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HennyPenny, did you borrow zit's rose-colored glasses???
on this board are so scared and KNOW that W. is going to WIN this November! I love seeing desperate people try to cling to fading hope
"I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican."--Governor George W. Bush
Amen....
Hey F6, not to worry, Reagan proved deficits don't matter.
That the national debt limit needs to be raised because we are borrowing so much money is no great secret, but Republicans in Congress want to raise that limit with as little public notice as possible.
So when Cheney tells Leahy to go f himself that is just so cool with you but when Gore makes reference to browns shirts your pious indignation boils over...you're a nut.
besides being absurd, it is the first time in modern history, that an ex-vice president (or ex-president) has associated nazi language against a sitting administration
Your HERO is sounding desperate
This man is truly one of my HEROS!
Cheney curses senator over Halliburton criticism
the reason you're dangerous to the security of this country is because you believe everything this administration tells you......check that, you believe everything any Republican administration tells you.
If something 'bubbles' to the surface long after the fact, y'all will explain it away with any so-called facts you can come up with. I guess our government has never lied to us, yeah right.
But again, regardless of the extra legs added to your creaky stool, this war in Iraq is an unmitigated disaster.
Zit, so this is how we 'win the peace', huh?? This would make a great ad.
A Night With the Powerless
A reporter spends a long, hot night with a family in Baghdad, where the shortage of electricity has dimmed hopes for postwar Iraq.
June 24, 2004
By Peter Y. Hong, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD — Night is the worst time, everyone in the Qadr family agrees.
"Around 3 o'clock, it often gets so hot, everyone is awake," says 26-year-old Ali, the oldest of three sons. The family will chat in the dark for a while, "but eventually, we've talked about every subject. We're sick of hearing the same things, we're too tired to talk, but too hot to sleep. It's awful."
Ali is describing how the Qadrs have lived for more than a year without regular electricity to someone who has always taken power for granted — an American.
The family lives just off Baghdad's airport highway, where U.S. soldiers and foreign contractors are regularly shot at or bombed, in a neighborhood called Jihad. Foreign journalists glimpse the community from a distance when covering the highway ambushes.
On this night, the 15 members of the Qadr family have welcomed one of those reporters into their spacious two-story concrete-and-brick home. They have agreed to set aside their considerable pride to show someone who has always had air-conditioning, hot showers, chilled water and clean clothes what it feels like to lose those comforts and more.
Patriarch Abed Qadr, a 60-year-old unemployed farm worker, had hoped for brighter days after the ouster of Saddam Hussein. But since the U.S. took control of Iraq with a fighting force using satellites, computers and high-tech weaponry, the Qadrs' daily existence has slipped to something resembling life in the early 20th century.
For as many as 16 hours a day, there is no power. The house relies on an electric pump to deliver water, so no electricity means no running water. Toilets don't flush. Taking baths, washing dishes and laundering clothes are infrequent privileges.
In the 110-degree daytime heat, there are no fans. No working refrigerators. No ice cubes.
The night provides little relief. In the pitch-black darkness of his garden, where he has taken refuge from the sauna-like air in the house, Qadr explains his disillusionment. "I'm concerned if you write what I tell you, it will sound like I support Saddam," Qadr says.
It is 10 o'clock. Qadr speaks slowly, just loud enough to be heard over the rolling background noise of automatic-rifle fire. A small flashlight, brought by his visitor, is propped on a table for light.
"After the Americans came, I believed President Bush. I thought things would be better in Iraq," he says. "But now, after almost a year and a half, there is no electricity, no water. There is more unemployment. My life is worse than it was before the war."
U.S. occupation officials had predicted that electricity would return to prewar levels — when Baghdad residents had power for all but a few hours each day — by June 2003. This month, the Coalition Provisional Authority said it had finally reached prewar output. But for Baghdad residents, there has been little noticeable improvement.
As the U.S.-led coalition prepares to hand power to Iraqis next week, the inability to restore electricity to Baghdad after more than a year has shattered Iraqi confidence that the transfer will produce a functional society.
Iraq's Electricity Ministry says sabotage of power plants and transmission facilities is keeping power from reaching citizens. The ministry also says desperate residents have figured out how to illegally tap power lines, cutting power in other areas while taking it for themselves.
Dallas Lawrence, a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority, says power, which under Hussein was diverted to Baghdad from the rest of Iraq, is now spread "equitably over a national grid. Millions of Iraqis now have eight to 12 hours a day when they used to have zero."
Qadr has no patience for such explanations. "People who live in palaces can't say such things," he says, referring to Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in which coalition officials live and work.
"They are behind their desks in their headquarters. They have no idea how others suffer," he says, turning his palms upward in exasperation.
Just then, something explodes in the distance. It could be a scheduled detonation of ordnance at a coalition base. Perhaps it is a car bomb, or a roadside explosive. Things still blow up every few hours in Baghdad. Qadr raises his eyebrows and says nothing.
One of Qadr's sons brings a silver tray with glasses of powdered orange drink. The drinks, which have been chilled in the family's on-again-off-again refrigerators, are a bit cooler than the ambient air, which seems to be about 80 degrees at 11 at night.
Without working refrigerators, the family buys just enough fresh food to consume the same day. Ali says that before the war, the family bought lamb or chicken twice a week. Now, because they can't save leftovers, they occasionally prepare a small amount of meat and finish it all for lunch. Most of the time, it's not worth the bother.
Qadr, who lost his job on a Ministry of Agriculture farm after the war, says he has received just one paycheck — about $65 — since then. With the loss of his job, the family's food ration has been cut, he says.
Since the war, the variety of food available in shops has improved, he says. He just lacks the money to buy it.
Ali, who works for a construction equipment dealer, is the family's only full-time wage earner. Alaa, 25, is a Baghdad University law graduate who hopes to work for one of the new government ministries but now takes whatever day labor he can get. Allawi, 16, and on summer break from high school, works part time at a supermarket and joins Alaa on day labor jobs.
For Allawi, who hopes to earn a university degree like his older brother and someday work for a foreign company, staying on top of his schoolwork has been a special challenge. When the power is out, family members gather in two groups in different parts of the house, around the two kerosene lanterns they own.
