Look at what she hurled at Scout as if he’s supposed to be some inferior if he is queer or fag…give me a break, Mate, what if she had said “n-gger” or “k*ke?” Yeah, that’s why I said watch your language…

Fred
I am a lefty–I just don’t feel obligated to go by the party line because someone else says it’s the party line…and the Sufi–aren’t they fascinating? I have a friend who’s Sufi–family is Whirling Dervishes…!!

Dr. DoLittle

July 26th, 2010
9:56 pm

SPQR,

Call me and I’ll see what I can do for you.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
9:56 pm

laissez
Can you link me that Oliver Stone, please…not being snarky…really do want to know…

Scout

July 26th, 2010
9:57 pm

Michelle:

O.K. Now we know you’re probably about 14. That explains a lot.

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
9:57 pm

Daddy,

Did josef vote for you?

Scout

July 26th, 2010
9:58 pm

josef:

I read it. What’s with Stone ?

squaw

July 26th, 2010
9:58 pm

To bad Prescott Bush didn’t pull out, his indecisviness unfortunatley led to the worst President in the history of the Union and the unnecessary deaths of many young brave Americans.

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
9:59 pm

Daddy,

Why is Scout interested in 14-year olds?

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
9:59 pm

squaw
May I see your CDIB card?

Scout

July 26th, 2010
9:59 pm

Larry:

Does that make you a “heterophobe” ?

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
10:01 pm

Michelle
Nope, Josef didn’t vote for your daddy and won’t in the future. But he IS my president and a pretty good Daddy, too, I’d say.

popeye

July 26th, 2010
10:01 pm

Josef…I don’t care for that type of language either. I was raised a lot better, respect and all that.

I don’t know what previously was said…Which led to Wendy’s meltdown. But who am I to judge, and anybody who has been blogging with Bookman for awhile knows Scout is about as straight as they come.

Cheers!!!!!

Mick

July 26th, 2010
10:01 pm

josef – where’s the bruin when you need him?

squaw

July 26th, 2010
10:02 pm

nix and scout,

politics makes strange bedfellows, indeed!

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
10:03 pm

Scout
Stone…somebody said he said something about the Jewish controlled media…

Fred

July 26th, 2010
10:04 pm

Mick

July 26th, 2010
9:43 pm

Do we not have a deficit? When my credit card balance starts getting too high you know what I do?
Pay more and reduce the balance. Higher taxes for the wealthiest 2 percent? No problem, right tea partiers who worry so much about the national debt?
+++++++++

Damn Mick, that’s cool. I wish I could get the 2 percenters to pay for MY credit cards like you do. I’d spend like mad and then get THEM to pay. I mean they are RICH so what does it matter? They can pay my bills……….

Here’s your sign.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
10:05 pm

Who cares what oliver stone says anyway? Platoon? great movie. JFK? Complete and utter garbage.

Bruno

July 26th, 2010
10:07 pm

Howdy gang–Job interview went well for me. If all goes well, I may be moving to Columbus. I spent a few hours riding around the city this afternoon, and kind of liked the place.

I think I sealed the deal when I noticed that the owner was in the same fraternity in college that I was. When I laid the “secret handshake” on him, he was grinning from ear to ear.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
10:08 pm

To she were I to use her tag I’d be sleeping on the couch tonight…

Scout and I can actually dialogue…though few may have noticed this, but I have…he has refrained from using the derogatory terms he used earlier…in other words, he has recognized that they may indeed “hurt” …strange bedfellows? NOT me and Scout, let me assure you! Not politically or otherwise…we just agree that with a little respect you CAN cross the divide…

Mick

July 26th, 2010
10:08 pm

Fred, are you looney from the moon? Where did I say that I get the 2 percenters to pay my bills? Me. myself and I pay MY bills. Sorry, no sympathy if their tax bill rises a whopping 3 percent!!!!

theyeshaveit

July 26th, 2010
10:09 pm

Scout said Daddy, why didn’t President Clinton kill Bin Laden when he had him ?

Scout, come on, tell the truth, man.

Here is the truth. Listen to Clinton on Fox.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0LUZrvUKfU

Michelle

July 26th, 2010
10:10 pm

Daddy,

Why do Republicans want people who just barely survive on social security to give up their money so rich people can have their Bush tax break made permanent.

popeye

July 26th, 2010
10:10 pm

Bruno…..The only thing I liked about Columbus was the officers club at Benning….A true Antebellum structure with an outdoor veranda to drink, eat and be merry.

Miss Behaving

July 26th, 2010
10:11 pm

They’ve had tax breaks for the past 10 years……where are all the jobs that were promised to us? What happened to that “trickle down” Dumbya said would come? The only trickle I’ve seen was the pi$$ that Cheney et al, have been skeeting in our faces. Dick Cheney should pay more taxes!!! Bush should pay more taxes!!! Dumb a$$ Limbaugh should DEFINITELY pay more taxes!!!

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
10:11 pm

Bruno

Mazel Tov! Columbus is not a bad place at all…I think you’ll Like they say, it’s always darkest before the dawn…

Bruno

July 26th, 2010
10:11 pm

I didn’t read all of the earlier comments, but was curious to know if anyone here believes we still have a legitimate mission in Afghanistan. The consensus a few months ago seemed to be that we should have handled it as a “special force” operation rather than an occupation.

For the record, I supported the Iraq invasion if only on humanitarian grounds to get rid of Hussein. If we can possibly help sow the seeds of a democracy in that God-forsaken part of the world, it might be worth it all in the end. (I still say “might” because the loss of human life was pretty high for both sides.)

Mick

July 26th, 2010
10:12 pm

Josef – I may disagree with him but scout is an honorable man who complete’s the mission. I’d want him on my team any day of the week.

@@

July 26th, 2010
10:13 pm

Gee Debbie. Why so personal?

Betsy who? Friend of yours? I’d “love” to meet her someday.

It is time to turn the page. When I am President, we will wage the war that has to be won, with a comprehensive strategy with five elements: getting out of Iraq and on to the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan; developing the capabilities and partnerships we need to take out the terrorists and the world’s most deadly weapons; engaging the world to dry up support for terror and extremism; restoring our values; and securing a more resilient homeland.

http://www.barackobama.com/2007/08/01/the_war_we_need_to_win.php

Take note of the the part where he says “When I am President.”

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
10:14 pm

Mick
I care what Stone says…he has a “following” and I’m interested in IF he did say that. His films? Pretty good filmmaker and Mel Gibson is a pretty good actor, too…but…

theyeshaveit

July 26th, 2010
10:14 pm

Josef,

On your words regarding Scout – Amen.

md

July 26th, 2010
10:14 pm

“Because if you mean THOSE two sentences, then you need to hone up on those reading comprehension skills. The UN didn’t stand in the way of George HERBERT, his prior knowledge of what would happen did. If you meant two OTHER sentences, please point them out…….”

Gee Fred, can you show where the UN mandate allowed for the removal of Saddam??

Try this for reading comprehension:

“Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations’ mandate”

GHWB own words………………………………………..

Fred

July 26th, 2010
10:17 pm

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
9:54 pm

I am a lefty–I just don’t feel obligated to go by the party line because someone else says it’s the party line
++++++++++++

And so we begin to open your mind. Come to the light side my padawan………… free your mind from “lefties” and righties” just seek the truth. The truth will set you free. You are in the closet. You are an independent but not yet ready to make that leap out of the closet………….. You seek the truth you NEED the truth. The truth wants to consume you but you won’t let it. Feel the force Luke………

Bruno

July 26th, 2010
10:17 pm

“A true Antebellum structure with an outdoor veranda to drink, eat and be merry.”

I really liked the historic downtown section, popeye. The weather there is about 5 degrees warmer than Atlanta year-round, so June, July, and August are typically brutal. Of course, you get a make-up in Dec, Jan and Feb when the daytime highs reach into the 60s.

