I have a strangely hopeful feeling that the world will not annihilate itself. (see below) We must put our thoughts on the good in people, even in our "enemies". We can't spiral downward into fear or it will consume us. On that note, I am beginning to think Bush is secretly Muslim. Woudn't that explain his strange actions? Even Michael Savage is up in arms: "Something is wrong with a nation that will sell anything for few billion bucks."
WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, SAYS GET OUT OF IRAQ NOW!! Arch-conservative, founder of The National Review, and brainiac, says we must admit defeat and get out of the way of the Civil War, which we caused. No wise leader would have taken the bait after 911 and involved our great country in a middle-east war. In fact, wasn't it Dick Cheney himself who warned never to get involved in the chaos of Iraq, back in 1991?
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Dubai reminds me of the alien bar scene in STAR WARS: a place where international crooks, thieves, arms dealers, jet-setters, billionaires and the CIA all meet to play. And I think Michael Jackson too. It's a modern-day Casablanca. Dubai represents everything glitzy about capitalism in the Arab world; I wonder why AQ & OBL leaves them alone? I heard tonight that Osama gets paid off a lot of money NOT to attack Dubai. His family is not so estranged; they all take care of each other.
I'm posting an amazing essay by Wayne Dyer about how we must try to empathize and understand our enemies, no matter how evil they seem. They are human beings. Do we really wonder why more and more "insurgents" hate us so much, they are blowing themselves up ? Would it be natural if a madman invaded us and we didn't try to fight back, even to defend our own leader, no matter how much we hated him? He may be an evil despot, but he's our evil despot! We're on their soil, trying to force them into our form of democracy!
Errol Morris' THE FOG OF WAR interviews Robert McNamara about the lessons we didn't learn from Vietnam. To this day, the Vietnamese whom we fought to liberate, view us as enslavers. We have never learned our lesson: that communication, really listening to the needs and point of view of the other side, could save countless lives & destruction. To be hell-bent on war, saying the insurgents envy us because of our freedom is a total lie and cop-out. We just don't care to look at our part as enslavers, invaders. That's how we'll be remembered by the Iraqi people. A little girl was blown to bits after her famiily's apartment suffered its 3rd bombing. How on earth have we improved matters and protected our homeland by this heinous war?
To me it always seemed that 911 happened because Osama was getting back directly at the Bush-Saudi-Carlyle relationship. I'm not blaming Bush directly for it, I'm just saying the Bush family has been in the global oil business with the Saudis for many years. See Clif's posting about James Baker, here in the comment section. Are we going to inflame passions against us even further by doing another big deal with UAE? As I said, Michael Moore was right; and I don't know if anyone thought this at the time, but I have always suspected this : Doesn't it seem odd that no one has mentioned that 911 happened directly BECAUSE BUSH WAS IN POWER? Bush and the Carlyle Group/UAE Saudi business dealings were the "thorn in Osama's side". Osama had a "daddy complex" just like Dybya. Osama waited to do his biggest attack until Bush was in power, as a double whammy: getting back at both his home country and their capitalistic interests in U.S. oil companies, mainly Bush Co. BECAUSE of his Saudi connection. Craig Unger's book "House of Bush, House of Saud" seems very timely now.
Heard about a great book written by Reagan Republican Bruce Bartlett: "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy"
Remember the movie "The Year of Living Dangerously"? I was having thoughts about wearing khaki and going to Indonesia or the Middle East when it was mysterious and exotic. What is the cause, what's responsible for the rise in Fundamentalist extremism in the Middle-East?
All this chaos in the world is happening to bring us closer to our spirit, our humanity. We have been snowballing toward excess, materialism, style over substance, violence, porn, for years. There is never enough blood, guts and sex and drugs to fill us up. There is only one way to go: toward healing, the kingdom which is within us. The more we focus on the good in others, even our enemies, the more the good increases. This is a law of the universe, and it's the only real way to pray.
LYDIA CORNELL: AFI Best Actress Nominee, People's Choice Award winner; Actor, Writer, Director, Producer; woman and children advocate; teen mentor, comedienne, talk show host, inspirational pubic speaker best known for her starring role on ABC's "Too Close for Comfort" as TV legend Ted Knight's daughter 'Sara'; HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and over 250 shows, episodes and movies worldwide. Turns tragedy into comedy, life-saving issues for women and equal pay for equal work...
Um...yeah. Mik alMoor is an amazingly brilliant dude endowed with beaucoup integrity; I allus believe whatever he says. That's why I'm absolutely convinced "There is no terrorist threat" and Dubya is responsible for all the evil in the world, especially the WTC inferno. Too bad Mik is too shy to run for President. Everyone would vote for him...at least everyone in the Democrat base.
ReplyDeleteHey there is more to this than meets the eye. An army general was just on Air America and said that 911 could not possibly have happened if SOMEONE didn't know about it. Was NORAD disabled that morning? Bush had dealings with the Carlyle Group that go way back.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Bush say that anyone who harbors a terrorist, or has dealings with a terrorist government is the same as a terrorist? Didn't he say his number one mission was to capture Osama? And then he turned around and said, "Osama -- I don't spend that much time thinking about him."
Is this guy for real?
James W.
Two other fromer government workers who joined Carlyle...
ReplyDeleteThe former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service Charles Rossotti was hired as a senior advisor.
ANDREW FISHER left his job as head of Coutts, which requires customers to have minimum assets of £500,000 in cash or £5m-worth of property, the Queen's banker, for a role at the Carlyle Gruoup
Found this and I'm certainly sure that Larry Klayman is no bleeding-heart liberal
ReplyDeleteBush Sr. Could Profit From War
by Geoffrey Gray
Larry Klayman likes suing the United States government. Over the last seven years as chairman and general counsel of Judicial Watch, a public interest law firm in Washington, he has filed over 150 lawsuits against the feds, including more than 80 against former president Bill Clinton himself. Called the Ralph Nader of the right, Klayman has litigation habits considered by some Beltway insiders as wildly ambitious. Others think he's just plain crazy.
But now Klayman and Judicial Watch are pawing in disbelief through President George W. Bush's past business connections with the Saudi-based Bin Laden family. The firm is demanding that GWB's father, the original President Bush, immediately resign from his post as a paid senior adviser to the Carlyle Group, a private Washington equity firm that according to The New York Times has essentially become the nation's 11th largest defense contractor.
Carlyle's investors include the Bin Laden family, which has disowned its terrorist son Osama; Bush Sr.; and former Bush inner guard members Nick Carlucci and James Baker. Judicial Watch says all involved stand to benefit from any increase in U.S. defense spending.
"It's mind-boggling," says Klayman. "This conflict of interest has now turned into a scandal." With the recent U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan, Klayman says, the conflict of interest is now "direct."
Klayman questions why Bush the Younger is not aggressively pursuing Saudi Arabia, a country known to harbor terrorists. He points to Bush the Elder's business connections there, like the Saudi-based Bin Laden family, through Carlyle. "President Bush should not ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group," says Klayman.
Neither former president Bush-who has continued advising his son on handling the war on terrorism-nor the Carlyle Group returned calls seeking comment.
In a case of "like father, like son," President Bush also had connections to the Carlyle Group, the Voice has learned. In the years before his 1994 bid for Texas governor, Bush owned stock in and sat on the board of directors of Caterair, a service company that provided airplane food and was also a component of Carlyle. For his consulting position, Bush was paid $15,000 a year, according to a Texas insider, and a bonus $1000 for every meeting he attended-roughly $75,000 in total. Reports show Carlyle was also a major contributor to his electoral fund.
Upon hearing about the Bush-Bin Laden family connection, other Washington nonprofits have joined Judicial Watch in expressing their concern.
"Carlyle is as deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be," Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, told Bushwatch.org. "George Bush is getting money from private interests that have business before the government, while his son is president. And, in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush could, some day, benefit financially from his own administration's decisions, through his father's investments. The average American doesn't know that. To me, that's a jaw-dropper."
Another story of interest;
ReplyDeleteBin Laden Family Could Profit
From A Jump In Defense Spending
Due To Ties To U.S. Bank
By Daniel Golden, James Bandler
and Marcus Walker Staff Reporters of
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
27 September 2001
A U.S. inquiry into bin Laden family business dealings could brush against some big names associated with the U.S. government. Former President Bush said through his chief of staff, Jean Becker, that he recalled only one meeting with the bin Laden family, which took place in November 1998. Ms. Becker confirmed that there was a second meeting in January 2000, after being read the ex-president's subsequent thank-you note. "President Bush does not have a relationship with the bin Laden family," says Ms. Becker. "He's met them twice."
Special Report: Aftermath of Terror Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank By Daniel Golden, James Bandler And Marcus Walker, Staff Reporters of 'THE WALL STREET JOURNAL'
If the U.S. boosts defense spending in its quest to stop Osama bin Laden's alleged terrorist activities, there may be one unexpected beneficiary: Mr. bin Laden's family.
Among its far-flung business interests, the well-heeled Saudi Arabian clan -- which says it is estranged from Osama -- is an investor in a fund established by Carlyle Group, a well-connected Washington merchant bank specializing in buyouts of defense and aerospace companies.
Through this investment and its ties to Saudi royalty, the bin Laden family has become acquainted with some of the biggest names in the Republican Party. In recent years, former President Bush, ex-Secretary of State James Baker and ex-Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci have made the pilgrimage to the bin Laden family's headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Mr. Bush makes speeches on behalf of Carlyle Group and is senior adviser to its Asian Partners fund, while Mr. Baker is its senior counselor. Mr. Carlucci is the group's chairman.
Osama is one of more than 50 children of Mohammed bin Laden, who built the family's $5 billion business, Saudi Binladin Group, largely with construction contracts from the Saudi government. Osama worked briefly in the business and is believed to have inherited as much as $50 million from his father in cash and stock, although he doesn't have access to the shares, a family spokesman says. Because his Saudi citizenship was revoked in 1994, Mr. bin Laden is ineligible to own assets in the kingdom, the spokesman added.
The bin Laden family has long disavowed Osama, and has cooperated fully with several federal investigations into his activities. The family business, headed by Osama's half-brother Bakr, epitomizes the U.S.-Saudi alliance that the suspected terrorist often rails against. After the 1996 truck bombing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19 U.S. servicemen, Saudi Binladin Group built military barracks and airfields for U.S. troops.
But the Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued subpoenas to banks used by the bin Laden family seeking records of family dealings, a person familiar with the matter said. This person said the subpoenas weren't an indication the FBI had found any suspicious behavior by the family. A family spokesman said he had no knowledge of the subpoenas but that the family welcomes them and has nothing to hide.
People familiar with the family's finances say the bin Ladens do much of their banking with National Commercial Bank in Saudi Arabia and with the London branch of Deutsche Bank AG. They also use Citigroup Inc. and ABN Amro, the people said.
"If there were ever any company closely connected to the U.S. and its presence in Saudi Arabia, it's the Saudi Binladin Group," says Charles Freeman, president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington nonprofit concern that receives tens of thousands of dollars a year from the bin Laden family. "They're the establishment that Osama's trying to overthrow."
Mr. Freeman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, says he has spoken to two of Osama's brothers since hijacked airplanes rammed the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11. They told him, he says, that the FBI has been "remarkably sensitive, tactful and protective" of the family during the current crisis, recognizing its longstanding friendship with the U.S.
A Carlyle executive said the bin Laden family committed $2 million through a London investment arm in 1995 in Carlyle Partners II Fund, which raised $1.3 billion overall. The fund has purchased several aerospace companies among 29 deals. So far, the family has received $1.3 million back in completed investments and should ultimately realize a 40% annualized rate of return, the Carlyle executive said.
But a foreign financier with ties to the bin Laden family says the family's overall investment with Carlyle is considerably larger. He called the $2 million merely an initial contribution. "It's like plowing a field," this person said. "You seed it once. You plow it, and then you reseed it again."
The Carlyle executive added that he would think twice before accepting any future investments by the bin Ladens. "The situation's changed now," he said. "I don't want to spend my life talking to reporters."