During the school year, Allawi studied by the dim lantern. "When someone has to go to the bathroom, they take one of the lanterns with them," leaving the rest in the dark, he explains. With 15 family members, it happens often.
Sleeping Outside
1:30 a.m. The Qadrs go over sleeping options with their guest. It is an unusually cool night, so moving beds to the frontyard looks like the best choice.
Sleeping outside can be dangerous, they say. In Baghdad, there is always the risk of falling bullets. Sleeping on the roof has long been a popular practice, but Allawi says he and his brothers no longer do it, fearing they will be mistaken for snipers and shot at by one of the many U.S. helicopters that fly over their house at night.
Ammar Mohammed, a Baghdad native also visiting the house this night, says the Qadr brothers' fear of being mistakenly shot by U.S. troops is exaggerated. But like the assertion commonly heard these days that the U.S. is deliberately withholding electricity, the truth seems less significant than the fact that many Baghdad residents believe it to be true.
Two consecutive "pop" sounds break the conversation. "Mortar," Mohammed says dryly. The pops are the sounds of the mortar rounds launching. A few seconds later, they land with much louder explosions, reverberating off the wall around the garden.
Inside the house, the air feels 20 degrees hotter than in the yard. Electricity had returned briefly, from 10:30 to midnight, but not nearly long enough for the ceiling fans and evaporation cooler to tame the stifling heat. The water is not running. When the air moves, it carries the stench from the unflushed toilets.
Everyone sleeps outside.
2:00 a.m. The gunfire stops.
The air has cooled to the mid-70s, with a slight breeze, just enough to keep the mosquitoes away. Ali and Alaa have changed out of their white dishdasha robes into shirts and pants. Ali's polo shirt says "Nike" on the front.
The brothers spend the moments before sleep talking about their passion, soccer. The power outages, which come at seemingly random intervals, can ruin simple pleasures that would ease the hardship. The worst of these minor indignities, they say, is having the power go out in the middle of a televised soccer game.
The soccer talk is followed by silence. The explosions are over. The U.S. helicopters are no longer flying, giving everyone a clear view of the stars. It is rare to have such a cool night in June, Ali says: We must enjoy it. The relief will not last long.
5:30 a.m. The sun rises, awakening the men in the yard and the women and children, who slept on the roof. As conservative Muslims, the Qadrs' six grown daughters keep their distance from their male house guests, seldom entering the same room.
Asked how the lack of electricity affects her, Fawzia Sulabi Khal, 50, Qadr's wife, says she worries most about the effect of irregular sleep on Mohammed, her 1-year-old grandson. The boy seems lethargic, she says. Reem, her 8-year-old granddaughter, rocks Mohammed in her arms. A silent Mohammed stares drowsily at his family members and visitors.
"Yesterday, we didn't have water to wash the dishes," Khal says. "Now, we don't have water again. I'm going to make rice and beans for lunch. If the power doesn't come back, I'll have to buy bottled water for cooking.
"It's a miserable life."
This year, the Qadrs bought a 30-gallon galvanized tank to store water, but often they do not get enough from the taps to fill it. Sometimes, Khal says, she gets water for housecleaning from a nearby drainage ditch.
Recalling a Raid
7:00 a.m. The heat inside the house is torrid again. Alaa and Allawi prepare to walk out to the neighborhood shops to see whether anyone will hire them for odd jobs. Allawi says the last time an American was in the house was during the war, when the family was raided at 3:30 in the morning. Six or seven soldiers came in through the front door.
None of the soldiers spoke Arabic. Allawi says the family was directed to the frontyard, where the soldiers yelled "sit down" in English. They found nothing in the house but broke furniture during their search.
Recounting the raid, Allawi could also be summing up his family's feelings about the occupation. As they squatted on the lawn that morning, Allawi says, his father and brothers were annoyed. They wondered whether the soldiers, who looked not much older than him and had come from so far away, knew what they were trying to accomplish by raiding their house. "They seemed more confused than us," he says.
7:23 a.m. Another explosion goes off in the distance. Allawi and Alaa head out the front gate to look for work.
No one feels like talking much in the house. There is no television to break the monotony. The fans are motionless. Qadr and his guests sit silently for stretches of 15 or 20 minutes that seem much longer, staring at a battery-powered clock with a scene of Mecca painted on its face.
Glasses of cola are served. "I really don't have any ill feelings about American people," Qadr says. "I just don't like American soldiers here in our country for so long. Do you think President Bush could accept living this way for more than a year?"
http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-electric24jun24,1,989691.story
Lemme ses if I got this right
there is little confusion with our posts because our posts are rooted in fact
example.......zarquawi has been in iraq since being injured in afghanistan, just after tora bora, well before the removal of saddam
We have been in Iraq well over a year now with over 120,000 troops and zarquawi is still running wild as the country implodes. OBL was known to all prior to 9/11, is wanted dead or alive...and he is still doing his thing. Meanwhile, a whole new generation of terrorists have morphed, we are bogged down in Iraq, and the unrefutable facts that this venture has not made America (meaning American's around the world and their business interests) safer.
You can cling to that Iraq/al queda connection or 'our' supposed hatred of Bush until the cows come home but the fact is this WAS NOT the best way to pursue the war on terror and it is being proven so day after day.
Geesh, talk about dead brain cells.
Why not stop acting like a republican and answer mschere's question on the IDCC board???
Question..How much did Sanyo pay Qualcomm in 2003? TIA
Surprise, surprise, Cheney wins and The United States (we the people) loses.
High court rebuffs bid to open
Cheney's energy task force records
Handing White House at least a temporary win, justices vote 7-2 to return case to lower court
Vice President Dick Cheney
BREAKING NEWS
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:58 a.m. ET June 24, 2004WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court refused Thursday to order the Bush administration to make public secret details of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, but kept the case alive by sending it back to a lower court.
The justices, in a 7-2 decision, said a lower court should consider whether a federal open government law could be used to get documents of the task force.
The decision extends the legal fight over the information.
Justices could have allowed a judge to immediately move ahead with ordering the release of the papers.
The issues in the case have been overshadowed by conflict-of-interest questions about one justice.
Scalia refused to recuse himself
Justice Antonin Scalia had defiantly refused to step down from hearing the case involving Cheney, despite criticism that his impartiality has been brought into question because of a hunting vacation that he took with Cheney will the court was considering the vice president's appeal.