“Like they say, it’s always darkest before the dawn…”

josef–I hope you’re right. I sincerely believe I have a lot to offer an employer–I’m a hard worker, am very loyal and very dependable. In more than 38 years in the work force, i’ve only missed 3 days due to illness.

squaw

July 26th, 2010
10:18 pm

Gomer Pyle is the Rosa Parks of DADT!

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
10:18 pm

Mick
Thanks for the vote for Scout…he’s a Mensch…and I’ll say this, I don’t have to look over my shoulder or second guess him…he means me no personal harm and will defend my right to stand up and speak out even if I DO disagree with him up one side and down the other…

Brett

July 26th, 2010
10:20 pm

The Repug Never-Serveds learned nothing from Vietnam or Russia. “Send in the troops!!!” Because they never ARE the troops. It’s all been utterly predictable long before the first stupid shot was ever fired.
Another memory from the cowardly BushDrunks.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
10:21 pm

Bruno

One note of caution. I moved to a small town in florida once and thought it was great. I found a really nice house to rent with 4 bedrooms at an unbelievable price. The first night I moved in around 2am the house started rumbling then literally shaking and I realized that there was a train coming. The next day as I explored the neighborhood, sure enough on the other side of a large thicket were the hidden train tracks. The whole week was a bummer cause at 2am the train was a roarin.. Epilogue, after that first week, I never heard that train again. The mind can do wonderous things when it needs to, just do your homework before settlin in.

md

July 26th, 2010
10:21 pm

Mick,

In reference to JFK – ever wonder why Clinton couldn’t release all the documents even after he said he would?? Do a little research on it – he did release quite a bit, but still held some back because of “National security”.

Hmmm…………………

theyeshaveit

July 26th, 2010
10:21 pm

Bruno,

I did support the first Iraq war, but not the second. I never believed Colin Powell even if he believed himself as he pointed to “evidence” of WMDs before UN Security Council representatives. As for Afghanistan, if the reason we are there is to get bin Laden, I think that we have missed the window on that. Now, we are descending deeper into the quagmire that is Afghanistan and it feels like Vietnamese quicksand to me.

larry

July 26th, 2010
10:24 pm

squaw,

I’d go with Klinger

md

July 26th, 2010
10:25 pm

“In more than 38 years in the work force, i’ve only missed 3 days due to illness.”

Bruno – you one of those that comes to work sick and gives it to everybody else, which in turn causes everybody else to be out but you never miss a day?? :)

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
10:25 pm

Fred
:-)

I’m a lefty by perspective and a liberal by philosophical outlook…those are my “starting points” in my search for “truth.” I just don’t expect the truth that may be revealed to be in conformity with the latest memo…

dan

July 26th, 2010
10:25 pm

neocons love tax cuts for the rich and wars for the poor…

Bruno

July 26th, 2010
10:26 pm

“I don’t have to look over my shoulder or second guess him…he means me no personal harm and will defend my right to stand up and speak out even if I DO disagree with him up one side and down the other…”

josef–I have to admit that I’ve gotten mad at Scout on your behalf due to his anti-gay comments. But if you are okay with it…..

I wonder if Scout would feel differently if he accepted that homosexuality IS genetic in origin. I know that for a fact due to the personal experience of growing up with a gay sister. If homosexuality was due to environment alone, then my other three sisters should be gay, having grown up in the exact same environment. By age 6, I knew that my one sister was “different” from the others, although I couldn’t identify how until much later.

md

July 26th, 2010
10:27 pm

“The evidence that he did not have a working arsenal of WMDs is two-fold: he didn’t use any, and none have ever been found.”

Didn’t use any??

Ask the Kurds if he didn’t use any…………………….

theyeshaveit

July 26th, 2010
10:27 pm

Fred,

One need not be an “Independent” to think independently. Whether on the right or the left, one has the intellectual and moral freedom to produce his own thoughts and opinions independently of the party line. I am strongly pro-Obama (although I preferred Hillary) but I am getting tired of this Afghanistan war.

Bruno

July 26th, 2010
10:29 pm

“The mind can do wonderous things when it needs to, just do your homework before settlin in.”

I appreciate the good advice, Mick. If I do get the job, my plan would be to rent for a year before purchasing a home.

“Bruno – you one of those that comes to work sick and gives it to everybody else, which in turn causes everybody else to be out but you never miss a day??”

LOL–Lucky I don’t believe in the “germ theory” of disease, md. It’s all about our resistance….

popeye

July 26th, 2010
10:29 pm

“Thanks for the vote for Scout…he’s a Mensch…and I’ll say this, I don’t have to look over my shoulder or second guess him…he means me no personal harm and will defend my right to stand up and speak out even if I DO disagree with him up one side and down the other…”

Excuse me while I run off to get my kleenex to wipe away my tears.

Are you kidding me he means me no personal harm and will defend my right to stand up and speak out even if I DO disagree with him up one side and down the other…”
and will defend my right to stand up and speak out even if I DO disagree with him up one side and down the other…”

How is that done? “he means me no personal harm and will defend my right to stand up and speak out even if I DO disagree with him up one side and down the other…” Is he now your personal bodyguard equipped with all the newest armament.

Scout is just another blogger just like you josef … you folks are cordial and have a good dialog, but with the above statement me thinks you are off the reservation!

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
10:29 pm

Fred

July 26th, 2010
10:29 pm

md

July 26th, 2010
10:14 pm

“Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations’ mandate”

GHWB own words
+++++++++++
Post a link please. I was rather “engaged” as it were during that conflict. WHile I was probing minefields, we didn’t get all the sound bites form CNN. When I was clearing trenches, they weren’t quoting the Washington Times. The little holes in the sand I dug each night to sleep in didn’t have cable or satellite TV’s. I participated in the war you watched on TV. Were you there or watching when my team got shot up and some of them died? Was there footage of the C-130 burning in killing the whole team that were our buddies? If so, was it fun to watch? Get your dick hard and all that? President George Herbert Bush wasn’t on our net so I don’t know all the things he said.

Did you ever wonder who held those laser designators on the targets in Iraq that you saw blow up on your TV? I never wondered that…………..

Mick

July 26th, 2010
10:32 pm

**Ask the Kurds if he didn’t use any**

Ask the kurds who gave it to him.

As for JFK, stone ripped off a much better movie called executive action starring burt lancaster.

theyeshaveit

July 26th, 2010
10:33 pm

Bruno said LOL–Lucky I don’t believe in the “germ theory” of disease, md. It’s all about our resistance….

Bruno, I worked for a Japanese company for almost elven years. Then as now, I very seldom took sick days. But one day at work when it was pretty obvious that I was sick and spreading germs, the president of the company went out to a Japanese drug store and came back and handed me two white medical masks and said, “Put it on.”

md

July 26th, 2010
10:33 pm

Gee Fred, sounds like you got a personal problem.

Here is what you do – copy the quote I posted into that there computer you are sitting at and see what pops up. Google is your friend.

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
10:34 pm

@@: Take note of the the part where he says “When I am President.”

Take note that he didn’t say HE WILL WIN THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN nor did he make a promise to do so. He said the war MUST be won, big difference.

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
10:34 pm

So I guess it’s down to the Padres and the Mets as the only teams to never throw a no hitter.

Congrats Matt Garza and I ain’t buying for a second that BS about you not knowing you had a no hitter going until you looked at the scoreboard in the 9th.

Del

July 26th, 2010
10:35 pm

Bruno,

The only way we could even have a chance of prevailing is to go in with as much overwhelming force as we could muster, invoking extreme occupation law that included on the spot executions and imprisonment of anyone at any time. Not unlike Hitler’s Germany, the empire of Japan, Communist Russia, Red China, North Korea, North Vietnam, etc. etc. We aren’t that ruthless as a nation nor do I believe we should become that way, so we’re far better off concentrating on how to defend ourselves from such regimes and worry less about how we might convert them to our way of thinking. God is in charge of this depraved world and we’re not God.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
10:35 pm

Thanks for the link RW. While it IS true that 20 million Russians died in WWII, those stats taken with the holocaust are WAY out of line. How many Russians did Stalin kill or have killed himself. I get sick in the heart when I read or hear or see ANYONE who tries to excuse or deny the holocaust.

