Ann Coulter's remark that Christians want Jews to be "perfected" proves she knows nothing about Christianity. Maybe she didn't mean it the way it sounded, but I have done enough research on Coulter to know she prefers a "cream-colored" ethnically cleansed population of "non-swarthy" types. Her comment that Jews need to be perfected is the kind of talk that sparked the Holocaust.
TOMORROW ON HBO: "RUN, GRANNY, RUN" follows the unique experience of 94-year-old Doris "Granny" D. Haddock as she runs for the U.S. Sentate in this inspirational documentary premiering tomorrow at 9 pm October 18 on HBO. Proving that age, sex, and social standing don’t necessarily determine political campaigns, "Run, Granny, Run" shows the “everyman” (woman) can make a difference when it debuts TOMORROW THURSDAY, OCT. 18 at 9:00 p.m. ET, exclusively on HBO. Check Granny D’s Official MySpace Page and see advanced clips from the film including what happens when Granny D tries to meet Howard Dean: http://www.myspace.com/rungrannyrun
Read the amazing new book "THE CONSERVATIVES HAVE NO CLOTHES: Why Right-Wing Ideas Keep Failing" by Greg Anrig, Vice President of Programs at the Century Foundation. We just interviewed him and you can listen in the archives at: Basham and Cornell Progressive Talk Radio The Basham and Cornell Show broadcasts weekday mornings at 8 a.m. Pacific (11 a.m. Eastern) on AM 1230 KLAV in Las Vegas.
Three items to discuss:
1. Blackwater down: Is Blackwater prolonging the war in Iraq? Iraqis want them out of Iraq. Erik Prince's Blackwater Mercenery Army was paid over $300 million of our taxpayer dollars
2. Wiretapping set in place PRIOR to 9/11
3. Ann Coulter's remarks and her enablers in the media.
Blackwater is hurting our troops. From ThinkProgress.org: "Given the choice, the right-wingnuts always choose Blackwater over our own troops. They're not on the same side, and haven't been ever... The whole "screw them" thing four years ago was exactly that -- the wingers were more outraged over four Blackwater mercenaries killed than they were about the five Marines that had died that very same day... I was pissed that the sacrifice of those Marines merited less attention that those of a private, profit-motivated, unaccountable militia.
It's always been clear where the US military has stood in regards to the mercenaries. Soldiers complain about them:
"They act like they're God's gift to combat operations" complained one soldier to me, "Swanning around with weapons and equipment every bit as powerful as anything in our armoury, but without any of the legal framework that we have to work within. They're rude, aggressive and to be honest, their attitudes piss us guys off so I dread to think how the Iraqis view them".
The top brass have been complaining about their ill effect for years:
In the post-9/11 world, demand for the commandos is not only soaring within the military. Private firms and government organizations - including the CIA - are luring away troops with bigger salaries. "It is a very lucrative opportunity right now for special operations folks to get out and take very high-paying jobs" with private security firms, says General Brown. A 20-year veteran leaving Special Operations receives about $23,000 in retirement pay, but can earn $100,000 to $200,000 in private industry, military officials say.
With no end to the demand in sight, the military must carefully allocate SOF while increasing their ranks. To fill the current gap, it is accepting added risks with less experienced forces.
Blackwater in Iraq: Killing for Profit By Saul Landau
The words "Support Our Troops" stain the rear bumpers of thousands of cars. The slogan, however, conceals a more pernicious demand: "Support Our Mercenaries." Yes, in Iraq, the mercenaries--euphemistically called "paid contractors"--outnumber US troops, 180,000 to 160,000. These contractors do more than provide armed security for US personnel. They do chores that previously belonged to regular army staff.
Private security companies employ for high pay former US soldiers, ex-kidnappers and torturers from Pinochet's secret police, death squad heavies from a variety of Central and South American countries and a few leftover South African apartheid thugs as well. The companies collect billions from US taxpayers. A typical U.S. soldier serving in Iraq makes about: $57 a day. The estimated daily take for a Blackwater security guard there runs between $500- $600. (FACING SOUTH A News and Politics Report Sept. 26, 2007)
****
From Lydia: There was a time when I was a Republican, but that was before I got sober. It was when I was in my ego stage: very self-centered and full of myself. And in fear of losing what I had or not getting what I wanted. As we shed our ego, we become more compassionate toward others, more concerned about social justice and saving our earth and helping other flawed humans — not judging them, but helping them.
I am reprinting this letter from Dennis Taylor of Phoenix, Arizona. I think this man is very intuitive — which we are all capable of being when we open our minds.
"Dear Lydia, I have to share something that my wife said after reading your blog. Without sounding flakey…I’m convinced that my wife is correct and that this goes hand in hand with your statement regarding the next frontier being the center or the middle. We both have a strong internal sense of something impending that is difficult to explain. A feeling that many of us are going to be called to stand out for what is right and rescue the Constitution of the USA so that the country can get back to being a democracy. It seems like while America slept, we were slowly and silently robbed of Democracy. The irony is the fact that so many people who call themselves Christian as well as conservative played a big role in America silently surrendering Democracy to those who regard the constitution as a mere technicality to work around in order to promote their self-serving agendas.
Respectfully, Dennis Taylor
Tribal divisions and ethnic chauvinism seem so primitive. We can't survive without each other. It's also pretty clear that storing up material treasures on earth is useless. We are learning not to depend on material sustenance, but to depend on charity. Love for our fellow man -- there is nothing else worth talking about. And that is why the Gate is narrow: it's hard to love your enemies -- and I'm not just talking about terrorists. It's hard to love people you can't stand to be in the same room with. With my relatives this weekend, I kept asking myself: "How can I be of love and service to people who are incredibly annoying?" Very few will make it through this gate of loving their enemies, not fighting, and embracing those morally bankrupt people who disgust, offend and threaten them. But that's what we are called to do, and that's why the Way is narrow.
I want to start focusing on all the good we can do. Look at this incredible universe – it would take a blind slug not to see God everywhere. This is heaven and it is here now, if we choose to see it. I was at a peacock farm with my kids, chasing peacocks all over the place -- and in the design of a peacock's feathers, you see God’s artistry. In the calligraphy of a Monarch butterfly you see perfection. And in a baby's face, you see heaven. Why do people debate whether or not God exists when God is simply love? Who can argue with love, kindness, compassion? Asking to prove the existence of God is like asking to prove you love your kids. I actually believe that Einstein was on the cusp of proving God through science, for he said that 'goodness, truth and beauty are laws of the universe'; hence God and science are not mutually exclusive.
I also love Wayne Dyer's statement that "you'll see it when you BELIEVE it" and "the antidote to depression is kindness". One act of kindness to another human being is an anti-depressant; it actually raises your Serotonin levels. An observer of an act of kindness also gets a Serotonin boost. If everyone in America was engaged in volunteering, in "love and service" work, we wouldn't be thinking about ourselves or what we lack -- and we wouldn't be depressed. Depression is an epidemic in this country and the pharmaceutical companies love promoting our fears & obsessions. Getting out of our self-centered fear by helping others works every time.
My brilliant friend Chaz and I were discussing how the world has changed and how odd it is that something we thought was a given, makes so much sense to us, but make so little sense to right-wingers, and he said that if we weren't saying the truth, it wouldn't upset so many people. Kind of like the film "Good Night and Good Luck" about Edward R. Murrow's battle with McCarthy. He also said that "a frog never jumps out of a pan if you turn the heat up slowly." Which is what the people in power are doing to middle-class Americans: turning the heat up and taking away our earnings, choices and freedoms in such gradual degrees that we barely notice until it's too late.
Another letter from a fan: "I am convinced that if Jesus Christ almighty were to come pay us a visit incarnate today, he would have one thing to say to many of the religious right-wing and republican party as well as a result of the mess they have made. He would call them a 'brood of vipers,' which is what he called the Pharisees of his time. These very same people who did everything in their power to rake Bill Clinton over the coals for an indiscretion with a Whitehouse Intern seem to have absolutely no problem with telling lies, half truths and hiding Bush’s sins and crimes. It’s a sad but true statement when ya consider the fact that Nixon got impeached for things far less offensive then the crimes that Bush is flat out guilty of both locally and internationally..."
"I’m concerned about the future of this country as a result of the dangerous trend of growing lies and deception that the Bush administration and vicious mouthpieces like Ann Coulter and Bill O’ Reilly. Over the course of the last five years, people like this have effectively redefined the word “liberal” to mean a lot of things that it simply is not and never was. Liberal is actually a very positive and progressive term when examined under the light of honesty. However, in the hands of corrupt people like Bush, O’ Reilly and Coulter, it has been used to mislead the American public. Regretfully, they have used the stupidity of most Americans to believe that liberal is something bad, immoral, baby murdering and anti-Christian."
EARLY HALLOWEEN PHOTO:
Lydia said "My brilliant friend Chaz and I were discussing how the world has changed and how odd it is that something we thought was a given, makes so much sense to us, but make so little sense to right-wingers, and he said that if we weren't saying the truth, it wouldn't upset so many people. Kind of like the film "Good Night and Good Luck" about Edward R. Murrow's battle with McCarthy. He also said that "a frog never jumps out of a pan if you turn the heat up slowly." Which is what the people in power are doing to middle-class Americans: turning the heat up and taking away our earnings, choices and freedoms in such gradual degrees that we barely notice until it's too late. "
ReplyDeleteThat is so "right on" .........these repug fascists hate the truth, that is WHY they attack it so viciously.......theor mantra is "id you cant defeat the message attack or kill the messenger" they like the public ignorant and gullible so they will be MORE receptive to buy into their lies and dishonest talking points that have gone unchallenged for FAR TOO LONG. I listened to the John Dean Interview yesterday and he is right these [people NEED to be challenged and their lies, rhetoric and dishonest talking points NEED to be challenged or else people will assume them to be true. Progressives NEED to start acting tough and using Conservative type tactics although based on facts and truth which we clearly have on our side to take our country back........thios election is crucial to prevent the fascists from infecting the courts with radicals and completely dismantling and destroying the Constitution.
Chaz is ALSO 110% right with his turning up the heat slowly so the frog doesnt jump out of the pot analogy.......THAT is EXACTLY what the Neo Con fascists are doing by destroying and dismantling our freedoms and by robbing from and sqeezing the middle class.
Lydia I wish the"new enlightenmet" didn't include press relesases like this from GOP staffers in the house of representatives.
ReplyDeleteBipartisanship on SCHIP!*
It is an actual press release from;
republicans.energycommerce.house
(actually part of their website address ...)
Republican businessman Montgomery Burns today joined with Mayor Joe Quimby, D-Springfield, to support the Senate’s gazillion-dollar SCHIP bill.
“If the poor children can get a piece of the action, why can’t I?” explained Burns at a MoveOn.org rally in Capital City. “The little darlings are needy? Me, too. I need somebody to pay. Quimby here says he knows a bunch of low-income nobodies who are ripe for the picking. Excellent.”
“You need this?” wondered the mayor. “Well, why not. I’ve got needs, too. Why, I’ve got 27 paternity suits pending and to quote the Speaker, ‘suffer the little children.’ The Quimby Compound is overflowing with those little sufferers. Vote Quimby.”
Inexplicably, the mayor then leaned toward a comely MoveOn organizer and whispered in her ear, “Ah, if anyone asks, you’re my niece from out of town and you don’t get SCHIP.”
“But Uncle Joe, I am your niece from out of town, and I do get SCHIP.”
“Good Lord, I’m a monster!” exclaimed the mayor.
Mr. Burns shrugged and pressed on with a stirring call to arms: “Truth and fairness, these are the demons we must slay if we wish to save the tykes.”
His patience was tested when a ruckus arose from a restive crowd of backdrop-toddlers who’d been rented by MoveOn for the photo-op. “Get these props away from me,” Burns hissed.
“Kids? Who needs ‘em? Rahm, release the hounds!” added Quimby with a spreading grin. “Ha, I’ve always wanted to say that, Burns.”
The 37 rental children fled and were not seen again, but the arf-arf-arfing of their pursuers could be heard well past sunset.
*Actual facts and events may vary, but really, how much?
Sadly this is NOT an Onion article or some smart progressive blogger trying to outsnark the reichwing, this is actually what those losers actually believe, or wish was true.
Do they even have a clue how visicous and pathetic they sound now a days?
The line about the mayor and his neice, fis the GOPers who have been caught lately, (not any (D) I have read about).
The GOP minions using the "sins"of their party to try to paint those they oppose as being the same as the party of pedophile protection and criminally organized corruption is.