"Special considerations applicable to the president and the vice president suggest that the courts should be sensitive to requests by the government" in such special appeals, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.
Shortly after taking office, President Bush put Cheney, a former energy industry executive, in charge of the task force which, after a series of private meetings in 2001, produced recommendations generally friendly to industry.
The Sierra Club, a liberal environmental club, and Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, sued. They argued that the public has a right to information about committees like Cheney's.
The organizations contended that environmentalists were shut out of the meetings, while executives like former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay were key task force players.
The Bush administration argued that privacy is important for candid White House discussions on difficult issues. The high court did not specifically address that question, however.
Case was potential election-year problem
The case had become a potentially embarrassing election-year problem for the administration.
Thursday's decision buys the administration more time. If it loses in the appeals court, the administration can return to the Supreme Court in another extended appeal before having to release information as to whether Cheney's task force was cozy with energy executives, including those with his former company, Halliburton.
The suing groups allege the industry representatives in effect functioned as members of the government panel, which included Cabinet secretaries and lower-level administration employees. The open government law requires advisory committees with non-government members to conduct their business in public, and allow the public to inspect their records.
Until the government produces some records it won't be clear who drafted the government's policies, lawyers for the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch argued.
The Sierra Club had asked Scalia to stay out of the case, because the justice flew with Cheney to hunt in Louisiana in January, weeks after the high court agreed to hear the vice president's appeal. Dozens of newspapers also called for his recusal.
Scalia, a Reagan administration appointee and close friend of the vice president, had said the duck hunting trip was acceptable socializing that wouldn't cloud his judgment. "If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court justice can be bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined," he wrote in an unusual 21-page memo.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5284032/
Easy, bring on the draft...
Re-enlistments have plunged at Fort Riley, Forty Carson and several other Army posts where combat teams have recently returned from Iraq.
At Fort Riley, recruiters have signed only 50-percent of their quota for first-term re-enlistees, and 57-percent for mid-career soldiers. And recruitment figures show post recruiters have met only 57-percent of their quota for re-enlisting first-term soldiers since Fort Carson units began returning in April.
Recruiters say they're also re-enlisting only 46-percent of the quota for "mid-career'' noncommissioned officers, young sergeants with four to ten years of experience who are considered key to the Army's future. The numbers reflect the current quarter, which ends June 30.
At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, recruiters have met 65-percent of their goal for first-term soldiers and 80-percent of the goal for mid-career soldiers.
just how deep is that water????
level fallujah and the sunni triangle, and turn those areas to dust, USA! USA! USA!...........when it comes to doing what's right for america, you are a pussy, period!!
you're a joke, and a danger to america!.......savage is right about you in that you are the enemy within, hiding under smug elitist interpretations of the constitution, and calling yourselves great heroes, while in reality you are the same cowards that have been in this country for a long time
Whadda assinine post, zitboy, once again showing the folly of your ilk. Geez, this post would make a great ad, call Karl right quick.
Tell me, zit, with control of ALL branches of government, just how have the Dems and the medial neutered gwb?? Bush told the evil doers "bring it on" and they have. What's your beef?? Bush has done WHATEVER he has wanted, period. Now it is the Dems and media's fault.....yeah, right. Forget the prison stuff, forget the reasons we went in, the fact is this policy is a flat out failure and was from day 1.
And now you want to isolate a terrorist area and clear it out. Oh man, you are a nut case (just like savage). How's this: start with Baghdad but guess what....you better get some more troops and a bunch of patriotic, fresh-faced 18 year olds should do quite nicely, cause either you are gonna level it (I'm sure that will make all the terrrorists run home and hide, never to do evil again) or take it block by block. The recruiters at al-queda oughtta hire you!!
As for Bush 'doing whats right'....he blew that the day he went into Iraq and it is his mess and his alone to blame. Face it, this war on terror could of and should have been fought much more smartly cause the big stick alone ain't gonna work.
But this here is your lame ad mentality:
"Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick"
and i guarantee, if gwb shows this kind of strength by following teddy's mandate, no matter how much the press portrays gwb as wrong with their "hate gwb" bashing, the american people WILL RECOGNIZE it and will support it fully......america loves a winner, and it's time the terrorists in iraq get this message too
Problem is, zit, Bush is a loser, america is learning it more and more and the terrorists in iraq, and the good guys too, know Bush is a loser. When Bush was elected I told my republican friends he would suffer the same fate as his father, a one-term president. I knew then he was a loser. Then came 9/11, even I was in his corner 100% and really thought this tragedy would ensure him a second term. Sadly, and I sincerely mean that as I would trade a successful 'war on terror' for a second term of his gutting the country (see, I love my country), Bush and his 'handlers' (your word) had to take this awful moment and turn it into their agenda.
Face it: Bush has been a loser most of his life and if not for the silver foot in his mouth (you go Ann!) he would have risen to his level of incompetency looong ago.
F6, sure we are going to be in Iraq for years to come...as that was part of the plan; move the troops/bases from Saudi Arabia that were coming under increasing pressure from their population. We don't hear much (anything) about the huge military bases being built in Iraq for a 'supporting role'. Unfortunately, this move hasn't helped quell the unrest in the House of Saud. The neocons sure blew this one and we are paying a big price.
The U.S. military could remain in Iraq for years, but with the passage of time it should be able to step back into more of a supporting role for Iraqi security forces, the Pentagon's number two official said yesterday in a hearing notable for sharp partisan exchanges.
"I think it's entirely possible" that U.S. troops could be stationed in Iraq for years, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz told the House Armed Services Committee. But, he added, as the Iraqi army and new national guard develop, "we will be able to let them be in the front lines and us be in a supporting position."
And I love this passage...THE BIASED LIBERAL MEDIA should roam the streets and find the truth!!!
Wolfowitz also said the media are part of the problem in Iraq. "Frankly, part of our problem is a lot of the press are afraid to travel very much, so they sit in Baghdad and they publish rumors," he said.
Choose the size of your humiliation...The Israeli's should know...hard to admit when you are wrong...while Americans die every day.
