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Hey Ed, I was able to watch The White House Correspondance Dinner on Saturday, which has been held since 1910 or so and the current president has spoken every year. Bush crack some jokes and then Leno MC'd, picking on everyone. But I gotta tell y'all, Bush looked great! This war is treating him well as his gray hair has all but disappeared into a softer brown color. Kinda like Reagan who swore it was good genes.
Maybe Kerry needs to dye his hair to pick up his ratings, huh??
Iraq war veteran criticizes Bush on radio
National Guardsman says U.S. leaders failing troops
Updated: 2:15 p.m. ET May 01, 2004WASHINGTON - An Iraq war veteran expressed disappointment with President Bush on Saturday, saying the country's leaders refuse to acknowledge the seriousness of continuing violence in Iraq.
“I don’t expect our leaders to be free of mistakes. I expect our leaders to own up to them,” said Army National Guard 1st Lt. Paul Rieckhoff, who was a platoon leader in Iraq.
Rieckhoff’s comments, distributed by Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign, were the Democratic response to the president’s weekly radio address. Usually, a public official gives the response.
“Our troops are still waiting for more body armor. They are still waiting for better equipment. They are still waiting for a policy that brings in the rest of the world and relieves their burden,” said Rieckhoff.
Rieckhoff called his comrades in Iraq “men and women of extraordinary courage and incredible capability. But it’s time we had leadership in Washington to match that courage and match that capability.”
Bush: U.S. will stay the course
Rieckhoff’s address was preceded by Bush’s weekly radio address. The president said the United States will successfully pursue its work in Iraq in the face of a violent insurgency that seeks to undermine a peaceful transfer of power to Iraqis on June 30.
“Despite many challenges, life for the Iraqi people is a world away from the cruelty and corruption of Saddam’s regime,” and “we will finish our work,” Bush said.
Bush’s comments come exactly a year after his declaration that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, a point he noted.
The Iraqi resistance has become a major issue in the presidential campaign, with public doubts growing about Bush’s handling of the war, according to the latest polling data. Americans are split evenly on whether taking military action in Iraq was the right thing to do, a CBS News-New York Times poll found this week.
Two more deaths on the final day of April raised the U.S. death toll to at least 136, making it the deadliest month for American forces since Bush launched the war in March 2003.
Militias, remnants of the regime and foreign terrorists “have found little support among the Iraqi people,” the president said.
Bush is pursuing twin goals on Iraq’s future, trying to ensure an atmosphere of security as Iraqis move toward self-government and returning sovereignty to the people of Iraq on June 30.
The president said the bigger picture in Iraq is somewhat brighter.
Electricity is now more widely available than before the war, he said, and Iraq has a stable currency with thriving banks, renovated schools and clinics and rebuilt power plants, hospitals, water and sanitation facilities and bridges.
“The stakes for our country and the world are high,” the president said. “The failure of Iraqi democracy would embolden terrorists around the globe, increase dangers to the American people, and extinguish the hopes of millions in the Middle East.”
Earlier remarks were positive
In advance of Rieckhoff’s remarks, Republicans circulated televised comments he made last year in Iraq in which he gave a brighter picture of U.S. prospects.
“I think we’ve made incredible strides,” Rieckhoff said in a CBS “60 Minutes II” segment broadcast last October.
In a brief interview Saturday with The Associated Press, Rieckhoff said he had not been free to speak out in the TV interview because he had been on active duty.
Rieckhoff said he is not working for the Kerry campaign or for the Democratic Party. He contacted Kerry staffers who deal with veterans issues when he returned from Iraq three months ago, and they “provided me with the forum. I wrote every word.”
Rieckhoff is an Amherst College graduate who spent two years on Wall Street as an investment banking analyst before joining the National Guard. He said he plans now to return to university.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4878974/
Daffy, you are on a roll.
No, because the Democratic Party crushes all free thought in it's attempt to radicalize and polarize America. Any dissent is dealt with swiftly.