Mark Foley, 2006 ...
Larry Craig 2007 ...
John D.R. Atchison 2007 ...
Robert "Bob" Allen 2007 ....
Glenn Murphy 2007 ...
All members of the GOP power structure, all caught in the last year, and they are only the tip of the iceberg.....
check our this website, which has links to back up what they post
The GOP doesn't want to provide health care for America's children but are willing to cover up some of their brethern's indiscressions(for partisan political advanage) with the very same children, makes you wonder what their "family values" actually consists of.
The repugs use fear tactics just like that idiot Joe McCarthy did.........they loathe the truth and they loathe the educated who deal in fact and ask questions. They want America fearful and ignorant.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWanna a see a perfect example of empty Reich Wing talking points and dishonest circular logic not based on logic and facts, I was watching CNBC this morning and one of the guests was going on about how busineses are not spending and are hoarding their money like they are expecting recession, he then went on to say that oil would likely hit $100 a barrel by the end of the year and the dollar would decline significantly but we will not enter recession in fact the economy will boom because of increased exports and multinationals earnings....................let me get this straight, Consumer spending is at least 2/3 of the economy and $100 oil and inflation caused by declining dollar/high oil is "GOOD" for consumer spending, and lets not forget those corporations that are hoarding their money and NOT spending either, and as for the declining dollar helping exports............WHAT exactly do we export these days? But even if our relatively FEW exports like bullets, bombs and other defense industry stuff did increase possibly due to the war mongering fools initiating yet ANOTHER idiotic war of choice...........those increased profits arent being spent and they CERTAINLY ARENT being shared with the working class who WOULD likely spend them, no they are going to a very narrow group of wealthy elite robber barons.
ReplyDeleteSO tell me again how $100 and inflation iduced by a decining dollar is going to bring an economic boom rather than a recession..........thats circular logic kinda like Bush and Greenspan thinking excessive debt = prosperity............you cant spend your way to prosperiy, particularly when its money you DONT even have and need to borrow from the fiscally responsble countryies...........
Ann Coulter's remark that Christians want Jews to be "perfected" proves she knows nothing about Christianity.
ReplyDeleteOr Jews, for that matter.
Some of whom are probably her best friends...
Why is it right wingers always do shit like this?
Take Widdle Twucker...hates minorities, but damn if he ain't banging them like drums!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe Turkish government will seek parliamentary approval for a military operation against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, a government spokesman said Monday, taking action on one of two major issues straining relations with Washington.
ReplyDeleteThe government will immediately send a motion to the Parliament in hopes of a vote later this week, government spokesman Cemil Cicek said. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government twice acquired similar authorizations from the Parliament in 2003, but did not act on them.
Now look what you've caused Bush!
As the Barack Obama campaign canvassed door-to-door this past weekend in scores of communities across the country, a snapshot of a campaign fueled by an unique mix of a non-confrontational style, a message of hope and sometimes unwitting amateurishness emerges.
ReplyDeleteThis mid-fall freeze-frame also paints a picture of a Democratic electorate significantly more ambivalent and undecided than recent polls indicated and perhaps less motivated by the war in Iraq and more by domestic issues than previously suggested.
The portrait of the Obama campaign operating at ground level among national Democratic voters is a product of a new type of citizen journalism. In an unprecedented effort of campaign reporting, nearly two dozen Off The Bus correspondents monitored Obama Canvass for Change events in fourteen cities in nine crucial states during the past 48 hours and contributed to this report from venues as disparate as Keene, NH, Des Moines and Dubuque, and Minneapolis; Studio City, Corte Madera, Berkeley, Sacramento, Koreatown - Los Angeles, and Altadena, CA; from Boise, Brooklyn and Ballard; from Manhattan, KS, Memphis and Charlotte, NC. (To see all of our campaign monitor reports click here.)
Despite neighborhood and regional differences, and although the levels of sophistication and competency among the individual campaign events varied, our correspondents found several common themes, the most striking of which is to what degree Democrats still declare themselves undecided.
It's abundantly clear that, less than four months before the onslaught of decisive primaries and caucuses, many Democratic voters have just not made up their minds. "Of those that would speak to us, almost all were undecided," reports correspondent Phoebe Love who followed the Obama canvass through Ballard, Washington. She is echoed by contributor Ethan Hova in Studio City, a middle-class Democratic suburban stronghold in Los Angeles: "The vast majority of voters were very much undecided and expressed reluctance to engage in debate without conducting research on their own." Daniel Macht, following the Obama campaign in Brooklyn, New York noted the same hesitation: "They were all undecided, save one Edwards supporter." Perhaps most importantly, correspondent Beverly Davis reports from Des Moines, "Smith [ an Obama volunteer] knocks on Dan Arply's door and launches into his opening rap but Arply soon interrupts by saying, 'Thanks for stopping by, but I haven't decided on supporting anyone yet.' Arply is a typical Iowan."
It's difficult to draw hard and fast conclusions from such anecdotal material but it might suggest that the slew of recent polls giving Hillary Clinton a commanding lead in the race for the nomination may be of limited utility. Correspondent Hova found widespread indifference toward Clinton as he went door-to-door with the Obama canvassers: "This was a fairly affluent suburb north of Los Angeles and I was really surprised not to find a single Hillary supporter in the neighborhood."
It's possible that numerous Democrats who have declared for Clinton to a pollster are like the shopper who hoists a likely candidate from the pumpkin bin inside the supermarket door. Maybe a keeper, maybe not, for there's the possibility of a better find further along in produce.
Balancing this good news for Obama is the likelihood that the centerpiece of Saturday's Canvass, retelling the story of Obama's opposition to the War in Iraq, was a bust. Kelly Nuxoll reports from the Left Coast of Berkeley, "The war seemed nominally an issue, but social issues, health care . . . also came up a lot." Nominally an issue--in Berkeley? Christine Escobar in Dubuque: "Only viewed one 25 year old woman responding to the war message." Deborah Phelan in Corte Madera in liberal Northern California found similar responses: "People were very much tired of talking about the Iraq war." Ditto for Daniel Macht in Brooklyn: "All said the war wasn't the only issue they cared about."
Does Hillary need to worry?
As the chief federal trial judge in Manhattan, Michael Mukasey approved secret warrants allowing government roundups of Muslims in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks.
ReplyDeleteSix years later, the man President Bush wants to be attorney general acknowledged that the law authorizing those warrants "has its perils" in terrorism cases and urged Congress to "fix a strained and mismatched legal system."
Mukasey's caution about the material witness law probably will please Democrats who control the Senate Judiciary Committee. At confirmation hearings set to begin Wednesday, they plan to press the retired federal judge about the Bush administration's terrorist detention policy.
The committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, long has criticized the government's use of the warrants. They allowed the FBI to detain, without charges, an estimated 70 people, all but one of whom was a Muslim, as witnesses after the terrorist attacks in 2001.
Leahy, D-Vt., is expected to question Mukasey about this and other issues the senator has described as arising "from this administration's abuse of secrecy and expansion of executive power."
A fellow Democrat on the committee, New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, said he supports Mukasey but disagrees with some of his positions on terrorist detentions.
"We may have some disagreement on what that structure should be. But he will not try to unilaterally expropriate all of the lawmaking to the executive branch. The point is that it's done with open debate, and Congress has to pass it," Schumer said Friday.
White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said Sunday: "Judge Mukasey is looking forward to the opportunity to respond to questions from the Judiciary Committee. These are complex legal questions, and Judge Mukasey will bring the unique perspective and experience of someone who had to address these questions in the courtroom in cases involving actual and suspected terrorists."
Congress authorized material witness warrants in 1984 to allow the temporary detention of witnesses who might flee before being called to testify to a grand jury or at trial. The warrants are signed by a judge in secret; the public is barred from court hearings about the people targeted by the warrants.
Critics have said the administration has used the law to detain suspected terrorists when the government lacked sufficient criminal evidence to hold them. The administration has tried to deflect criticism by pointing out that judges must sign the warrants.
"Material witness warrants are really short-lived," former federal prosecutor David N. Kelley said. "You give your information and the government is either going to have you testify and let you go, or if there is another crime, you're going to be charged with that. People who are held as witnesses are witnesses because they were involved or connected with the conduct."
Mukasey was the chief judge in the federal courthouse just blocks from ground zero. He presided over several hearings _ the Justice Department will not say how many _ for men detained as material witnesses, but not initially charged with a crime.
He criticized a fellow U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan who ruled that warrants issued in the post-Sept. 11 roundup was an illegitimate use of the law. Mukasey issued a ruling upholding the warrants as constitutional.
Rudy Giuliani is running for office on how he handled 9/11 and here we have proof positive that firemen were killed because his administration did not fix the long-standing (since 1993!) problems with the radios.
ReplyDeleteThis BNF investigative report calls attention to four key questions about Rudy’s handling of the broken radios from firemen’s families and experts:
Why was nothing done to improve FDNY radio performance for seven years after a clear need was demonstrated in the 1993 World Trade Center attack?
When new radios were finally ordered, why did the city block other companies besides Motorola from bidding on the contract?
Once Motorola was given the contract, why did its cost jump from $1.4 million to $14 million?
Why were these new radios never tested?
These questions should and must be investigated. New York City councilman Eric Gioia has the power to begin an investigation. If we can garner enough attention and signers, we have a major opportunity to help launch an investigation.
And this mobster wants to be President.
Democrats.com is looking for people willing to launch primary challenges against Bush Dog Democrats.
ReplyDeleteIn 2006, we elected Democratic majorities to the Senate and House for one overriding reason: to end the Iraq War.
In May 2007, both the Senate and the House voted on amendments to end the Iraq War by setting a March 2008 deadline for removing combat troops. Those amendments would have passed if all Democrats had voted to end the Iraq War - but some pro-war “Bush Democrats” voted to continue the Iraq War forever.
As Democrats, we have every right to expect our Democratic Senators and Representatives to vote with us on the issues we care about deeply. And if they do not, we have every right to support candidates who agree with us in Democratic primaries against them.
There are two good reasons to support primary challengers. If we win, we get a better Member of Congress. But even if we lose, a competitive race often persuades the incumbent to change positions on the issue that fueled the primary. In 2006, two key anti-war challengers brought dramatic changes: both Jane Harman (CA-36) and Al Wynn (MD-4) voted for the war in 2002, but voted against the war in 2007 as a direct result of anti-war primary challenges by Marcy Winograd and Donna Edwards.
Of course, challenging an incumbent Senator or Representative is a huge effort. To run a competitive race requires finding an excellent candidate and a building a strong grassroots organization. Happily, the Internet lets us do both.
Let's start with Pelosi.
Larry, this is the Democrats' fault. A Democrat committee passed this resolution over the very strong objections of the Bush administration. They did this for one purpose only: to drive a wedge between the US and Turkey, one of our staunchest allies in the region.
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats are doing this because they are terrified of success in Iraq and this is their way of supporting the troops. The Democrats OWN defeat in Iraq. They must secure defeat in Iraq at any cost.
Way to go, Dems. Make it harder for our troops. Nice going.
How can you claim that Bush is responsible for this when he has objected to this Democrat resolution.
Why not just admit that you want our troops to lose in Iraq, that you want America to be defeated.
I'm sure Mark Levin will knock this out of the park tonight.
Check out this video that Christopher found on Pelosi:
ReplyDeleteFrom the Left
A Democratic senator well versed in US intelligence procedures has accused President Bush of "misleading" the American people about the harsh interrogation tactics the CIA uses against terror detainees.
ReplyDeleteSen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter to Bush urging the president to come clean with Congress and the public about the CIA's methods, which critics say amount to torture.
"Your words and actions have prevented both Congress and the public from having the full, informed debate that this important topic deserves. ... Americans deserve more than misleading statements and euphemistic references to 'alternative interrogation techniuqes," Feingold wrote.
Feingold's letter was in response to Bush's comments after the New York Times revealed this month that his administration "provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures."
In layman terms Stop lying to the American People Bush!
Reid: Impeachment is a 'foolish idea;' Pelosi doesn't see justification
ReplyDeleteHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) -- the top Democratic leaders from each of their respective chambers of Congress -- are drawing fire for a pair of recent radio appearances in which they reiterated their opposition to pursuing the impeachment of President George W. Bush.
In an interview Oct. 9 with nationally syndicated liberal radio host Ed Schultz, Pelosi defended previous statements in which she had promised that "impeachment was off the table."