Ehud Barak, the former Israeli Prime Minister, took it upon himself last fall to tell Vice-President Dick Cheney that America had lost in Iraq. According to an American close to Barak, Barak told Cheney that Israel "had learned that there's no way to win an occupation" and that the only issue was "choosing the size of your humiliation." Cheney did not respond to Barak; his office also declined to comment to Hersh. A former Israeli intelligence official assessed the situation this way: "It doesn't add up. It's over. Not militarily—the United States cannot be defeated militarily in Iraq—but politically."
And how about this rose-colored glasses thinkin'. Now tell me again why Bush should be elected??
·If the June 30th transfer of sovereignty does not go well, "there is no fallback—nothing," a former National Security Council member tells Hersh. "The neocons still think they can pull the rabbit out of the hat" in Iraq, a former intelligence official says. "What's the plan? They say, 'We don't need it. Democracy is strong enough. We'll work it out.' "
Noonday in the Shade
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: June 22, 2004
In April 2003, John Ashcroft's Justice Department disrupted what appears to have been a horrifying terrorist plot. In the small town of Noonday, Tex., F.B.I. agents discovered a weapons cache containing fully automatic machine guns, remote-controlled explosive devices disguised as briefcases, 60 pipe bombs and a chemical weapon — a cyanide bomb — big enough to kill everyone in a 30,000-square-foot building.
Strangely, though, the attorney general didn't call a press conference to announce the discovery of the weapons cache, or the arrest of William Krar, its owner. He didn't even issue a press release. This was, to say the least, out of character. Jose Padilla, the accused "dirty bomber," didn't have any bomb-making material or even a plausible way to acquire such material, yet Mr. Ashcroft put him on front pages around the world. Mr. Krar was caught with an actual chemical bomb, yet Mr. Ashcroft acted as if nothing had happened.
Incidentally, if Mr. Ashcroft's intention was to keep the case low-profile, the media have been highly cooperative. To this day, the Noonday conspiracy has received little national coverage.
At this point, I have the usual problem. Writing about John Ashcroft poses the same difficulties as writing about the Bush administration in general, only more so: the truth about his malfeasance is so extreme that it's hard to avoid sounding shrill.
In this case, it sounds over the top to accuse Mr. Ashcroft of trying to bury news about terrorists who don't fit his preferred story line. Yet it's hard to believe that William Krar wouldn't have become a household name if he had been a Muslim, or even a leftist. Was Mr. Ashcroft, who once gave an interview with Southern Partisan magazine in which he praised "Southern patriots" like Jefferson Davis, reluctant to publicize the case of a terrorist who happened to be a white supremacist?
More important, is Mr. Ashcroft neglecting real threats to the public because of his ideological biases?
Mr. Krar's arrest was the result not of a determined law enforcement effort against domestic terrorists, but of a fluke: when he sent a package containing counterfeit U.N. and Defense Intelligence Agency credentials to an associate in New Jersey, it was delivered to the wrong address. Luckily, the recipient opened the package and contacted the F.B.I. But for that fluke, we might well have found ourselves facing another Oklahoma City-type atrocity.
The discovery of the Texas cyanide bomb should have served as a wake-up call: 9/11 has focused our attention on the threat from Islamic radicals, but murderous right-wing fanatics are still out there. The concerns of the Justice Department, however, appear to lie elsewhere. Two weeks ago a representative of the F.B.I. appealed to an industry group for help in combating what, he told the audience, the F.B.I. regards as the country's leading domestic terrorist threat: ecological and animal rights extremists.
Even in the fight against foreign terrorists, Mr. Ashcroft's political leanings have distorted policy. Mr. Ashcroft is very close to the gun lobby — and these ties evidently trump public protection. After 9/11, he ordered that all government lists — including voter registration, immigration and driver's license lists — be checked for links to terrorists. All government lists, that is, except one: he specifically prohibited the F.B.I. from examining background checks on gun purchasers.
Mr. Ashcroft told Congress that the law prohibits the use of those background checks for other purposes — but he didn't tell Congress that his own staff had concluded that no such prohibition exists. Mr. Ashcroft issued a directive, later put into law, requiring that records of background checks on gun buyers be destroyed after only one business day.
And we needn't imagine that Mr. Ashcroft was deeply concerned about protecting the public's privacy. After all, a few months ago he took the unprecedented step of subpoenaing the hospital records of women who have had late-term abortions.
After my last piece on Mr. Ashcroft, some readers questioned whether he is really the worst attorney general ever. It's true that he has some stiff competition from the likes of John Mitchell, who served under Richard Nixon. But once the full record of his misdeeds in office is revealed, I think Mr. Ashcroft will stand head and shoulders below the rest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/22/opinion/22KRUG.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2...
Zit, Rooster, ROFL...it is time to answer the call. Oh yeah, that's right, this is in the bag by 5 points.
President Bush has spent seven of every $10 he has raised for his re-election campaign, more than half of it on television ads, and is asking supporters for more money.
Well, if anyone should know a closet when they see one, I have the distinct impression it is you...but hey, nothing wrong with that!
That said, your problem zit, is your central focus, in fact, your very thoughts and being revolve around selling and the 30 second soundbite. You profess piety but find reverence in a hard punching ad...or post...bullying, intimidating, convincing or reinforcing an idea or thought solely on that idea or thought with little or no regard for its truth, veracity or consequences....the ends justify the means...as longs as it sells. Deep thinking is really weakness and left to those limp-kneed liberals that dare to question 'us'. We need another ad!!!
The simple fact you have stated here numerous times that some 'message' (you 'think' up) would make a great ad, here is another great ad, call Karl Rove NOW (that is funny)...oh, I just hope Kerry tries to run that ad...is so you. Your bias allows truth or a contrary idea to enter only when it conforms to your preconceived standard. Threatened, when your stool is a creakin' and your defense is weak (which often happens here), you attack one's sexuality, ability to get hot chicks (that one is rich), play the tuff guy (that one is even richer), I'm smarter, betterlookin', funnier, and by the way, did I tell you my swoonzz is bigger than yours, all the while behind your keyboard (bet that makes your keyboard rise).
Everything about you is an ad. You respond to THIS post with another weak attempt to paint me (what, no pictures of an ex??) but ignore several posts talking about issues you've been spouting off and making predictions about for weeks now, all to your ROFL-chickhawk mutual admiration one-liner Rush/Savage bobblehead club. Oh, did I forget to mention you are the funniest guy here?? Sorry 'bout that.