A U.S. inquiry into bin Laden family business dealings could brush against some big names associated with the U.S. government. Former President Bush said through his chief of staff, Jean Becker, that he recalled only one meeting with the bin Laden family, which took place in November1998. Ms. Becker confirmed that there was a second meeting in January 2000, after being read the ex-president's subsequent thank-you note. "President Bush does not have a relationship with the bin Laden family," says Ms. Becker. "He's met them twice."
Mr. Baker visited the bin Laden family in both 1998 and 1999, according to people close to the family. In the second trip, he traveled on a family plane. Mr. Baker declined comment, as did Mr. Carlucci, a past chairman of Nortel Networks Corp., which has partnered with Saudi Binladin Group on telecommunications ventures.
Former President Carter met with 10 of Osama's brothers early in 2000 on a fund-raising trip for the Carter Center in Atlanta. According to John Hardman, executive director of the center, the brothers told Mr. Carter that Osama was completely removed from the family. After Mr. Carter and his wife followed up with breakfast with Bakr bin Laden in New York in September 2000, the bin Laden family gave $200,000 to the center. "We don't have any reason to think there's a connection" between Osama and the rest of the family, Mr. Hardman says.
During the past several years, the family's close ties to the Saudi royal family prompted executives and staff from closely held New York publisher Forbes Inc. to make two trips to the family headquarters, according to Forbes Chairman Caspar Weinberger, a former U.S. secretary of defense in the Reagan administration. "We would call on them to get their view of the country and what would be of interest to investors."
Mr. Weinberger said no trips to Saudi Arabia were planned. "If we went," he said, "we may or may not call upon them. I don't think the sins of the son should be visited on the father or the brother and the cousins and the aunts."
There is no indication President George W. Bush has met any of the bin Ladens, but he was indirectly linked to one of them two decades ago. His longtime friend James W. Bath, who met Mr. Bush when they were both pilots in the Air National Guard, acted as a Texas business representative for Osama's older brother, Salem bin Laden, from 1976 to 1988, when Salem died in a plane crash. Mr. Bath brought real-estate acquisitions and other deals to Salem bin Laden, an ebullient man who headed the family construction business. Mr. Bath generally received a 5% interest as his fee, and was sometimes listed as a trustee in related corporate documents. Mr. Bath acknowledged that during the same period he invested $50,000 in two funds controlled by Mr. Bush but said that stake was unrelated to his dealings with Mr. bin Laden.
Among the properties that Salem bin Laden bought on Mr. Bath's recommendation was the Houston Gulf Airport, a lightly used airfield in League City, Texas, 25 miles east of Houston. But Mr. bin Laden's hope that it would develop a major overflow airport for Houston never materialized, in part due to concern over wetlands. Ever since his death, his estate has sought to sell the airfield -- without success. Today, it is still on the market.
The federal investigation into the lobbying activities of Jack Abramoff has broadened to examine his dealings with the Russian government and a pair of high-profile Russian energy company executives. It is legal for foreigners to hire lobbyists, but Abramoff’s dealings in this area have come under federal investigation because his fees were so large and because investigators are examining whether he might have bribed members of Congress.
ReplyDeleteSource: Boston Globe — Abramoff ties to Russians probed
I lived in Houston for a year and am very familar with James Baker's law firm Baker & Botts, it is the most prominent law firm in Houston, in fact I applied there for a job while I was living there, so out of curiosity I just googled Baker & Botts, and I found out that they have offices in Riyadh Saudi Arabia and Dubai United Arab Emirates and have their hands in quite a few cookie jars in the Energy and Defense industies, they have ties to pipelines in Afghanistan, Enron, Carlyle etc....
ReplyDeleteLook at all the ties this administration has to both Saudi Arabia and UAE the two countries where the terrorists that orchestrated 9/11 came from and also where the money was funneled.There's the Bushes, theres Carlyle, James Baker and Baker & Botts with offices in Riyadh and Dubai, theres ties to the Bin Laden's etc..
ReplyDeleteCOINCIDENCE??????
and lets not forget their ties to Haliburton and major deals in Iraq and Afghanistan, these guys are directly profiting from the wars, can you say CONFLICT OF INTEREST.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm saying is, Osama was getting back directly at the Bush-Saudi-Carlyle relationship. Are we going to inflame passions against us even further by doing another big deal with UAE?
ReplyDeleteDubai reminds me of the alien bar scene in STAR WARS: a place where international crooks, thieves, arms dealers, jet-setters, billionaires and the CIA all meet to play. And I think Michael Jackson too.
The whole thing reminds me of Star Wars, from the war that is not what it seems, to using the war to seize power and change the laws, I could go on....
ReplyDeleteLydia, Do you think the UAE Port deal is a deliberate contrived action to stir up the hornets nest and inflame the terrorists into doing something terrible which could serve to deflect the heat off of this administration so they can continue to seize power, wage war and basically do what ever they want.
ReplyDeletemore and more i'm starting to become suspicious about 9/11 it made Bush's presidency and allowed him to seize power and get away with pretty much anything he wants, i'm starting to wonder if it wasnt allowed to slip through the cracks purposely or contrived, as it helped both Bush and Bin Laden.
ReplyDeleteInitially I was with Kirk, that the attack had nothing to do with Bush being in office, I felt Bush and Bin Laden had a love hate relationship in that they despised each other, but at the same time they both benefited greatly from the others existence and actions. Bush benefited from the terrorist bogey man and Bin Laden from Bush's business ties, occupation of arab land and inflamatory policies and statements. To Bin Laden Bush is like the bumbling corrupt sheriff on the Dukes of Hazzard, (even looks like him a little) you may not like him, but why would you want to replace him with some one more competent and intelligent when he's not even a worthy adversary.
After some thought I think Osama was upset at the Saudi/America relationship, but if I had to guess I would say the timing was a coincidence, i'm more suspicious that the Neo Cons may have purposely let 9/11 slip through.
And even more suspicious that the port deal may be an attempt to stir the terrorist into acting and take the heat off of this administration, they dont seem opposed to using fear to justify their actions or push their agenda and just like 9/11 another domestic terrorist attack could be the best thing that could happen for Bush and co right now.
Let me ask this, do you think the port deal is a contived act to stir up the terrorists into doing something horrible, or is it just pigs at the trough, or horse trading/you scratch my back or keep my secret and i'll do the same for you, or all the above??
ReplyDeleteMa man Homley W Stimpson
ReplyDeleteis sellin the land our homes are on ----------to the Great lovable dictators of those lands, It's not on purpose that just hoW he tinks.
Aren't he a genioiuos ?
One problem that Bin Laden has with both bush and the Saudi's comes from the fact that in 1990 the Saudi royal monarchy turned down Osama's offer to play Saladin and save the Muslim Holyland from the infidel Saddam, the Kingdom instead went with the surerpower that had a standing deal with them since the early 70's namely the US, who Osama came to see as the roadblock to the reestablishment of the muslim caliphate. The fact that Bin Laden's family and Bush senior wree involved in Carlyle together added fuel to the fire and as time went on the Bin Laden family rejected Osama while doing business with Carlyle which both Bush's were involved in. The attacks of 9-11 Osama struck at the center of the world oil markets the center of the US military establishment, and the heart of the US economy. He inadvertantly aided Bush, because about the only thing Bush did right in the first week was to answer a question in a photo op, but the Rove spin machine was able to use that image to build a persona for george 43 to hide his incompetence for world affairs behind. The move against Afganistan is a no brainer but the military plan lacked real planning and failed in its major objectives, Osama is still around, and the attack today against the saudi oil refinery is evidence that Al Quaeda is still a force to be reconed with, and the Taliban is still fighting ib afganistan and they have adopted the tactics of the insurgency in Iraq that have proven effective at tieing up the US objectives while destabilising the Iraqi situation and moving Iraq toward civil war. The invasion into Iraq while militarily effective in the first months has turned into an object failure for after the battle, read Bremmers book and the head in the sand approach to the growing problems in Iraq on both Bush and Rumsfeld parts becomes apparant. Bush thinks that because he advocates an idea it should be imediately accepted and implimented and does not understand the subtle nuances of the world does not work well with his black and white approach. Rumsfeld has an ideological approach to the US defence and he forced his views on the military leadership in the pentagon first by going light and quick and relying on the rose senarios for the foloow on to the battle, his problem was ignoring the historical prespective of Iraq and the Islamic fundementalist did not have the same mindset, so his lack oif planning lead directly into their hands to build and use the Iraqi insurection. Bin Laden has piggy backed his cause in Iraq thru Zarqawi, and they are turning Iraq into the Afganisran of the 80's with thw US holding the Russians role.
ReplyDeleteWhy as a citizen do I feel sooo rusty when ever I think of these events
ReplyDeleteCongress' skepticism over the deal has elicited cries of bigotry.
Why Why Why ????
Is it raining aagain ?
Foreign-owned companies operate many ports in the United States. For example, companies from China, Denmark, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan run docks in Los Angeles, California
Kirk I was diagnosed with PTSD after Desert Storm and have serious migrane headaches from a small head injury so I could not do the job well enough for the people I would represent.
ReplyDeleteDoes Al Queda run any ports ?
ReplyDeleteClif, I think your 6:51PM post is right on the money. BTW, I also agree with Kirk you do have a great ability to analyze a situation and seperate the wheat from the chaff and distill it down to the key issues and what is really going on and who the major players are and what their real motives may be.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI had a disturbing thought this morning, if the Bush Administration is really motivated to invade Iran, how would they go about it, well Bush could try to say Congress gave him the power to declare war on Iraq, and that power carries over to declaring war on any country that could threaten our safety, but with all the heat the Bush Administration is under, I dont think he would attempt this at this point, He could ask Congress to approve the war, but I think that it is highly unlikely that they would approve another war, what I could see happening is another domestic terrorist attack that is somehow tied to the Iranian government. Bush would then get up on the Bully pit and start saying that he has the authority to do whatever it takes to keep our country safe and root out terrorism and insure the spreading of democracy in the Middle East. He would also say the Iranian government is in league with the terrorists, they have allready hit us once domestically, we must stop them before they can fully develop their nuclear capacity and use it to hit us domestically or to derail the spreading of democracy in Iraq, he would then declare war on Iran, and I belive instead of the usual 6 month to a year preparations for war, the war would commence in a matter of weeks or a couple of months, like it had been planned in advance for quite sometime just as Iraq was.
ReplyDeleteMike said...
ReplyDeleteLydia, Do you think the UAE Port deal is a deliberate contrived action to stir up the hornets nest and inflame the terrorists into doing something terrible which could serve to deflect the heat off of this administration so they can continue to seize power, wage war and basically do what ever they want?
Mike -- some people think that, but I don't. I actually think the whole thing is a lucrative business deal, business as usual for the Bush clan. He just never remembers that he's PRESIDENT and has an obligation to consult the American people! I picture Bush playing with a Nintendo Game Boy and looking at Rove & Cheney saying, "When do I get to go play? I'm tired of being president." Actually during Katrina I pictured him going: "Someone else will take care of it, see the weathermen have it under control. (At least no one can blame me -- this is nature's business, (God's hurricane.")
There is a theory that great leaders will always step outside the box and go alone to save the life of a screaming woman, but most people, when when 2 or more average people are in a room together and they hear a person screaming for their life -- they each think someone else will handle it. They don't take heroic action to rescue.
Also Bush has never ONCE vetoed any bill, so all the pork barrel spending congressmen dream up -- like the Alaska congressman who got a few billion to build a bridge to nowhere -- they are having a heyday!!
Freedom Fan -- I must say your Gandalf picture makes you look very dashing, and I picture you looking like this.
ReplyDeleteSend me a picture of you.
xo
Lydia
Want to bet that since Nigeria has oil the christofascists won't push to get the US in on the side of the southern nigerians in what is a slow burning civil war?
ReplyDeletehttp://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusintl/reuters02-24-052805.asp?reg=africa&vts=22420060843
--- sigh ----
ReplyDeleteLydia your picture of bush doesn't take into account fo the fact he was picked by the neo-con crowd lead by Cheney to run for pres, and that crowd with Roves machiavillian moves steam rolled the opposition to the nomination, and then Cheney set up the situation for Bush to pick him for VP, the promise being that 'Dick" will do the hard stuff if Bush will do the photo ops and play the pres for the TV audiance. He gets to go on vacation to cut brush any time he wants...