"I don't see a connection between this and impeachment," Pelosi said, asked about a newly released secret memo on US interrogation tactics. A moment later, she side-stepped a repeat of the same question by elaborating on her goal to "bring the country behind a return to an America that honors the vision of our founders."
"I don't see that impeachment is in furtherance of bringing the people together in that way," she said.
"If somebody else out there has reason to think that they have evidence that the president has committed an impeachable offense that can pass the Congress, please let me know that," she continued, "but at the present time, I don't think that the justification is there for that."
Late Friday, Schultz told RAW STORY that the speaker's unwillingness to realistically discuss the impeachment option -- or even to entertain a theoretical scenario in which it might merit real consideration -- was tantamount to giving President Bush a "license to do whatever he wants to do."
"I think the Democratic leadership has signaled to the American people that there is no set of facts, no turn of events that would rise to the level of impeachment," Schultz said, adding that he thought the party's leaders had "pretty much given up."
"Our callers are extremely passionate about the truth," he continued. "They're extremely passionate about the Constitution, and poor Democrats feel like the leadership is letting them down."
Reid, too, dismisses impeachment
For those Democratic voters who believed a majority in Congress might have greased the wheels for possible action on impeachment, another recent interview with top Senate Majority Lead Harry Reid did little to kindle hope.
In a recent Q&A with left-leaning host Christiane Brown of Reno's KJFK radio, Reid dismissed the notion as a "waste of time" that would succeed only in handing the White House to Vice President Dick Cheney.
"The clincher of it all," added Reid, "is that we'd end up with Cheney as president. Does anybody want that?"
"What people want to know is why do we want to wait for more deaths over the next year because we say our hands are tied," said Brown of the war in Iraq, adding that Cheney could be impeached as well.
"Well, I respectfully suggest to anyone that suggests impeachment," the senator replied, "that it's a very foolish idea."
Brown, however, who shot back on-air that "respectfully, I disagree and I know there are a lot of people that do," told RAW STORY that she couldn't grasp Reid's "strange thinking."
"It just seems to me that they've already made their mind up that impeachment isn't an option," she said of Reid and other Democrats, like Pelosi, that brush off even the notion of impeachment.
"We just hear a lot of excuses all the time," Brown said, citing Reid's insistence on her program that the trappings of an impeachment would be an unneeded distraction that served little effective purpose in the waning days of Bush's final term.
"None of these arguments stand up," she continued. "You have to do what's right...I think Americans want to see some accountability, and we're now being told that we're foolish to even consider it. It seems like [Congress] is looking for every reason not to get rid of this president."
Impeach Pelosi, Reid, Cheney and Bush!
There are days when I think I must be dreaming. Surely I'll wake up home in Kansas with Auntie Em and the farm hands standing around my bed telling me the twister didn't get our home and that Evil bitch of the west didn't really destroy the American system of government.
ReplyDeleteAbizaid: ‘We’ve Treated The Arab World As A Collection Of Big Gas Stations’
ReplyDeleteDuring a round table discussion on “the Fight for Oil, Water and a Healthy Planet” at Stanford University on Saturday, Gen. John Abizaid (Ret.), the former CENTCOM Commander, said that “of course” the Iraq war is “about oil“:
“Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that,” Abizaid said of the Iraq campaign early on in the talk.
“We’ve treated the Arab world as a collection of big gas stations,” the retired general said. “Our message to them is: Guys, keep your pumps open, prices low, be nice to the Israelis and you can do whatever you want out back. Osama and 9/11 is the distilled essence that represents everything going on out back.”
Abizaid has previously argued that the U.S. would need “to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq” in order to protect “the free flow of goods and resources” such as oil, but his Stanford comments go much further in pinning oil as a prime motivator for the war.
The Bush administration, however, still denies any connection between the war in Iraq and America’s geopolitical interest in Middle East oil. Just last month, after former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan wrote that “the Iraq War is largely about oil,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates rejected the notion, saying “I just don’t believe it’s true“:
“I wasn’t here for the decision-making process that initiated it, that started the war,” Gates said. But he added, “I know the same allegation was made about the Gulf War in 1991, and I just don’t believe it’s true.”
“I think that it’s really about stability in the Gulf. It’s about rogue regimes trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. It’s about aggressive dictators,” Gates said.
Though Abizaid says that Bush’s Iraq policy seeks to keep oil “prices low,” the per-barrel cost of oil has risen dramatically since the U.S. first invaded. In March 2003, the price of oil was roughly US$35 a barrel. Today, prices reached “above $85 a barrel for the first time.”
Heck of a job Georgie .....
I have a question for ALL Koolaid drinking Conservatives.......which is MOST Conservatives.
ReplyDeleteSee repugs tend to deal in fantasy rather than facts........so i'm going to list some facts and ask a simple question based on those facts.
IF some one looked in their crystal ball and stated that 9 years from now oil would be almost 9 times what it is now or roughly $775 a barrel, housing values would be declining for essentially the first time sine the Great Depression, we would have record forclosures, we have had an inverted yield curve for a substantial period of time, the dollar would decline by about 50% and we would be bogged down in a unwinnable Vietnam type war.............would you say those are Bullish signs for the economy................most of the talking heads and cheerleaders on CNBC did.........................Hint guys the FED DOESNT cut rates when the economy is healthy and doing good thats a sign of weakness much like a person with pneumonia going to the doctor and being given an antibiotic and shot of steroids.
Mike your trying to rationally discuss the economy with people who base their opinions on what ever drug addicted venom spews forth from Rush limpballs.
ReplyDeleteThe Department of Defense has conspired with the FBI to "circumvent the law" in accessing hundreds of Americans' telephone, e-mail and financial records, say two civil liberties groups that released reams of new documents obtained in a contested public records request.
ReplyDeleteThe American Civil Liberties Union, which has challenged the Bush Administration's post-Sept. 11 spying authority, says the Pentagon has issued 455 National Security Letters in concert with the FBI to obtain Americans' private information it is not entitled to receive.
"The documents make clear that the Department of Defense may have secretly and illegally conducted surveillance beyond the powers it was granted by Congress," ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said. "It also appears as if the FBI is serving as a lackey for the DoD in misusing the Patriot Act powers. At the very least, it certainly looks like the FBI and DoD are conspiring to evade limits placed on the Department of Defense's surveillance powers."
The 455 letters were issued to investigate potential terror threats posed by people directly connected to the Defense Department, including civilian employees, contractors, active duty troops, reservists and their families, military officials told the New York Times.
Bush is spying on innocent Americans: Impeach Bush!
During a round table discussion on “the Fight for Oil, Water and a Healthy Planet” at Stanford University on Saturday, Gen. John Abizaid (Ret.), the former CENTCOM Commander, said that “of course” the Iraq war is “about oil“:
ReplyDelete“Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that,” Abizaid said of the Iraq campaign early on in the talk.
“We’ve treated the Arab world as a collection of big gas stations,” the retired general said. “Our message to them is: Guys, keep your pumps open, prices low, be nice to the Israelis and you can do whatever you want out back. Osama and 9/11 is the distilled essence that represents everything going on out back.”
Abizaid has previously argued that the U.S. would need “to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq” in order to protect “the free flow of goods and resources” such as oil, but his Stanford comments go much further in pinning oil as a prime motivator for the war.
The Bush administration, however, still denies any connection between the war in Iraq and America’s geopolitical interest in Middle East oil. Just last month, after former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan wrote that “the Iraq War is largely about oil,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates rejected the notion, saying “I just don’t believe it’s true“:
“I wasn’t here for the decision-making process that initiated it, that started the war,” Gates said. But he added, “I know the same allegation was made about the Gulf War in 1991, and I just don’t believe it’s true.”
Though Abizaid says that Bush’s Iraq policy seeks to keep oil “prices low,” the per-barrel cost of oil has risen dramatically since the U.S. first invaded. In March 2003, the price of oil was roughly US$35 a barrel. Today, prices reached “above $85 a barrel for the first time.”
This is one of the few generals who isn't lying for Bush.
Associated Press
ReplyDeleteSen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told a Texas magazine she will not seek re-election after this term and may leave the Senate as early as 2009, according to excerpts published on the magazine's blog Monday.
Hutchison told Texas Monthly in an interview to be fully published in December that she would end her Senate career in 2012, whether or not she runs for governor.
Stepping down in two years "has to be considered," the Texas Republican senior senator is quoted as saying in the excerpts.
Ms. Hutchison declined an interview request from The Associated Press, but a spokesman for the senator confirmed the accuracy of the magazine excerpts.
Another war lover bites the dust!!!
THE RESURRECTION OF IMUS: RETURNS ON NATION'S TOP TALK STATION
ReplyDeleteMon Oct 15 2007 07:52:30 ET
**Exclusive**
In a dramatic and dazzling career rebound, controversial radio host Don Imus has secured a deal returning him to the airwaves on December 3 -- this time on the nation's most listened to talk station, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned!
"Imus In The Morning" will make a high-impact resurrection on WABC in New York City, top sources reveal.
"We'll have him on a standard 40-second delay," a studio source explains. "Don is rested, humbled, and ready for war!"
Specific terms of the deal will not be released, but the host, who was fired by CBS and MSNBC after making disparaging comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team, has inked a eight-figure, multiyear contract with WABC parent company, CITADEL BROADCASTING.
But who will his GUESTS be?
Will senators come on? Presidential candidates? Tim Russert? Anna Quindlen? Who's the guest now? WILL THE ELITES TURN THEIR BACK ON HIM?
MORE
The stunning comeback is a defeat for those who protested and picketed Imus earlier this year.
Imus is said to be particularly incensed by Senator Hillary Clinton's "shameless exploitation" of the Rutgers situation.
The senator, who Imus has called "satan" and the "devil", traveled to Rutgers in April to praise the women's basketball team for its response to the controversy. In a campaign email, Hillary called Imus's comments "small-minded bigotry and coarse sexism."
"Hillary, prepare to meet your maker!" a source close to the host joked early Monday.
Station executives are still tinkering with the new schedule at WABC, which will likely see current morning jock Curtis Sliwa paired with late morning's John Gambling.
Imus will be interviewed by Barbara Walters for a coming special.
Mortgage woes and big loan write-downs took a dramatic toll on Citigroup's third quarter profits, but America's largest banking group on Monday still reported a net profit of 2.4 billion dollars.
ReplyDeleteCitigroup, which had warned its profits would moderate significantly due to the distressed US mortgage market, said its earnings per share plummeted to 47 cents compared with 1.10 dollars during the same period of 2006.
Most analysts had only expected Citigroup to unveil earnings of 44 cents per share, but a profitable sale of shares in Brazilian finance firm, Redecard, helped offset its soured mortgage investments.
Overall profit nonetheless declined by 57 percent from the same period a year ago.
"This was a disappointing quarter, even in the context of the dislocations in the subprime mortgage and credit markets," said Citigroup chairman and chief executive officer Charles Prince.
Citigroup and other big Wall Street banks have seen their earnings ravaged by exposure to sub-prime mortgages, or home loans granted to Americans with patchy credit records. Mounting home foreclosures have played havoc with such mortgages.
Despite raking in over two billion dollars for the July-September quarter, Citigroup's earnings momentum was also blunted by increased credit losses and trading setbacks. Overall revenues rose six percent to 22.7 billion dollars.
Citigroup revealed pre-tax losses of 1.56 billion dollars from bets it made on mortgage-backed securities and other loan instruments, as well as disclosing pre-tax write-downs of 1.35 billion dollars related to mergers and acquisitions lending agreements.
The financial colossus also said it lost 636 million dollars, pre-tax, from its fixed income trading operations, partly as a result of the August meltdown in financial markets.
The US credit and banking markets threatened to seize up in August as fears about the trillion-dollar mortgage market deepened forcing banks to tighten their lending practices.
That Bush economy is hurting his corporate buddies now.
Check out Jolly Roger's post on his Uncle Sam!
ReplyDeleteReconstitution
Although I'm an atheist today, I grew up Catholic and I can say with all honesty that when I heard Annthrax Coulter's vile remarks about jewish people, I didn't know what the hell she was talking about.
ReplyDeleteAnnthrax has effectively managed to tick off just about every group on earth except the obese and the abasiophiliacs.
Christopher:
ReplyDeleteCoulter could talk about goldfish and it would rile any sane person.
Lydia's blog has been listed in the top 100 women's political blogs. Congrats Lydia:
ReplyDeleteInformed Voters
That is so cool. I just visited Informed Voters and I'm going to link to her blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for finding this Larry.