If the marketplace is the SOLE arbitrator of right and wrong, good and evil, success and failure, then we as humans are doomed. If radio is 'nothing more than advertisements surrounded by either music or talk' then the Bible is nothing more than a book of words. If how 'we the people' get our news is determined by someones 'bang for the buck' then our democracy is for sale to the highest bidder and we are all in deep doodoo, well, maybe not all of us. Guess it depends on being on the 'right' side of the ad, huh?
As for only in the liberal mindset can a bad idea and it's failure be deemed as facism, I would submit to you that only in the 'right' wing mindset can a bad idea and it's failure be deemed as 'mission accomplished'.
Keep up the good work and don't miss my 'friend's' movie this Friday. I guarantee your wife will enjoy it (shoot, you might even get some) and it will make a great ad!!
zit, you left out 'mismanaged, poorly planned and undermanned, did not further our cause on the 'war on terrorism' but in reality (stay with me now) hurt our efforts on fighting terrorism, played right into OBL's hands (how is he doing, by the way???), picked a terrible country with three diverse groups of people who hate each other to promote democracy, has now begun to destabilize Saudi Arabia, can't keep the oil flowing'...
Cop a squat on that creaky three-legged stool and chill..
but i still hope kerry runs with the ball of "gwb mislead"
Chickenhawk, being that most your posts begin with "listen to rush" I must profess they are rarely read. I have attempted to wade through a few hoping to find something of substance but for every kernal of possible truth or information with a chance of being factual one must listen (read) that blowhard pumpkinhead spew forth like a beached whale in the hot afternoon sun. I thought Monday Night Football could not be any worse than having Dennis Miller... but I was wrong.
Now for the post I think you are referring to regarding the article on Air America and if in fact that is the case, I did read the entire post but must have missed something you considered important. Yeah, they seem to be having financial problems which is a shame (and yes, I know you would prefer a fascist state where only one point of view is acceptable), but while they were on the air in LA I found it to be getting better all the time. That said, today I listened to Hannity for a bit and then Larry Elder bag on Clinton. Both of them are smart.....keeping the subject matter far from Bush.
Did you read what the rest of that message said My six pence?
Dang, ROFL, you are almost as funny as zit. Keep trying...come Nov y'all gonna need to humor each other. LOL@U.
henpecked and ROFL...you compliment each other quite nicely. You should join zit and his wife for the Friday night movie.
Trust me, henpecked, we get it. Gore won the popular vote by 1.5 million, the supreme court appointed Bush, we got a lawsuit CHENEY VS. THE UNITED STATES soon to be decided (how do ya think that's gonna go???).......yeah, we get it and so do a lot of non liberals!!!
Liberals just don't get it!
Zit, I thought you would find this of interest. Note: My bold
Military kicked out 10,000 since 'don't ask, don't tell' started
June 21, 2004
BY BETH FOUHY
SAN FRANCISCO -- Even with concerns growing about military troop strength, 770 people were discharged for homosexuality last year under the military's ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy, a new study shows.
The figure, however, is significantly lower than the record 1,227 discharges in 2001 -- just before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Since ''don't ask, don't tell'' was adopted in 1994, nearly 10,000 military personnel have been discharged -- including linguists, nuclear warfare experts and other key specialists.
The statistics, obtained from the Defense Manpower Data Center and analyzed by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara, offers a detailed profile of those discharged, including job specialty, rank and years spent in the service.
''The justification for the policy is that allowing gays and lesbians to serve would undermine military readiness,'' said Aaron Belkin, author of the study, which will be released today. ''For the first time, we can see how it has impacted every corner of the military and goes to the heart of the military readiness argument.''
''Don't ask, don't tell'' allows gays to serve in the military as long as they keep their sexual orientation private and do not engage in homosexual acts.
The study, which analyzed discharges between 1998 and 2003, found the majority of those let go under ''don't ask, don't tell'' were active duty enlisted personnel in the early stages of their careers.
Of the nearly 6,300 people discharged during that six-year period, only 75 were officers.
The study found that the Army, the largest of the services, was responsible for about 41 percent of all discharges. The Army has invoked ''stop-loss'' authority to keep soldiers from retiring or otherwise leaving if they are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Lawmakers' votes to increase troop strength reflected the concerns voiced by families of military personnel whose tours in Iraq keep getting extended.
Hundreds of those discharged held high-level job specialties that required years of training and expertise, including 90 nuclear power engineers, 150 rocket and missile specialists and 49 nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare specialists.
Brian Muller, an Army bomb squad team leader who had advanced training on weapons of mass destruction and served on a security detail for President Bush, said he was dismissed from duty after deciding to tell his commander he's gay.
''I didn't do it to get out of a war -- I already served in a war,'' Muller, 25, said. ''After putting my life on the line in the war, the idea that I was fighting for the freedoms of so many other people that I couldn't myself enjoy was almost unbearable.''
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-mil21.html
Great zit, now we are getting somewhere
you may be right....homosexual manifestations
As you have stated, you are so damn good looking...better than most women, you said long ago most men like you when they meet you, you're the funniest 'guy' around, smart, have great touch with your nine iron, enjoy watching OOOOOOOprah, yup, I'll bet you are quite a catch.
Zitboy, you need to reign in your latent homosexual manifestations as they are becoming quite apparent to all that follow your posts. Not that there is anything wrong with that...
A Hammer Falls on Iraq's Piggy Bank in the Fading Days
By Andrew Cockburn
June 20, 2004
Now that Iraqi insurgents have discovered precisely where to aim their body blows at oil export facilities, Iraq is going to need all the money it can find. So it seems a pity that in its final days, the U.S.-dominated Coalition Provision Authority has gone on a shopping spree, gaily spending the hoard of Iraqi cash it controls.
Like everyone else in Iraq, the insurgents have long recognized that oil, almost the country's only revenue resource, is the key to power. Since the beginning of the occupation, there have been no less than 125 sabotage attacks against oil pipelines. Until recently, most were in the northern oil fields, where little production goes for export, but lately, attacks have shifted to the southern fields, whence come 85% of Iraqi exports. Such gloomy realities appear to have little effect inside the CPA, where, reportedly, an "end of school" atmosphere has taken hold. This was most vividly expressed at a meeting last month at which it was decided to hand out almost $2 billion in Iraqi assets — not American dollars but Iraqi money over which the U.S. authorities have assumed responsibility — to a host of "deserving" causes.