Let's see; an American united on 9/12/2001 and less than two years later we have become the most polarized country since Viet Nam. Good job!! But, of course, Bush had absolutely nothing to do with that and it is all the Demoracts fault.
Daffy, always enjoy your posts, even if they have been deleted and I can only read the first few words in my mail box telling me you took the time to write. Just a couple comments about this post.
First of all, any discussion about 'middle-class' needs to be defined in some manner as most Americans would consider themselves middle-class. I mean, what working family would describe themselves as, shall we say, lower-class. And correct me if I am wrong, as I am sure you will, but I believe a whole lotta people in this great country would be tickled pink making your middle-class wages of $100,000+ annually. Do you really believe some of the crap you put up here?? What do YOU consider middle-class??
And if taxes were raised in response to WW2, why have they not been raised now or are you suggesting the 'right' thing to do was cut taxes in 1941??
Regarding Social Security, who said the reason it was enacted was to improve the 'financial status of a country'? I also love your 'fact' that SS diminishes a countries wealth by providing incentives for workers to stop working at a younger age. What BS. Then you say That doesn't mean it is neccessarily a bad thing in some form or another, but it is a fact. Fact, my butt, prove it!
Geez, what next? Oh yeah, Building infrastructure (i.e. destroying the environment to keep people employed) is what came out of the national programs. So now, any programs that put people to work building infrastructure is simply programs destroying the environment. As you hero, zitboy, would say, Good Grief! This regime is destroying the environment and that is ok by you but....ah, forget it.
But you can't stop yourself: "Replanting forests" is something I'd have to look up, but I do know that there are more trees in our forests today (we require logging companies to replant trees) than there was at the outset of WW2 (after years of your claimed reforestation), Prove it!
As for Jim Jones' kool-aid.....
And that is why Democrats in general get the best looking women...lol, and it pizzes y'all off.
The answer is really pretty simple and I'll tell you straight out: conservatives are scared people. Yes, that's correct: pantywaists, wimps, milksops, namby-pambies, and sissies. And the remarkable thing is that they were born that way!
aerospike, thanks for that post. I read easy's and found it to be disturbing. Logic tells me that there has to be something to this and the truth may very well lie in the middle of the two posts. That said, I found this paragraph of interest:
Another 2001 report to the European Parliament compared exposures to DU to those experienced by uranium miners and concluded, "The fact that there is no evidence of an association between exposures—sometimes high and lasting since the beginning of the uranium industry—and health damages such as bone cancer, lymphatic or other forms of leukemia shows that these diseases as a consequence of an uranium exposure are either not present or very exceptional."
I cannot help being reminded of the tobacco industry's continued denial, with all kinds of 'documentation' to substantiate their position, that smoking had any links to increasing the risk of cancer. Knowing what I know and if I was an Iraqi citizen welcoming the liberation of my country, living and breathing in an area that had been bombed by such weapons would not be comforting, let alone our troops.
zitboy, had to get back to this post once again. I've said more than once this is a terrible mess Bush got us into and while you keep bagging on Kerry for lacking answers and dissing the UN for their many flaws, many of which I agree with, in my opinion my earlier post of today cuts to the chase.
zitboy, y'all put us in such a bind I am not sure there is an answer that won't be painful, extremely expensive, cost many, many more lives and in the final analysis, leave us less safer by fomenting many more 'terrorists' with a burning hatred for the United States and something far, far less than a democratic Iraq. But I guess everyone's definition of 'mission accomplished' is a little bit different.
Now easy posted Krugman's op-ed piece which, in my opinion again, hits the nail on the head. Before you marginalize what is said simply because of who is saying it, in particular read the first paragraph again. Then go ahead and pick apart this sentence or that thought in his piece, but in its totality and unless things change in a big way, we bought into a big, nasty mess. It is almost laughable if it wasn't so dang sad to hear Bush in the last 48 hours say things are returning to normal in Falluja.