Look at the eyes on that hidious witch they are the eyes of a delusional raving fanatical loon.
ReplyDeleteThese people are just so twisted and evil...........from the moment Bush and Cheney came to power I thought they reminded me of Nazis, they had that Nazi look and I just felt something was wrong even though I brushed it aside and said I want to give them a chance and be fair and open minded..............unfortunatelt EVERYTHING they have done since 2002 has confirmed my initial impression in spades!
Love the picture of Andy Coulter for Halloween...just perfection.
ReplyDeleteLydia's blog has been listed in the top 100 women's political blogs.
ReplyDeleteVery, very cool! Congrats!
tard texan lied,
ReplyDeleteWhy not just admit that you want our troops to lose in Iraq, that you want America to be defeated.
Why not admit that you know we can't win, but you're constructing one of those Nazi "stabbed in the back" lies to explain your own stupidity away later?
Blackwater is a large part of the problem for both our soldiers and the Iraqis. Men carrying guns and shooting without laws is a problem in any country.
ReplyDeleteAnn C. is a woman who makes her living saying shocking things and then laughing about it. She's a useless human being. I'm much more concerned about what our elected officials do than I am about what Ann says.
I honestly hope she doesn't believe the things that she says. Part of my hopes it is just sensationalism.
ReplyDeleteBut still. It is the worst kind of conduct. The most bitter of disinformation.
GOP Moves to Label Roman Empire Genocidal
ReplyDeleteIn the midst of a push by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, to pass a resolution labeling the Ottoman (Turk) Empire genocidal for the death of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, House Republicans have introduced a bill condemning the Roman Empire for “the wholesale slaughter and domination of most of the known world from about 41 B.C. to 476 A.D.”
Rep. Pelosi, who often refers to her Italian heritage, called the GOP move “nothing short of a hate crime” and “a cynical effort by Republicans to overshadow what could be the first significant accomplishment of the Democrat Congressional majority.”
“The resolution to label the Armenians as victims of a Turkish genocide,” Rep. Pelosi said, “is not meant to antagonize one of our few allies in the middle east, and thus hamper U.S. efforts in Iraq, but is a genuine effort to hold accountable the long-dead perpetrators of this crime. We’re simply doing retroactively what the United Nations would have done if it had existed at the time.”
The Speaker said if the resolution passes, Democrats plan to push for sanctions against the Ottoman Empire, including a ban on sales of cavalry horses, Sopwith Camel fighter biplanes and Zeppelins.
tard is never so pathetic as when he's thinking he's done something clever.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you think I thought it was clever?
ReplyDeleteMembership Has Its Privileges
ReplyDeleteDear ALBERT GORE JR. :
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I am also pleased to tell you that as a winner, you have been pre-approved for membership in the Nobel Peace Player's Club, offering exclusive money-saving benefits available only to laureates like you. Please take a few minutes to look over the enclosed enrollment materials. At only $299.95 per year, I'm sure you'll agree that membership is a bargain at twice the price! Here are just some of the benefits you'll receive:
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Plus, you'll receive the exclusive Nobel Peace Player's Club GoldCard entitling you to discount air travel and 5-star hotel accomodations from Kyoto to Darfur. But don't take our word for it! Listen to these testimonials from some of our current members:
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-- Jimmy Carter, 2002 Lareate
"Whether we're patrolling the Congo, Sudan, or Bosnia, one thing's for sure -- chicks can't resist a Nobel Peace Prize Player!"
-- United Nations Peacekeeping Forces, 1988 Winners
"My Players Club GoldCard lets me treat my friends and family to great perks."
-- Kofi Annan, 2001 Laureate
"I'm a take-action kind of guy. Whenever I fly to Tehran or Pyongyang, the first thing I pack is my Players GoldCard."
-- Mohamed ElBaradei (2005)
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-- Yasser Arafat (1994)
"Don't miss the boat like I did, comrade! I forgot to enroll, and now I'm spending eternity pounding Yasser Arafat up the ass."
-- Le Duc Tho (1973)
So what are you waiting for, ALBERT GORE JR. ? Enroll today and start enjoing the privileges of membership. Enroll today, and we'll throw in a deluxe carbon credit package worth $1000!
Sincerely,
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The Nobel Peace Player's Club Selection Committee
Russian leader Vladimir Putin met his Iranian counterpart Tuesday and implicitly warned the U.S. not to use a former Soviet republic to stage an attack on Iran. He also said nations should not pursue oil pipeline projects that are not backed by regional powers.
ReplyDeleteAt a summit of the five nations that border the inland Caspian Sea, Putin said none of the nations' territory should be used by any outside countries for use of military force against any nation in the region. It was a clear reference to long-standing rumors that the U.S. was planning to use Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, as a staging ground for any possible military action against Iran.
"We are saying that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state," Putin said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also underlined the need to keep outsiders away from the Caspian.
"The Caspian Sea is an inland sea and it only belongs to the Caspian states, therefore only they are entitled to have their ships and military forces here," he said.
Once again the moronic monkey is biting off more than he can chew. Why don't you attack Russia Bush?
Embattled radio jock Don Imus is close to inking a multimillion-dollar deal to return to radio with Citadel Broadcasting, owner of ABC Radio Networks.
ReplyDeleteDeal, expected to be finalized this week, would put Imus back on the air on New York City's WABC-AM, the nation's largest talkradio station, as of Dec. 3.
Imus is seeking a TV element to his radio deal similar to what he had at MSNBC when he was with CBS Radio. That would give him a national platform and, perhaps, the ability to regain some of the high-profile personalities on which he used to depend as guests.
Deal would put Imus in competition with his former employer, CBS Radio, but in a much diminished form. WABC was Imus' main competition in New York when he was on WFAN-FM, but unless Citadel syndicates the show or he lands a TV deal, Imus becomes a well-paid but local personality with limited national pull.
The big questions going forward are whether the advertising support will be there and the guests will return.
Advertisers were the main driver behind Imus' ouster from MSNBC and CBS Radio back in April after he made the now infamous disparaging comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team.
The comments made him radioactive to Madison Avenue, and advertisers including General Motors, American Express, Sprint Nextel, TD Waterhouse, Procter & Gamble and Staples all pulled out in the aftermath.
AM radio has a different pool of regional and smaller advertisers that may be more willing to give Imus a second chance.
Beyond securing a substantial settlement from CBS Radio in August, Imus has kept a low profile since the flap, tending to his charities, such as the Imus Ranch in New Mexico.
But it appears that Imus may be readying a media tour to help rehabilitate his image and prospects. Matt Drudge reported Tuesday that Imus would sit down with ABC's Barbara Walters for an interview.
ABC Radio Networks' roster of syndicated radio personalities includes Sean Hannity, Tom Joyner and Dan Patrick.
Cécilia Sarkozy, France's first lady, will not accompany her husband, president Nicolas Sarkozy, on a state visit to Morocco next week, an Elysée spokesman said yesterday, fanning speculation of their impending split.
ReplyDeleteDivorce for Sarkozys: Cécilia rewrites the rules
Cécilia Sarkozy did not accompany her husband on his last trip to Bulgaria
Mr Sarkozy is due to pay a state visit to Morocco next week but his wife – a 49-year-old former model with whom he has a 10-year-old son – will break with protocol, which provides for the president's wife to take part in such high-level trips. "As far as I know, the wife of the president will not be on the trip," said David Martinon, the presidential spokesman. Mr Sarkozy is due to visit Morocco on Oct 22 and 23.
His wife did not accompany him on his last trip to Bulgaria, where she was due to receive the country's highest award for her part in freeing six medics held by Libya.
Mr Martinon yesterday declined to address questions on the state of their relationship. "I have no comment to make on this issue," he said at a press conference that many thought had been called to announce the end of the Sarkozys' 11-year marriage.
The newspaper La Tribune reported at the weekend that a divorce will be officially declared by a court tomorrow.
Here is another war lover for Condi to pursue while she waits for Pickles to go to rehab!
As Congress debates whether to shield phone and Internet companies from lawsuits alleging they mishandled customers' private records, Verizon, the nations second-largest telecommunications firm, said it has provided telephone and Internet records to federal investigators hundreds of times since 2005.
ReplyDeleteVerizon has provided data to federal authorities on an emergency basis without a court order -- and without determining the requests' legality -- 720 times between January 2005 and September of this year. The company's revelation came in a 13-page letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee released Monday.
Committee Chairman John D. Dingell (D-MI) and two other Democrats on the panel also requested information from AT&T, and Qwest Communications about those companies compliance with federal requests for customer data, but those companies responses were not as detailed as Verizon's.
What an Anti-Ameircan act: Spying on innocent Americans.
Although the scope of surveillance conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act remains shrouded in secrecy, newly disclosed documents show the costs one company charges the government to eavesdrop on customers.
ReplyDeleteComcast, which is among the nation's largest telecommunication companies, charges $1,000 to install a FISA wiretap and $750 for each additional month authorities want to keep an eye on suspects, according to the company's Handbook for Law Enforcement. Secrecy News obtained the document and published it Monday.
"I was actually surprised that this was such a routine transaction that it would have a set fee," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.
Your tax dollars are paying Comcast to spy on you!
The announcements seem so frequent they no longer appear to be news -- yet another Republican congressmember is planning retirement. Last night, news broke that yet another Republican wouldn't run for reelection: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, of Texas.
ReplyDeleteAll told, 17 Republican lawmakers have their sights on Capitol Hill's exit signs.
Democrats, however, aren't leaving. Just two Democrats have called it quits -- both of them leaving the House to seek higher office in the Senate.
An article Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times seeks to illuminate the cause. The piece paints a Republican caucus that is disillusioned with Bush's poll numbers, the war in Iraq, the possibility of a soft economy and perhaps most importantly: life in the minority.
"I don't like being in the minority," Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL), who was first elected in 1994, told the Times. "It's not that much fun, and the prospects for the future don't look that good."
The numbers of retiring congressmembers aren't out of line with previous sessions. What makes the current situation unique is the number of Republicans who are retiring relative to the number of Democrats.
Also startling is the Democrats' fundraising prowess, particularly in the House: the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has $22.1 million on hand to the Republicans' $1.6 million. That's a more than 13 to 1 advantage.
The piece notes that "many of the Republicans choosing to retire are older, more pragmatic lawmakers, such as Rep. Ralph Regula of Ohio; moderates like Rep. Deborah Pryce of Ohio and Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia; and mavericks like Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. These departures reflect the generational and ideological changes that have pushed the Republican contingent in Congress steadily to the right over the last decade."
Former GOP official Eddie Mahe told the paper: "If I was talking to my favorite brother-in-law and he was thinking about running for Congress, I would say, 'Why would you want to do that now?' If anybody's not smart enough to figure that out, I don't want them around anyway."
Worthless Neocons Jumping the Bush Ship of Death!
The third-quarter disclosure reports out today indicate that Rudy Giuliani’s campaign is actively returning checks in denominations that are tied to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, with eight returned checks to individual donors for $9.11, and one returned contribution of $911.
ReplyDeleteGiuliani, who was New York mayor at the time of the attacks, took some heat last month when reports surfaced that a group of California supporters were hosting a “$9.11 for Rudy” fund-raiser. Critics and presidential opponents said the former mayor was capitalizing off the terrorist attacks, but his campaign stressed that there was no direct connection between the individual donors and the campaign’s fund-raising operation.
Patricia Arcaro, a retired Philadelphia-area attorney, said she sent a $9.11 check to Giuliani after hearing about the fund-raiser on the news. “I am a strong supporter of Rudy Giuliani and I immediately sat down and wrote a check to the campaign,” she said in an interview today. “I think it would have been a great grass-roots campaign effort.”
Arcaro said afterward she received a letter with a return check from the campaign that stated, “Unfortunately we must return your contribution. We do not solicit or collect financial support that is indicative of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.” It was signed by Giuliani campaign treasurer John Gross.
Did he finally figure out this was stupid and heartless?
(Reuters) - Time Warner Inc's Internet unit AOL will eliminate 2,000 jobs as part of an ongoing restructuring to better focus on boosting online advertising, according to a memo obtained by Reuters on Monday.
ReplyDeleteThe cuts, which begin on Tuesday, amount to about one-fifth of AOL's global work force and are spread across operations in the United States and in Europe, where the company has sold off its Internet access businesses.
AOL plans to boost investment in higher growth areas such as advertising and new international regions, AOL Chief Executive Randy Falco said in the memo to staff.
Falco said AOL will launch in seven new countries this year and will operate in 30 countries by the end of 2008
It's more results of the Bush economy!
