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DEL.ICIO.USIf Bush insists on reassessment, OK….
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If President Bush himself wasn’t driving it with repeated appearances, culminating in Thursday night’s speech to the nation, the current obsession with assessing his legacy would begin to feel like piling on. There’s just not much good to say about the last eight years.
The Washington Post, for example, has a good wrapup on the economic performance since 2001. It’s true that a president gets too much of the blame for a bad economy, and too much of the credit for a good one, but for a long time Bush and his supporters tried to cite the economy as an accomplishment. Says the Post:
“President Bush has presided over the weakest eight-year span for the U.S. economy in decades, according to an analysis of key data, and economists across the ideological spectrum increasingly view his two terms as a time of little progress on the nation’s thorniest fiscal challenges.
The number of jobs in the nation increased by about 2 percent during Bush’s tenure, the most tepid growth over any eight-year span since data collection began seven decades ago. Gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic output, grew at the slowest pace for a period of that length since the Truman administration. And Americans’ incomes grew more slowly than in any presidency since the 1960s, other than that of Bush’s father.
Bush and his aides are quick to point out that they oversaw 52 straight months of job growth in the middle of this decade, and that the economy expanded at a steady clip from 2003 to 2007. But economists, including some former advisers to Bush, say it increasingly looks as if the nation’s economic expansion was driven to a large degree by the interrelated booms in the housing market, consumer spending and financial markets. Those booms, which the Bush administration encouraged with the idea of an “ownership society,” have proved unsustainable.
“The expansion was a continuation of the way the U.S. has grown for too long, which was a consumer-led expansion that was heavily concentrated in housing,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a onetime Bush White House staffer and one of Sen. John McCain’s top economic advisers for his presidential campaign. “There was very little of the kind of saving and export-led growth that would be more sustainable.”
“For a group that claims it wants to be judged by history, there is no evidence on the economic policy front that that was the view,” Holtz-Eakin said. “It was all Band-Aids.”…
“It’s sad to say, but we really went nowhere for almost ten years, after you extract the boost provided by the housing and mortgage boom,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, and an informal adviser to McCain’s campaign. “It’s almost a lost economic decade.”…
Even excluding the 2008 recession, however, Bush presided over a weak period for the U.S. economy. For example, for the first seven years of the Bush administration, gross domestic product grew at a paltry 2.1 percent annual rate.
Some of the president’s defenders claim that people never gave him a chance, that the way in which he took office after the Supreme Court ruling of 2000 soured much of the country on him from the beginning. The facts don’t begin to justify that claim.
In the summer of ‘01, just a few months after taking office and before Sept. 11, Bush was enjoying favorability ratings of around 60 percent, with 30 percent disapproval ratings. And of course, after the terror attacks those numbers soared as Americans rallied around their leader. In the Fox poll, he peaked in December 01 with a favorability rating of 84 percent and unfavorables at 12 percent.
The unfavorables didn’t exceed the favorables until after Hurricane Katrina in ‘05, and they have stayed that way ever since. In other words, Bush isn’t a victim here. He got his historically low rating the old-fashioned way: He EARNED it.
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Comments
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 11:12 AM | Link to this
Jay
It’s heartening to know you will be just as FAIR and UNBIASED when President Obama’s tenure is done.
By Shawny
January 13, 2009 11:24 AM | Link to this
I was just thinking the same as Corp… please be just as critical of the Big O (not Oprah).
By @@
January 13, 2009 11:33 AM | Link to this
He got his historically low rating the old-fashioned way: He EARNED it.
As did those citizens who failed in their responsibility towards home ownership and savings, jay.
By FrankLeeDarling
January 13, 2009 11:33 AM | Link to this
You said t Jay! Even my conservative friends are having to admit what a failure the Bush presidency has been.The last eight years have been stolen from the American people in the form of no progress. What a wast!
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 11:42 AM | Link to this
Turning this country over to the Democrats is like playing for the FALCONS and then getting traded to the LIONS.