I really hope I am wrong in a major way and Daffy tells me so everyday and Rooster is willing to pay my ticket to France to be rid of me, but I gotta feelin' Osama couldn't be happier and that pizzes me off to no end.
You cut Kerry no slack for lacking answers and that is your right and you have already stated your feelings towards Krugman, but unless you have a better plan, his last paragraph succinctly exposes our dilemma. And say what you will about Kerry, if this mess doesn't get a whole lot better prior to November 2nd, Bush does not deserve a second term.
I don't have a plan for Iraq. I strongly suspect, however, that all the plans you hear now are irrelevant. If America's leaders hadn't made so many bad decisions, they might have had a chance to shape Iraq to their liking. But that window closed many months ago.
Rooster, I love New Orleans and if I was in town, would certainly meet you if you were so inclined.
And if zitboy was to visit Vegas for the first time, same would apply. I understand, in person, he is well liked.
zitboy, y'all put us in such a bind I am not sure there is an answer that won't be painful, extremely expensive, cost many, many more lives and in the final analysis, leave us less safer by fomenting many more 'terrorists' with a burning hatred for the United States and something far, far less than a democratic Iraq. But I guess everyone's definition of 'mission accomplished' is a little bit different.
Now, we know bush thinks he has the answer, but do y'all really think that is the answer?
You know, Rooster, I heard that comment many years ago. I think it was 1971 and while voicing my opinion regarding the Viet Nam war, this big blowhard said "If you don't like this country, leave." I guess I can make the same assumption then, that you too, were for this 'elective' war, saw nothing wrong with it...other than leaving too soon.
33 years later, I am still here and ain't going nowhere, Lord willing.
If this country is so bad, MOVE and shut up! Go to France they seem to be your buddy.
Easy, and as I see it, therein lies a large part of the problem regarding most Americans cynic view and apathy towards our government today and politics in general; they feel no matter what they do, for example vote, it will not change anything. A classic example is 2000, Florida, Supreme Court, etc. I also believe many people feel big business runs this country, they have the money to buy off politicians and how they vote, and 'we the people' (remember us, zit?) can't do much about that.
I am currently reading John Dean's book "Worse than Watergate" and while only a quarter through it, this group in the White House are the most crooked (hmmm, didn't Kerry say something about that around a hot mic) and secretive group in my lifetime, bar none. They wouldn't stoop for the pocket change of Clinton's supposed (money losing) Whitewater deal that the Republicans spent 8 full years and many millions of taxpayers money trying to pin on him. I recommend this short book to anyone with an open mind, thus leaving out several on this board. And again, for full disclosure, I will next read Hannity's 'Deliver Us From Evil', which is sitting on my bookshelf and I am sure has nothing to do with the current administration.
Speaking of Hannity, I was able to hear part of his interview with Ted Koppel a while ago and he tried hard to create an agenda regarding tonights airing. Pretty amazing, Nightline has been on 24 years and this is the first time his show will not be aired in some markets. 24 years! Families that have lost a child in Iraq and live in a market where the program will not air have been calling Nightline requesting a copy of the show is mailed to them and Nightline will oblige their requests. Not one family has protested the showing of their love one.
What plagues American political culture right now isn't really politics, if by politics we mean open, daylight debate over the affairs of state.
mschere...good to see you 'over here'. Again, thanks for all your contributions 'on the other side'!!!
edit: sorry to reply to you, F6.
OTOTOT Wow...the swamp that keeps giving...Mr. Tagert!!!
Yup, F6, just a regular 'ol day in downtown Fallujah. Gotta love George...
Nieves....welcome back!!!
Hey, not so fast eddie. No need to reply, as per usual, but if yesterday was taken into consideration, great advice on IDCC!!!!! Keep up the good work. Whoo Whoo! Whoo Whoo!
IMHO you'll probably get your new shares a little cheaper than they are today...
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2889581
IMO it's the price catching up to the fundamentals...
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=2956754
The pain train is coming! Whoo Whoo! Whoo Whoo!
http://www.terrytate.reebok.com
Local LA writer I like....so you can skip this, Zitboy.