Talll Texan said...
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you think I thought it was clever?
It might be the Velcro shoelaces, Widdle Cowboy, or the stick horse.
Larry said "What an Anti-Ameircan act: Spying on innocent Americans.
ReplyDelete9:01 AM"
Larry, how do you know they were Americans and that they were innocent.
Talll Texan said...
ReplyDeleteLarry, this is the Democrats' fault. A Democrat committee passed this resolution over the very strong objections of the Bush administration. They did this for one purpose only: to drive a wedge between the US and Turkey, one of our staunchest allies in the region.
The Democrats are doing this because they are terrified of success in Iraq and this is their way of supporting the troops. The Democrats OWN defeat in Iraq. They must secure defeat in Iraq at any cost.
BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Define "success" you war-mongering whore...
Talll Texan said...
ReplyDeleteLarry said "What an Anti-Ameircan act: Spying on innocent Americans.
9:01 AM"
Larry, how do you know they were Americans and that they were innocent.
How do YOU know they were all guilty, you paranoid little cretin?
Talll Texan said...
ReplyDeleteMore baby talk from Carl the stalker-sodomite.
Then you ought to be scared and run away, just like you run away from any real confrontation, you stalking criminal bastard.
More baby talk from Carl. I should have known better.
ReplyDeleteEric seems so angry today!
ReplyDeleteTalll Texan said...
ReplyDeleteMore baby talk from Carl. I should have known better.
You get what you deserve, whore.
Larry, his Kool Aid is unsweetened today. Makes him cran-kee!
ReplyDeleteWiddle Cowboy, you'll notice how, in your absence, Lydia's blog has grown more and more successful.
ReplyDeleteTake the hint.
Carl poor Eric is mad because Coulter has her real photo on the blog today.
ReplyDeleteNotice how Eric shows up when Lydia does a post about the witch Coulter?
ReplyDeleteWho is Eric?
ReplyDeleteOh, it's been noted, Larry.
ReplyDeleteEric's comings and goings have been talked about, not just here on Lydia's blog.
Eric has some interesting things to be found, if you look in the right place.
ReplyDeleteNaturally, you've taken the time to post the list in that place we go to, correct? I haven't been lately. I've been rather tied up with my own thang.
ReplyDeleteFunny you mention it Carl, it was updated Friday.
ReplyDelete"Larry said...
ReplyDeleteEric has some interesting things to be found, if you look in the right place.
9:26 AM"
Well, my name is not "Eric," nor have I ever posted as "Eric" or any variation thereof.
I'll need to go there as soon as I can get DSL back at home. I would never log on there from work. Never can tell when the NSA is sniffing packets around here.
ReplyDeleteNow, is this a full disclosure post, or have you merely added to the collective knowledge? Because I know people.
Just hope Eric doesn't have any dogs that need walking, knowwhutImean, Lar?
ReplyDeleteCarl this is everything we asked for when we sought help.
ReplyDeleteYou will be pleased, very pleased.
In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, the Amsterdam-based military historian Gabriel Kolko talks about the prospect of war with Iran and argues that many in the US military now view the White House as being ‘out of control.’
ReplyDeleteFrom the interview:
Many in the US military think Bush and Cheney are out of control. They are rebelling against Bush and Cheney. Washington Post reporter Dana Priest recently said in an interview that she believed the US military would revolt and refuse to fly missions against Iran if the White House issued such orders.
Tell it like it is Gabe!
Did you folks hear?
ReplyDeleteRandi Rhodes was violently attacked Sunday night while out walking her dog.
The level of violence was so great that she lost several teeth in the attack.
Here's the link:
http://talkingradio.blogspot.com/
Thanks Christopher.
ReplyDeleteLooks like they are trying to silence a liberal voice.
Check out the post by Christopher on the Randi Rhodes mugging:
ReplyDeleteFrom the Left
AnnCoulter.com hacked!
ReplyDeleteNow, I won't take credit for it, Eric...but....
Chris, Larry, she wasn't mugged.
ReplyDeleteShe fell down.
What was posted during the Ann Coulter hacking...
ReplyDeleteDear Readers,
I've been participating in a charade for nearly eleven years, now. Quite frankly, I'm sick of it. You have all been a part of a sick joke that I began considering shortly after first getting on the air. At first, it was quite interesting to see how people would react when I would use twisted logic and poorly masked bigotry.
But eleven years is a long time to be living a fake life, and I can no longer tolerate this falsity. Even someone as fake as I tires out eventually.
Here's the truth, I don't care what people believe. Jews don't need to be "made perfect" as I so arrogantly proclaimed to Editor & Publisher not a half week ago. I don't even care if people are Muslim. Granted, I don't know much about the religion or the people, but they are people. This is something that we cannot forget, they are in an abhorrent situation. These people are in need of education. Perhaps if we did not participate in causing them misery, they would not hate us so.
In fact, does it really matter whether we are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, or even Pagan? We are one nation. One. We should not let petty differences separate us, we are all American, and should act in that manner.
And with that, my precious viewers, I bid you adieu. My career as a media figurehead is over.
Signed,
Ann Coulter
P.S. - Oh, and Bill O'Reilly is also just acting.
Haha, did it again. Oh, those silly web admins...they just embarrass themselves.
(Admins, check for an e-mail address in the CMS. Find it. I know you will.)
If 9/11 was an inside job, which I suspect, then it makes perfect sense that wiretapping was already in place before that date.
ReplyDeleteFunny Ann Coulter mask; that'll be the scariest mask on the block.
Who Hijacked Our Country
Tom,
ReplyDeleteI'll go you one better:
Forget the 9/11 conspiracy case. I'd bet this program has been in place since the 1993 bombing at the Trade Center.
You were warned last year Eric, apparentlty you werent smart enough to heed the warning!
ReplyDeleteBTW Eric, how is sweet Mary?
ReplyDeleteI hope all is well with her........it would be a real shame if something were to happen to her.
Hey dont you fundamentalist loons believe that God protects the innocent and punishs the evil and guilty.............wonder where that leaves you and your brood Eric?
Now you have a nice day Eric dont work too hard at that business of yours.
ReplyDeleteHouse Rebukes State Dept. for Stonewalling
ReplyDeleteHouse condemns State Department's refusal to divulge information on Iraqi corruption.
Resolution passes overwhelmingly: 395-21.
--David Kurtz
Now Mike, we don't go around threatening people, especially innocent people like Mary...but you're right, Eric should know better. After all, look at all the shit he took after stalking me!
ReplyDeleteI see the LYING WELSH showed up today,
ReplyDeletedid he OFFER to pay the debt he owes from Betting on the election,
even though the democrats don't need the money like the stupid party of pedophile protection and criminally organized corruption does.
Tiny the Liar should pay the debt he owes anway, it would be the honest thingy to od.
Clif,
ReplyDeleteIt's a start.
It's not enough or fast enough, but it's a start.
Clif,
ReplyDeleteEric can't afford to pay right now.
At least that's what his bank statement says. He might have the money squirreled away in a mattress or something.
Another repug caught violating theUS constitution;
ReplyDeleteGoin' Down
Congressional Research Service report finds multiple violations of the constitution in Rep. Young's (R-AK) post-bill-passage earmark scam.
--Josh Marshall
The bridge to nowhere conressman.
Army ex-captains want US out of Iraq or a new military draft
ReplyDeleteTwelve former US army captains Tuesday urged Washington to either abandon Iraq or dramatically increase its military presence there by reinstating mandatory military service.
The article, published in the Washington Post, also criticized higher-ranking officers for believing they can still hold Iraq together with the force available.
"There is one way we might be able to succeed in Iraq," wrote the ex-captains, all of whom saw service in Iraq between 2003 and 2006.
"To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately.
"A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition," they wrote.
The Iraq war "is as undermanned and under-resourced as it was from the start," the authors wrote, stating bluntly that "Iraq is in shambles."
The authors say they have "seen the corruption and the sectarian division. We understand what it's like to be stretched too thin. And we know when it's time to get out."
The captains describe widespread corruption in the Iraqi government, a country where the infrastructure is in "deplorable condition."
Iraq's oil industry "still fails to produce the revenue that Pentagon war planners hoped would pay for Iraq's reconstruction," they wrote.
Even with the 'surge' of US forces this year there are not enough troops in Iraq. Temporary regional success "may brief well on PowerPoint presentations," but in practice "they just push insurgents to another spot on the map."
Millions of Iraqis "correctly recognize these actions for what they are and vote with their feet -- moving within Iraq or leaving the country entirely.
"Still, our colonels and generals keep holding on to flawed concepts."
After widespread anger over the draft during the Vietnam war, the United States went to an all-volunteer military force in 1973. Currently there is little support to return to compulsory military service.
Tiny the Liar and Dolty Boy they are calling for you to serve boys.
Notice a Pattern Here?
ReplyDeleteby clammyc
A far cry from the taunts of a “permanent republican majority” that we were hearing a few short years ago, there has been a major flurry of resignations and announcements of “early retirements” and “not seeking re-election” over the past year or so. And in pretty much every instance, it is from that “permanent republican” side of the aisle.
Do these Congressional republicans know something deeper about the impending implosion of their party? Are some involved in corruption, scandal or other embarrassing stories? Is it more like rats scurrying for the exits or cockroaches scurrying away when light is shed upon them?
Or is it something deeper – something that is more indicative of a longer term problem with the republican party? Obviously, the writing is on the wall with respect to the failed policies and rubber stamping of these failed policies – even the best republican spinmeisters can’t even deflect enough of the blame or divert enough attention. Whether it is the Justice Department politicization, Iraq, SCHIP, the economy, healthcare, the lack of any groundswell by the Presidential candidates, something else, or all of the above, even the republicans can smell something rotten in the state of their party.
Just off the top of my head, there is Kay Bailey Hutchison’s recent announcement to go along with Senators Hagel, Allard, Domenici and Warner (at least one, if not more of those seats is looking REAL good for the Democrats), just to note a few. And that doesn’t count the seats that the Democrats stand to gain via next year’s elections.
In the House, there is even more of an exodus. Hastert, Deborah Pryce and three others announced their retirement as of a few months ago. But since then, there have been a number of others who are not going to seek reelection. Even Chris Shays was “threatening” to retire.
Of course, there is also the Vitter/Craig (not to mention Foley from last year) cloud that hangs over the party when it comes to the rabid, foaming at the mouth fundie base that would likely be even more turned off and tuned out with Rudy or Mitt headlining the republican ticket. And who knows what else will come out over the next 8-12 months when it comes to corruption scandals, sex scandals (which interestingly have only seemed to hit the republican party after the cries of Clinton tainting the integrity of Washington DC) or just outright malaise and fatigue at the disgrace that the republican party has become.
Right after the 2006 election, Rove (of “THE math” fame) said that less than 100,000 votes on the House side and a few thousand on the Senate side would have kept control with the republican party. Yet, not even his own party seems to believe they have a chance at some control of government in the near future. That, and no doubt, they don’t want to deal with cleaning up the mess they made on Iraq, the economy, the environment and whatever else they did when they controlled all three branches of the Federal Government.
Interestingly as well, the ones who should step down or not seek reelection are the ones who are standing firm. Doolittle comes to mind, as does Larry Craig whose crime (to his party) is more of being a closeted gay while also being republican as opposed to being a creepy peeping tom. And there are more – many more like Heather Wilson, who is in some hot water herself, yet will roll the dice to run for NM-Sen (and leaving her House seat up for grabs).
You never really can know exactly how things will turn out in a year, but enough Congressional republicans are looking at the tea leaves and deciding that they have had enough. While bailing on the mess that they made is certainly a very cowardly thing to do, it at least gives some hope that there will be movement towards cleaning up that mess.
And who knows, maybe events will make it so that there will be a few surprise wins for the Democrats, getting closer to 60 seats in the Senate (not likely though) and another 15-20 in the House.
Even if we don’t see the writing on the wall just yet, it is clear that enough republicans are resigning themselves (pun intended) to the fact that they will be the minority party for the foreseeable future. And as I said above, like rats jumping ship, they are bailing before it all comes crashing down on them.
"clif said...
ReplyDeleteArmy ex-captains want US out of Iraq or a new military draft"
Clif, are you one of them?
Hi Talll Texan.
ReplyDeleteTiny the Liar all the captains who wrote this article .... are in the reserves at this time, thus they are NOT ex captains son, but a gutless chicken hawk like YOU probably doesn't understand how the MILITARY really works, these captains served in Iraq post Bush's ILLEGAL invasion, I did not. (but My daughter did, I served in Desert Storm 199-1991, and that is all I am going to say to you about this, you LYING WELSH
ReplyDeleteExcept to tell you to sign up and serve in the war you want you scarded little lying boy.