Sure, the Falcons could have done a lot better but THERE IS JUST NO COMPARISON.
By @@
January 13, 2009 11:47 AM | Link to this
If I may attach to my 11:33, a case in point from downstairs:
By Arabella Monk:
I watched Sean Hannity’s new show tonight too, and loved his interview with President Bush.— Bush was a good protector for our country, he kept us safe for almost 8 yrs.
What I didn’t like about the president is that he didn’t care at all about all of us middle and lower income people, he didn’t do anything to help us get ahead, didn’t give us any breaks
Who, in their right mind, believes that a president/government should be responsible for “getting them ahead” in life?
Since when did “securing LIFE, LIBERTY”, and the individual’s OPPORTUNITY to “PURSUE HAPPINESS” not constitute a “a break”?
By rcs
January 13, 2009 11:59 AM | Link to this
Bush’s Achievements
Ten things the president got right. by Fred Barnes 01/19/2009, Volume 014, Issue 17
The postmortems on the presidency of George W. Bush are all wrong. The liberal line is that Bush dangerously weakened America’s position in the world and rushed to the aid of the rich and powerful as income inequality worsened. That is twaddle. Conservatives—okay, not all of them—have only been a little bit kinder. They give Bush credit for the surge that saved Iraq, but not for much else.
He deserves better. His presidency was far more successful than not. And there’s an aspect of his decision-making that merits special recognition: his courage. Time and time again, Bush did what other presidents, even Ronald Reagan, would not have done and for which he was vilified and abused. That—defiantly doing the right thing—is what distinguished his presidency.
Bush had ten great achievements (and maybe more) in his eight years in the White House, starting with his decision in 2001 to jettison the Kyoto global warming treaty so loved by Al Gore, the environmental lobby, elite opinion, and Europeans. The treaty was a disaster, with India and China exempted and economic decline the certain result. Everyone knew it. But only Bush said so and acted accordingly.
He stood athwart mounting global warming hysteria and yelled, “Stop!” He slowed the movement toward a policy blunder of worldwide impact, providing time for facts to catch up with the dubious claims of alarmists. Thanks in part to Bush, the supposed consensus of scientists on global warming has now collapsed. The skeptics, who point to global cooling over the past decade, are now heard loud and clear. And a rational approach to the theory of manmade global warming is possible.
Second, enhanced interrogation of terrorists. Along with use of secret prisons and wireless eavesdropping, this saved American lives. How many thousands of lives? We’ll never know. But, as Charles Krauthammer said recently, “Those are precisely the elements which kept us safe and which have prevented a second attack.”
Crucial intelligence was obtained from captured al Qaeda leaders, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, with the help of waterboarding. Whether this tactic—it creates a drowning sensation—is torture is a matter of debate. John McCain and many Democrats say it is. Bush and Vice President Cheney insist it isn’t. In any case, it was necessary. Lincoln once made a similar point in defending his suspension of habeas corpus in direct defiance of Chief Justice Roger Taney. “Are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated?” Lincoln asked. Bush understood the answer in wartime had to be no.
Bush’s third achievement was the rebuilding of presidential authority, badly degraded in the era of Vietnam, Watergate, and Bill Clinton. He didn’t hesitate to conduct wireless surveillance of terrorists without getting a federal judge’s okay. He decided on his own how to treat terrorists and where they should be imprisoned. Those were legitimate decisions for which the president, as commander in chief, should feel no need to apologize.
Defending, all the way to the Supreme Court, Cheney’s refusal to disclose to Congress the names of people he’d consulted on energy policy was also enormously important. Democratic congressman Henry Waxman demanded the names, but the Court upheld Cheney, 7-2. Last week, Cheney defended his refusal, waspishly noting that Waxman “doesn’t call me up and tell me who he’s meeting with.”
Achievement number four was Bush’s unswerving support for Israel. Reagan was once deemed Israel’s best friend in the White House. Now Bush can claim the title. He ostracized Yasser Arafat as an impediment to peace in the Middle East. This infuriated the anti-Israel forces in Europe, the Third World, and the United Nations, and was criticized by champions of the “peace process” here at home. Bush was right.