ReplyDeleteFreedom Fan won't like this but it is funny(to me )
ReplyDeleteHow many members of the Bush Administration are needed to change a light bulb?
1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed.
2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed.
3. One to decide that, yeah, it IS dark in here.
4. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb.
5. One to tell the nations of the world that they are either for changing the light bulb or for darkness.
6. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Haliburton for the new light bulb.
7. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a step ladder under the banner: “Light Bulb Change Accomplished.”
8. One administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how Bush was literally in the dark.
9. One to viciously smear #8.
10. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along.
11. And finally, one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.
Comment by unbelievable — February 24, 2006 @ 12:48 pm
Clif, I think you and Lydia are both right, I can see Cheney and the Neo Cons dragging Bush away from his video games to make a speech to sell their rhetoric, I think they feel a lot of the nation identifies with Bush and feels he is a regular guy like them and will trust what he says, its pretty obvious to me that when he makes a speech, he is trying to "SELL" the Neo Con Agenda to the public.
ReplyDeleteWorf, I know the Conspiracy theory haters are going to hate me, but I think i'm with you, (I guess i'm a kook too) I think 9/11 was the best thing for Bush's presidency, their respose just seemed to pat when compared to their bumbling respose to everything else, kind of like they were following the pre planned agenda, He has used 9/11 to justify doing pretty much anything he wants and to me this doesnt smell right.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20041011&s=bryce
ReplyDeleteCheck out this story on James Baker and Baker and Botts.
Just look at how well they've tried to portray Bush as an "everyman" that someone would want to sit down and have beer with, or go out back and clear brush with. Does anyone really think that Dick Cheney could have won a national election running for President? No way! He needed an alter ego to be the face of the presidency, and not just any face, but a face that came with a well known political name attached to it: BUSH. That was the plan from the time Dubya ran for governor in Texas.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that 9/11 was a planned op with ties far beyond being just a terrorist act. The geopolitical ramifications of that were too important to the neo-con/PNAC agenda for it to have just been a case of dumb-luck. They needed a "new Pearl Harbor" and they got it, conveniently, just eight months after taking office...giving them plenty of time to get in the invasion of Iraq before they had to begin worrying about re-election.
The PNAC crowd wasn't going to sit on their hands when they had an historically rare opportunity with a Republican president, a Republican House and a Republican Senate with which to carry out their grand plans for the "New American Century", as they call it. There was no way they were going to let this opportunity slip by, and I believe it was planned well in advance. Listen, if the Joint Chiefs of Staff was willing to kill innocent Americans in 1962 in order to provoke a war with Cuba (Operation Northwoods), then it shouldn't surprise anyone that our senior leaders would be willing to go to extremes to accomplish their elaborate objectives.
I see bush different, he's vain and I mean really vain, the screened audience and staged events are for his EGO, look close when an unscripted question gets through and he doesn't look brilliant, he flashes rage but keeps it under control. He's the cheerleader of this crew, and doesn't mind the photo ops because with the prepared lines and staged events he gets to look intelligent and in charge. Given his mediocre academic history and long list of business failures that Daddy's friends bailed him out of combined with his failure at the military thing would indicate his confidence in George W. Bush might not be as high as the spinmeisters want everybody else to have. Everybody knows their own failures deep down and his history must in some way make him feel so insecure that the chance to play president on TV and sit in the Oval office or at the BIG cabinet table with many people who are really smarter that he knows he really is feeds his ego, because he gets to tell the smart people what to do(as long as Dick Cheney agrees). He is not a child but an insecure dry drunk with powers to feed that ego, and he does.
ReplyDeleteClif again I have to agree with both you and Worf and Drewl, I think he is definately vain and arrogant, and I can see how he craves the limelight and likes to feel smart, look important and feed his ego, BUT... because of his ego he hates to have to defend or justify his actions to anyone, and I think the Neo Cons calling the shots do trot him out to justify and sell their agenda to the public because he has that "i'm just one of the guys" quality that may Americans can identfy with and trust. Call it the dumbing down of America, I dont think much of the nation would identify with or trust Cheney, so they need a face or shill to sell the agenda.
ReplyDeleteI think if everything blows up in their face Bush will be the stooge that takes the fall, because i'm willing to bet that any paper trail or smoking guns dont have Cheney's or Rove's fingerprints on it at all.
And they think come november that with press like this they can convince the american people they really have their best interests in mind?
ReplyDeleteLike A Free Ride When You've Already Paid
Texas Joe Barton (R-TX) is down right mad at Citgo. He's mad because while oil prices are at an all time high, Citgo had the gaul to start a program that offered heating oil to the poor in the Northeast at rates up to 60% below market price. That's right, Citgo, and only Citgo, started an oil-for-the-poor program so those less fortunate than others could heat their home this winter.
And he's is so mad that he's demanding, according to the New York Daily News, that the company produce by tomorrow all "all records, minutes, logs, e-mails and even desk calendars related to Citgo's novel program of supplying discounted heating oil to low-income communities in the United States."
Barton want this information and anwsers to these questions:
"'how and why were the particular beneficiaries of this program selected' and whether the program 'runs afoul of any U.S. laws, including but not limited to, antitrust laws.'"
It's no surprise to learn that Barton is second only to Tom DeLay in receiving oil industry money.
So while all the other oil companies are raking in record profits and consumers are wondering if they are price gouging us, Barton goes after the one company that offered discounted oil to those who needed help the most this winter.
Isn't it ironic...
More trouble for Delay and friends, read it at;
ReplyDeletehttp://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0213nj1.htm
Looks like abrarmoff friends who can't seem to remember him might get to know him better while they share a cell together.
Worfeus, and everybody this is long but worth the read, I downloaded it to read a section at a time;
ReplyDeletehttp://www.democraticleader.house.gov/pdf/AmericaForSale.pdf
Do any of you have a constructive idea about anything or do you just bitch and moan about everything and see a conspiracy behind every tree.Oop's,gotta go,have a 2:45 tee time.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteDo any of you have a constructive idea about anything or do you just bitch and moan about everything and see a conspiracy behind every tree.Oop's,gotta go,have a 2:45 tee time.
Pot meet Kettle
Worfeus your rants here do not actually hurt anybody unlike the policies of the neo-cons which are cheerlead by the likes of Fox and MSNBC
ReplyDeleteWorfeus you GOTTA read this religious conservatism in action....LOL
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4748292.stm
About possible plans for the future in IRAN
ReplyDeletehttp://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2006/02/battle_plans_fo_1.html#more
A whole lot of conservatives out in the country should be careful, that might become "religious law" here.
ReplyDeleteFreedom Fan given your essay about the Islamic world wide war on the west.... how does the near civil war in Iraq fit, is it just a feint to lull us to sleep before the big attack?
ReplyDeleteJust read that bush thinks they listen to him, this proves he's delusional must be from all the brain cells he killed before his family sobered him up
ReplyDeleteHe knows that it is slipping away, HE DOES READ POLLS, even though he denies it, he's way to vain not to, and with his numbers slipping so far he falls back on what he thinks works, he does not admit that his mandate has more to do with political smoke and mirrors( and a little microcircutry), and it can be lost be his bonehead moves.
ReplyDeleteWorfeus said "You can say that again Clif.
ReplyDeleteHave you noticed that everyday Bush is making Multiple speaches, travelling around the country like hes campaigning again."
I guess i'm not the only one who noticed Cheney has his little puppet trying to sell the Neo Con's snake oil to the nation.
Ever watch him after one of his pompous speeches, he pauses like he's waiting for applause or a pat on the back or something or like he's posing for a picture, I half expect him to make sure he doesnt have a hair out of place.
Worfeus said "He also looks like a man who no longer believes what he is saying.
ReplyDeleteHe also looks worried, like a snake oil salesman who's afraid at any moment the people are gonna tar and feather him."
He oughta be worried, like I said in an earlier post, If these guys go down, Bush will be their stooge that takes the fall, because i'm willing to bet that Cheney and Rove were careful enough not to leave any papertrails or fingerprints that can be traced back to them for anything big.
Remember he is insecure and feels inferior so he overcompensates, as a famous line of a movie said "what is his essence", in other words what make him tick.
ReplyDeleteThe former head of the Sept. 11 commission said the deal "never should have happened."
ReplyDeleteDamn right it never should have happened, CAN YOU SAY CONFLICT OF INTEREST boys and girls.
Him and his administration shouldnt be profiting from the war or shady deals that affect national security or are struck in an official capacity, if that isnt grounds for impeachment, I dont know what is. We need a real bloodhound who can track down the money trail and hidden bank accounts.
Carlyle group, Baker & Botts and the Bush's are in bed with the entire energy industry particularly Haliburton, as well the Saudi's and the UAE, they have struck lucrative deals in Iraq and Afghanistan as well, its unbelievable, their getting paid on both ends, they are involved in defense so they are making money on the war, and they are involved with rebuilding, so their making money off of that also.
Things the Administration leaves out of their daily breifing,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/25/international/middleeast/25militia.html?ex=1141448400&en=941a01619bf50c69&ei=5009&partner=MSN_NYTHOME
This is how to place your forces if you are preparing for civil war.....
A good editorial about the DPW deal that is about the merits, not the fear mongering of the Arab connection.
ReplyDeletehttp://jurassicpork.blogspot.com/2006/02/slouching-toward-lakehurst.html
And the Iraqi military is moving backward as far as preparedness is concerned;
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/24/iraq.security/index.html
This and the events of the last few days poke a few holes in the assertions of the pentagon that the Iraqi army is moving forward and are almost ready to assume the fight against the insurgency.
And there is a possible revolution brewing in the Philipines the president there is declaring martial law due to plots she says exist to oust her from power.
ReplyDeletehttp://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusintl/reuters02-23-200537.asp?reg=pacrim&vts=22420062147
And Bush is not the only one,
ReplyDeleteNorth Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole's husband, former Sen. Bob Dole, has been hired by Dubai Ports World to help shepherd the company through a $6.8 billion deal to control terminals at six U.S. ports.
read the rest at
http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/410502.html
But they try to keep it hush hush, no sense to hurt each others spot at the GOPig troth
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone here really beleive the Dems will gain control of either the house or the senate this year? I mean reallyyyyyy beleive it.
ReplyDeleteyes, i believe the Dems will get control of the house and senate because GOOD ALWAYS RISES. ultimately, good people prevail.
ReplyDeleteDo you guys believe strongly enough to perhaps make a small wager on this years election outcome?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteDo you guys believe strongly enough to perhaps make a small wager on this years election outcome?
12:00 PM
Typical wingnut response how can I find a way to make everything about money.....
Hey Anonymous, would that wager be using Diebold's corrupt hackable voting machines or would it be an honest on the level election, just curious??? :D
ReplyDeleteI dont want you to have to go on ebay and sell any of your Star Wars
ReplyDeletememorabilia,I do realize how near and dear those Yoda dolls are to you guys.But,lets say we bet $5,000 that the Dems do not win control of either the house or senate or I'd give you 2-1 odds that they dont win both.We could put the money in an escrow account here in Las Vegas and have a lawyer write up the actual bet.What do you say?
Hey Mike, if you want a piece come on and jump in the water.
ReplyDeleteCome on Mike,get off the grassy knoll and grow some balls.
ReplyDeleteI figured the little green guys living under bridges would be the yoda fans but go figure it must be the Evil Emperor for you guys.
ReplyDeleteBTW you still didnt answer my Diebold question?????
I gotta go for now.Think it over ladies.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said "Come on Mike,get off the grassy knoll and grow some balls.
ReplyDelete12:48 PM "
this from a guy not even brave enough to register a handle. You right wingers are real brave hiding behind your keyboard and talking tough while others are dying and putting their lives on the line for your corrupt agenda. You guys turn my stomach.
Clif said...
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
Do you guys believe strongly enough to perhaps make a small wager on this years election outcome?