April 30, 2004
Steve Lopez:
Top Court Ruling as Foul as L.A.'s Air
After much hand-wringing, and a nudge from the United States Supreme Court, I've decided my Nissan Sentra was a big mistake.
First of all, I live in a city where style matters, and the Sentra was designed without a single distinctive characteristic. It doesn't even feel like a car, my boss said recently as we tooled through Echo Park completely unnoticed. It's like a pod that might be used for space travel.
And then there's the nation's highest court, which ruled this week that Southern California is trying entirely too hard to clean up air that ranks as the foulest in the nation.
I suppose I could keep folding myself into a cramped, light, fuel-efficient Nissan. But what's the point?
Eight out of nine Supreme Court justices wagged a finger at the South Coast Air Quality Management District for requiring private companies to use alternative-fuel vehicles that spew less pollution.
Justice Antonin Scalia explained the ruling, which was cheered by the White House, engine manufacturers and oil companies.
"If one state or political subdivision may enact such rules," Scalia said, "then so may any other; and the end result would undo Congress' carefully calibrated regulatory scheme."
Hallelujah! There's no telling what irreparable harm would befall the planet if we messed with Congress' carefully calibrated regulatory system.
If Southern California selfishly insisted on going the extra mile to improve air quality, what would prevent the Bay Area from trying to clean up its smog problem? Or the Central Valley, for that matter? Or Phoenix and Denver?
I have to admit the idea of clean air used to hold some appeal for me. But Ken Lay essentially helped write the nation's energy policy in a secret meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney, right?
And Environmental Protection Agency scientists are complaining that a Bush administration policy threatens air quality at national parks, for crying out loud.
What hope is there?
Besides, I've been riding the bus for two months because of an accident that temporarily took my wheels away, so I've done my part for conservation. Now that I'm ready to drive again, I don't want half measures. I want to gas up a two-ton hog and plow through every national park from sea to shining sea.
"I'm going to get the biggest vehicle available," I told Todd Campbell of the Coalition for Clean Air, explaining that my lowly Sentra was history.
"Well," Campbell said, "you can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution."
He said responsible citizens should support the fight to require public agencies, if not private companies, to use low-pollution buses, trucks and cars. If we don't cut emissions by the year 2010, he said, Southern California will lose $12.1 billion in federal transportation funds.
The Los Angeles area has been backsliding on air quality after years of progress, Campbell said, which helps explain why the poisonous muck trapped by the San Gabriel Mountains earlier this week was dark enough to serve as a duck blind for Justice Scalia.
We're talking about threatening the health of our children, Campbell pleaded.
"Why do we have to go to the point where people start dropping off and dying before we do something?" he asked. "Especially when we have the technology available to reduce emissions?"
I don't know, but it might have something to do with Congress' carefully calibrated regulatory scheme, if not its unflagging courage when it comes to handling Detroit. A new EPA report tells us fuel economy has been stagnant for five years and is nowhere near as good as it was 15 years ago.
"We're guzzling dramatically more gas than we were in the 1980s," a global warming expert told the New York Times, "so no one should be surprised that we're paying more at the pump, in hock to OPEC, and poisoning the atmosphere."
For this, we can thank congressional representatives who would rather drink boiling radiator fluid with Crazy Straws than stand up to the auto and petroleum lobbies and demand better mileage.
And we can thank American consumers who keep buying vehicles big and powerful enough to transport entire soccer teams, scale Half Dome and invade hostile nations.
A couple of days ago, I had a terrifying moment on the highway when a Hummer passed the Sentra off my left flank. My entire vehicle was almost sucked into the Hummer's wheel well.
If anyone's interested, the Sentra is yours for a song.