He was clever in his support. Bush announced that Ariel Sharon should withdraw the tanks he’d sent into the West Bank in 2002, then exerted zero pressure on Sharon to do so. And he backed the wall along Israel’s eastern border without endorsing it as an official boundary, while knowing full well that it might eventually become exactly that. He was a loyal friend.
His fifth success was No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the education reform bill cosponsored by America’s most prominent liberal Democratic senator Edward Kennedy. The teachers’ unions, school boards, the education establishment, conservatives adamant about local control of schools—they all loathed the measure and still do. It requires two things they ardently oppose, mandatory testing and accountability.
Kennedy later turned against NCLB, saying Bush is shortchanging the program. In truth, federal education spending is at record levels. Another complaint is that it forces teachers to “teach to the test.” The tests are on math and reading. They are tests worth teaching to.
Sixth, Bush declared in his second inaugural address in 2005 that American foreign policy (at least his) would henceforth focus on promoting democracy around the world. This put him squarely in the Reagan camp, but he was lambasted as unrealistic, impractical, and a tool of wily neoconservatives. The new policy gave Bush credibility in pressing for democracy in the former Soviet republics and Middle East and in zinging various dictators and kleptocrats. It will do the same for President Obama, if he’s wise enough to hang onto it.
The seventh achievement is the Medicare prescription drug benefit, enacted in 2003. It’s not only wildly popular; it has cost less than expected by triggering competition among drug companies. Conservatives have deep reservations about the program. But they shouldn’t have been surprised. Bush advocated the drug benefit in the 2000 campaign. And if he hadn’t acted, Democrats would have, with a much less attractive result.
Then there were John Roberts and Sam Alito. In putting them on the Supreme Court and naming Roberts chief justice, Bush achieved what had eluded Richard Nixon, Reagan, and his own father. Roberts and Alito made the Court indisputably more conservative. And the good news is Roberts, 53, and Alito, 58, should be justices for decades to come.
Bush’s ninth achievement has been widely ignored. He strengthened relations with east Asian democracies (Japan, South Korea, Australia) without causing a rift with China. On top of that, he forged strong ties with India. An important factor was their common enemy, Islamic jihadists. After 9/11, Bush made the most of this, and Indian leaders were receptive. His state dinner for Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2006 was a lovefest.
Finally, a no-brainer: the surge. Bush prompted nearly unanimous disapproval in January 2007 when he announced he was sending more troops to Iraq and adopting a new counterinsurgency strategy. His opponents initially included the State Department, the Pentagon, most of Congress, the media, the foreign policy establishment, indeed the whole world. This makes his decision a profile in courage. Best of all, the surge worked. Iraq is now a fragile but functioning democracy.
How does Bush rank as a president? We won’t know until he’s judged from the perspective of two or three decades. Hindsight forced a sharp upgrading of the presidencies of Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. Given his achievements, it may have the same effect for Bush.
—Fred Barnes, for the Editors
By ByteMe
January 13, 2009 12:04 PM | Link to this
For example, for the first seven years of the Bush administration, gross domestic product grew at a paltry 2.1 percent annual rate.
If you back out the money pumped into the economy from home equity loans, you’ll see that GDP is actually bouncing around 0 for most of 2003-2007.
(I know Ritholz has had the chart on his site and Mauldin has also had it in several columns… I’m supposed to be in the middle of debugging something here or I’d spend time looking for it)
By FrankLeeDarling
January 13, 2009 12:09 PM | Link to this
What a bunch of spam crap rcs.
By Paul
January 13, 2009 12:09 PM | Link to this
Jay
[[the current obsession with assessing his legacy would begin to feel like piling on.]]
LOL! Change “legacy” to “hope and promise” and it sounds like the press with Obama for the last couple of years! LOL!
Legacy on economics: Clinton had a legacy. Bush had…. regression.