12:00 PM
Typical wingnut response how can I find a way to make everything about money.....
12:38 PM
Anonymous said...
I dont want you to have to go on ebay and sell any of your Star Wars
memorabilia,I do realize how near and dear those Yoda dolls are to you guys.But,lets say we bet $5,000 that the Dems do not win control of either the house or senate or I'd give you 2-1 odds that they dont win both.We could put the money in an escrow account here in Las Vegas and have a lawyer write up the actual bet.What do you say?
12:46 PM
See.............
Sectarian Killings Shatter Brief Calm of Iraqi Curfew
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/international/middleeast/26iraq.html?ex=1141534800&en=b56c2b09f4e4881a&ei=5009&partner=MSN_NYTHOME
It ain't getting any better,
From 1945 to 1992 Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush41 followed a policy of containment of the only other superpower with the ability to actually destroy the US militarily with their REAL WMD's and "won" the cold war. Bill Clinton stabilised the economy after that and secured a peace dividend and future for the future generations of american citizens,and it only took one president to destroy the fiscal stability of the country, destroy the military capabilities by overextending them in wars of pre-emption where the enemy did not even have any WMD's when attacked, and squandered the good will of the world to such an extent that the coalition of the willing is being reduced to the US and briton, and majorities of both nations want the troops out and see the war as not good. A civil war in Iraq would destabilise a region upon which a large poryion of the world depends for their energy resources and as such can be seen as a very real danger to the world economy, and bush43 has created the conditions to do this in only 3 years. And just think he has 3 more to go.................
But only if Diebold and "felon purges" of the voter rolls and the voter $35 ID initiatives are defeated first, I get a funny feeling that all this repug brassness about the november election is because they know their is another plan, and they believe it will deliver in 2006 as K.Harris and Diebold did in 2000, Diebold did in2002, Blackwell and diebold did in 2004, they always find a way to refuse the vote to enough "questional" voters, and have their machines in the right places to win, Check out NC where the repugs are going after church rosters, what the hell is that about?
ReplyDeleteIt is not the people, its the machines...
ReplyDeletego to
www.Blackboxvoting.org
and download the book by Bev Harris, it is free, I read it last night, given your computer skills it will probably shock you more than it did me.
Can the repugs plan this time be scandal fatigue, they will wear us down so nothing suprises us anymore and we blindly accept them instead of having our intelligence be insulted one more time,...... might be but it takes a hell of a lot to wear me down,
ReplyDeleteThe only contact info I want is my foot and some of these dictatorial neo-cons Butts
ReplyDeleteWorfeus ya gotta check out this pic...
ReplyDeletehttp://billmon.org/archives/trial.html
Another prisom like Gitmo, and Abu Graibe but usually does not get the coverage.....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/international/26bagram.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5009&en=797d94c0276f53b9&ex=1141534800&partner=MSN_NYTHOME
Worfeus my man you are far too kind to these criminals in your mind, my dream photo would have this assorted group sitting around a camp fire in the desert while in the background a predator plane flys overhead tracking the cruise missles coming in from all sides.
ReplyDeleteBut I still think that after Bush captured Osama instead of hiding him for the political advantage he got out of it, we americans should have had the chance to see Osama undergo a sexual idenity change(like Ann Coulter appears to have done) and then been sent back to the strickly fundementalist regions of the Arabic world to live out his life.....
ReplyDeleteNo I'm not
ReplyDelete(the raspberry)
ps ask Lydia about that fruit ;)
Here little oschumpa ,
ReplyDeleteI have a litttttle girrrrly for you
http://www.code7r.org/Bintoons/images/turbanator.jpg
Some more reading but this time about Powell, at least I know why he never runs for elected office:
ReplyDeletehttp://consortiumnews.com/2000/121700a.html
Clif old buddy,here's a news flash.Diebold didnt cost the Dems the election.Try to remember back to the convention.Who did they put in the spotlight?Why,low and behold it was the undeniably worst president of the 20th century... Jimmy Carter.Anyone who was breathing while he was president remembers interest rates over 20%,the unemployment rate pushing 8%,standing in line for two hours to buy three gallons of gas,40 plus americans being held hostage for over a year and Jimmy sitting in front of the T.V. camera telling americans the country was in a "malaise".Then to top it off,the genius who organized the convention had Michael Moore sitting next to him for all america to see.To a conservative that was an early Christmas present.But wait,there was more to come.The Dems trot out John Kerry as the man for the job.As soon as Herman Munster said "John Kerry reporting for duty" we knew church was out and the election was over.Really,there had to be a better candidate, I just know there was a Liberal somewhere with a bit more to offer than John Forbes Kerry.Think back,even Bubba and Hil wouldnt get near that guy,christ,he was cancer.Bubba even faked a heart attack so he didnt have to campaign for Kerry.Now,who do you have in 08 that can beat either McCain or Rudy.Maybe you need to dig up FDR.
ReplyDeleteAnonymus the election results in ohio ARE in question, as are the results in Alaska. The diebold machines have been discredited in a study done for the government of m,aryland, and the Alemeda county government have already been reimbursed for Diebolds problems by none other than Diebold itself. so your fantasy that the election was lost in July is repug/neo-con spin and incase you haven't noticed it is being accepted less and less every day, but keep swallowing the kool aid and anything else Karl tells you to, come November we shall see....eh?
ReplyDeleteClif,Clif,Clif, you poor puppy.The election is over you lost.Now,who is you pick for 08?
ReplyDeleteWell you seem to know everything before it happens why are you here and not celebrating your power-ball winnings if you are so clairvoyant, since you repugs are so monetarily orientated
ReplyDeleteClif,I know the truth is hard to swallow but the fact is the majority of americans really dont care about Diebold,Ohio or Alemeda County.They care about lower taxes,killing third trimester unborn babies,convicted murderers sitting on death row for 20 years,taking responsibilities for your actions,marriage being between a man and a woman,being able to worship as you please, including saying a prayer in school and a strong defense.
ReplyDeleteWhile we are over here Worfeus they have not taken your dream image down from the thread;
ReplyDeleteCNN Pundit: Mosque Bombing Shows Bush Strategy Is Working In Iraq
I have been monitering it.
Clif,the only people who bitch about other people having money are people that dont have any.I've been poor as a church mouse and have had a bunch of money,I'm here to tell you,having some money is a whole lot better.America...what a country.
ReplyDeleteYou two twits still havent answered the question. Who is you savior in 08?
ReplyDeleteIs it Hil,is it Kerry (again,yawn),is it Edwards,is it Richardson,is it Screamin Howard?
ReplyDeleteOnce again bright boys,who's the savior?
ReplyDeleteClif,for christ sake,get a life.there's whole world out there.
ReplyDeleteIf you have time go to the Consortiumnews.con site and read the articles about powell's history, It will suprise you about how he has managed his career(that I knew, all generals are political players thats how they get the high rank) and how he carefully managed his image staying in the shadows, that I didn't know as well.
ReplyDeletehttp://consortiumnews.com/archive/powell.html
Clif, do you live in a bunker? A basement? A state institution?
ReplyDeleteAre you and worefus the same person?
ReplyDeleteFunny my vote in 2000 was McCain until his stealth swiftboating in South Carolina in the primary, and he sold his soul in 2004, so I probably will wait and see who runs look at them and make my pick, I'm funny that way too....
ReplyDeleteCilf, I think you're savable,come over to the bright side.Leave those crazies behind.
ReplyDeleteWorefus,come on .Grassy knoll stuff
ReplyDeleteI have a reletively good life, two great daughters, good friends, a curious desire to learn, spend quite a bit of time at Astrophysics, and sub-atomic and particle physics, (a hobby really), and I really enjoy My Harleys
ReplyDeleteClif, God bless you. I mean that.
ReplyDeleteYou two guys really need to respect another persons views on things.
ReplyDeleteAnonypussy It ain't a side to me it is about the HONEST truth and the reich wing neo-con AEI christofascist crowd ain't about that in fact almost of the time they use the opposite...truthiness combined with outright lies ..
ReplyDeleteI'm a conservative but I can understand other ideas and views.
ReplyDeleteAnonypussy! Yikes,thats cold.What would your daughters think of that?
ReplyDeleteWell,I see I'm pissing up a rope here.You guys enjoy your cave,hope you get over your anger.
ReplyDeleteWorfeus,its time to double up on the Prozac.You're close to being out of control.Throw away the talking points they sent you and try to think for yourself.
ReplyDeleteIt ain't about the ideas or views it is about the decietful ways they say one thing and mean another. The spin to hide what they really are about. The bait and switch approach. the late night closed door approach to legistration thta closes almost every one out and then the derailing of normal legistrative proceedures to pass bills before most legistrators have been able to read then, check the way the Medicare Part d bill passed congress, and the sell out to the druc companies that it really is, for example.
ReplyDeleteClif,its politics as usual,its been going on for two hundred years.
ReplyDeletePoor Anon, you have said
ReplyDeletepoor puppy.
twits
Screamin Howard
bright boys
A state institution?
crazies
so I toss anonypussy and you cry?
No the deceit machine that started in the late 70's has not
ReplyDeleteAnon where did you go? I guess he couldn't take the mirror of hypocrisy, or maybe he's like the shrub he can dish it out but loses it when it is returned.........oh well .
ReplyDeleteThe strategy from the US ambassador to Iraq?
ReplyDeleteKhalilzad’s strongest card is that the Americans have the money and the military boots on the ground. “Behind closed doors, he can say that if there is a civil war, because of our military power we can decide who comes out on top — and leave it open as to who might emerge the victor,” Krepinevich said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ article/ 0,,2089-2058790,00.html
It is, he added, a warning to all sides that “we can make life really miserable for you”.
Worfeus, I was about to agree with you yesterday afternoon that even the trolls are keeping quiet and then AnonyTroll decides to spend the day and evening here to deflect the discussion, If thats not a troll, I dont know what is, I dont think any interesting or enlighting discussion came out of him the entire time.
ReplyDeleteAlso your 10:32PM post was a good summary of what was going on, and that Katherine Harris video was unbelievable, I actually e-mailed that to a bunch of my family in Florida.
Worfeus said "I agree with Lydia.
ReplyDeleteThese guys have had their 15 minutes, and they failed miserably.
DIEBOLD is going to be scrutinized before the next election, and I think the Dems will take back congress in November, and if they don't screw up, the White House in 08."
I'm with you and Lydia also, If the Dems dont screw up, I think they take it back, the Repugs screw up every time they get a chance, They still cling to the old wives tale that they are good for the economy and are the the fiscally responsible party, saying they are fiscally responsible is a complete joke, and Lydia posted info in a previous blog that clearly disproves that they manage the economy better, it showed growth, stock market returns and income growth were all lower under republican administrations. And it all makes sense too, the two main factors that bring on depressions are 1)inequitable income distribution where the rich get richer and the middle class shrinks and the poor and lower middle class become poorer and 2) high debt levels.The repugs are for both, they want to steal and stuff their greedy gluttonous faces at the trough as much as possible and they want to spend as much as possible to force the country into bankruptcy so we will have to choice but to renig on and cancel all our social programs for the poor like social security, medicaid,medicare VA benefits, welfare, unemployment, etc...Thats their their true objective, and i've felt this way for a while. What they dont realize is that if the majority of the people dont have money to spend, it will bring on a depression and it will effect them as well, all people will suffer, but they are too blinded by greed to see it just like in the late 1920's.
FDR's new deal was essentially a wealth distribution designed to stimulate the economy by giving the poor money to spend and implementing new social programs to reverse the distortions to the economy and prevent this from happening in the future. If the Repugs hate wealth distributions as much as they say, they should stop dismantling all the social safety nets designed to prevent another depression and get off the same dark path we went down in the 1920's. but it wont happen these guys are slaves to their own blind greed.
Worfeus said "Darkness always retreats in the light."
ReplyDeletei think your right, as for all the scandals, I think even FF said that Bush committed political suicide with the port deal.
I watched a little tv also this morning, as for the port deal, I saw Jimmy Carter and some of the Pundits basically say it was no big deal also, I dont get it.And as for the Repugs making this a racial thing, I could of told you that was coming, if you can believe they are the tolerant open minded non discrinatory ones I got some swamp land in Florida i'd like to sell you.