I'm going with the Dodge Fallouja or Chevy Basra, if not the Ford Extinction.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez30apr30,1,7699883.column
Rooster, how you can draw a parallel between the two is beyond me. I guess your idea of honoring the dead is to wait, oh, lets say 25 years or so, and then build a memorial for them like the Viet Nam wall in D.C. Give me a break. I think you will find most Americans, by a huge majority, believe this is an honorable tribute to the fallen and it is those who try to stop this that 'have an agenda'.
By the way, you already answered my question.
Rooster, I do, but I think the more important questions are who doesn't and why?
I heard on the radio this am that a father of a son who was killed in a vehicle accident in Iraq called Nightline to complain that his son should be included in the list. They checked with the station regarding more time, it was granted and I understand they will announce the names of all who have died in Iraq.
Hopefully, those who have given their lives in Afghanistan are next.
Haven't read the posts ahead, but what say you??
Daffy Duck: I guess you took a slam at me for some reason (cough! hack!....pull a zitboy here) but it was deleted. I wish not as I always enjoy your intellectual honesty.
So you are the new Miss Cleo? You
Zitboy...it's official....you are a joke. The fact that you can descredit or trivialize their findings and conclusions before they are issued shows your bias and inability to think 'independently'. Rather than wait for their results you have constantly attacked the members and the process while calling this 'political theater', 'comedy genre', etc., etc, ahhh... I am amazed how truly lame you have become. I suppose it would be better to have no commission, continue on our merry way trusting our president who admits to no mistakes to lead us on the path to a safe utopia.
For the record, MY media coverage reported Clinton 'showed up with Sandy Berger and his lawyer, Bruce Lindsey' as it also reported they were comfortable being recorded. And I see you are back for another circle jerk. Ain't you sweet! Oh, I know, lets have 10 Republicans on the panel. That would be the answer to all your complaints.
A piece of advice: Let your 16 year old boy start posting here; I'll bet he has more on the ball than his old man.
P.S. My media also reported that the president received a memo in August, 2001, that bin Laden was determined to attack inside the U.S.
it's official......the 9-11 panel is a joke.........
Daffy...and Bush is a liar. Does that suprise YOU??
No that doesn't surprise anyone.
But of course zitboy will say teachers resoundingly support Bush...And Skylark, the tide is achangin'...
Hundreds of thousands of outraged parents, students and teachers across the country today called on President Bush to fire his Education Secretary, Roderick Paige, in a petition delivered to the White House. More than 250,000 people signed the petition organized by the Campaign for America's Future to announce their outrage that the Bush Administration is attacking teachers instead of listening to them to ensure a high-quality public education. Paige's comments that teachers are part of a "terrorist" group made petition signers so mad that they raised tens of thousands of dollars overnight to place ads at bus stops and subway platforms surrounding Paige's office.
Easy, Florida has more votes than Afghanistan and Pakistan combined.
Treasury department agency charged with stopping the transit of illegal funds to terrorist organizations, allocates more employees to tracking Americans for Cuban embargo violations than to investigating where and how Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein get their money, according to an OFAC letter to Congress.
But, of course, there isn't the hint of any impropriety and for anyone to even presume such...
But Scalia's mind was made up long before they went hunting.
Raymond, who said Scalia was bought off so 'cheap'?
This is the Supreme Court and I believe this type of thinking will cost us all dearly and he is right, the nation is in deeper trouble than he can imagine....or care to imagine.
"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," Scalia wrote.
Another point of view...
Jumping Out of Sick Bay
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: April 29, 2004
TOKYO
So I come to Tokyo to get away from it all, and what do I discover but more bad news for the John Kerry campaign. Not only does the U.S. economy appear to be headed for at least a burst of recovery around election time, but so does the world's second-largest economy, Japan, which should also help buoy the U.S. recovery. It's more evidence, to me, that Mr. Kerry may have to run in the most difficult of all environments, and exactly the opposite of the one Democrats had hoped for: an environment where the U.S. economy is rebounding, and Iraq is reeling.