How can one even BEGIN to “humanize” Hitler? Oh, I forgot, he got the trains running on time…………..

Bruno

July 26th, 2010
10:35 pm

Some of the strongest evidence that one’s sexual orientation is biological and not chosen comes from studies in which nude images of men and women are flashed on a screen in rapid-fire fashion and the differing physiological reactions are noted among the audience members. To me, involuntary dilation of the pupils can’t be “chosen”.

dan

July 26th, 2010
10:37 pm

i love scoot’s “don’t ask, don’t tail jokes” they never get old.

md

July 26th, 2010
10:37 pm

“Ask the kurds who gave it to him.”

I don’t believe the question was “who gave it to him”, but “did he have any”.

As for the first part, if one knows that – why ask whether he had any………..

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
10:38 pm

popeye
You ARE aware, are you not, that “off the reservation” is highly offensive to many American Indians?

And, yes, it has taken time and patience, but we have reached an entente…his “problems” with homosexuality are religious in origin and expression…I disagree and subscribe to a different set of religious beliefs…he no doubt believes I’ll fry in hell, but he leaves that to his G-d and judgment day and is not out to do me in in this lifetime…I’d much rather have that than someone who says one thing and does another…like she who’s name I can’t use who, quite frankly, is far more hateful and far more dangerous than a thousand Scouts…

My personal bodyguard? Yep. That’s about the size of it…

Bruno

July 26th, 2010
10:38 pm

Hey, DDR, Esquire!!!! I’ve been missing you.

Here’s a sexy, sexy song dedicated to you, “Inside My Love” by Minnie Riperton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1aMSZp_WHc

Play this one about 10 minutes before Dudley gets home–he’ll thank me later!!! (Not that you needed any help…….LOL).

larry

July 26th, 2010
10:39 pm

“God is in charge of this depraved world and we’re not God.” Man he must be one sick prick.

@@

July 26th, 2010
10:40 pm

Debbie:

Now you’re just nitpicking. So what…he’s gonna take on a war that he can’t win. Take that up with Del.

This is the part I originally commented on:

getting out of Iraq and on to the right battlefield in Afghanistan

A battlefield is where a war is waged. Afghanistan is the right battlefield…the right war.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
10:41 pm

Poison gas was used in ww2, most nations outlawed or disavowed using it. Still, having such a weapon not a sufficient reason to invade a sovereign country.

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
10:41 pm

Mick,

Even if we sold the precursor chemicals to Iraq they weren’t in a neat little “gas the Kurds” package. They figured out how to weaponize and deliver them and anybody that cares about facts can look up the results of their efforts.

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
10:43 pm

Fred: I get sick in the heart when I read or hear or see ANYONE who tries to excuse or deny the holocaust.

I’ve been to Auscwhitz and I’ve been to the Holocaust Museum – I’ve also spoken to a friend of my aunt’s in Miami whose mother and father were children and were kept in Concentration Camps and watched their father, mother, and siblings die. This lady’s mother made a video recording and on it she spoke about the atrocities that she saw FIRST HAND. The person who can deny that this happened and/or belittle it in any way, you need to watch that person. This is a person with out morals or conscience or empathy for human kind. And they reproduce to spread their disease on to their whelps.

Bruno: To me, involuntary dilation of the pupils can’t be “chosen”.

It always amazes me when someone asks one of my sis-in-laws about how they “chose” to be gay! It’s amazing because no one has ever asked me why I “chose” to be straight!! People, if they really look and listen to the things that they say and do, are really quite strange when you thin about it……

Bruno

July 26th, 2010
10:45 pm

“As for Afghanistan, if the reason we are there is to get bin Laden, I think that we have missed the window on that. Now, we are descending deeper into the quagmire that is Afghanistan and it feels like Vietnamese quicksand to me.”

As a decidedly military NON-expert, that’s how it looks to me also, eyes.

“The only way we could even have a chance of prevailing is to go in with as much overwhelming force as we could muster, invoking extreme occupation law that included on the spot executions and imprisonment of anyone at any time.”

Del–Which would be quite a hollow “victory”. Thannks for the input.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
10:45 pm

The truth of the matter is that we had saddam boxed in; war in this case was not justified.

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
10:46 pm

@@ No I’m not. Del made the point that CANDIDATE Obama said he’d win the war — your last post proved that he never said that. You may call it “nitpicking” I call it facts.

@@: This is the part I originally commented on: getting out of Iraq and on to the right battlefield in Afghanistan A battlefield is where a war is waged. Afghanistan is the right battlefield…the right war.

We were already ON the battlefield in Afghanistan. What’s your point?

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
10:46 pm

RW
It may not be the most appropriate word given the context, but thanks for the link. This has disturbed me greatly. I had to back off on the comments section. This nouveau anti-semitism is gaining “respectability” and that scares the ever loving sh*t out of me…

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
10:49 pm

josef,

I just grabbed a link that went to the story. I wasn’t really endorsing the take the Hot Air readers might have on the story, but that site is meticulous about linking to source material or to other bloggers that are providing the source material.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
10:50 pm

josef – the cubans in miami hate oliver stone because he has done numerous interviews with that mad genius el jefe fidel castro, so you have some company, since you favor the juajidos…

popeye

July 26th, 2010
10:53 pm

Well, Joseph it’s cool that scout has overcome his homophobia, Myself I’ve never had a problem with ones sexuality.

To me it’s live and let live….No questions asked.

And to his religion…precisely why I am an atheist…the bullcrap the religious spew, and actually believe. But, that’s not my problem or area of expertise.

And as far as off the reservation goes….I’m one of the biggest proponents of Indian rights…I donate a lot of money twice a year to St Joseph’s Indian School and the Lakota children. I also used to fly for the BLM in support of the BIA.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
10:56 pm

I will go to the gay question…I’m amused that anybody would think you’d “choose” this! I may have a martyr complex, but it doesn’t go THAT far! :-) Like I said, were I in the choice bidness, I’d be opting for a straight, male, blonde blue-eyed upper middle class heterosexual Swede!

wendy

July 26th, 2010
10:57 pm

joseph,

your ok with scout’s homophobia in the name of his religion, if someone uses their religion to justify anti-semitism will you give them a big blog squeezy as well…

theyeshaveit

July 26th, 2010
10:57 pm

popeye,

Speaking of phobias….I saw that one man was arrested for stabbing another man in the eye with a ball point pen. The venue – the Comic Book Convention in San Diego. The reason – one man thought the other was sitting too close to him.

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
10:57 pm

“He’s my father,” Rory said of Harry. “Not my political mentor.”

OK, that’s laugh out loud funny, but the funnier part is looking at that picture that claims the guy is only 47.

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
10:57 pm

Bruno: Hey Debbie

Hey Bruno!! LOVED the song!! You always pick out such great music!! However, now, that I’ve discovered Minnie through you, i have to go on Amazon and buy everything she’s ever made. sigh. I keep trying to get out, but you keep pulling me back in!!!

Play this one about 10 minutes before Dudley gets home–he’ll thank me later!!! (Not that you needed any help…….LOL).

Yep. Ole Dudley will be outta gas if I get even MORE inspired!

Del

July 26th, 2010
10:58 pm

DebbieDo,
Candidate Obama said that Afghanistan was the war against A.Q. that we needed to win and the one he would prosecute as president. Now you can deny that all you wish but you can’t make it go away.Nice try though.

Bruno

July 26th, 2010
11:00 pm

“The truth of the matter is that we had saddam boxed in; war in this case was not justified.”