As for Anony, sure he didt say anything that bad and he has a right to say what he wants, but he did steer the conversation away from real issues and toward name calling and insults, betting on elections, and other mindless drivel, in other words he was deflecting and subverting the discussion, which is a troll in my mind.
I've been watching CNN talk about the Hurricanes, its disgusting most of these people have had their homes and all their belongings destroyed and are still having to pay the mortgage on these destroyed homes and our government and insurance companys have either denied their claims or just given them a few thousand dollars. the insurance companies are claiming there was NO WIND damage at all despite roofing tiles stuck several inchs in trees and homes, sustained 125 plus mile an hour winds and roofs completely torn off. I just hope people remember this crap come election time. its not about making our country safer or protecting our citizens its about stealing as much as possible while taking care of your cronnies and campaign contributors.
ReplyDeleteif a civil war does start in Iraq. how do you think it will play out, do you think we will pull out, or will we just align ourselves with one of the sides and paint the other side as terrorist that need to be wiped out, because thats the easy way out. just curious?
ReplyDeleteAs they catch US supporters and tie them to tress in the main avenue.....so they can slit their mouths and throats wide open like in the fall of vietnam....
ReplyDeleteNo worfeus the neo-cons and the administration will not abandon the oil, they will use fall back positions and call for the NATO and the UN for help the gain control and stabilise the situation.
ReplyDeleteWorfeus I wonder if this anon is the anon from last night?
ReplyDeleteKirk 12 the problem sides is that no side comes with out baggage, the Shia comes with their ties with Iran, and their distrust of the Americans motives, the Sunni comes with their Saddam baggage and their anger at the American military violent attacks on their cities(Fallugha or Samara for example) discriminate imprisoning of many Sunni’s and the treatment of them at Abu Ghraib, and the Kurds with their claim of an autonomous homeland which will be resisted by Turkey, and Iran because of each country’s indigenous Kurdish populations, So no matter which side we would take the situation would only get worse, but not to try to defuse the situation would allow the actual possibility of open full scale factional warfare ala Yugoslavia. We keep seeing Iraq as Vietnam, where as the insurgents see it as Afghanistan circa 1980, where we are playing the role of the USSR, and they are implementing the tactics that defeated the soviets, so the real question is whether we are willing to fight an Afghan style insurgency in the middle of an Yugoslavia style civil war?
ReplyDeleteIraq's death squads: On the brink of civil war
ReplyDeleteMost of the corpses in Baghdad's mortuary show signs of torture and execution. And the Interior Ministry is being blamed. By Andrew Buncombe and Patrick Cockburn
story
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article347806.ece
Britain's former ambassador to Iraq, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, warned that the country was slipping into a state of low-level civil war, with the conflict pitting rival ethnic and religious groups against each other. The sectarian fighting, he said, bore a resemblance to ETHNIC CLEANSING in some parts of the country
ReplyDelete"One could almost call it a low-level civil war already," Sir Jeremy told the Jonathan Dimbleby programme on ITV1.
Although he did not believe that a "classic civil war" would follow, he said he feared local communities would look to militias for protection, ignoring the central authorities.
story;
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article347998.ece
Ethnic cleansing....where have we heard thta before?
Lydia said "We have never learned our lesson: that communication, really listening to the needs and point of view of the other side, could save countless lives & destruction. To be hell-bent on war, saying the insurgents envy us because of our freedom is a total lie and cop-out. We just don't care to look at our part as enslavers, invaders. That's how we'll be remembered by the Iraqi people. A little girl was blown to bits after her famiily's apartment suffered its 3rd bombing. How on earth have we improved matters and protected our homeland by this heinous war?"
ReplyDeleteLydia, great blog, i've been meaning to comment on it for the last couple of days, people dont realize how beneficial and important it can be to try and see things from others point of view, It has helped me numerous times both personally and professionally to avoid conflict and turn around potentially ugly situations, while it doesnt work 100% of the time (what ever does) just letting someone know you are trying to see things from their point of view can often ease tensions even if you still dont agree. If everyone one would make the attempt to be more open minded and try to see things from others perspective, the world would be a much better place.
As for our leaders I dont think the Neo Cons are capable of seeing any point of view other than their own, and although they try to make it like we are in Iraq for purely altruistic reasons, I think its all spin, I dont buy it for a minute that they care about the Iraqi's well being (they dont even care about our own citizen's well being) or for liberating them or installing democracy they've been using this war to rubberstamp or justify anything they want to do weather it is illegal or not, to seize power and make money. a lot of people think the Neo Cons want to wage war because they are afraid, but I dont buy that either, this war is all about controling the oil and seizing power and staying in power and profiting from the war on both ends from the weapons and killing and from the rebuilding and oil.I get aggravated everytime I hear that load of crap that "they hate us because of our freedom", yeah, its not because we are bombing and destroying their homes, killing, imprisoning and torturing their friends and families, they hate us because of our freedom, I just dont understand how anyone can buy the riddiculous poisonous rhetoric these clowns are trying to sell.
Clif said "No worfeus the neo-cons and the administration will not abandon the oil, they will use fall back positions and call for the NATO and the UN for help the gain control and stabilise the situation."
ReplyDeleteclif, you really think the Neo Cons would run to the UN for help after they marginalized and riddiculed them before the invasion.
Mike I basically agree with all you say, except for;
ReplyDeleteAs for our leaders I don't think the Neo Cons are capable of seeing any point of view other than their own,
They can see and do understand our point of view. They work very hard to discredit it, because they see the validity in it. If they do not completely destroy the creditability of what they see as the opposition, they feel that their message will not get accepted. Thus, they try and frame the debate in emotional 30 sec sound bites. These sound bites ring true but are hollow on closer inspection. They then must distort the oppositions message, demonise the messenger(swiftboating a good example), use questionable facts and a lot of analogies instead of the truth.
They are fully capable of having an honest open debate with all the facts included and allowing everyone the same respect they want for themselves, yes they can....but they don't.
Mike while they were demonising the UN for their Iraq stand they were working with UN agencies in Afganistan, I wondered why the UN never called them on it.
ReplyDeleteYou can't makj stories like this up;
ReplyDeleteFeb. 22, 2006, 5:40PM
U.S. Chamber endorses DeLay
By RUTH RENDON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
LEAGUE CITY -- U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay received an enterprise award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today as well as getting an endorsement from the national group.
DeLay, R-Sugar Land, was presented with the "Spirit of Enterprise" award from the chamber group during a Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Peter Havel, regional executive director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Dallas, presented the award to DeLay for his "outstanding leadership" and "for voting with the business community on a consistent basis."
Havel said the chamber group relies on legislators such as DeLay who believe in free enterprise, fewer taxes and job creation.
Havel also announced the national chamber group's endorsement of DeLay as he seeks re-election for Congress.
"We want to let you know we're behind you," Havel told DeLay.
Hi Lydia:
ReplyDeleteSorry I haven't been on in such a long time. Life's been hectic with work, & school, etc.
I just wanted to pop on here long enough tonight to let you know I received a message from Feb. 4th re: deleted posts and part of your blog missing. I'm guessing the problem has been remedied by now. I hope all is well with you and your family as well as everyone here who posts. :D
Before I go...I have one thing to share for now that I read in my business book while studying earlier. It is regarding individual rights:
"Certain rights are guaranteed by the government and its laws, and these are considered legal rights. The U.S. Constitution and its amendments, as well as state and federal statutes, define the rights of American Citizens."
Here's the clencher:
"Those rights can be DISREGARDED only in extreme circumstances, such as during WARTIME. Legal rights include the freedom of religion, speech, and assembly; protection from improper arrest and searches and seizures; and proper access to counsel, confrontation of witnesses, and cross-examination in criminal prosecutions. Also held to be fundamental is the right to privacy in many matters."
Needless to say, I found that to be rather interesting being that we're in "wartime" and our rights are flying out the window.
I had better get going for now.
I hope you have a great day. Take care.
Rene
clif said, As for our leaders I don't think the Neo Cons are capable of seeing any point of view other than their own,"
ReplyDeleteonce again your absolutely right as usual Clif, let me rephrase what I meant. the Neo Cons are not capable of accepting or acknowledging any point of view other than their own.And again your absolutely right they do attemp to discredit the oppostion and try to distill everything down to soundbites. they are part of the dumbing down of America, they use the tough talk and the soundbites to try to appeal to 20 year olds and rednecks and the worst thing is it has worked so far. They continuously offer simple solutions to complex problems then when their solutions fail to work they use spin to demonize their opponents and deflect the real issues. the worst part is that unlike being wrong on a blog or in a verbal debate, there are serious consequences for their failed policies and poor decisions that could effect the world for decades to come.
Worfeus sais "The fact is, this war on terror is a police action, its law enforcement, not war as they were referring to in the constitution.
ReplyDeleteWe have had terrroists attacking us for decades in various places, but Bush decided to call it war.
Now he can claim that the war never ends, therefore our constitutional rights are null and void.
Thats their plan, and so far its been working like a charm.
Like Clif said the Repugs arent for fair and honest debate, they prefer to argue semantics like for instance they consider the war on terrorism a real war when they use it to stomp on our civil rights and personal freedoms and spit on and defy the constitution, but yet they dont consider it a real war when they circumvent the Geneva Convention and imprison and torture the very people they claim to want to liberate and help.
And your right the the war on terror is a means of rigging the system, seizing power and making a buck and profiting from the war and as far as they are concerned it may as well be perpetual because it has served them well so far. Bush has Gonsalez in his pocket and he's trying to seize control of the Supreme Court as well, until the dems take back congress the checks and balances are moot.
ReplyDeleteJohn Mauldin said "Fed Governor Ferguson resigned this week. He was one of the last voices on the Fed which resists targeting inflation, which is what Bernanke has argued the Fed should do. His departure also means that President Bush will have appointed every Fed governor, which is unprecedented"
ReplyDeleteBy Thomas E. Ricks
ReplyDeleteUpdated: 4:11 a.m. ET Feb. 26, 2006
Interviews with U.S. soldiers -- from top generals to front-line grunts in Tall Afar, Mosul, Ramadi, Balad and throughout Baghdad -- as well as briefings at the U.S. military headquarters for the Middle East in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, reveal a markedly different war from that seen in 2003 and 2004, or even last year.Current U.S. military commanders say they have come to understand that they are fighting within a political context, which means the results must first be judged politically. The pace and shape of the war also have changed, with U.S. forces trying to exercise tactical patience and shift responsibilities to Iraqi forces, even as they worry that the American public's patience may be dwindling.
Low soldier morale
A drawback in this slow-motion war is that some soldiers find it frustrating. At the medic's station in Patrol Base Swamp -- which with its bare cots and hanging light bulbs feels like a scene from World War II -- three soldiers of the 101st said they loathe their time here, especially since the death of a beloved squad leader a week earlier.
"It's like trying to track down a bunch of ghosts," said Sgt. Chad Wendel, sitting on an Army cot under a window frame shielded by a blanket.
"I think it's the way we're losing more soldiers" that is most bothersome, added Spec. Frank Moore, a medic from Lynchburg, Va. "It makes you wonder, what do you gain by sticking around?"
"I don't like anything about being here," agreed Spec. Matthew Ness.
just shows what a real sweatheart of a guy Cheney is if his own guards wont even cover for him.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteEditorial
ReplyDeleteDebt and Taxes
Published: February 27, 2006
There's nothing Congressional Republicans would like more than to escape the inescapable need to raise the nation's debt limit. The upcoming increase, from $8.18 trillion to nearly $9 trillion, will be the fourth major hike in the last five years.
Treasury Secretary John Snow has told Congress that the government risks default if a higher limit is not approved by mid-March. The timing is unfortunate for Republican leaders. Hitting the limit draws unwelcome attention to the government's inability to pay its bills without heavy borrowing, exposing the mania behind the Republicans' relentless tax cutting.