As I lie awake in my Tokyo hotel, jet-lagged out of my mind and having my Bill Murray "Lost in Translation" moment, I am clicking back and forth between CNBC and CNN on the television. All the news on CNBC seems to be about how Asia's economies are now on fire, and all the news on CNN seems to be about how America's Humvees in Iraq are now on fire.
Maybe that will change in the months ahead, and maybe American voters will develop a different reaction to those contrasting images, should they continue. But for the moment, judging from many polls, it seems that Mr. Bush is being rewarded for the economy's tentative recovery more than he is being punished for Iraq's troubling slide. I'm sure the Kerry camp was hoping for the opposite — a stable Iraq and a slumping economy that would start to recover only after November — because it would play much more to Mr. Kerry's strength with voters. But, for a lot of reasons, that doesn't seem to be what's happening, and the Kerry folks had better start positioning their candidate for the world we're in.
I wish I had some smart advice. Alas, all I have is information. Even through my jet lag, I can see that the sick man of Asia, otherwise known as the Japanese economy, just jumped out of bed and is now running laps around the hospital. Everyone in the neighborhood is watching, wondering whether the sick man has really gotten healthy or just an injection of Chinese steroids and will soon stumble again — as happened before, in the 1990's. No one in the neighborhood is quite sure, even the sick man himself, but everyone is enjoying the show, especially the sick man.
There is evidence to suggest that, maybe, this Japanese recovery is real, is not just based on government spending and will last longer than previous wind sprints. I went to a briefing that Wal-Mart put on with its Japanese partner, Seiyu, a local store chain, about opening the first Wal-Mart-like big-box stores in Japan. No one ever believed that Japan's rigid, small-shop economy would tolerate a discount big-box approach like Wal-Mart's, where wholesalers get squeezed and everything from employees' pens to paper gets rationed.
But Japanese consumers, many so spooked by their faltering banks that they stuffed money in their mattresses, seem to be suddenly spending again — their confidence bolstered by recent bank restructurings and better leadership from the Japanese central bank. The Nikkei 225 stock average jumped 47 percent in the fiscal year that ended on March 31.
Because Japan (much more than the U.S.) has been able to hold onto a sophisticated manufacturing base — like high-end steel, machine tools, cutting-edge electronics and industrial robots — it's been exporting like crazy to China's start-up factories. This year, Japan's trade with China surpassed its trade with the U.S.
"Two-thirds of the reason for [Japan's] recovery is China," says the Japanese management consultant Kenichi Ohmae. China, and new Japanese plants in China, are sucking in so many Japanese exports there aren't enough ships to bring them over fast enough. China is literally dragging Japan out of its slump.
"There is [also] much more attention [in Japan] to restructuring than there was in the past," adds Jeffrey Young, Tokyo economist for Nikko Citigroup. "Companies are improving their efficiencies." And Japan's workers have proved more adaptable, in hard times, than commonly believed.
The big test is: Can Japan continue to grow, based on domestic consumer-led demand, if and when the overheating Chinese economy starts to cool? Domestic wages and productivity are still lagging. And how does Japan deal with its huge fiscal deficit and still-weak banks, which will probably require more taxes from an aging, shrinking work force to sort out?
Only when we see that will we know whether the sick man has it in him to do anything more than run laps around the hospital.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/29/opinion/29FRIE.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2...
Zitboy, thought you would enjoy this piece...
Guns and Peanut Butter
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: April 29, 2004
WASHINGTON
So let's see. What's our swell choice here?
A guy who mimed being a fighter pilot on a carrier versus a guy who mimed throwing his medals over a fence?
An incumbent who sticks with the wrong decisions based on the wrong facts versus a challenger who seems unable to stick to one side of any decision, right or wrong?
A Republican who's a world-class optimist, despite making the world more dangerous and virulently anti-American, versus a Democrat who looks like a world-weary loner, even as he pledges to make the world safer and more pro-American?
A president who can't go anywhere without his vice president to give him the answers versus a candidate who can't go anywhere without his campaign butler/buddy to give him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?