If that is the case, Mick, then I assume you believe we had no business in Bosnia as well?? Nor in Rwanda???

Maybe I’m being too idealistic, but some human atrocities deserve a military response from the US since we are the defacto “world police”.

popeye

July 26th, 2010
11:00 pm

eyes…Your 10:57 Haven’t seen much of Scout tonight …Do you suppose?

Mick

July 26th, 2010
11:02 pm

RW-(the original)

Thanks for the rory story, a much needed dose of humor.

Bruno

July 26th, 2010
11:05 pm

“Yep. Ole Dudley will be outta gas if I get even MORE inspired!”

LMFAO–Somehow, someway, I’ve ended up dating a lot of women like you. If anyone’s saying “Not tonight, honey, I’m too tired”, it’s usually me.

“However, now, that I’ve discovered Minnie through you, i have to go on Amazon and buy everything she’s ever made.”

Minnie’s primarily famous for the song “Loving You”, but another great one she sang was “Back Down Memory Lane” which she sang while in the terminal stages of cancer. If you listen closely, you can hear the pleading in her voice near the end:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z7MaFE-uRQ

Mick

July 26th, 2010
11:05 pm

**since we are the defacto “world police”.**

I am an avowed isolationist and adhere to george washington’s sage advice, “beware of foreign entanglements”. The drain of blood and treasure has been the downfall of many an empire.

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
11:05 pm

Mick,

I can’t wait for the story when Rory endorses Sharron.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
11:06 pm

Mick
@ 10:50
:-) Touche!
RW
No, really, I do appreciate the link…I know you weren’t endorsing the comments…it was them and not the article that scared me…

popeye
Still, though, that “off the reservation” is to many highly offensive…I’m not doubting your commitment, I’m just saying there’s a world of difference between being beneficiary of that “charity” and the benefactor…I’m not trying to start a fracas, but it’s very akin to “we were good to our n*gras” when you’re on the receiving end of “off the reservation…”

This is what I was saying about Scout…with me at least, he has come to an understanding of what the gay equivalent of “off the reservation” is…and that means more to me, at least, than all of his other protestations about his good deeds toward “those people,” me in his case being “those people.”

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
11:09 pm

Let’s go Kansas City. All you need is 19 to tie or 20 to win in the bottom of the 9th.

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
11:10 pm

josef: Like I said, were I in the choice bidness, I’d be opting for a straight, male, blonde blue-eyed upper middle class heterosexual Swede!

I’d choose to be Pam Grier’s sister or maybe Tamra Dobson’s (since she was 6′2 like me). I’d also choose to have Pamela Anderson’s breasts (cup size like hers), Tina Turner’s legs, Bruce Lee’s fighting skills and Bill Gates’ acumen and money. If you gotta choose, choose big!

Del

July 26th, 2010
11:10 pm

Comm check and to say Taps to everyone.

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
11:10 pm

Make that 18 to tie now….

@@

July 26th, 2010
11:11 pm

Debbie:

My point? As far as I’m concerned, we completed our mission in Afghanistan. We isolated Bin Laden. His operation isn’t functioning too well in case you haven’t noticed.

The left’s complaint was that we weren’t in with a sufficient number of forces. All it would take to insure success was to up the numbers. Obama said it. His supporters said it. It was the right war, the just war.

Obama’s surge is gonna make Iraq look like a cakewalk.

Obama has exceeded Bush’s number of deployed troops by 5 times. For every one, Bush put at risk, Obama put four more.

The Karzai government is corrupt and the area vast. Only 17% of the population supports our being there. Since Obama announced an exit date, the population has no interest in helping our troops like the people of Iraq did. They’re gonna side with the Taliban because that’s who they’ll be dealing when the exit date rolls around. It’s a matter of survival.

Bruno

July 26th, 2010
11:11 pm

“I am an avowed isolationist and adhere to george washington’s sage advice, “beware of foreign entanglements”. The drain of blood and treasure has been the downfall of many an empire.”

I hear you, Mick, but I think the days in which it was even possible to pursue an isolationist policy have long past. It’s one world now, and we can’t keep our heads in the sand. Of course, the saying “Discretion is the better part of valor” still applies.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
11:12 pm

wendy
It depends…Scout’s religious beliefs also are that I’ll fry in hell as a Jew who doesn’t accept the Christ as the Messiah…that’s for judgment day, in his beliefs, and poses me no personal threat…you, on the other hand, threw out terms that are highly offensive and meant to insult and damn in earthly terms…you are far more dangerous to me than Scout…you want division…

Scout

July 26th, 2010
11:14 pm

Well, at least everyone is thinking of me tonight.

A real friend speaks the truth.

@@

July 26th, 2010
11:14 pm

Debbie:

I’m off to bed so any response you have for me won’t be read. I’m not one to play blog catch-up the following day.

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
11:14 pm

del: DebbieDo, Candidate Obama said that Afghanistan was the war against A.Q. that we needed to win and the one he would prosecute as president. Now you can deny that all you wish but you can’t make it go away.Nice try though.

Yes the one WE needed to win. He was NOT guaranteeing that HE WOULD WIN IT!! I’m sorry that you can’t see the difference in that.

Bruno: that was beautiful!……. Oh NO!! Here I go again, getting out my credit card, logging on to Amazon. Must stop…..must stop………….

popeye

July 26th, 2010
11:15 pm

okay Josef, if I offended anyone by my insensitive remark I sincerely apologize….I am not a racist nor a homophobe or anti-sementic.

I meant no harm with the statement, and did not realize in certain quarters my statement would be highly offensive.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
11:16 pm

bruno

In our personal lives it is always good advice to choose our battles carefully. So should it be on the world stage. To me, iraq was a mistake, compounded by the law of unintended consequences.

Scout

July 26th, 2010
11:17 pm

popeye:

Have you ever heard of a man named Saul ?

Mick

July 26th, 2010
11:19 pm

Off the reservation? Jeesh are we getting a little thin skinned around here?

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
11:19 pm

DDR

Hey, I like that! I’ll go for Bill Gates on money, and Tina’s talent. I’d want to speak English with James Earl Jones’ voice and have Antonio Banderas’ sex appeal and, okay, mark this one down :-) Barack Obama’s sense of self irony…oh, yeah, and Paul Newman’s eyes!!

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
11:21 pm

@@: Debbie: My point? As far as I’m concerned, we completed our mission in Afghanistan. We isolated Bin Laden. His operation isn’t functioning too well in case you haven’t noticed.

If you truly believed that we completed our mission in Afghanistan you are more far gone than even I realized. Good night @@ sweet dreams.

Since @@ is gone I’m out myself – my mother is calling me to get her a glass of water; (apparently you never grow up when your mother is around, just revert back to childhood with one stern look or phrase), as much as I love my mother, i’m going to call my dad tmw and ask him to order her back to Seattle. There’s only so much mothering you can take after you turn 18………….

Night All.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
11:22 pm

mick and popeye
Think about it a minute…what do you think “off the reservation” sounds like to somebody who has spent a lifetime fighting the feather growing savage stereotype?

popeye

July 26th, 2010
11:23 pm

“Have you ever heard of a man named Saul ?”

Yes Scout….Saul and me were buddies working high rise construction in NYC.

He alway brough the salami sandwiches from the deli down the street.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
11:24 pm

You mean like the irish and dogs need not apply? or any other irish put down, bothers me not a whit – I go my own way.

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
11:24 pm

Mick,

I don’t think josef is being thin-skinned at all. He’s just being a teacher which is pretty reasonable since that’s his calling. On/off the reservation/plantation are all highly offensive statements to people who share the heritage of people that were the subjects of those statements when they were very real rather than what we think of as just figures of speech.

popeye

July 26th, 2010
11:26 pm

Josef @ 11:15 I apologized. What more can I do?