And I’ll predict if there’s one thing Pres-elect Obama will learn from his predecessor, it’s to get out front and explain to the public, often and again and again, what he’s planning to do, what he’s doing, and why he did what he did.
Somehow, I don’t think there’ll be any criticism for his “repeated appearances… speech(es) to the nation… in defining his legacy.”
By Bosch
January 13, 2009 12:14 PM | Link to this
I can’t believe I’m about to write this, but I don’t feel that this economic crisis is solely Bush’s fault. I know, crazy huh?
I blame the American people.
Having everything and not paying for it, or, buying more than they can afford - that’s the problem, and that’s not really Bush’s fault. We know how much we an afford.
Now, granted, the price of some things that are necessary have skyrocketed the past few months, and we have to pay more for things we actually need.
I don’t think the attitude that we need big houses and new cars and every gadget and gizmo that comes along and a beach vacation every summer at an expensive condo and designer clothes, and a house that looks like it comes right out of Better Homes and Garden - that’s not Bush’s fault at all.
Now before someone accuses me of class envy, I’m not saying any of that is wrong, it’s only that many think they deserve it, or that is what makes them successful in the eyes of everyone - and it’s not, at least in my opinion.
And jobs being outsourced started with Clinton - I blame him for the beginning of that, with signing NAFTA, but it continued and escalated during the Bush years. For anyone to say this is solely the fault of one man, or one party is just plain hogwash. Yes, hogwash.
As a country, we need to go back to basics and realize what it is that makes us who we are. We need to come to a consensus of what our goals as a nation are and until we do that, nothing will change.
I was watching a news story the other day about a German billionaire who stepped in front of a train and killed himself because he’d lost a good chunk of his income, and I thought how sad that was. I thought what would I do if I lost all my stuff, and I thought, well, that would suck, but as long as I had my family, well, we’d get by. Without them, I’d probably step in front of a train too, but that would be the ONLY reason.
Anyway, just my two cents.
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 13, 2009 12:27 PM | Link to this
Peggy Noonan was right!
“I do not know what the Democratic Party spent, in toto, on the 2004 election, but what they seem to have gotten for it is Barack Obama. Let us savor.”
More hilarity here.
By Jen
January 13, 2009 12:38 PM | Link to this
You know, there’s one really good thing that came out of the Bush 2 Presidency and the bad thing is that I don’t know when, if ever, people will remember him for it: PEPFAR.
For all it’s valid critical reviews PEPFAR is truly a good thing for Bush to leave behind because it will only help make the world the better place, especially now that it’s more science-friendly hands.
By TW
January 13, 2009 12:40 PM | Link to this
I dunno, Jay. I think you might be underestimating the stupidity of the American people. After all, he was re-elected at a time when the smell of the turd was pretty strong.
By Slick
January 13, 2009 12:46 PM | Link to this
Jay,
Fred Barnes claims that Bush had ten “great achievements” that he accomplished this by “defiantley doing the right thing”.
To believe any of this, one has to accept Bush’s (and Barnes’s) definition of “the right thing” and it is there that his assertion turns into dream land, fantasy, and talking points.
Fred Barnes writes for The Weekly Standard, which is a neo-con fish wrapper that has supported every disasteous mistake that the Bush Administration has committed during its entire term.
So Fred Barnes is hardly the one to believe when he expresses an opinion based on his and Bush’s definition of “doing the right thing”.
It is pure fantasy!
By Forever in your Debt
January 13, 2009 12:53 PM | Link to this
Bush still has about 20% of the US with their heads stuck up his buttocks. You all can come out now. There’s nothing to fear until you get your bill for your share of the Bush disaster.
By leg
January 13, 2009 1:00 PM | Link to this
Jay, do you also”have a good feeling running up or down your leg”?
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 1:03 PM | Link to this
Let the Wake Up Call’s Begin
Hardline demonstrators burn posters of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, during a demonstration in support of the people of Gaza, in front of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran January 13, 2009.