Bush campaign strategists don't seem worried that every positive development the administration predicted would happen if we invaded Iraq has soured into the opposite.
As an article on Monday in The Times noted about the growing ranks of angry Muslims: "The call to jihad is rising in the streets of Europe, and is being answered."
Communing with the Higher Father and the Almighty, President Bush has either stumbled into a Holy War or swaggered into one.
In their new book, "The Bushes," Peter and Rochelle Schweizer, who interviewed many Bushes, including the president's father and his brother Jeb, quote one unnamed relative as saying that W. sees the war on terror "as a religious war": "He doesn't have a P.C. view of this war. His view of this is that they are trying to kill the Christians. And we the Christians will strike back with more force and more ferocity than they will ever know."
Bush strategists seem to believe that the worse Mr. Bush makes things, the better off he is, because nervous Americans will cling to the obstinate president they know over the vacillating challenger they don't know.
Senator Kerry's talent for turning a winning proposition into a losing one is disturbingly reminiscent of Al Gore, who somehow managed to lose an election he won. So is Mr. Kerry's sometimes supercilious manner, and his habit of exacerbating a small thing with an answer that is not quite straight.
When the senator was asked last week whether he owned a gas-scarfing Chevy Suburban S.U.V., he replied, "I don't own an S.U.V.," only to have to admit, when pressed further by reporters, that his wife owns the S.U.V. "The family has it," he said lamely. "I don't have it."
The White House pounds Mr. Kerry for not playing straight on small-bore stuff, even as they don't play straight on huge-bore stuff.
The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, pronounced the administration "in denial" yesterday, after hearing Condi Rice's briefing for House Democratic lawmakers.
"This is an administration that told us that our troops would be welcomed with roses," Representative Pelosi said. "Instead, it's rocket-propelled grenades. This is an administration that told us that the Iraqi government would be able to pay for its own reconstruction, and soon. And now it's costing nearly $200 billion to the American people."
She added: "And it was expressed by the national security adviser now that yes, there was disappointment — disappointment? — about the Iraqi security forces not being able to secure the region that they were assigned to. And this is the judgment that the American people have placed their confidence in?"
Mr. Kerry errs on the side of giving the answer he thinks people want to hear, even as Mr. Bush errs on the side of giving the answer he expects people to accept as true.
When the president was asked yesterday by a reporter whether it would take an all-out military offensive to put down the violence in Falluja, and whether this would impede the transfer of power on June 30, he was reassuring, despite news of the aerial bombardment of Falluja by U.S. gunships and the 70-ton battle tanks being rushed in to aid marines in the escalating fight.
"Most of Falluja is returning to normal," the president said, presumably defining normal as flattened.
Anyway, is that 10 minutes to normal, as Karen Hughes would say? Or 10 years to normal? And what on earth is normal, when you're talking about Iraq chaos theory?
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/29/opinion/29DOWD.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2...
Easy, in a nutshell, it is because our president is a compassionate conservative who is a uniter, not a divider.
After all the post-9/11 talk about Americans pulling together, why does it feel as though we're moving farther apart?
And we tax payers fund this nonsense so we will be 'safer'.
The Good Lord has to look down on us and marvel at how pathetic we are.
Good post,easy. In my opinion, this paragraph says it all:
Funny, isn't it? When Bill Clinton was running against Republican war veterans in 1992 and 1996, the most important thing to GOP propagandists and politicians was that Clinton didn't fight in Vietnam. Now that Republican candidates who didn't fight in Vietnam face a Democrat who did -- and won the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts while he was there -- the Republican machine wants to change the subject.
Anything, ANYTHING, to divert attention from the 3 year record of Bush.
Close to what Bush said:
"Bring em on!"
And guess what, they came!
Eddie Haskell, you're back for a couple comments, stir the pot, never answer a question or engage in discussion. Just hit and run. That's cool.
Yeah, notice how the subject of the economy doesn't seem to be coming up anymore? Kerry is toast...
I know you are a big believer in priming the economic pump with HUGE deficits but that is another subject.