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
11:27 pm

RW
For the record, when we were living in the Pacific Northwest, Unmentionable was denied a promotion and it was quite clear it was because he was an Indian. When he dared to speak out, he was told to “go back to the reservation.” It hits him like a slap in the face…

Fred

July 26th, 2010
11:27 pm

Mick

July 26th, 2010
10:41 pm

Poison gas was used in ww2, most nations outlawed or disavowed using it. Still, having such a weapon not a sufficient reason to invade a sovereign country.
++++++++++

I don’t see how that statement can be refuted, but I’m sure when I read further, someone has. We are NOT the world’s policemen.

Call me unenlightened or whatever you want to call me, but as long as we have starving kids in America, I gives a DAMN about starving kids in Africa, or Honduras. As long as we have poor people in America I gives a DAMN about poor people in other countries. As long as we have sick people in America who can’t afford treatment, I gives a DAMN about sick people in other Countries. I could go on, but I think I made my point.

Dang I can’t get caught up on this blog tonight. I’m perpetually 20 minutes behind……..

Del

July 26th, 2010
11:28 pm

josef,

No, I can’t speak for Scout but I’m pretty sure he believes as I do. I believe in the Old and New Testament. Though I believe in scripture as the inerrant word of God, I don’t presume Gods will, so I would never, could I ever assume any ones after deaths acceptance or non-acceptance into God’s Kingdom. I only believe what’s right for me and my right to teach my children accordingly.

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
11:30 pm

josef,

When the IDF wanted to board the ships trying to break the blockade not so long ago they were told to go back to Auschwitz. Far too many on your side of the political scale took the side of the travel advisors.

DebbieDoRight Esq.

July 26th, 2010
11:31 pm

josef what about Pam’s breasts? :lol:

Antonio Banderas WOW!!! Good choice!!

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
11:31 pm

popeye
What can you do? Resolve not to do it again and let anyone else you hear use it know, Apply the lesson of Ms. Sherrod…

Mick

July 26th, 2010
11:32 pm

Fred

I gives a damn too but war is a whole other issue.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
11:33 pm

DDR
Nanh. but I’ll take the pecs of Mark Spitz in his prime! (And, yes, even at his age Unmentionable STILL has them…I hate him!)

wendy

July 26th, 2010
11:33 pm

Jo,

So sticks and stones break your bones but eternal damnation is a esoteric hand-job….

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
11:35 pm

josef what about Pam’s breasts?

I say we stage an insurrection this Friday and hijack Frustrated DJ Night with an all body parts night. Most of the video clips will have some kind of music in the background so we won’t be completely off topic.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
11:36 pm

wendy @ 11:33

I am definately offended by that last remark.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
11:37 pm

wendy

July 26th, 2010
10:57 pm

joseph,

your ok with scout’s homophobia in the name of his religion, if someone uses their religion to justify anti-semitism will you give them a big blog squeezy as well…
+++++++

LOL now THAT is an interesting (and fair) questions. Talk about push boundaries. I’ve done a little pushing boundaries myself and gotten a mixed reaction from people. Some will see and admit to their hypocrisy and some will deny it. An even fewer number will sit back and think.

Myself? I can’t WAIT to see the reply to this question……… But on a personal level, there are some things where I just say, hypocrisy or not, that is what I think/feel and I’m not changing it. There are few issues that I have to answer that, and so far, none of them have come up on this blog while I’ve read it.

popeye

July 26th, 2010
11:38 pm

Josef
I hate discrimination as much as you do.

If you didn’t know I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest (Portland, Or.) and maybe I was naive or???? Never really witnessed any discrimination until I was sent to Ft. Rucker Ala. and witnessed what was going on in Enterprise, Daleville, Dothan and a few other communities close to the base. To me it was a total wake up call to how fellow americans regardless of their skin color could be treated.

So I’m sorry that “unmentionable” had a lousy experience. That generally is not the northwest way!

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
11:39 pm

RW
And far too many on this side were not outraged…but, then, our original tour guides had their left wing, too…

Del…
And that is why I can respect you…you do not presuppose to be in the business of what is G-d’s arena…I, too, have my belief’s which I pass on to mine…and if I want you to respect mine, then I have to respect yours…and THAT is the lesson I wanted my own kids to learn…

Scout

July 26th, 2010
11:39 pm

popeye:

Well, you might want to research the Saul I am talking about. He spent a career as a special prosecutor going around his part of the district putting Christians in jail and some to their death.

Funny thing though, he would up becoming the greatest Christian missionary the world has ever known …………. Paul.

“The bigger they are ……… the harder they fall !”

Scout

July 26th, 2010
11:41 pm

Josef:

Have you ever read the Book of Romans just as a literary work?

Scout

July 26th, 2010
11:45 pm

“And Jesus said, I must ascend to the Father now but whatever you do, don’t tell anyone about Me and PLEASE do not go into other parts of the world trying to spread the Gospel of eternal life. Just keep it secret. Don’t wear your Chrisitanity on your sleve or you might offend someone. If others don’t know the truth of My word ……. just leave them in darkness. The Devil likes that. You have eternal life ……. why share it with anyone else?”

False Doctrine Chapter 5:6&7

Mick

July 26th, 2010
11:47 pm

scout

I find proverbs to be the coolest, “he who exalts himself shall be humbled, he who humbles himself shall be exalted” great words indeed.

Fred

July 26th, 2010
11:48 pm

Scout

July 26th, 2010
11:14 pm

Well, at least everyone is thinking of me tonight.

A real friend speaks the truth.
+++++++

I was thinking of you at 3:52 PM this afternoon in my post scout. I spoke the truth. Am i a friend? I STILL think that video you chose to post with your shirty comment was distasteful. I hesitate to use the word racist because I hate the way that word is over used. If you commented on that post, I seem to have missed it…………..

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
11:48 pm

popeye
Being blond and green eyed (Hitler’s Aryan dream child!) with rare exception I had a pleasant time in the Northwest and so did he overall. It IS the only place I was ever attacked as a Jew on the street by a stranger…and the anti-Indian sentiment was rampant…he did take the advice and went back to the reservation to listen to his fellow savages perceptions on the Northwestern brand of racism…

RW

Yeah! Let’s do that this Friday! Sounds like fun…

wendy
That’s about the size of it…I have no idea of what happens when we croak and neither does anyone else, but I know full well what happens in the earthly sphere…

popeye

July 26th, 2010
11:49 pm

Scout…..Dude,

Are we talking Saul Spicoli here…. That dude has been stoned since the 3rd grade. What words
of wisdom could he possibly offer me?

Scout

July 26th, 2010
11:51 pm

Fred:

Sometimes the truth hurts.

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
11:52 pm

Scout
I have a problem with the Epistles…now as literature, I must admire the style…

Mick
Rather fond of Proverbs myself…

But, have to say, Ecclesiasticus is still my favorite and the King James translation is really (forgive me, Rabbi) is better than the original…there is a theory that this was the work of Shakespeare and I can believe it…

Fred

July 26th, 2010
11:52 pm

josef nix

July 26th, 2010
11:22 pm

mick and popeye
Think about it a minute…what do you think “off the reservation” sounds like to somebody who has spent a lifetime fighting the feather growing savage stereotype?
+++++++++

If someone is fighting THAT stereotype, then they are a loser. No one in the last 100 years has given a damn about an Indian as a “race” other than Indians still trying to live in the early 1800’s. THOSE people need to stay “on the reservation” and suck off the Gov’t tit for as long as they can. No one else gives a damn.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
11:53 pm

popeye

I knew spicoli too, mr hand was his favorite teacher, which is what he eventually became. Best stoner teacher ever..shows great movies too in class.

RW-(the original)

July 26th, 2010
11:54 pm

Yeah! Let’s do that this Friday!

It’s on! I suspect it might be heavy on Robert Plant though.

/Note to self: Start dubbing Gina Gershon into some music vids….

popeye

July 26th, 2010
11:54 pm

Josef

Are you Sh*tting me …. You were attacked in Portland as a jew. Where at?