The meeting was one of the regular get-togethers of the Program Review Board, a body operating under the auspices of the CPA that oversees spending by what is known as the Development Fund for Iraq, or DFI. The fund, created early in the occupation by the United Nations, has been receiving all the money earned by Iraqi oil exports plus all the money left over from the Hussein-era "oil for food" program, as well as any and all assets left behind by Saddam Hussein in Iraq and in foreign bank accounts. All in all, the fund has received more than $19 billion and has functioned as a piggy bank for the occupation authority, which has displayed a marked reluctance to account for money spent. Last November, for example, Congress — with Halliburton in mind — banned the use of taxpayers' money for any more large noncompetitive contracts. So the CPA simply dipped into the DFI to pay Halliburton.
Those happy days are due to come to an end on June 30, which may be why the Program Review Board at its May 15 meeting cheerfully agreed to dole out $2 billion of the $10 billion remaining in the fund to what Iraq Revenue Watch, a George Soros-funded group, describes as "hastily conceived projects." For example, the board members voted to approve $180 million for the CPA-controlled Iraq Property Claims Commission to deal with anyone whose property had been unjustly expropriated by Hussein. The commission representative, Duncan Gilchrist, conceded to the meeting that he could not provide details of how this vast sum was to be spent, or examples of similar programs elsewhere.
Nor were there details provided on where $125 million for "revenue stabilization" was going to end up, although an Iraq Revenue Watch briefing dryly notes that such funds tend to turn into "easily raided slush funds." The $460 million allocated for "oil-sector reconstruction" might be easier to justify, save for the fact that Congress has already appropriated $1.7 billion for Iraqi oil infrastructure reconstruction. Needless to say, most of the contracts under that appropriation for a total of 226 projects went to Halliburton, which has not managed to finish a single project and has only started work on 119 of them.
The British representative at the Program Review Board meeting did ask why, given that there was still a billion dollars of the money voted by the U.S. Congress still unspent, they were dipping into the DFI. He was smartly told that there was "duplication of projects."
The incoming post-June 30 Iraqi government that takes control of the development fund should not get any ideas about reversing this last-minute spree. The resolution passed by the U.N. Security Council on June 8 expressly requires this allegedly sovereign government to fulfill all obligations of the DFI incurred by the occupation authorities, however questionable or corrupt. As one Iraqi official remarked dolefully to me, "[Paul] Bremer could order 20 jumbo jets from Boeing with our money any time before June 30 and there is nothing we could do about it."
The issue was serious even when Iraq was exporting 1.7 million barrels of oil a day. Now that the guerrillas have begun choking off Iraq's income, the least the occupiers could do is keep a careful watch on money already in the bank.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-cockburn20jun20,1,4828188.story
I'll pull an eddie...ROFLMAO. Now that is too much. Dang zit, you are right: you're the funniest guy on the board.......................Whew, finally able to catch my breath. Shoot, I'll bet you're also a barrel of laughs on the tee.
Hey zit, be sure to take your wife out this Friday night (if she can break away from OOOOOprah), spring for some popcorn, a coke, enjoy the flick as much of America and the world will, and by the way, methinks YOU protesteth too much.
We get the place cleaned up and …
By Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
AUSTIN - No sooner do we win a long struggle to clean up politics and restore democracy in this country than we find the whole thing under attack, and we have to go out and refight the same battle all over again. Good thing we're not easily discouraged.
This is what's happening in Arizona, where the successful Clean Elections law is now under attack by the big special interests and national conservatives with ties that run from Tom DeLay (surprise!) to George W. Bush's fund-raising machine.
Micah Sifry of Public Campaign reports: "They've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that doesn't mention anywhere its true intent, to de-fund the Clean Elections system."
This charming endeavor is masquerading under the misnomer "No Taxpayer Money for Politicians" -- a misleading moniker right up there with Bush's "Clear Skies and Healthy Forests" initiatives. What a shame they couldn't figure out a way to call it the Patriot Amendment.
The bad news for the bad guys is that evidence continues to accumulate that Clean Elections laws work -- they are actually reviving democracy. In Arizona and Maine, where Clean Elections laws have been in effect for a couple of years, more candidates are running, and competitiveness has increased.
According to a study done by political scientists at the University of Wisconsin in May of this year:
"There is no question that public funding programs have increased the pool of candidates willing and able to run for state legislative office. This effect is most pronounced for challengers, who are far more likely than incumbents to accept public funding. In Arizona, the likelihood that an incumbent will have a competitive race more than doubled from 22 percent of all races in 1998 to 45 percent in 2002."
The report also notes: "Fears that clean money would be tantamount to an incumbent protection act are unfounded, as are, as near as we can tell, objections that money would be used by fringe candidates who would do nothing but feed at the public trough."
That was always one of the concerns about Clean Money -- that every nincompoop in town would wind up running on the public's nickel. Arizona cleverly finessed this possibility by insisting that, before you qualify for Clean Money, you have to raise a substantial sum in amounts of no more than $5 per person from people who actually live in your district. If a sufficient number of your neighbors think highly enough of you to kick in five bucks, then and only then can you tap into the pool of Clean Money.
I always thought it was a shame that one part of the original Arizona Clean Elections law got declared unconstitutional. They were going to fund part of the pool of Clean Money by putting a special tax on lobbyists -- an idea I found just dreamy. Alas, the First Amendment does not permit it.
The Wisconsin report also notes: "Arizona experienced a significant jump in the number of contested races in 2002, increasing from about 40 percent in 2000 to over 60 percent in 2002. Not only was this increase large, it also reversed the previous trend of uniformly fewer contested elections between 1994 and 2000."
According to Public Campaign, the early results for the 2004 election cycle are also impressive. In Maine, which held primaries on June 8, 71 percent of the candidates ran "clean" -- up from 50 percent in 2002 and 31 percent in 2000. Both Republicans and Democrats are enthusiastic about the system, which enables lots of people who would never have been able to afford to run to take a shot at elective office.