So the challenge for Congressional Republicans is how to vote on a debt-limit increase without provoking discussion of the nation's growing indebtedness. The House availed itself of a special rule that let it automatically raise the debt limit — without a specific vote — when it passed the 2006 budget resolution last year. But the Senate must hold a vote, which would normally be preceded by debate. In fact, the debt limit has been an important part of the most consequential budget debates in modern times, including the 1990 budget. That was the deal that imposed the tough "pay as you go" rules that were central to the fiscal discipline — and budget surpluses — of the 1990's. Congress broke those rules to pass the unpaid-for Bush tax cuts of 2001 and then let the rules expire in 2003.
It will come as no surprise if Senate leaders squelch debate on the debt limit until Congress is ready to begin its next week-long recess, on March 17. Then, up against the Treasury's default deadline, the increase would be put to a voice vote, so that no individual would have to go on record as approving the measure.
The American people deserve better. The debt limit must be raised. But lawmakers should tackle the problem of runaway debt by reimposing budget rules that require that tax cuts be paid for. Doing so would expose the true cost of today's tax cuts, today, instead of pushing the reckoning into the future.
All done with a Republican President a Republican controlled senate, and A Republican House of Representatives.............
spin away.............
Halliburton is trying to get out from under the coming lawsuits over a lot of the problems connected with their actions in Iraq by spinning KBR off in an IPO.
ReplyDeleteI can’t imagine anybody dumb enough to buy stock in a company that is facing so many legal battles in the near future.
They took all the money and are trying to sell the problem,
Good Neo-con capitalists, with out a conscience what else should we expect.
Why do not Democrats speak of ——————– SHOCK & AWE————————
ReplyDelete———-DEMOCRATS CREATE WEALTH AND JOBS———–
1.From Harding In 1921 to Bush in 2003
2.Democrats held White House for 40 years and Republicans for 42.5 years.
3.Democrats created 75,820,000 net new jobs — Republicans 36,440,000.
4.Per Year Average-Democrats 1,825,200—Republicans 856,400.
5.Republicans had 9 presidents during the period and 6 had depression or recession.
6.Republicans had a recession/depression in 177 months and Democrats in 32 months.
7.DOW-grew by 52% more under Democrats.
8.GDP-grew by 43% more under Democrats.
————————————————————————————————————
Comparing Democrat's hero-CLINTON versus Republican's hero–REAGAN
———————————————————————————————————–
1.JOBS grew by 43% more under Clinton.
2.GDP—grew by 57% more under Clinton.
3.DOW grew by 700% more under Clinton..
4.NASDAQ-grew by 18 times as much under Clinton.
4.SPENDING–grew by 28% under Clinton—80% under Reagan.
5.DEBT grew by 43% under Clinton 187% under Reagan.
6. DEFICITS Clinton got a large surplus–grew by 112% under Reagan.
7.NATIONAL INCOME grew by100% more under Clinton.
8.PERSONAL INCOME Grew by 110% more under Clinton.
SOURCES Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.BLS.Gov)–Economic Policy Institute (EPI.org) Global & World Almanacs from 1980 to 2003 (annual issues)
www.the-hamster.com (chart taken from NY Times)
National Archives History on Presidents. www.nara.gov
Clarence Swinney-Political Historian
Please submit comments to cwswinney@netzero.net or P.O. Box 3411-Burlington NC-27215
successes?
Comment by clarence swinney — March 15, 2005 @ 12:46 pm He said it so well, comments................spin anyone?
Why do not Democrats speak of ——————– SHOCK & AWE————————
ReplyDelete———-DEMOCRATS CREATE WEALTH AND JOBS———–
1.From Harding In 1921 to Bush in 2003
2.Democrats held White House for 40 years and Republicans for 42.5 years.
3.Democrats created 75,820,000 net new jobs — Republicans 36,440,000.
4.Per Year Average-Democrats 1,825,200—Republicans 856,400.
5.Republicans had 9 presidents during the period and 6 had depression or recession.
6.Republicans had a recession/depression in 177 months and Democrats in 32 months.
7.DOW-grew by 52% more under Democrats.
8.GDP-grew by 43% more under Democrats.
————————————————————————————————————
Comparing Democrat's hero-CLINTON versus Republican's hero–REAGAN
———————————————————————————————————–
1.JOBS grew by 43% more under Clinton.
2.GDP—grew by 57% more under Clinton.
3.DOW grew by 700% more under Clinton..
4.NASDAQ-grew by 18 times as much under Clinton.
4.SPENDING–grew by 28% under Clinton—80% under Reagan.
5.DEBT grew by 43% under Clinton 187% under Reagan.
6. DEFICITS Clinton got a large surplus–grew by 112% under Reagan.
7.NATIONAL INCOME grew by100% more under Clinton.
8.PERSONAL INCOME Grew by 110% more under Clinton.
SOURCES Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.BLS.Gov)–Economic Policy Institute (EPI.org) Global & World Almanacs from 1980 to 2003 (annual issues)
www.the-hamster.com (chart taken from NY Times)
National Archives History on Presidents. www.nara.gov
Clarence Swinney-Political Historian
Please submit comments to cwswinney@netzero.net or P.O. Box 3411-Burlington NC-27215
successes?
Comment by clarence swinney — March 15, 2005 @ 12:46 pm
He said it so well, comments................spin anyone?
Clif-
ReplyDeleteI believe there were serious legal issues surrounding Halliburton and KBR around the time that Halliburton bought KBR while Cheney was the CEO. Do you recall what those issues were? I think it had to do with kickbacks and, perhaps, doing business in Iraq and Iran.
Just more dirty business.
The Bill Tierney is Nuts post - Take Two
ReplyDeleteFrom Eschaton and Whiskey Bar:
You think you've seen crazy?
Tierney's methods of ascertaining this location were rather unconventional. "I would ask God and just get a sense if something was valid or not, and then know if I needed to pursue it," he said. His assessments through prayer were then confirmed to him by a friend's clairvoyant dream, where he was able to find the location on a map. "Everything she said lined up. This place meets the criteria," Tierney said of a power generator plant near the Tigris River that he believes is actually a cover for a secret uranium facility.
Remember how they portrayed Scott Ritter?
Story at
http://www.reload.ws/blog/2005/03/bill-tierney-is-nuts-post-take-two.html
And they call us moonbats?
'God is my weapons inspector'
ReplyDeletePosted 12:53 pm | Printer Friendly
Nearly three years after the beginning of the war in Iraq, most reasonable people seem to have come to an agreement about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: there aren't any. Some of us may still feel a little bothered by the fact that the war was launched under false pretenses, while others are willing to overlook previous concerns, but the question has been settled — Bush said the war was necessary because of weapons that didn't exist.
This isn't exactly breaking news. And yet, some of the president's allies are still out there, arguing creatively that the WMD are real and may still be found. Last week, it was Fox News military analyst Thomas McInerney, a retired Air Force Lt. Gen., who insisted that Russian Special Forces entered Iraq before the invasion and moved the WMD to Syria.
Oddly enough, as The New Republic reported, around the same time, another White House ally had an even more imaginative idea about the missing weapons.
Bill Tierney, who served as a U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq in the late '90s, told National Review Online this week that he would look to God to direct him to possible WMD sites. "God is my intel," Tierney told NRO. His belief in the existence of a uranium-enrichment plant near Tarmiyah was supported, he said, by the fact that a friend had seen it in a dream.
Indeed, Tierney is quite the theorist. He also said that Iraq was behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and the 2001 anthrax attacks. In time, Tierney believes, all of his ideas will be vindicated.
National Review's Byron York said, "[T]he people in charge of searching for WMD didn't take Tierney seriously." I can't imagine why not.
But somebody gave him the job, want to wonder why?
Drewla good story about the history od Halliburton , Brown & Root, and M.W. Kellogg can be found here;
ReplyDeletehttp://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=31
KBR does everything from conducting or managing large construction projects, such as power plants and pipelines, to providing maintenance for existing facilities or government operations. Halliburton was founded in 1919 by Erle Halliburton, who innovated a way to fortify oil wells with cement. The company acquired offshore-platform constructors Brown & Root in 1962 and expanded worldwide through the 1990s. In 1998, Halliburton acquired oil field equipment manufacturer Dresser Industries for $7.7 billion, which had acquired the oil services company M.W. Kellogg ten years earlier. Dresser Industries became embroiled in a series of asbestos lawsuits in 2001, causing Halliburton to reorganize. In 2002, the company split its operations into two distinct entities in order to protect its assets from the asbestos litigation: Halliburton Energy Services Group, which provides equipment and services such as well drilling for the oil and gas industry, and KBR. Halliburton placed KBR under bankruptcy protection.
The relevant paragraph out of the story.
Halliburton Contracts Illegal; Cheney Says So What
ReplyDeleteby EVELYN PRINGLE
Halliburton Contracts Illegal; Cheney Says So What After millions of tax dollars were spent investigating how Halliburton ended up being awarded billions of dollar worth of no-bid contracts in Iraq, the Government Accounting Office determined that the company should never have been awarded the contracts in the first place.
In response to those findings, Cheney and Bush both, as much as thumbed their noses at tax payers as if to say "so what, what are you going to do about it?" Well, it's beginning to look like they were right, there is nothing we can do about it.
According to the GAO's report, Rebuilding Iraq: Fiscal Year 2003 Contract Award Procedures and Management Challenges, contracts worth billions of dollars were awarded without full and open competition, including Halliburton’s oil infrastructure contract.
The GAO found that the Bush Administration violated
procurement law when it issued various task orders
under existing contracts. Of the 11 task orders
examined, more than half were awarded outside the
scope of their contracts, according to the report.
BrokeBack Bush said...
ReplyDeleteYou guys are fergettin - the enemees lurkin
3:52 PM
I'll bet he thinks inside the GOP by now...............................LOL
Wall Street Journal, 2/23/06
ReplyDelete“In Ports Furor, A Clash over Dubai,” Spindle, Bill, et al;
“…according to sanctions experts and numerous U.S. court and regulatory cases, Iran uses Dubai to evade U.S. economic sanctions on Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. The U.A.E. doesn’t recognize those sanctions.
“Iranian front companies in Dubai routinely obtain prohibited U.S. goods, federal court records show. In one undercover investigation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that resulted in a November 2005 guilty plea in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the representative of an Iranian front company was caught on tape assuring an undercover agent posing as a businessman not to worry about sanctions regulations.
“’You are going to export to Dubai, which does not have any regulations. It’s a free, uh, country for importing, exporting,’ said Khalid Mahmood, according to his guilty plea. Asked if the equipment would then be shipped to Iran, Mr. Mahmood replied, ‘Once it comes here, we’ll ship it anywhere in the world, no problems.’” [p. A12]
“No problems” indeed.
Comment by JH — February 27, 2006 @ 5:35 pm
Well said...
Report: Dick Cheney
ReplyDeleteto quit after elections
Magazine: VP expected to retire within year
as he becomes increasing 'liability' to Bush
Story at;
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49023
A really good story nthat rools up the nepotism and cronyism, plus the money of the Dubai port deal...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/06/02/ana06011.html
Clif said...
ReplyDeleteReport: Dick Cheney
to quit after elections
Magazine: VP expected to retire within year
as he becomes increasing 'liability' to Bush
I ran the story by Will Brunch at attytood;
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/
His reply;
Yeah, I thought about doing something but then some other reports have knocked it down. I agree with one report that Bush would want to keep Cheney because he wants to keep open the possibility of Jeb running in '08. Thanks.
Will
Freedom Fan -- I must say your Gandalf picture makes you look very dashing, and I picture you looking like this.
ReplyDeleteSend me a picture of you.
xo
Lydia
Dear Ms. Cornell I am flattered that you noticed that Gandalf does indeed bear an uncanny resemblance to me. Feel free to use the picture in your book; I trust that as an enthusiastic supporter of michael "fair-and-balanced" moore, you will use my image fairly and only quote me context.
PS. Thanx also for the hug and kiss. Glad to know you have an understanding husband who is open-minded about our relationship. Really we must stop meeting like this.