I’m tired of apologizing tonight so I’ll just say give it another try…Like you did with Scout.

Mick

July 26th, 2010
11:56 pm

Fred

You are the loser….think the palestinians have a beef? Try having a whole continent or two ripped from your hands, millions of lives lost and a whole culture shredded. You don’t need a reservation, there is an asylum waiting for you.

Scout

July 26th, 2010
11:56 pm

josef:

but have you read Romans?

Mick

July 27th, 2010
12:01 am

Oh well, another day another devalued dollar. Time to hit the sack and get ready for another day of living yeah, yeah. The possibilities are endless and I like my chances. Hasta la vista, baby.

wendy

July 27th, 2010
12:03 am

Jo,

You must kick-ass at dodge-ball…

Scout

July 27th, 2010
12:03 am

popeye:

none.

“For the Spirit of God will not always strive with a man”

Translation: You can wait too long ……………

josef nix

July 27th, 2010
12:07 am

FRED
You’re not an Indian…the point I was trying to make and I think you missed it is that even when you think you have “made it,” you get hit with it and it all comes tumbling out of the repressed recesses of the cultural weltanschauung…you obviously have some hostilities toward Indians…take a look at why and where…it’s out of keeping with your earlier statments about reaching an understanding…

popeye
Not Portland. Seattle, also in Bellingham and in Vancouver, BC…my magen david was visible…I was cautioned to keep it covered when I asked my fellow MOTS and was told that no, it’s not common and most people here are not like that, but there are those who are and they can be violent…

squaw

July 27th, 2010
12:10 am

Scout,

The blue pill will resolve your riddle.

josef nix

July 27th, 2010
12:11 am

popeye
YOU don’t owe me an apology…it wasn’t you who did it…but, yes, I do understand the feeling when the place you know, love and call your own shows its bad side to the outlander…

wendy
Nope don’t kick ass at dodgeball…but do swing a mean baseball bat, prefer a switchblade and am not a half-bad shot..six older brothers and a hillside of cousins, been brawling since I popped out of the womb…oh, yeah, and have been known to crack a beer bottle upside a bar and go to tangle…

Scout

July 27th, 2010
12:13 am

Jay:

I believe their is a handle posted here @ 12:10am that needs to go:

“Squaw is an English language loan-word, used as a noun or adjective, whose present meaning is an indigenous woman of North America. It is derived from the eastern Algonquian morpheme meaning “woman” that appears in numerous Algonquian dialects variously spelled squa, skwa, esqua, sqeh, skwe, que, kwa, ikwe, etc. The term has been CONSIDERED OFFENSIVE since the late 20th century if not earlier.

josef nix

July 27th, 2010
12:14 am

Scout
Yes, I have read Romans and I’m not up for it tonight, but I WILL later discuss the translation of certain passages, the Greek to the Latin to the King James to the more contemporary translations…

Scout

July 27th, 2010
12:14 am

josef:

You seem to know a lot about Native American culture. What are your views on the use of the word “squaw” ?

Scout

July 27th, 2010
12:16 am

josef:

I wasn’t talking about chapter one but chapters much later in the book regarding Judaism/Christianity.

By the way …………. we have translations now direct from the Greek.

josef nix

July 27th, 2010
12:19 am

Scout—
Late 20th Century if not earlier? Well, I can testify from personal experience that it was considered offensive as early as the MID 20th. I made the mistake of calling my full-blood Chickasaw Aunt Sis by that term. She knocked me halfway across the room. Then Mama wore my behind out. Granny switched me. Granddaddy tore into my b*tt and then assigned me a series of readings from the secular and the Biblical—the story of Ruth to be precise… :-)

Scout

July 27th, 2010
12:21 am

josef:

That’s what I thought. Maybe Jay will scratch that poster’s handle.

Fred

July 27th, 2010
12:22 am

And to think. Someone on one of these blogs asked me once if I would speak out if someone said or did something blatantly racist in my presence. I don’t think I EVER have to answer that question again here.

josef nix

July 27th, 2010
12:24 am

Scout
Ah! Again, my mind won’t go there in the mood I’m in at present, but rest assured, it is something I do have an interest in and would love to discuss with you in a late night session…let me take a raincheck for right now, please…

Bruno

July 27th, 2010
12:26 am

“Well, you might want to research the Saul I am talking about. He spent a career as a special prosecutor going around his part of the district putting Christians in jail and some to their death. Funny thing though, he would up becoming the greatest Christian missionary the world has ever known …………. Paul.”

Scout–A common misconception regarding Saul/Paul is that he changed his name to reflect his new-found faith in Christianity. The truth, as far as I know, is that the “name change” never occurred. Saul and Paul are the same name in two different languages. Here’s a link which explains it:

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1993/9301qq.asp

Fred

July 27th, 2010
12:26 am

Jonix? Are you sure of that? i have NEVER stated my “ethnic’ background on this blog. i’m an American and that’s all you need to know. That’s all ANYONE needs to know. In the end, that’s all that matters.

Get over yourself. EVERYONE experiences ‘racism.” Jewish is not a race, it’s a religion. Christians are persecuted daily in our modern day society. It’s no big deal. It comes with the territory.

LOL I see someone reported my LAST comment. It’s “awaiting moderation.” That’s two on one blog. People who speak the unvarnished truth are persecuted one could say……….

josef nix

July 27th, 2010
12:29 am

Scout
Don’t count on Jay taking this one on…after all it is spelled with a lower case “c” and Sister Cynthia has already decreed that “gypsy” with a lower case “c” is not racist! And he has said that Indian things aren’t considered that important around here… Actually, though, the sarcastic aside, I do think he would be offended as well…it is kinda obvious…besides, he’s on overtime today, his day job is putting its demands on him so we can have this space… :-)

Bruno

July 27th, 2010
12:31 am

From the referenced link above:

“Adopting his Roman name was typical of Paul’s missionary style. His method was to put people at their ease and to approach them with his message in a language and style they could relate to. We should take a cue from Paul as we engage in apologetics work. No, we don’t need to adopt new names, but we should accommodate ourselves to our audiences (and we mean here audiences as small as one person). We want to speak to people in their own styles, so far as we can, and we want to address their particular concerns. We don’t want to raise people’s hackles before we even have a chance to raise issues.”

This concept also applies to the Biblical mention of “Speaking in tongues”–This passage indicates that the given sermon was translated into the various languages of the audience members. It does NOT refer to the speaking of gibberish in the way that the Pentecostals believe.

Fred

July 27th, 2010
12:32 am

Mick: There never has been a “nation of Palestine.” They didn’t have a damn thing ripped from their hands. Read some history. When they nation of Israel was re-created they BEGGED the “Palestinians” to stay. Oh no, they left because the Arhabs were going to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth. That didn’t quite happen did it? So how did the Jordanians treat the “palestinians” when they tried the same crap they tried with Israel? The Jordanians slaughtered 10’s of 1000’s of them and evicted them. I don’t see you talking about THAT. But you wouldn’t would you? It’s truth and it doesn’t fit in with your pathetic political agenda or your pathetic education.

Learn more before you speak.

Bruno

July 27th, 2010
12:35 am

“LOL I see someone reported my LAST comment. It’s “awaiting moderation.” That’s two on one blog. People who speak the unvarnished truth are persecuted one could say……….”

Fred–FYI, it is a machine which puts comments into moderation, not a person. There is no reporting by anyone. Maybe it’s YOU who needs to get over yourself. Your comment about Christians being “persecuted” is laughable, at least as applies to the US.

Scout

July 27th, 2010
12:35 am

josef:

No problem ……….. I’m calling it quits now myself.

Bruno:

You may be right on that one but the important thing is his LIFE was changed.

TAPS !