I bet you think the drug addicted lying gas bag was correct to attack US citizens who are serving in Iraq, but disagree with Bush's lunacy, by calling them "phony soldiers"
ReplyDeleteGutless chicken hawks have a lot of HOT AIR but little testicular fortitude to actually sign up and actually serve right Tiny the Liar
You are a PIME example of one son.
Rush screeched his a$$ hairs hurt, what was YOUR excuse Tiny the Liar?
ReplyDeleteDead Eye said he had better things to do, (like getting TWO DUI's),
ReplyDeleteWhat was your excuse Tiny the Liar?
Hannity, Bill O both cut andran froim service, so did dolty bo, and gay-dalf dodged the draft by going to college.
ReplyDeleteWhat was YOUR excuse Tiny the Liar?
Hi, Lydia. How do you like doing morning drive time radio? It's harder than one thinks, but you and Doug are doing a bang up job.
ReplyDeleteI liked your interview with John Dean. Naturally, I disagree with him about Iraq, BUT, and this is a very big "but," the way he went about exposing the Watergate scandal was the correct way to go about it. Mark Felt, then the Deputy Director of the the FBI, who was also the real Deep Throat, went about it all wrong. He should have done what John Dean did, which was to talk to the US Attorney and to Congress.
Instead, he (Mark Felt) prolonged the Watergate matter by at least a year and also prolonged the Vietnam War. How many men died because Mark Felt decided to talk to Bob Woodward instead of doing what John Dean did.
America, The Good Things by John Wayne
ReplyDeleteFunny Tiny the Liar, but IF Mark Felt HADN'T given Bob Woodard the info he gave him, which was NOT classified even though Nixon wished it was, John Dean might have never had to resign and testify to congress, but reichwingers like YOU and the drug addicted lying gas bag do like to make up the facts as you clowns go along don't ya
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnother chicken hawk who would rather POSE then serve Tiny the Liar.
ReplyDeleteBTW one of the first things I heard in Basic Taining, was John Wayne doesn't work in the real world. No matter how he maded it look in his movies, you reichwingers screech about hollywood, but suck up to the gutless chickwen hawks from it don't ya son?
Clif, I said Mark Felt should have done what John Dean did. Same result, less time.
ReplyDeleteBesides, the number 2 man at the FBI talking about an ongoing inestigation is probably a crime.
sorry but during 1973 Nixon would have SQUASHED ANY INVESTIATION INTO WATERGATE (like Gonzo did for Bush), Nixon even tried to have the CIA do it for hm. , ONLY A CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION WAS EVER GOING TO ROOT OT THE EVIL that was Richard m Nixon.
ReplyDeleteSame thing goes for the EVIL that is George W Bush and Richard Cheney.
But reichwingers like you don't seem to undersand the constitution RULES the president, he is suserviant to it, not the other way around.
Clif, are you not aware that Dean testified before Congress. Had Felt done the same, the results would have been the same, and the Watergate saga would not have dragged on for as long as it did.
ReplyDeleteThe reichwing was as much a rubber stamp under Nixon as it is under Bush
ReplyDeleteand Nixon had a AG's who had to resign, for illegal activities, HE was goi to lisen to Mark Felt?
remember John Mitchell?
and Patrick Grey had to resign from the FBI for illegal activties.
your grasp on the facts is as bad as your betting activty here son, BTW pay UP.
STUPID the congressional hearings began LONG after the Washington Post articles by Bob woodard had begun, son, in fact the Washington Post articles HELPED get congress off it's collective dead a$$.
ReplyDeleteWhich is partly why the corporate MSM was created to make sure things like those stories wouldn't happen again, and Bush certinately benefitted from the reichwing noise machine and corporate owned press keeping silent for over 6 years.
It was only when Bush's poll numbers were in the toilet,and the Reichwing LOST the 2006 elections(remember that) the MSM found it's balls even a little bit.
BTW gutless what was YOUR excuse for never serving the coutry?
ReplyDeleteClif, Mark Felt was pissed at Nixon because Nixon did not appoint him to replace Hoover. Felt's motive was selfish and personal.
ReplyDeleteNow, tell me, if the Congress listened to John Dean, why would they not have listened to Mark Felt.
Read The Secret Man by Bob Woodward if you don't believe me.
Now if any of you want to know who I am, I'll be at the Driskill Grill for the next hour or so.
ReplyDeleteSorry son but that is REICHWING BULLSH*T
ReplyDeleteFelt said he was angry at all the LAWLESSNESS, and he would have reveaed it to anone, but he knew and TRUSTED Woodward, which is important when the executie branch is deeply BREAKING the LAW, sort of like NOW and Bush.
I don't need to Read anything I REMEMBER it son, I was in highschool and daily reading and studying the entire scandal of Repulicans vioating the constitution just for power, just like they have done the last 6 years.
I don't need somebody's revisionist history, I have a good memory. and I know what happened, esecially how the GOP tried for two years to help Nixon cover it all up INCULDING Freddy the fraud Thompson. (Kinda how they tried to cover up the abramoff scandal, and the cunningham scandal and current DOJ scandal, and Blackwater scandal, and illegal spying scandal, and ETC .......)
Later Tiny the Liar, BTW when you gonna PAY UP son?
ReplyDeleteBTW tiny the liar insead of rehashing 34 year old happenings how about the current scandals of the telecoms ILLEGALLY giving the Bush administration private info when NO court rder or warrant was issued by the government?(if it wasn't illegal the telecoms would NO need immunity from prosecution).
ReplyDeleteYou know tha illegal search and seisure things in that paper titled the US constitution?
That goddamnned piece of paper George W Bush seems to hate.
And Richard Cheney seems to think doesn't apply to him either?
Or Tiny why NOT discuss this article by Juan Cole insead of rehashing something from the early 1970's?
ReplyDeleteWho Lost Turkey?
Turkey has been the strongest ally that the United States has had in the Middle East since the end of WW II. The Marshall Plan started with Northern tier states like Turkey and Greece. Turkey joined NATO and was a key player in the American victory in the Cold War. As a secular government, Turkey stood against the rising tide of Muslim radicalism. To the extent that Turkey is moderating its long-term secular militancy, and moving toward fair elections, it may be providing a model for a moderate, democratic Middle East. Its economy is growing rapidly, foreign investment is in the billions. Turkey is in short, almost everything the US could have asked for in the Middle East.
But the Bush administration has, during the past five years, increasingly thrown away this asset, and now is in danger of losing a close and valued ally altogether. It is unclear what US interests are served by this repeated and profound damage inflicted by Washington on Turkey, or what Ankara ever did to us that we are treating them so horribly. (The dismissive treatment in some ways began when the US promised Turkey $1 bn in aid to offset the damage to its economy of the Gulf War in 1990-1991, but then Congress formally decided by the mid-1990s to renege on the pledge. No one has ever explained why we stiffed them.)
Doesn't this make more sense do discuss especially since turkey seems to want to follow Bush lunacy and invade Iraq? (At least in their defense, they are actually being attacked by the PDK from inside Kurdish regions of Iraq, unlike the LIES told by Bush ET AL (including YOU))
Wouldn't that make more sense then trying to deflect from the total fiasco which is the Bush adminstration at the current time, and not the last crimnal administration run by the GOP?
Probably not to a reichwing hack like you eh son?
As if the reichwing knuckle dragging GOPers don't have anthng better to do:
ReplyDeleteSenator McConnell Staffer Admits To Smearing 12 Year Old Graeme Frost
When is this CLOWN going to be fired by Mitch McConnell?
When does Mitch McConnell issue his public apology to the entire Frost family?
Probably about the same time George W Bush actually admits making a mistake ......
Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Tuesday he prays every night the United States doesn't go to war with Iran, and he blamed Russia and China for standing in the way of a diplomatic solution.
ReplyDelete"I don't think it's inevitable that we're in a conflict with Iran," McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But I certainly see it as one scenario that could, and I emphasize could, take place if we are not effective" in persuading Iran to drop its nuclear ambitions or in enlisting reluctant nations to back punitive sanctions, McCain said.
"There's a whole lot of things we can do before we seriously consider the military option," he emphasized. But he added: "I still say there's only one thing worse than military action against Iran and that is a nuclear-armed Iran."
The Arizona senator talked at length _ and in detail _ about everything from climate change to Social Security to Democrats serving in his White House if he's elected. But much of his hourlong interview with AP reporters and editors was devoted to foreign policy.
If McCain stopped promoting war with Iran, and took his tongue out of Bush's earlobes, his supposed wish might come true.
The woes of the US housing market are dragging on longer than expected, and may lead to over one million foreclosure notices this year for homeowners, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Tuesday.
ReplyDeletePaulson, in a Washington speech, said the problems in housing represent "the most significant current risk" to the US economy and that policymakers and the private sector should mobilize to alleviate the pain and avert future crises.
"The ongoing housing correction is not ending as quickly as it might have appeared late last year," Paulson said said in remarks at Georgetown University Law Center.
"And it now looks like it will continue to adversely impact our economy, our capital markets and many homeowners for some time yet. Even so, I believe we have a healthy, diversified economy that will continue to grow."
Paulson said home foreclosures are rising sharply, especially on subprime loans granted to people with weak credit histories.
"Current trends suggest there will be just over one million foreclosure starts this year -- of which 620,000 are subprime," Paulson said.
He said it was a "troubling" statistic that two million adjustable-rate loans will be reset to higher rates in the next 18 months, and that it was unclear how many of those might put homeowners in jeopardy of foreclosure.
The slide in housing began last year after the once red-hot US property market suddenly turned cold and the the speculative money pouring into real estate started flowing out.
The problems were compounded by higher interest rates, which made it harder for many home buyers, especially those who took out adjustable-rate loans, to make payments.
And because many of the risky or "subprime" loans were repackaged into mortgage-backed securities, the problem loans spread to the financial sector, prompting lenders to become more cautious.
The troubles in the sector have meant weakness in home construction and turmoil in the financial sector, with the end of the problems not yet in sight, Paulson stated.
More of the faltering Bush economy!
A constitutional scholar says President Bush and his administration were working to expand their spy powers months before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which provided a "highly convenient" opportunity to dramatically strengthen law enforcement and surveillance authority.
ReplyDelete"This administration was seeking a massive expansion of presidential power and national security powers before 9/11. 9/11 was highly convenient in that case," George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Keith Olbermann on Countdown Monday night. "I'm not saying that they welcomed it, but when it happened, it was a great opportunity to seize powers that they have long wanted at the FBI."
Turley was responding to allegations aired last week by a former Qwest CEO that the National Security Agency approached telecoms as early as February 2001 about establishing secret mechanisms to spy on Americans. The former CEO, Joe Nacchio, said in court papers related to an insider trading conviction that the government withdrew lucrative contracts from his company after he raised legal objections to the proposed spy program.
Earlier in the program, Olbermann invoked recent reports that the Pentagon used the FBI to issue secret national security letters allowing access to reams of data on Americans with even slim connections to the military.
"Does that essentially mean that I or you dial a wrong number and it happens to belong to somebody that's under investigation, the pentagon can go and get your information or my information as well?" Olbermann asked.
"They can. And you can thank the U.S. congress for that," Turley said, noting that the Patriot Act made it very easy for the FBI to issue the letters. "And what is astonishing is that the abuses of the NSLs are well documented. As soon as the FBI got this power that they were promising to use in the most judicious and cautious way, they abused it with abandon."
Toward the end of the segment, Turley noted the disconnect between the drive for expanded power, and the FBI and National Security Agency's inability to properly analyze intelligence before Sept. 11.
"The great irony, of course, with the NSA and the FBI is that their blunders help contribute to 9/11," he said, "but they radically expanded those powers as a result of that tragedy."
"Nothing succeeds like failure," Olbermann quipped.
Oh and btw,
ReplyDeleteHi TT!, long time no see.
Have you heard from FF or JMM lately?
Last I heard FF was building a house.
JMM seems to have disappeared altogether.
Reuters) - The House of Representatives defied a White House veto threat on Tuesday and overwhelmingly passed legislation that would protect reporters from being jailed for refusing to reveal confidential sources.
ReplyDeleteBy a vote of 398 to 21, the House sent to the Senate a bill that would prohibit prosecutors from forcing reporters to reveal confidential sources, except under limited circumstances.