Wordeus did you hear about the new CBS poll
ReplyDeleteBush at 34%
Cheney at 18%
approval ratings
Poll: Bush Ratings At All-Time Low
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/opinion/polls/main1350874.shtml
Lydia, you may be on to something. Pretty funny idea that Bush is secretly Al quaeda. That has to be the explanation. I am going crazy wondering if its just him and his dad who pushed this deal, or middle management like Michael Savage thinks. It feels like bushco is bringing the war to our shores and he has some other weird agenda. Why does Halliburton have a secret office in Iran? At this point, with Norad down on 911, it's beginning to seem more and more staged. I don't wear a tin-foil hat, but even i am suspicious at this point. Didn't islamic fundamentalism declare eternal war on all of us? Or maybe its a ploy to make some republicans seem like good guys and win in 2006.
ReplyDeleteThe best and most concise article on the port deal I have read. It has a lot of links to back up what it says and some interesting history.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/06/02/ana06011.htm
Thanks Clif. I'm going to post that link tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteClif quoted this from an article:
ReplyDeleteSome of the president's allies are still out there, arguing creatively that the WMD are real and may still be found. Last week, it was Fox News military analyst Thomas McInerney, a retired Air Force Lt. Gen., who insisted that Russian Special Forces entered Iraq before the invasion and moved the WMD to Syria."
Yeah right, with satellites on Iraq 24 hours a day, they would have seen Russians moving all these WMDs.But no one seems to remember that warehouse of weapons we were supposed to be protecting that suddenly was stolen right from under our noses, then hushed up? Well obviously, all those stolen weapons are in the hands of the "insurgents".
This is what I posted at think progress about Fox News military analyst Thomas McInerney, a retired Air Force Lt. Gen., who insisted that Russian Special Forces entered Iraq before the invasion and moved the WMD to Syria."
ReplyDeleteHaving worked with WMD’s in the US army then there is a lot to the story about moving them to Syria that does not hold water. First of all we were flying surveillance aircraft over both Northern and Southern Iraq since the end of the gulf war both AWACS and JSTARS,
The first AWACS known to most of us, tracks all airborne air craft, so no large air lift is possible. Thus the story about moving WMD's in 747's is either false or done with the blessing of the Defense Department and with the knowledge of the CIA.
The second JSTARS Radar operating modes include wide area surveillance, moving target indicator (MTI), sector search MTI and synthetic aperture radar. The antenna can be slued to either side of the aircraft to provide a 120 degree field of view covering nearly 19,305 square miles (50,000 square kilometers) and is capable of detecting targets at ranges from 164,049 to 820,248 feet (50 to 250 kilometers) from the aircraft. In addition to being able to detect, locate and track large numbers of ground vehicles the radar has some limited capability to detect helicopters, rotating antennas and low slow-moving fixed wing aircraft.
Having this in the Air wouldn’t the defense department use the intelligence gathered about the convoys of vehicles that would have been required to move the WMD”s to Syria to out both Saddam and Syria. Their silence is deafening to me because I know about this program, an experiential JSTARS was used in the Desert Storm and we knew what was coming at us all the time, especially during the battle for Khafji, where three Iraqi divisions were destroyed in route to the battle in convoy mode long before they got to the battle.
So why did we not go into Syria to get them, because we knew they were not there.
link to the military ability of JSTARS;
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=598540
He might have been a general but now he looks like a fool. Here is his commentary about JSTARS on another talking head show about Kosovo;
LT. GEN. THOMAS McINERNEY (RET.): Well, I think the experience that we’ve had in Bosnia a few years ago made it clear. The Joint Stars radar aircraft that we mentioned earlier that maps the ground with a cloud-piercing radar worked surprisingly well in Desert Storm against Iraq.
Thus he knows about it and its capabilities but does not let on to reinforce the neo-con spin about WMD’s
No there are about thaty many christofascists and reichwing neo-cons left.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 34% seems a little high to me also, but maybe Bush still has a lot of the country snowed.Have you noticed the silence out of these guys, they just want to keep quiet and let things die down, even the hard core Right Wingers in this blog are quiet.
ReplyDeleteBtw, i'll have to save that wordeus name for future reference like the next time you right a really long post LOL :D
Has it been determined if 34% approval is an all-time low for a sitting president? I can't imagine it being much worse for anyone else. Nixon, possibly, but I'm not sure if even HE went that low.
ReplyDeleteI can hear it now. The new hit song called, "Doin' the Dubya Limbo"...how LOW can he GO?
I cant ever remember a worse president or a more corrupt administration. With Bush's ego I'm wondering how he will handle being labeled a failure and going down in history as the worst most inept and corupt president ever.
ReplyDeleteWorf, dont you mean 1980 for Jimmy Carter??
ReplyDeleteMy question is do you think the Republicans will take back their party from these Neo Con And Religious Right nut cases, or will the Neo Cons remain in power, or will the party become divided and disorganized like the dems?
ReplyDeleteCarter had everything going against him, there was the hostages, high inflation, high unemployment, recession, high oil and gasoline prices, high interest rates, that guy had the deck stacked against him and couldnt win to save his life.
ReplyDeleteNo there are about thaty many christofascists and reichwing neo-cons left.
ReplyDelete-Clif
Could you provide an example of a "christofascist"? Perhaps you could identify a prominent leader of the hundreds of thousands of violent, howling Presbyterian street protesters who became white-hot angry about the hoopla over broke back mountain.
I realize this won't be much of a challenge for you since there are daily accounts of world-wide mayhem and bloody murder by born-again Baptists of innocents who dared to insult Christianity. Perhaps you refer to jimmah carter et al who just hafta learn that violence and egregious attempts to silence freedom of expression is never the answer.
Worfeus, Nixon was not impeached, he had enough honor to resign just before he was impeached, just like Agnew, GWHBush had to tell Tricky Dick the bad news so he sent Nixon a letter. Funny both the Pres and VP had to resign in discrase then might history be getting ready to repeat itself?
ReplyDeleteTry Pat Robertson calling for the assassination of a foreign leader, or praying for the death of a sitting supreme court judge.
ReplyDeleteWorfeus are you having any problem with the think progress website?
ReplyDeleteFreedom Fan said"Perhaps you refer to jimmah carter et al who just hafta learn that violence and egregious attempts to silence freedom of expression is never the answer."
ReplyDeletespeaking of silencing freedom of expression, how about when Bush and co had Cindy Sheehan arrested because he didnt like her shirt, if thats not trying to silence freedom of expression, then I dont know what is. and please dont try to blame it on the hired help, just like the administration did with the abu ghraib prison torture, because i'm not buying that load of bull, its abundantly clear that the people in power in this administration keep finding some poor patsy to be the fall guy for their corupt policies.
One more thing i've never seen so much corruption out of one administration, but i'm positive its only the tip of the iceberg, I was a real hellraiser in highschool, and looking back, I only got caught for probably about 3% of the stuff I did, unless your willing to concede to me that Bush and the Neo Cons are completely and uterly incompetent and have been caught for EVERYTHING that they have done wrong, which I find far fetched and riddiculous, then just like an iceberg the bulk of their corruption and disdain for the law is lurking and festering below the surface and we are not even aware of what the ramifications might be down the road.
Who are the ChristoFascists?
ReplyDeleteTry Pat Robertson calling for the assassination of a foreign leader, or praying for the death of a sitting supreme court judge.
-Clif
True, pat robertson is a terrifying figure, with a following in the hundreds of millions, who no doubt will lead all the Baptists and Methodists on a bloody jihad in a merciless attempt to convert the world to an oppressive, intolerant Christian theocracy.
Rumor has it they plan to strike first in Washington D.C. armed to the teeth with dreaded Gideon Bibles and singing provocative songs like Jesus Loves Me and This Little Light of Mine.
This is an outrage! Where is the aclu when you need them?
No! No! Noooo! Not the ChristoFascists! Anything but that! Aieeee! There's one right now peeking out from under my bed.
ReplyDeleteBwahahaha
FF said "True, pat robertson is a terrifying figure, with a following in the hundreds of millions, who no doubt will lead all the Baptists and Methodists on a bloody jihad in a merciless attempt to convert the world to an oppressive, intolerant Christian theocracy.
ReplyDeleteRumor has it they plan to strike first in Washington D.C. armed to the teeth with dreaded Gideon Bibles and singing provocative songs like Jesus Loves Me and This Little Light of Mine."
I thought these were the 34% supporting the Neo Cons, oh well, I guess there's no honor among thieves. :D
FF Said "No! No! Noooo! Not the ChristoFascists! Anything but that! Aieeee! There's one right now peeking out from under my bed.
ReplyDeleteBwahahaha"
Dont worry buddy, go back to your under ground bunker, i'll tell you when its safe to come out.
Bush isnt just leaving the Barbarians at the gate, he's inviting them in and saying if you cant beat them, join them and make money together, I wonder if he'll fiddle while America burns also.
ReplyDeletethey say those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it, these guys are ignorant and then some.
BTW FF, your the one who distorted the facts by inserting the hundred million followers for Par Robertson, you asked what a Christofacist is and I think Clif provided an excellent example. you do get points for an amusing post though.
ReplyDeleteHow about the nut job who worked for the UN as a weapons inspector and God told him in his dreams where the weapons were, I wonder why he never found them, maybe god was just joking too....
ReplyDelete“Bill Tierney, who served as a U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq in the late ’90s, told National Review Online this week that he would look to God to direct him to possible WMD sites. ‘God is my intel,’ Tierney told NRO. His belief in the existence of a uranium-enrichment plant near Tarmiyah was supported, he said, by the fact that a friend had seen it in a dream.” February 27, 2006 2:04 pm |
ReplyDeletelink at think progress;
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/27/god-is-my-weapons-inspector/#comments
Worfeus some of this you can't make up , and ROTFLMAO when the right tries to discredit you when you present facts like this.
ReplyDeleteCNN reports new sectarian violance in Iraq again today, dozens killed...
Worfeus said "I sat here last week and listened to the Commanding Nutcase in Chief say with outstreched arms how he believes in an almighty, and implied that God thought it was good that we were spreading democracy to the Iraqi people.
ReplyDeleteI heard it and saw it, and it was appalling.
Actually he was telling the truth this one time, see he thinks he is allmighty and he believes that he is god, so when he said god thought it was good we were spreading democracy to the Iraqi people he meant that Dubya thought it was good, my only question is how does Dubya define democracy, cause from where I sit, it sure doesnt look like a good thing.
1-in-10 US Iraq veterans have stress disorder-study
ReplyDeletehttp://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/reuters02-28-124551.asp?t=RENEW
Mental health screening of veterans showed 21,620 out of 222,620 returning from Iraq and assessed over the year ending April 30, 2004, suffered from post-traumatic stress -- a disorder that can lead to nightmares, flashbacks and delusional thinking.
And a suck ass life sometimes.
I thought it was 2006 but these guys think it is 1984;
ReplyDeleteThe Minnesota GOP’s Stealth Attack On Privacy
A story by Minnesota Public Radio reveals a disturbing new way that a political party is secretly grabbing sensitive personal information about voters.
This week the Minnesota Republican Party is distributing a new CD about a proposed state marriage amendment. Along with flashy graphics, the CD asks people their views on controversial issues such as abortion, gun control, illegal immigration, and so on.
The problem – the CD sends your answers back to headquarters, filed by name, address, and political views. No mention of that in the terms of use. No privacy policy at all. The story concludes: “So if you run the CD in your personal computer, by the end of it, the Minnesota GOP will not only know what you think on particular issues, but also who you are.”
These practices fall way below the standard for today’s polling firms and web sites. The norm for polling firms is to anonymize the data and report only statistical totals. The norm for commercial web sites is to have a privacy policy, with Federal Trade Commission enforcement if the web site breaks its privacy promise.
Without a privacy policy, the state party can tell your views to anyone at all. If you give the “wrong” answers on abortion or other issues, they can tell your boss, members of your church, or anyone else. In fact, these answers could get distributed to campaigns in your town during get-out-the-vote efforts – precisely the place where “wrong” answers can be most damaging.
The right answer here is simple. If you are collecting data and keeping it in identified form, then you should tell people. If you are selling your lists or sending them to other groups, you should tell that as well.