“And so he bowed”

josef nix

July 27th, 2010
12:36 am

Fred
No, I’m not sure and after posting that I realized I should have said, “I assume.” And I don’t think you can find any place that I have used the term race in relation to Jewish. That’s one of my BIG issues…religion? Sort of, but ethnic would be more appropriate since many of the tribe are not at all religious but identify strongly as Jews.

Are you relatively new here? The reason I ask is that I frequently express objection to Christian and Muslim (or any other faith) bashing…

And rest assured, it was not I who “reported” a comment. I’m a firm believer in free speech and protest any time anyone is banned, even though I acknowledge that is Jay’s decision.

Fred

July 27th, 2010
12:40 am

Really Bruno? Do I need cite the cases where someone living their Christian values is thrown out of a college for “insensitivity” because they speak out against homosexuality or abortion? There isn’t enough room on this bog for that. I’m not saying I agree or disagree with their position, but it happens daily. Open your eyes a little, it’s not like it’s exactly hidden. I speak about it the same way I would with any other “group.”

BTW I can see the posts that are “awaiting moderation” are they invisible to the rest of the bloggers? I really don’t know how the AJC handles this…………

squaw

July 27th, 2010
12:44 am

scout/joseph,

Goodnight Kemo Sabe’s…

Fred

July 27th, 2010
12:44 am

Just damn. I could have been playing Crysis for the last hour or so that I was wasting on this blog. Somebody shoot me………

josef nix

July 27th, 2010
12:49 am

FRED
The awaiting moderation…no, we can’t see them…there are certain combinations of letters which will throw it into moderation…it’s something of a game hereabouts trying to get past the Blue Nosed B*tch Moderator… for the longest time we were wondering why the word ridic*lous would trip it…then we discovered thas She was bilingual and didn’t like the combination c*u*l*o…Jay tries to keep up with it…so don’t take it too personal just yet BTW I learned that lesson the hard way after getting my feathers in a ruff early on…

Bruno

July 27th, 2010
12:50 am

“Really Bruno? Do I need cite the cases where someone living their Christian values is thrown out of a college for “insensitivity” because they speak out against homosexuality or abortion?”

Fred–Speaking out against those whom you disagree with is not necessarily a “Christian value”. There is a big difference between “righteousness” and “self-righteousness”. Do you know the difference??

To be fair, a young woman WAS recently reprimanded at college for speaking out against homosexuality. In her case, however, she was trying to get a degree in counseling. Because modern psychology does not label homosexuality as “deviant behavior”, her views were considered to be incompatible with professional standards.

“BTW I can see the posts that are “awaiting moderation” are they invisible to the rest of the bloggers? I really don’t know how the AJC handles this…………”

Yes, you can see the comments, but others can’t. It’s a byproduct of how blogs are electronically processed.

Bruno

July 27th, 2010
12:54 am

“Are you relatively new here? The reason I ask is that I frequently express objection to Christian and Muslim (or any other faith) bashing…”

At least I’m an “equal-opportunity” basher, josef. I put all mythology in the same category. ;-)

josef nix

July 27th, 2010
1:05 am

Bruno
I wouldn’t put you in the category of basher…you say what you do with respect and civilly..and make sure you come in Friday night prepared to hijack the blog with songs about body parts!

josef nix

July 27th, 2010
1:10 am

Okay—outta here…Grandbaby has GOT to be put down!!! W-a-a-a-y too much chocolate…

Bruno

July 27th, 2010
1:11 am

“I wouldn’t put you in the category of basher…you say what you do with respect and civilly”

Not always–I definitely have my moments of ugliness.

“and make sure you come in Friday night prepared to hijack the blog with songs about body parts!”

I’ll pass on that, buddy. I like my idea of an Originals night better.

C U soon, friend.

Fred

July 27th, 2010
1:38 am

Bruno, I speak English as if it were my mother tongue. I don’t appreciate you picking and choosing which parts of my post to quote and then pretending that the part you edit holds the meaning I was trying to convey. Save that crap for the mindless. Either speak on the WHOLE post or just post a disclaimer that you are doing a Briebart edit job. Is the truth that hard for you to deal with? In your edit job, you edited out the part where I said

“I’m not saying I agree or disagree with their position, but it happens daily.”

If you were the “free thinker” you portray yourself to be I wouldn’t have to point that out. But in reality, you aren’t. You apparently have a particular problem with the Christian religion so they are fair game to you. I could be mistaken, but I don’t think I have said what faith (if any) I follow on this blog. For all you and jonix know, i am a gay indian jew. i might even be a Muslim following the peaceful way of Islam. Then again, I may be an atheist (which is a religion of itself by definition). Who knows? I don’t think I have said. So YOU are making assumptions.

As far Speaking out against those whom you disagree with is not necessarily a “Christian value” is concerned, you are correct, but in THIS Country only Christians are ridiculed and chastised for it. One might even go as far as saying “persecuted” for it.

You might worship cats and sacrifice a stray dog at every full moon by the doctrine of your religion. In todays society that’s cool. but be a Christian who opposes abortion or the gay lifestyle and you just need to be shot. I see it happen on THIS blog, not to mention in real life. To say you haven’t means one of two things to me, either you are stupid or you are a liar.”Traditional Christian Values” don’t mix with today’s American society and Christians who stick by their views are persecuted. Can you say Miss California and the miss USA (or Miss America, who knows which insipid pageant it was) and NOT agree? She was HAMMERED because of what she believe and she answered a question honestly. Whether or not she lived up to the values she stated is immaterial. She was denied because of what she believed in. Had that been a Muslin or a Jew speaking out for THEIR beliefs, it would have been okay with that Perez Hilton. But like you, he can’t resist a chance to bash a Christian and it’s ok in this society.

Oh well. It is what it is even if you hypocrites won’t acknowledge your hypocrisy………….

Bruno

July 27th, 2010
4:05 am

Fred–I’m not sure why I’m wasting my time responding to your BS, but here goes:

(1) “I don’t appreciate you picking and choosing which parts of my post to quote and then pretending that the part you edit holds the meaning I was trying to convey.”

Your 1:38 post, for example, contains several hundred words. No one can reasonably comment on the whole of the text. That’s the reality of the blog world. If you don’t like, it, I suggest you find a different forum to air your “brilliant” ideas.

(2) “You apparently have a particular problem with the Christian religion so they are fair game to you. I could be mistaken, but I don’t think I have said what faith (if any) I follow on this blog.”

You made a pitch about what you perceive to be regular “persecution” of Christians in this country, and I responded in the context of your quote. Nothing more and nothing less. If you care to discuss the “persecution” that Hindus or Muslims believe they face, I will respond in that context as well. It was YOU who chose a Christian framework for your claims, not me, so ultimately you are complaining about your own behavior. To be honest, I don’t give a rat’s ass which mythology you choose to align yourself with.

“in THIS Country only Christians are ridiculed and chastised for it. One might even go as far as saying “persecuted” for it.”

And that is the biggest bunch of crap I’ve heard in a long time. Political candidates are almost forced to declare their allegiance to some Christian church or another. Government money has been regularly spent through the years promoting Christian prayer and Christian displays such as Nativity scenes and Easter celebrations. To not acknowledge the overwhelming bias in favor of Christianity in this country reveals either a tremendous myopia on your part, or more likely serious mental illness.

“Oh well. It is what it is even if you hypocrites won’t acknowledge your hypocrisy………….”

I’m not sure what the source of the chip on your shoulder is, but you need to look in the mirror once in a while.

Saul Good

July 27th, 2010
6:05 am

SPQR: “so, when south east asians give up the canine cuisine, their lives may have value to me. Until then, o.o% value.”

Oh so it’s okay to eat a pig or a cow, but NOT a dog?

Indians don’t eat cows. Cows are considered “holy” to them and those that have them name them and consider them to be part of their family. Since there are MORE Indians compared to North Americans… why would THEY be wrong and WE be right when it comes to what is considered food VS. a pet here in our society?