We live in a country where 98-plus percent of the members of Congress get re-elected every year with no serious competition. That, my friends, is a dead democracy. Ninety-eight percent of us are not happy with Congress -- we just can't beat the big money from special interests without public campaign financing.
So who could be opposed to this splendid success in re-sparking a dying democracy? Funny, every one of the donors seems to list "employer" under "occupation." That would include insurance companies, real estate firms, developers, right-wing front groups, well-known right-wing donors including Bush "Pioneers" (those who gave him $100,000 plus) and conservative activists affiliated with the "Club for Growth" and "Institute for Justice."
One of the oldest sayings in politics is, "You got to dance with them what brung you." What Clean Elections does is fix the system so that when people get elected, they got no one to dance with -- no one they owe -- except us, the people.
Of course, if you think millions of dollars in campaign contributions don't buy votes, only "access," then you have no stake in this fight. I'm sure you have just as much say in the system, and it is representing your interests just as well as it does General Dynamics and Halliburton.
For how to raise Cain about it, see www.pcactionfund.org/five.
Dang F6, you posted this 4 am this morning and ROFL didn't contribute his usual snide and utterly worthless comments....hmmmm, maybe he missed your post with all the great McJob news, lack of medical coverage, etc...
Caught in the crossfire of the nontraditional, noncitizen upturn is the middle-class American worker, who must endure wage stagnation and decreasing benefits while heeding calls to produce more. Recent U.S. productivity statistics soared at a rate equaling the fastest gains in three decades. Some of the increase is because of technological advances, but much is due to workers working longer and harder to pick up the slack for layoffs and cost-cutting.
Another stunning report came out last week. Families USA, a health-care advocacy group, took a closer look at the Census Bureau's calculation that 43.6 million Americans have no health insurance. Researchers looked at a two-year window, instead of a single year, and found that during the longer period, 82 million Americans lacked insurance for at least one month -- and 85.5 percent of them were in the work force, trying to make a living, while competing also against the immigrant hiring boom.
Much more of this "recovery," and there won't be any middle class left to survey.
F6, our imperial co-presidency is pulling out all the stops, not to mention straws, to state a 'case' that Iraq was a hotbed of terrorism and thus necessary to invade. They are preaching to the choir of ROFL, zitboy, hennypenny and all those myopic right wingers who march lockstep 'to the cause' because their fearless leaders say so.
Zit came close(r) to the truth with his creaky three-legged stool and one can argue several different 'reasons' for invading Iraq, but to suggest Iraq was a hotbed of 'state sponsored terrorism' and our invasion of Iraq was the next logical step in our 'war on terrorism' is weak, at best.
When the commission studying the 9/11 terrorist attacks refuted the Bush administration's claims of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, we suggested that President Bush apologize for using these claims to help win Americans' support for the invasion of Iraq. We did not really expect that to happen. But we were surprised by the depth and ferocity of the administration's capacity for denial. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have not only brushed aside the panel's findings and questioned its expertise, but they are also trying to rewrite history.
Easy, this deserves repeating...
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. . . . [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and . . . degeneracy of manners and of morals. . . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. . . .
Henpecked...you're in deep doodoo when Rush is your source of information...and inspiration.
Listen to Rush…
Easy, they got nothin' else to run on...
The Senate Republican leadership is aiming for a mid-July vote on a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, forcing Democrats to take a stand on the controversial topic just before the party heads to Boston for its presidential nominating convention.
The Saudi's may have killed one of the bastards that killed Johnson.
Edit: (My bold)
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 6:20 p.m. ET June 18, 2004RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - An al-Qaida group beheaded American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr., posting three grisly photographs Friday of the hostage’s severed head and threatening the same punishment for other Westerners in Saudi Arabia. President Bush vowed that “America will not be intimidated by these kinds of extremist thugs.”
The Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya reported that the leader of al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, and two other militants were killed in a firefight with security forces.
Arabiya’s Saudi correspondent said the Interior Ministry had confirmed al-Moqrin's death and the arrest of a fourth militant. Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to the Saudi crown prince, told reporters in Washington that there had been a gunbattle outside the capital and that some militants had been killed. But he said he had no further details.
He vowed to find and punish those responsible. “We will leave no stone unturned to confront this evil and destroy it,” he said.
The killers’ photographs and statement, in the name of the Fallujah Brigade of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, appeared on a Web site hours after Johnson’s wife went on Arab television and tearfully pleaded for his release.
Johnson, who had worked in Saudi Arabia for more than a decade, was the latest victim of an escalating campaign of violence against Westerners that aims to drive foreign workers from the kingdom and undermine the ruling royal family, hated by al-Qaida. Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida’s leader, is a Saudi exile.
“In answer to what we promised ... to kill the hostage Paul Marshall (Johnson) after the period is over ... the infidel got his fair treatment,” the al-Qaida statement said.
“Let him taste something of what Muslims have long tasted from Apache helicopter fire and missiles,” the statement said.
Johnson, 49, who worked on Apache attack helicopter systems for Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped last weekend by militants who threatened to kill him by Friday if the kingdom did not release its al-Qaida prisoners. The Saudi government rejected the demands.
At the top of the list of suspects was al-Moqrin, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The kidnappers identified al-Moqrin as the hooded man who made a threatening speech in a video of Johnson that they posted on the Internet Tuesday.
Al-Moqrin was believed to be involved in the May attacks on housing compounds in Riyadh, as well as other attacks in the kingdom, the U.S. official said. Al-Moqrin’s group has claimed responsibility for most attacks against Westerners in Saudi Arabia in the past two months.
'America will not retreat'
Bush, who learned of Johnson’s death after a speech to troops at Fort Lewis, Wash., said the killing “shows the evil nature of the enemy we face.”
“They’re trying to get us to retreat from the world,” Bush said. “America will not retreat. America will not be intimidated by these kinds of extremist thugs. May God bless Paul Johnson.”
After Johnson’s death was reported, his family was in seclusion at a town house in Galloway Township, N.J., where they have been holding a vigil.
John Hayes, a childhood friend of Johnson’s, was overcome with emotion.
“It’s just unbelievable. He didn’t deserve that,” said Hayes,
50. “This man wasn’t even fighting a war over there.”