You know, eddie, you're just down the road a piece and we in So. Cal. have it pretty good with an economy far more diverse and robust than much of the country, not to mention a real estate market on fire. Isn't it interesting, though, that the states representing the greatest economic vitality turn out often to be blue states. Hmmmm..., might not bode well for Bush.
Now, you mention that the subject of the economy doesn't seem to be coming up anymore so lets talk about one state: Ohio. Bush won Ohio in 2000 but to say there is an economic boom going on there...well, you better borrow zit's glasses. Fact is, the economy is not well, jobs have not come back even close to replacing what was lost and what jobs are available are often mcjobs. Therefore, you will see Bush spend tens of millions on ads (could be a job for zit) and visit the state many more times before November trying his best to put his spin on his sorry economic record.
but I'm sure you still got your metals (bought because of your confidence in the economy, not awarded like Kerry) and I wouldn't butter that toast just yet.
Whoo Whoo!! Couldn't resist, Rooster likes that sound.
Ahhh, there you go again, zitboy, hoping against hope the Dems pick a new candidate. Now, is this the 'goodship Zitboy' docking and looking out for us poor, rudderless Democrats?? I doubt it as you would enjoy nothing more than seeing Kerry get whupped reeeal good, so save the advice for your King George.
perhaps you should find a new candidate then
nobody is questioning, nor attacking his service.........it is what he's done since, as a politician, that is merely being pointed out for america to see
Zit, I know you don't like your new glasses but dang, put 'em on so you can see. Nobody is questioning nor attacking his service??? GIVE ME A FRIGGIN' BREAK. For the last week or two that is all we have been seeing and hearing is whether he 'deserved' three purple hearts, was he really 'wounded', got a third purple heart so he could go home early, on and on and on. Do you really believe what you say?? Does your son??
kerry is trying to make his military service the only qualifier to be president
Funny, the Atwater attack dogs are all over Kerry regarding his military record forcing Kerry to have to answer reporters well thought out questions (sic) and you come up with this. Yeah, right. And then this:
with logic like that, kerry could pick timothy mcveigh as a running mate
Our current VP, the wizard of oz, has killed far more people than mcveigh, you Rove wannabe. You gotta lot of nerve even making a assinine statement like that but one thing is quite obvious: you are a perfect fit in the Atwater, Rove, Republican party. Jerk!
F6, good article on Atwater, who definitely personified the Republican Party of God and flag while screwing anyone who disagrees with a mean spiritness that makes one take a step back. He was a major league pr**k and I found myself having little sympathy for his 'conversion' when his terminal illness was announced. I wish no harm on anyone but his was a case of too little, too late. Now we have Rove and King George.
Rove, incidentally, has never talked to anybody on McCain's staff. Not once. So the tone of McCain's response to Jeffords' defection was hardly surprising -- and a barely veiled castigation of Rove. "Perhaps those self-appointed enforcers of party loyalty," he said, "will learn to respect honorable differences among us, learn to disagree without resorting to personal threats, and recognize that we are a party large enough to accommodate something short of strict unanimity on the issues of the day."
The dying Atwater would heartily agree. Too bad his star students dropped out before learning this vital parting lesson.
Zit, my, my, I hope you teach your son more than a sound bite. So 'middle-class' America won't forget his $1,000 haircut...you better hope so, zit, you better hope so. But wait, it was YOU who said Americans are stupid.
You offer so little. Go back to formulating your next ad.
Daffier by the Day: That's it??? Mighty sound logic, my fine feathered friend, one I am sure all 700 plus families will buy into.
Daffy, Bush has got his story straight but you will never hear it or if they have their way, see it.
Over 700 Americans dead....and counting.
Choo Choo....
Rooster, when the Good Lord was passing out brains you obviously thought he said trains and asked for a slow one. If there is no substance to Kerry, Bush is on the same train as you. And I will say it again: Kerry or Gore would not have gotten us into this MESS. Take your cackles to the hens.