I rescue dogs…in fact I’m on the board of directors of a large rescue group… I have many dogs I saved here in my home… but I still don’t see how we get to define what OUR culture deems as food vs. pet as the ONLY choice one has.

I Report :-) You Whine :-( mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...

July 27th, 2010
6:33 am

When President Obama comes to Atlanta on Monday, Roy Barnes will not be at his side. The Democratic nominee for governor is scheduled to be campaigning that day among the good people of South Georgia, which puts as much distance as possible between himself and the president. -kookman, Urinal

Is Roy Barnes a racist?

Just askin…

Bud Wiser

July 27th, 2010
6:50 am

CNN) — City council members in the small California town of Bell — where outrage over high salaries forced three officials to resign last week — voted Monday night to slash their pay.

And the mayor, who last week defended the salaries, said he would forgo a salary altogether and would not seek reelection.

But the move was not enough to appease angry residents who demanded that the council members step down.

“You all need to go to jail,” a self-described underpaid teacher said at a contentious meeting Monday night. “Shame on you. All of you.”

When Councilwoman Teresa Jacobo said she will slash her salary but hold on to office, the crowd booed loudly and repeatedly…

The city council voted to reduce its pay to that of what one councilman, Lorenzo Veles, was being paid: $8,076 a year.

Most of the other council members made nearly 10 times as much.

The Bell salaries have provoked statewide anger at a time when California is grappling with a near $20 billion budget deficit.

The median annual income of Bell — which counted about 36,000 residents in the 2000 census — is less than $35,000.

Said the mayor in a statement: “We must restore Bell’s pride in our city and that requires a full, transparent, and deliberate review of the city’s actions.”

Not covered by lame stream state run media…..

Does that “transparency” bs ring any bells, at least among the living with actual functional brains?

Bud Wiser

July 27th, 2010
6:55 am

NPR reports that in the city of Bell, California three city administrators agreed to resign after residents expressed outrage over their salaries. City Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns $787,637 a year, which twice the salary of the President of the United States.

The former administrators will not receive severance packages but they will collect pension benefits.

Mr. Rizzo will collect $650,000 a year making him the highest-paid beneficiary in the state’s pension system.

What is interesting is how they got their pay raises. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Bell City Council exempted themselves from state salary limits when they placed “Measure A” on the ballot in 2005 to change the city to “charter status” in a special election that only attracted 400 voters. Since passage, salaries for council members, who serve part-time, shot up by 50 percent to at least $96,996 a year.

The reason for the sudden switch was a state law passed in 2005 that limited the salaries of council members in “general law” cities. A law that itself was prompted by outrage over the pay of officials in South Gate, California.

Even more interesting is that Measure A didn’t bypass salary limits for serving on city councils. Instead, it gets around the salary limit imposed on boards and commissions. The City Council members receive $150 a month for council service, and $7,873.25 a month for serving on the Planning Commission, Surplus Property Authority, and the Solid Waste Recyling Authority.

How did Bell’s Council get its salaries? By fiscal evasion.

Duh.

Taking cues from the criminals in the WH and their stooges.

Bud Wiser

July 27th, 2010
6:55 am

Oh well, at least LeBron got his legally.

Bud Wiser

July 27th, 2010
7:01 am

(Reuters) – A municipal manager in California who makes nearly $800,000 a year working for a small, poor city could draw pension payments exceeding $30 million in retirement, according to an activist who has been calling for an overhaul of the state’s public pension system…

“This guy will be our first seven-figure retiree,” said Marcia Fritz, who heads the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, (a)group (that)has played a leading role in publicizing the issue of California’s public pension liabilities.

Currently, a former employee of the nearby South L.A.-area city of Vernon is California’s top public pensioner, pulling in just under $510,000 a year, according to a top-ten list compiled from public record searches by Fritz’s group.

If Rizzo leaves his job, which irate residents of Bell are demanding, he could draw $884,692 in his first year of retirement, according to her calculations.

At age 62, when Rizzo could also begin receiving Social Security payments, his annual pension would rise to $976,771, topping $1 million two years later. If he lives to age 83, his annual payout would rise to $1.48 million.

Dimwittocrats probably, with their hands in the till ala Dodd, Barney Fwank, Rangel, Jefferson, etc, etc.

November 10.

Bud Wiser

July 27th, 2010
7:06 am

A defiant Bell City Council defended the hefty compensation awarded to City Manager Robert Rizzo and two other officials just hours after the three agreed to resign amid a public outcry.

In the city’s first formal statement on the salary issue, Bell released a letter from Mayor Oscar Hernandez in which he praised Rizzo’s service to the city and said his nearly $800,000 annual salary was justified.

“Unlike the skewed view of the facts, the Los Angeles Times presented to advance the paper’s own agenda, a look at the big picture of city compensation shows that salaries of the City Manager and other top city staff have been in line with similar positions over the period of their tenure,” Hernandez said in the letter.

Skewed…..<i.skewed?

How many ways can you SKEW $800,000? And it was “justified”?

This mayor is delusional. He must have thought he had an entire constituency of publicly ‘educated’ morons, much like the leftists that drool on Jay’s finely tailored suits.

Again, taking cue from the Sap In Chief and his ignorant thieving cabinet and congress.

Bud Wiser

July 27th, 2010
7:09 am

Bell is a city in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 36,664 in the 2000 census. Bell is located on the west bank of the Los Angeles River and is a suburb of the city of Los Angeles. At 2.5 square miles, it is number thirteen in the twenty-five smallest cities in area in the United States with population of at least 25,000.

City residents voted to become a charter city in a special municipal election on November 29, 2005. Fewer than 400 voters turned out for that special election.

Obviously the mayor was correct in one sense….his constituency WAS ignorant, and like in 2008, you get what you don’t vote for, and suffer the catastrophic consequences.

Normal

July 27th, 2010
7:10 am

USinUK

July 27th, 2010
7:10 am

“Not covered by lame stream state run media…..”

um. you just quoted articles from CNN, NPR, the LATimes and Reuters news wire.

do you bother to read what you write?

USinUK

July 27th, 2010
7:12 am

g’morning, Normal! so, are you fully recovered?

this is the one that made me laugh this morning: http://icanhascheezburger.com/2010/07/26/funny-pictures-landing-on-him/

Saul Good

July 27th, 2010
7:34 am

“Not covered by lame stream state run media…..”

um. you just quoted articles from CNN, NPR, the LATimes and Reuters news wire.

do you bother to read what you write?”

Must be a high octane “Bloody Mary” morning… or maybe just starting working on that case of cold “Budweiser” early this AM. ;-)

Saul Good

July 27th, 2010
7:40 am

“This mayor is delusional. He must have thought he had an entire constituency of publicly ‘educated’ morons, much like the leftists that drool on Jay’s finely tailored suits.”

Oh and I guess that would make you a FINE representative for private schooling?

Finely tailored suits? Damn…I had no idea Jay made so much working at the AJC. Maybe he makes $800,000 a year like Robert Rizzo did. I bet they have the best catered lunches daily there at the AJC as well…

K…time for that morning run…

stands for decibels

July 27th, 2010
8:12 am

just for the record….

Not covered by lame stream state run media…..

I heard about this last week on NPR. All Things Considered. Prime afternoon-drive time.

David S

July 27th, 2010
1:18 pm

Afghanistan is and has always been the “graveyard of empires.” It will be the graveyard of the American empire too. Ron Paul advised the congress to embrace the constitutional option of Letters of Marque and Reprisal to allow congress to raise up a force to go and capture those responsible for 9-11. Instead congress unconstitutionally handed over their power to declare war and gave Bush the green light to invade this sovereign nation with our military forces. Time and time again Ron Paul has been shown to be spot on, yet he gets nothing but ridicule and scorn from the GOP and the talking heads in the media.

We will be leaving Afghanistan sooner or later, as a bankrupt empire.