One of the three photographs posted on the Web site showed a man’s head, face toward the camera, being held by a hand. The two others showed a beheaded body lying prone on a bed, with the severed head placed in the small of his back, the clothes underneath bloodied. One showed a bloody knife resting on the face.
The beheaded body was dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit, similar to one Johnson is seen wearing in earlier videos released by the kidnappers.
Warning to Americans
“To the Americans and whoever is their ally in the infidel and criminal world and their allies in the war against Islam, this action is punishment to them and a lesson for them to know that whoever steps foot in our country, this decisive action will be his fate,” the al-Qaida statement said.
There are 35,000 Americans among the millions of Westerners who work in Saudi Arabia.
Soon after the statement appeared, the Web site was inaccessible, with a message saying it was closed for maintenance.
Johnson is the second American to be kidnapped and beheaded in the Middle East in just over a month.
American businessman Nicholas Berg was beheaded by his captors in Iraq, and his last moments later appeared on a videotape posted on an al-Qaida-linked Web site. His body was found May 12. U.S. officials say al-Qaida-linked Muslim militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been Berg’s killer.
Johnson’s beheading is the latest in a new, more dramatic wave of terror attacks for Saudi Arabia: bodies dragged on streets, traffic police blown up in their offices, hotel guests taken hostage and a chef shot outside an ATM machine. The attacks have killed dozens of people, mostly foreigners, over the past two months.
Escalating violence
The violence is escalating despite an aggressive campaign by the government to root out terrorism, leaving many wondering whether the attacks are just the beginning or — as the government continues to insist — the last gasps of a desperate group reacting to the pressure of the hunt.
Johnson was seized on June 12, the same day that Islamic militants shot and killed Kenneth Scroggs of Laconia, N.H., in his garage in Riyadh.
Scroggs worked for Advanced Electronics Co., a Saudi firm whose Web site lists Lockheed Martin among its customers. The office number on Johnson’s business card was for Advanced Electronics.
The same week as Scroggs’ death, militants shot and killed another American, Robert Jacobs, and an Irish citizen in Riyadh.
It appears that Jacobs was also decapitated after being shot to death. Video shows his attackers bent over his body, making a sawing motion near the head, though there was no confirmation.
Earlier, as the deadline approached, Saudi security forces and the FBI launched an all-out search, going door-to-door in some Riyadh neighborhoods, and Johnson’s Thai wife, Thanom, made an appearance on Al-Arabiya.
“When I see his picture in TV, I fall down,” Thanom said, fighting back tears. “When I hear the name Paul Johnson, I cry a lot.”
Former Deputy Minister of Interior Ibrahim Alebaji acknowledged the shortcomings of Saudi security forces.
“Our security apparatus is not well trained in combating terrorism, but they are learning,” Alebaji said on Saudi television. He added that the Interior Ministry could not defeat terrorism without greater cooperation from the people.
Some popular support for kidnappers
But residents of three Islamic fundamentalist districts in Riyadh, interviewed before news broke of Johnson’s killing, suggested that the kidnappers enjoyed popular support, partly because of U.S. policy in Iraq and its perceived backing for Israel.
“How can we inform on our brothers when we see all these pictures coming from Abu Ghraib and Rafah,” Muklas Nawaf told The Associated Press as he ate meat grilled on a spit at a restaurant called Jihad, or "holy war" in Arabic.
He was referring to the pictures of Iraqis abused by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad and Israeli military incursions and killings in the Gaza refugee camp of Rafah.
“This is not a little skirmish. It is a war,” Nawaf said.
A man who was shopping with his family in Sweidi, an Islamic fundamentalist district of the capital, agreed.
“These (kidnappers) are holy warriors, heroes, who never waver, even if they will fail,” Mizahen al-Etbi told the AP. “All Saudis hate Americans, not only these heroes.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5196406/
As if the master puppeteer would even consider that...
Colin Powell would be willing to continue serving as secretary of state in a second Bush administration if he were able to take a grip on the direction of US foreign policy, a senior official said on Thursday.
F6, good to know I had some veggies for lunch. If you count ketchup, I had two :)
ROFL...If common sense was so common, you might have some!
and common sense thinking isn't allowed...
Then Bush is history.
You can't win when you LIE!
..........in the "war on terror", the only logical first choice was to take out the #1 state sponsored terrorist
Saddam in 2003 was little more than a brutal dictator to his people. The real question is not the #1 state sponsored terrorist but the breeding ground/home of terrorists and Iraq is a distant second to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria...
it is also why the escalation of that fight is happening in saudi arabia
We can't even solve the Israel/Palestine issue but come on Saudi Arabia...we are ready to bring Iraqi style freedom to you. By the way, how is Afghanistan going??
even al-sadr has seen the light of freedom
Oh yeah, I'm feeling real safe now
y'all are not only spoiled by our freedoms, but it's obvious that freedom is a reality y'all take for granted
the drafting of your soon to be 18 year old son as we will require lots of American bodies
what a disgusting comment, that you hope those you don't agree with have their children killed.....you're pathetic!........and y'all wonder why the participants of liberalism are viewed by mainstream america as a bunch of non-sensical extremists?
I'm spoiled by my freedom...what a republican thing to say. I see, it is you who will define freedom and it is you that determines ones degree of patriotism. Typical!!! And when did I say that those I don't agree with I 'hope' have their children killed, you blurry visioned twit?? Great logic. You love to jump on 'those' liberals for putting words in your mouth yet do that very thing when it suits YOU.
By the way, is everybody else's child OK and your son too good to put his life on the line for his warmonger dad who hasn't seen a war front he didn't want to fight...with someone elses child??
Let me break it down for you reeeal simple. We have a self-proclaimed war president. We are militarily lacking the manpower in Iraq, only recently beefed up our presence in Afghanistan, have most every reserve called up and you are ready for war on more fronts. Great, therefore, to fight all your wars, in my opinion, we need more troops yet 18 year olds will be less inclined to join the military/reserves having viewed current affairs, a war promoted for totally different reasons (remember your creaky three-legged stool??) and knowing a 4 year stint may not be 4 years. With me so far??? Therefore, a draft will be necessary and in my opinion, deferments such as college, a zitboy on your butt(Rush), chickenhawk deferments (Cheney) should not be allowed. Capeche??