– Peter Swire
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/28/the-minnesota-gops-stealth-attack-on-privacy/
that is disturbing Clif, Lydia stated in an earlier blog that, thats what she thought Bush's domestic spy program was about also, to find out voter preferences and where they live to steal elections.
ReplyDeleteAnother GOP federal criminal enterprise? surely you jest!
ReplyDeleteYeah Worf, i'm starting to see conservatives stop blindly supporting Bush like a couple of Stepford Wives and that brings me back to my question in my 10:22AM post
ReplyDeleteMike said "My question is do you think the Republicans will take back their party from these Neo Con And Religious Right nut cases, or will the Neo Cons remain in power, or will the party become divided and disorganized like the dems?????????????????????????
mike John Stewart on Larry King Live put it best Chenets at 18% lets put thta in perspective, 4 out of 5 dentists recomend that if you chew gum, chew sugarless gum. One out of five says sugar, eh not so bad. So that is 20% who are bad dentists, and Dick Cheney can't get all the bad dentist vote.
ReplyDeleteEspecially one worn by Jeff Gannon in the white house....
ReplyDeleteCherrio old chap, and hip hip hooray for Jolly old England, those limeys are ok in my book.LOL :D
ReplyDeleteWonder what would happen to that appointment if England blocks the deal, Bush doesnt wait for approval on anything, its just full steam ahead with whatever he wants, and we all know Cheney has a shoot first ask questions later philosophy.
ReplyDeleteHe should be impeached for either lying or incompetance, they can even let him pick which one, because from where I sit he's guilty of both.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWorf, i've said that at least 5 times that he was lying when he said he knew nothing about it, come on, who would veto something they know nothing about, particularly when they've never used the veto before. and anyone who would approve or veto something pertaining to national security that they know nothing about should be impeached for incompetence and negligence!!!!
ReplyDelete3:39 PM
Can you say CONFLICT OF INTEREST bopys and girls.
ReplyDeleteDanger Will Robinson, Danger:D
ReplyDeleteWORFEUS THE DANCING FROG said...
ReplyDeleteI just learned about Bush's appointing David Sandborn from DPW to head the US MARITIME ADMINISTRATION.
Think about it, a guy from Dubai Ports World will be the US Government agent responsible for overseeing and monitoring DPW's running of our Seaports.
It boggles the mind.
Wonder how many people will be interested in the hearings for his nomimnation, for Mr. Sanborn he has been foisted upon a hot seat and hthe deal has not been consumated, both Bushco and Dubai ain't happy and he's in between....
Worfeus thats the troops not the chimp-in-chief, who does not listen to polls and is not up for reelection...
ReplyDeleteWorfeus bush-rove have been silently getting their thugs to run for state offices, Mitch Daniels who worked for bush early in his admin, is Gov of Indiana, they are trying to set up their own personal banana republic here in the midwest.......
ReplyDeleteFrom the attytood website blog;
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/
Evil geniuses are made, not born. Take Karl Rove, for example. Early on his political career, the man who would become Bush's brain figured out something really basic that most mere mortals still don't get: That things that look bad for your campaign or contra-logical on the surface can actually prove to be quite good in the long run. Take bugging, for example. Bugging the other candidate...stupid. Bugging yourself? Brilliant.
Today, there are two basic plays in the Rove playbook, and like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, they work every time. First, take your opponent's strongest point, and attack that, not his weakness. Then take your own candidate's weakest point, and find some way to get it out there that makes your rival look bad.
2004? A textbook case. While you can never write off the power of incumbency, we normal political dummies might have glanced at the presidential race and seen an impending train wreck for George W. Bush. You had a man who'd managed to avoid serving in Vietnam running against a contemporary who'd volunteered for duty in Southeast Asia and received a Purple Heart and other commendations. On the more recent front, with terrorism the key issue of the campaign, Bush had failed miserably in his vow to catch Osama bin Laden "dead or alive."
We know how it all played out. The Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth managed to smear John Kerry's war record and place him on the defensive. The CBS News fiasco, in which Bush's suspect National Guard record was attacked with documents that appear to be forged, took the issue right out of the race. And when bin Laden surfaced -- for the first time in two years! -- on the weekend before the vote, it had the odd effect of helping Bush by keeping terrorism fears on voters' minds.
It all seemed like such a coincidence, didn't it? But now. 15 months later, Bush is safely ensconced in the White House, and there ain't much people can do about that between now and Jan. 20, 2009. And so people are starting to talk, especially when they see a "friendly" reporter like Bill Sammon of the Moonie-owned Washington Times.
And hey, some of those unlikely fortuitous events of 2004? Well, if you didn't know better, you'd almost think they were somehow planned in advance (as if the White House had that kind of power!).
The CBS memos: For example, journalist Dan Rather left the anchor chair at CBS News after Internet reporters revealed he had used forged documents to criticize Bush’s military record in September 2004. The forgeries, which Bush now calls a conspiracy, ended up helping his reelection campaign, he acknowledged in the Oval Office interview.
“It looks like somebody conspired to float false documents,” the president tells author Bill Sammon. “And I was amazed about it. I just couldn’t believe that would be happening [and] then it would become the basis of a fairly substantial series of news stories.”
He added: “Then there was a backlash to it. I mean, a lot of people were angry that this could have happened. A lot of Americans are fair people and they viewed this as patently unfair. So in a funny way, I guess it inured to our benefit, when it was all said and done.”
The Swifties: And Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, who steadfastly refused to defend Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth when he ran Bush's campaign, now calls them 'heroes' who played a crucial role in vanquishing Kerry.
Finally, bin Laden: Bush said there were "enormous amounts of discussion" inside his campaign about the 15-minute tape, which he called "an interesting entry by our enemy" into the presidential race....
"What does it mean? Is it going to help? Is it going to hurt?" Bush told Sammon of the bin Laden tapes. "Anything that drops in at the end of a campaign that is not already decided creates all kinds of anxieties, because you're not sure of the effect.
"I thought it was going to help," Bush said. "I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn't want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush."
We have two thoughts on this. One, seeing how it all played out and the way they're talking about it, you would almost think -- if you didn't know better -- that it was Rove who formed the Swift Boat group, forged the CBS documents himself, and then called the CIA to kidnap bin Laden and drag him to a secret TV studio in Karachi. But you honestly don't think Rove is that evil, do you?
Don't answer that.
More serious is Bush's reaction to the bin Laden tape. Notice how it was all about him, and all about politics -- and nothing about the family members and loved ones of nearly 3,000 Americans who were murdered by this vile bastard, and how they might have felt. Because our expectations for George W. "34 percent" Bush have become so low, his reaction doesn't even surprise us -- but we should be shocked and appalled.
Let us suggest, for the sake of argument, how a true American president might have reacted to that bin Laden tape.
"There were enormous amount of discussions with the CIA and with military intelligence, about where bin Laden might have taped that message, and when, and whether he was still there or if he'd left any clues we could use to catch that bastard. Karl and some of the political guys wanted me to get on the campaign trail, because they said Kerry was winning. Then somebody asked whether they thought the tape would help us or hurt us -- and I was so mad, I threw the guy out of the meeting! I said, "I made a promise to those families, and I'd rather be the guy who caught bin Laden and lost, then they guy who won by letting him run free.'"
Yes, that's what a real president would have said.
How sad is this? We find it easier to believe that Rove has bin Laden secretly locked away somewhere than to believe that Bush would ever say something like that.
Posted by will at 02:30 PM |
Lydia I figured you'd get a kick out of this story,
ReplyDeleteWho's on deck for GOP dinner?
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
By Steven Harmon
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- Chris Meyer immediately bought 10 more tickets to the Kent County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner -- once he heard commentator Ann Coulter backed out of her March 16 commitment as keynote speaker.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-28/1141141547317370.xml&coll=6
+1, that was a great post.
ReplyDeleteNegroponte fears wider Islamic conflict
ReplyDeleteIraq civil war could spark violence throughout region, intel chief tells panel
WASHINGTON - A civil war in Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East, pitting the region’s rival Islamic sects against each another, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said in an unusually frank assessment Tuesday.
“If chaos were to descend upon Iraq or the forces of democracy were to be defeated in that country ... this would have implications for the rest of the Middle East region and, indeed, the world,” Negroponte said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on global threats.
Saudi Arabia and Jordan could support Iraq’s Sunnis, Negroponte said. And Iran, run by a Shiite Islamic theocracy, “has already got quite close ties with some of the extremist elements” inside Iraq, he added.
While Iraq’s neighbors “initially might be reluctant” to get involved in a broader Sunni-Shiite conflict, “that might well be a temptation,” Negroponte said.
Bleak outlook for Afghanistan
At the Senate hearing, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, painted a similarly stark picture of Afghanistan.
While the government has made progress in disarming private militias, Maples said, his agency estimates that violence from the Taliban and other anti-coalition groups in Afghanistan increased 20 percent last year.
“Insurgents now represent a greater threat to the expansion of Afghan government authority than at any point since late 2001, and will be active this spring,” Maples said in his written statement.
Afghan insurgents increased their suicide attacks almost fourfold and more than doubled their use of improvised explosive devices, he said.
un-condensed version at,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11610145/
Thus George Bush so "strong on defense" has gotten us into two wars, the first, which was necessary, to get the principle players, behind the attack of 9-11, which he did not do. He has failed to properly fund and staff the fight to move, Afghanistan, from a country that harbors and promoted terrorists to one that would help the world rid itself of the terrorists. Instead of focusing on that goal which the entire world was behind us, and would have actually made us safer if we actually captures Bin Laden, Mullah Omar, Iman Al Zahwari, Bush diverted most of the military's troops, resources, and money to a country that had nothing to do with the attacks of 9-11.
The second war the war in Iraq was optional, Bush et al had to used discredited intelligence, dubious assertions, and foggy reasoning to paint the Iraqi nation and its leader as the same danger if not greater than Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. The WMD's turned out not to have existed in the spring of 2003, the nuclear program was not, the smoking gun of a mushroom cloud spin not fact. They got the war they wanted and now don't quite know what to do as the situation slips from a fiasco of policy into the disaster of civil war if not regional conflict where a large portion of the worlds oil supply comes from. And so we now have a problem that requires careful reflection, something that has been severely lacking in this administration, about how to solve the tricky problem of Iraq.
One solution which I do not see the Bush administration taking is to bring our Arab allies like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt into the fold, give them an actual say in the matter of what happens to one of their neighboring countries, a fellow Arab nation. We could have each bring a portion of their military forces into the country and replace American troops. Then we could have the Arab Council and Iran work with the separate factions in Iraq the same as the Dayton accord was done for the Balkans, or the peace talks in Paris brought the Vietnam War to an end. First of all the Arab presence in the negotiating would raise the trust factor for most Iraqi civilians. Second the replacement of the American face with an Arab face on the troops that maintain order would go far to defuse the foreign fighters claim of jihad, and probably also lead to the insurgency coming to the table as the viet cong did in the Paris peace talks did.
We would have to give up the idea that we can dictate the path of Iraq in the future. It is actually an Arab regional problem. They know the problems of Iraq much better than we do and can work for a solution that all peoples of the region can live with both inside Iraq as well as the surrounding region. Not to place the solution in the hands of the people of the region is at best a willful ignorance of the cultural, political historical, problems we have in trying to formant a solution and imposing it on the situation, and at the worst smacks of an delusional arrogance that we always know better and everyone should just get used to it.
We actually had no good legal reason to invade Iraq and did not properly plan the operation to restore Iraq after military operations were over. We have failed in implementing the actions that we have taken. This fact was apparent to Congressman Murtha last fall and he has been proved right. Now we have a small window left to start making decisions that would actually defuse the tensions inside Iraq and move toward actual solutions for the problem that we have in Iraq as a result of the invasion of March 2003. Colin Powell was half right about the pottery barn rule " If you break it, you own it". Well we broke it pretty badly but we actually do not OWN Iraq and that is the roadblock that seems to prevent an actual solution, the problem is ours not the country.
We can do this now, or we can wait until many more die, much damage is done to the region, and possibly to the world economy.