"Freedom of the press is fundamental to our democracy and is fundamental to our security," declared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.
Bush will never follow this. In Adolph Bush's America, Freedom is at his disposal!
Isn't it sad that the Halloween picture version of Ann Coulter is prettier than the genuine article?
ReplyDeleteA petition calling for Al Gore to enter the 2008 election race was swollen by thousands of signatures after the former US Vice-President's Nobel Peace Prize victory, organisers revealed Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteThe national Draft Gore organization (www.draftgore.com) said traffic on its website surged dramatically in the wake of the latest honor given to the environmental crusader, who has also won an Oscar and an Emmy in the last year.
Draft Gore said the number of signatures on its petition spiked to more than 200,000 in the four days since the Nobel victory was announced, a jump of some 70,000. The site received nearly 100,000 hits on Friday.
According to web tracking firm Alexa.com, traffic on Draftgore.com surpassed Hillary Clinton's official campaign website by more than two-to-one on Friday.
"Interest in a Gore candidacy is skyrocketing," said Draft Gore founder Monica Friedlander. "People are stirred to action in record numbers by the possibility of America's greatest statesman and global leader becoming the next president of the United States."
The online Draft Gore petition currently has 208,000 signatures. An additional 45,000 people have signed a paper version of the petition, and these are not included in the online total.
Both documents are to be delivered to Vice President Gore's office in Nashville, Tennessee.
mch,
ReplyDeleteIn the spirit of Halloween,
Here's an even scarier one for you!
By the way, Voltron, as far as Im concerned, until you get the guts to take me up on my Biblical challenge then your opinions do not count.
ReplyDeleteJust a reminder, I even gave myself a handicap by requiring that I come up with 5 verses as opposed to your 1 verse. Shoot, I'll even up my ante to 10 verses.
Confident enough in your biblical knowledge and your party's platform to take me up on it yet?
You missed one Larry,
ReplyDelete" Mike said...
BTW Eric, how is sweet Mary?
I hope all is well with her........it would be a real shame if something were to happen to her."
I mean really, if you guys want to continue with your "liberals don't do that sort of thing" line, you'd better sweep that one under the rug too...
Intel Corp., the world's No. 1 chipmaker, reported a 43% increase in third-quarter profit Tuesday, benefiting from a robust personal-computer market, but also announced plans to shed 2,000 more jobs as part of a continued reduction in staff.
ReplyDeleteIntel shares the Bush philosophy: Record profits on the backs of thousands of employees.
mch,
ReplyDeleteI only barely remember that exchange.
And although I'm not positive, I think I gave you an answer then.
The really humorous part is that I believe it was Mikey who not too long ago mentioned he'd NEVER heard of liberals threatening people that disagree with them.
ReplyDeleteAlthough technically he MAY (in his own mind) still be correct since his threat is actually against an uninvolved third party.
Ok, to catch you up -- if you can come up with 1 verse from any of the 4 gospels where Jesus condemns homosexuality, then I will vote Republican in the next elextion. If I can come up with 5 (now 10) verses where Jesus says to give to the poor, you have to vote Democrat in the next election ... your answer was nope, cant do it.
ReplyDeleteCome ON Dolty oy show how much you DON"T know about the bible, find the Jesus quote against homosexuality,
ReplyDeletebecause like MCH,
I can think of around ten about giving toand caring for the poor from the lips of Jesus Christ in the bible .....
Hi, Volt. Good to hear from you. It's been awhile but I haven't seen JMM of FF around anywhere.
ReplyDeletemch,
ReplyDeleteHe didn't EXPLICITLY, but if you look at the WHOLE of his message it IS implied.
IE:
"For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"
-John 5:46-47
I believe Moses talked about it a few times...
(Lev. 18:22, 20:13 and Deut. 23:17)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMch, are you implying that the only parts of the Bible that are binding are the words written in red?
ReplyDeleteAs usual dolty boy FAILS again
ReplyDeleteBTW Tiny the Liar gonna PAY UP son?
ReplyDeleteOr are you still a lying welsh
No tiny the words in RED are the words of jesus christ which should be read as the FIRST princiles to live by, and the old testament is CHANGED by Jesus according to HIS words in RED look it up.
ReplyDeleteBut lying reichwingers can't live by the words of Jesus AND advocate for the bombing of Iran or the murder of billions of people because they are muslims which is why YOU Tiny the Liar and Dolty Boy quibble on those very words.
ReplyDeleteBecause what YOU clowns advocate violate the words of Jesus which are in Red in the Bible.
Or how about this one?
ReplyDelete"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."
-Mat. 5:17
Sorry dolty boy but that is NOT explicit about sexuality son, nice try but NO....quibble onward.
ReplyDeleteWell TT, I bet you're wondering what you wandered into tonight eh?
ReplyDeleteLOL
The gutless lying welsh knows exactly what he stumbled onto dolt boy, he tried to control the blog before you clowns found out the amerian people do not believe your crap an more.
ReplyDeleteAnd in Nov 2008 they will reafirm that sentiment even more.
No Cliffy it isn't sexuality in specific, but if he's not come to "destroy the law, or the prophets", doesn't that pretty much cover all the ground?
ReplyDeleteAnd why don't we just put this shoe on the other foot?
YOU show ME a scripture where he specifically ENDORSES homosexuality.
Larry, I just love how risky neighborhoods to which banks would not lend to were sued to force banks to loan to them, and now these risky borrowers are crying fowl because the banks DID lend to them and they can't make the payments. If you're too stupid to understand your mortgage obligations, you should not be borrowing money. The law will protect you from unfair deals, but stupidity is no defense.
ReplyDeleteIf mortgage rates were/are at an all time low, then getting a fixed-rate mortgage should be a no brainer.
idiot asked: Mch, are you implying that the only parts of the Bible that are binding are the words written in red?
ReplyDeleteActually my Bible is in black and white ... and I dont hold to the belief that the entire Bible is word-for-word binding anyway. In fact, I never have said that. Republicans on the other hand like to say that it is, but they dont really mean it. The like to put words in Jesus's mouth and then ignore the stuff he really said.
Other idiot said: He didn't EXPLICITLY, but if you look at the WHOLE of his message it IS implied.
Answer is -- You lose. I'll tell Hillary or Obama they can count on your vote in November.
And for that matter, why am I even being asked to compare homosexuality and helping the poor?
ReplyDeleteApples and Oranges anyone?
Clif said "clif said...
ReplyDeleteNo tiny the words in RED are the words of jesus christ which should be read as the FIRST princiles to live by, and the old testament is CHANGED by Jesus according to HIS words in RED look it up.
7:56 PM"
Yes, I did know that. But my question stands: are words of Jesus the only binding words in the Bible?
Well mch, show me where he endorses it, or at least show me where he says that part of the old testament is now null and void?
ReplyDeleteThey are if you call yourself a Christian.
ReplyDeleteVoltron said...
ReplyDeleteWell TT, I bet you're wondering what you wandered into tonight eh?
LOL
8:02 PM
Yep. Playing catch up here.
If you knew the bible you'd know he says it over and over and over, with each parable.
ReplyDeleteOf course since you know little of the old law, the "Law of Moses", you don't recognize when Jesus is quoting it.
Moron said...
ReplyDeleteAnd for that matter, why am I even being asked to compare homosexuality and helping the poor?
Apples and Oranges anyone?
Funny. Jesus had no problem comparing degrees of sin.
mch,
ReplyDeleteUnlike liberals Republicans aren't perfect. We strive toward principles we believe in but sometimes we fail.
This doesn't mean the principles are wrong, or that we're hypocrites when we fail, it just means we're human.
And the continued striving despite our flawed nature is the most important part.
I wish I could be a liberal. It's hard to fail when you have no principles to aspire to.
Oh, hi Worf.
ReplyDeleteI figured a bible session would bring you out.
I must have missed that part about helping the poor being a sin...
ReplyDeleteIf you good Christians knew the bible, and knew what you were looking at, you wouldn't have to ask where Jesus put away the old law and introduced the new.
ReplyDeleteAny good seminary student knows that.
For instance, you'd know that the famous quote from the Beattitudes is one prime example of Jesus retiring the law of Moses, and introducing his "Good News".
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Matthew 5:38-39
And thats just ONE example.
ReplyDeleteJesus didn't "end" the old law. He "fulfilled it".
He completed it.
His Gospel was "the Good news".
ReplyDeleteNo more would the proud or the mighty be favored, but the humble, the meek, and the every day joe.
No more would the religious leaders be the revered, but the ranting prophets of the desert, and the barren widow now earned the favor of God.
The mighty would be made meek, and the meek mighty.
That was the "good news" of the Gospel.
You know, Bible study would be much more tolerable if Alfred E. Neuman wasn't the preacher...
ReplyDeleteIdiot asked ... >>And for that matter, why am I even being asked to compare homosexuality and helping the poor?>>
ReplyDeleteBecause Redumblicans like to say they are the "true Christian" party and use their crusade against homosexuality to prove it. However, when it comes to helping the poor, they conveniently forget all about Jesus's teachings.
Then Idiot asked "Well mch, show me where he endorses it, or at least show me where he says that part of the old testament is now null and void?"
Why should I try to find the endorsement? I've never claimed that he did endorse homosexuality. As for the parts of the old testament being null and void, seems to me your side has already done that ... see, Moses came down from the mountain with a set of rules (I know, Republicans only see them as suggestions or perhaps guidelines when it's convenient to follow them) They say things like do not kill, do not commit adultery, dont bear false witness. Now, those were listed in the Old Testament and ... ah, never mind. Feel free to ignore them the way the rest of the Republican party has.
Moron said...
ReplyDeleteYOU show ME a scripture where he specifically ENDORSES homosexuality.
Well I don't know about Clif, but whoever said he did?
Meanwhile religious preachers from the right preach endlessly about it claiming Jesus condemns it.
Remember Ted Haggard? Leader of the largest evangelical congregation in the country, and who's ministries self professed number one goal was to stamp out the "evil of homosexuality"?
Then of course, like most of you right wing hypocrites, he turned out to be a knobpolisher himself.
And this man was personal piritual counsel to the president.
So there ya go. The next generation of Pharisees. The reich wing.
Voltron said...
ReplyDeleteYou know, Bible study would be much more tolerable if Alfred E. Neuman wasn't the preacher...
Actually this is Ted Haggards ordination photo.
Oh and on the homosexualty thingy?
ReplyDeleteNo one claimed Jesus condoned it that I can see.
But Jesus never condemned it either.
NEVER.
And thats a fact.
Worf,
ReplyDeleteUntil that incident I'd never heard of Ted Haggard, nor do I follow any of the "televangelists" or headline grabbing ministers anyway.
A person can "claim" anything about himself. That doesn't mean he is what he claims, or that he speaks for anyone but himself.
And Christianity tells us to "love the sinner, hate the sin".
While I, and many Republicans believe that homosexuality is a sin, we don't endorse violence towards them.
While I hate to debate and run, I have to go to Missouri tomorrow. Goodnight all.
ReplyDeleteVoltron said...
ReplyDeleteUntil that incident I'd never heard of Ted Haggard, nor do I follow any of the "televangelists" or headline grabbing ministers anyway.
Oh I'm quite sure you're completely uninformed on the subjects you expound on.
No need for convincing here.
But that doesn't mean no one else knew who he was.Particularly since he was advising the Presidnet WEEKLY.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is in the law of Moses, homosexuality was a sin, so chances are it still was to Jesus, as he didn't come to end the law, but to fulfill it, as I said earlier.
ReplyDeleteSo no doubt Jesus considered it a sin.
He just didn't see it as important enough to bother to mention even once, during his entire 3 year ministry.
He was more concerned with condemning the self righteous religious leaders of the day, who had the ear of Rome.
ReplyDeleteLike the religious right today has the ear of Washington.
The new Rome.
ReplyDeleteDolty Boy Christ doesn't endorse many things,so your arguement is moot.
ReplyDeleteTiny the Liar, the words ofJesus trump the rest of the book because ONLY he claimed to be the alpha and omega ..... and only he claimed to be the son of god.
One last thing before I go, if you're interested in good discussions about god or metaphysics you might take a look at this blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://onecosmos.blogspot.com/
Yes, he's a rightwinger and that alone may turn you off or cause you not to even check it out, but it isn't expressed in every post. Most posts are spiritual in nature, and revolve around Schuon, Bion and the like...
adidos
Guess you never found that quote of Jesus then, eh dolt boy?
ReplyDeleteWho you gonna hopre to vote for Hillary, Barack, or John Edwards.
Or are you gonna claim you never even looked for a quote son?
Today Vladimir Poootin warned the US against attacking Iran.
ReplyDelete:|
I told you they wouldn't just sit back while we attack Iran.
This is one however that I wish I wasn't right on.
bartlebee, they won't attack us directly, they will aid the Iraqi and Iranian insurgency's and also punish any European powers who side with the US by cutting off their energy supples, and given the tight supplies of crude oil at this instant, that threat is not a hollow one.
ReplyDeleteThey could cripple Europe at the same time give the Iraqis and Iranians enough to arms and support to finish Bush's destruction of the US military, while giving China enough oil to make up for any Iranian losses.
At the end of this Russiacould control the european fuel thus their economy's and China would be the dominate player in Asia, with a US adminstration trying to find a way out of the hole Bush ET AL put the US in but with NO foreign countries to loan us any more money, and the dollar becoming a very fancy form of toilet paper.
In any attack senario, Bush wins the opening gambit,(just like Iraq) and we all lose in the end, with the next president and future generations picking up the peices.
Well I disagree Clif. I think the new Russian Chinese alliance wants nothing more than a chance to skirmish with the almighty US military. I think the Chinese Defense Minister, and Vladimir Putin want nothing more than to drive the American invaders from the middle east, and become the new liberators of the 21'st century.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not the only one who thinks that.
There is no benefit for them to "cripple Europe". There is no benefit for them to ruin the US economically.
ReplyDeleteThere is ample benefit however, in doing to us, what our dads did to the Krauts in World War II, and position themselves as the worlds new superpower, and reap the financial rewards that come with international praise and favored trade status.
Russia and China are not stupid.
A military victory of the US Military, even a battered and exhausted one, that includes driving us out and liberating the Arab nations as Vladimir Putin alluded to today, would be of huge benefit to them.
Particularly monetarily.
ReplyDeleteI see the moves made by Putin and China in a different light, they see the miltary move to world domination as a losing game, especially after you gain the upper hand, other wise Rome, Spain, England, France, Germany Japan USSR and currently US empires wouldn't have fallen.
ReplyDeleteThey both realize the US had a much better hand when Clinton was in office, because he used the economic might NOT military might of the US as the primary arbritor of our power.
They can see what works and what doesn't, so why should they take a chance of massive destruction to their internal infrastructure, when they can do to us as we did to the USSR in it's ill fated attack on Afghanisan in the 1980's.
They both understand why the US was the only possibility of a world power (especially economic)in 1945, we were the only major power to escape almost unscathed from WW2, so we had a major advanage on the world stage for most of the 1950's, the res of the planetwas tryng to recover from war damage and catch up to the US.
Post collapse of the USSR the US was the only military super power but the neo-cons gave away our economic advanage for short term profits. Thus with Bush's military fiascos and outsourcing of production for a few quick bucks the neo-cons gave it all away, all the chinese and russians have to do is add to our woes, with out getting hurt in the process.
(both also have problems with islamist fundis so they do NOT want to enable them any more then necessary)
The Russians in chechenya,
The chinese in their western regions.
Crippling Europe would only happen if they try to side with the US, but Putin would rather they stay on the side lines and Bush grinds the miliary down some more, like the USSR did their in Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteThe real push is for the US to do it's self in and then Putin and China step up to the plate as the replacement players.
BothvMoscow and Beijing would love for the islamic fundis and the US to burn each other out.
ReplyDeletewhich is sort of what is happening now.
I am not speaking nor have I ever suggested their goal is global domination via military power.
ReplyDeleteThats a ridiculous idea so please stop attributing it to me.
I am talking about driving the US out of the middle east, which is part of THEIR continent, which is something they are particularly suited to do at this time.
This is not the 1980's and the Russian Army, or the Peoples Republic Liberation Army is not the Army they used to be.
Our forces are strained to the breaking point according to practiclly every military leader and you yourself even, who have spoken extensively on that.
They are not ready for a conventional all out assault by ground forces supported by armor and air support. They are not ready for another invading force to roll in, particularly with combined sea attacks to keep our warships occupied.
We are RIPE for removal in Iraq as I have been saying for the past year now.
They won't do it just to do it. But if we attack Iran, then watch how quick the gloves come off.
They didn't spend the last few years pumping trillions into their combined defense budgets, beefing up their conventional forces and performing what the CIA has labeled a "Massive Build Up" of Sea and Air strength, for nothing.
And they didn't do it just for show. They are showing it off, sure. But their army is chomping at the bit to try it out against the American "Cowboys".
I've been following closely the developments of the new Chinese Russian alliance since their first joint war games operations in 2005, and I am not just talking from my ass. I, and several military analysts and generals have said similar things, and are noticing the same things.
ReplyDeleteRussia and China are positioning themselves to drive the US out of the middle east, and thus acquire those cheap "preferred customer" oil contracts that we enjoy now.
According to the CIA, China needs one thing more than anything else right now to compete with the US.
Oil.
And lots of it. And we've been keeping it from them by bullying the Arabs into selling it to us.
And now China is ready to assume our role with the Arabs, along with Russia, and probably France, and become the new favorite customers of the OPEC nations.
I don't see it that way, I see them allowing the Iranians and Iraqis to be the infantry, or insurgents as you will and them supplying what ever they can to aid in that cause.
ReplyDeleteThe Arabs and Persians don't want the Russians or Chinese in their region any more then the wanted the French, British OR US.
We are all indfidels in their eyes in the end, so they no more want Russian or Chinese troops then they want US troops, and will be no kinder if the Chinese or Russians step in with a large foot print then they have when we did.
The Muslims do not want to be saved but fight their own battles, and they would resent Chinese or Russians just as quick as they came to resent the US.
Both the Chnese and russians understand they can't send in large armies for both cultural and logistic reasons, but can do what the former Soviet Union did in the region, send in arms, and advisors but allow the locals to do most of the fighting, that would be acceptable to the islamists to get the US out, and make both China and russia acceptable trading partners.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is the MSM won't cover this angle. Its too scary, and the White House choses to bury our heads in the sand on it.
ReplyDeleteBut the MSM has talked about it. Several times. And some authors, like a former CIA analyst who's name escapes me at the moment, which talk about this very real and ever growing threat to our military.
But the topic is too scary and too damaging to the White House, so the MSM steers clear of it, and thats why everyone thinks I'm just a conspiracy theorist or a kook, for talking about it.
But that doesn't change the fact that the Russia and China are positioning themselves to be the new "big kids on the block" to the Caspian nations.
clif said...
ReplyDeleteBoth the Chnese and russians understand they can't send in large armies for both cultural and logistic reasons,
That statement makes no sense.
First, we sent in a large army and no cultural or logisitc reasons stopped us.
Second, it would be easier for the Russian\Chinese combined expeditionary forces to invade Iraq, then it is for ours. They have air assault and sea assault capabilities, just like we do.
And they have quick strike forces,killer satellites that can knock out our communications, super fast new SU jets and other fighters and stealth planes, computerized weaponary, attack choppers.... the whole kit and kaboodle.
And tney've been training for years together now. And they train for "AIR AND SEA" based ground assaults, just like Normandy.
In fact, they attacked a place in one of their mock games to drive out a "fictional army", and stabilize a "fictional country".
No, I've been reading on the Chinese and Russian militaries for a years now, focusing on their new joint strike capability, and its clear that they are positioning themselves to drive out the US from their lands. And they'll likely do it, if we go for Iran.
And they can replenish their forces in a matter of hours, for they're so much closer to the theatre of operations than we are.
ReplyDeleteAnd they will have the new and highly sophisticated Army of Iran on their side, as well as most of the Iraqi insurgency (which is made up of the Iraqi Army we are busy training and outfitting) and probably Turkey to boot.
Combined we could be looking at a technologically equal army in vastly superior numbers driving down our necks in Iraq and we could be looking at Air Combat over the skies of Tehran with the new super fast Russian fighter\Stunt Fighter, and the new SU super Jets of the Chinese.
I agree they are positioning themselves to replace the US in the European and Asian continents, but I disagree they want to do it in a direct fullout war in the middle east with the US, as streached as we are our forces both naval and air forces are still the most powerful on the planet, our ground forced are streached to the limit.
ReplyDeleteBoth China and russia know we can hurt them real bad even if we lose in the middle east, they do not want that, they prefer a proxie war, and let the Iranians, Iaqis and Taleban to do to the US what the afghan rebels did to the russians.
It isn't about macho but being in the best position at the end of ths real politic and military gambit in that region.
The new Russian and Chinese armies are not their fathers armies.
ReplyDeleteThey are slick, technologically cutting edge replica's of our own military, only in much stronger numbers, and fresh, and ready to fight.
Combined with the Iranian army, we could be looking at 1 million man army coming our way in Iraq if we chose to attack Iran.
I know you think I'm nuts Clif old buddy, but I'm not the only one saying this.
Problem is, no ones listening.
To any of us.
The Chinese are the true masters of real politic, and they want to win in the end like the US did post WW2, the russians also want to come out of this one as well off, beause even though they "won" WW2, they were far behind the US and never actually caught us, but just were able to stay in the race for a couple of decades. by the end of the 1970's they were already a generation of weapons sysems behind the US.
ReplyDeleteAfghanistan and the dorp of oil prices in the md 1980's was just the nails in the coffin for the USSR.
clif said...
ReplyDeleteour forces both naval and air forces are still the most powerful on the planet, our ground forced are streached to the limit.
Well, I'm not so sure about that.
The new Chinese military according to the CIA, and from what little information they have been able to gleen, is looking "pretty good".
Maybe we're the best, but who really knows? We haven't really tried them out in a few decades.
We might be the best, we might be in for a few surprises. But one things for sure. They outnumber us 10 to 1 in combat ready troops, and they have pretty much everything we have got now.
And a lot more of it.
The Chinese Navy is still behind us, but their Air Force is catching up, and so is their quick strike forces.
They're not the rickety old army everyone says they are, although their navy I agree has got a long way to go.
Problem is, our blue water navy is bogged down in brown water. And Iran has the best brown water Navy in the region.
No, they could do some real damage to us I think in Iraq.
I don't think your nuts, but I still think the option you lay out is Putin and China's plan B if we attack Iran, both in my opinion want the US to crash and burn in that attack with their being the big brothers who send in aid and arms while "respecting"the cultural heriage of the region.
ReplyDeleteBoth would perefer we didn't attack, and claim they were able to deter it, but if we attack, they would perfer they didn't have to use it all, because what would Bush-Cheney do if it looked like Russia and China was winnng?
Launch a first strike on both countries?
Putin and Beijing have to consider that option, but if they were just sending n aid, and arms, they have the same plausable claim they are NOT at war with the US we used in the 1980's in afghanistan.
And a proxy war doesn't explain why they have the new Chinese\Russian military combined strike force.
ReplyDeleteThey explained why they had it.
The Chinese Defense Minister said it was to deal with "growing threats" in the region.
And everyone knows by "growing theat", he meant us.
I agree it might be a plan B though. I'm sure they don't want it.
ReplyDeleteBut I think their militaries do.
And hopefully the joint Chiefs will sedate Bush long before he can get the keybox open.
ReplyDeleteParticular since Russia alone has TWICE as many long ranged nukes than we do, and thats not even counting China's.
Remember when Israel was attacking Syria(sept 6th), on what quite a few believe was either a nuke facilty or possile beginning of Syrian nuke program, somebody moved six nuke cruise missles from Minot to Barksdale under the wing of a B-52, already loaded in launch position, makes you wonder what would have appened if Syria fought back or Iran responded.
ReplyDeleteIf Russia and China stood up and began driving the US out, chances are they would draw wide international support.
ReplyDeleteThe world "used" to like the US.
Today, as you would say, "not so much".
China is 200 nukes, but Russian nukes are in the thousands, but if they start flying, it's On the Beach time.
ReplyDeleteand we know where that leads.
Yea I remember that Clif. I think they flew the missles armed over the US or something right?
ReplyDeleteAnd sure, maybe Bush will order a nuke strike. But if he does, God help us all. Because the international community won't stand for it.
And Russia and China have plenty of short range "low yeild" nukes to throw back at us if we decide to "go ballistic" on them.
:D
How'd you like that pun?
I'm not sure what the European powers would do if China and russia started pushing the US out of the mddle east, because europe doesn't want a russian dominence on the continent with a vastly weaker US which might return to the 1920 theme on foriegn involvement.
ReplyDeleteThat one is a wild card at that poin.