REUTERS/Stringer (IRAN)
By DebbieDoRight
January 13, 2009 1:11 PM | Link to this
Kinda like what Pres Obama will do (‘he took the good will of the Arab nations that looked to him with hope’) after he escalates the war in Afghanistan and invades Pakistan and Africa.
Obama is doing what Dumbya should’ve done the first time — finished the war in Afghanistan by totally annihilating Al Queada; not by giving AQ a chance to hide out in Pakistan and rebuild their infrastructure. Dumbya also, by invading Iraq, gave AQ a foothold in Iraq, something that would’ve NEVER happened with Saddam Hussein as it’s leader.
Ask yourself this question, why do you think that the first Bush, (Herbert Walker), left Saddam in place after Desert Storm? He knew the region would deconstruct and fall into civil war without the stability of Hussein. Yes, he was a dictator, but he was the “lesser” of 2 evils. With him gone, now we have AQ resurging in the middle east with Iran, which has a Shia majority, eyeing annexation of Iraq by nuclear force if necessary.
Dumbya might be a great guy to go out and have a beer with, but he was a god-awful, limited vision, limited thinking president.
By mm
January 13, 2009 1:11 PM | Link to this
Senate Republicans Brace for Ominous 2010
I guess these losers don’t want to be treated like the Dems were treated for 6 years. Since the wingnuts have no chance of winning, they’re going to take their ball and go home.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 1:16 PM | Link to this
Jay
How about a fair assessment on Hillary. She (and Bill) have been involved in Pay or Play since Arkansas but very few of the senators today will call them out on it ………
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 1:18 PM | Link to this
Excuse me ……. Pay to Play
By Swami Dave
January 13, 2009 1:18 PM | Link to this
Bosch:
Interestingly, I would say that we probably share a number of similar perspectives relating to your 12:14. I would include members of our society who expect government (through taxation) to fund what they want, which they redefine as a “need”. It might be better identified as “needs” that they “want” someone else to fund.
However, I do agree that our current situation is a convergence of almagamated policies from multiple political philosophies that are merged into a moderated “compromise” position that is possibly worse than either extreme. For example, Conservatives would tell us to cut spending and taxes; Liberals would tell us to increase taxes and fund new spending programs; our “moderate compromise” as a country has recently been to cut taxes and grow spending out of control.
To your point, until we, as a nation, set and work toward a set of identifiable goals, nothing is likely to change. That to the detriment of our children and grandchildren.
-Swami Dave
By @@
January 13, 2009 1:21 PM | Link to this
Hooray for Jen @ 12:38! Not only has PEPFAR supports lifesaving treatment for over 1.7 million people worldwide, care for 6.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission during nearly 12.7 million pregnancies, allowing nearly 200,000 children to be born HIV free.
Bush’s initiatives went even further than just combating HIV/AIDS in Africa.
The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI)
The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) was established in 2005. The U.S. has committed $1.2 billion in new malaria funding to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 African countries. In 2007, the Malaria Initiative reached more than 25 million people with effective prevention and treatment interventions.
Africa Education Initiative
In 2002, President Bush established the Africa Education Initiative (AEI), a multi-year $600 million initiative focused on increasing access to basic education in over 40 Sub-Saharan African countries through scholarships, textbooks, and teacher training programs. By 2010, AEI will have trained nearly one million teachers, provided 550,000 scholarships for girls, and distributed 15 million textbooks.
Bush walks the talk while liberals paint poster boards and march in rallies calling for “FREEDOM” in Darfur.
Liberals don’t give a rat’s patoot about native Africans or African Americans, within the U.S. that vote for their candidates in large numbers.
Disgusting! Talk’s cheap….
By Jen
January 13, 2009 1:31 PM | Link to this
@@, don’t get me wrong….I am NO fan of Bush. He’s been a TERRIBLE president. But, during his terrible presidency he did one VERY good thing, even though he somewhat hamstrung it. And that was PEPFAR and his other global aid projects.
True,it would have been better if the preventative interventions were allowed to be more than abstinence only. But, there have been creative ways around that, too.
In the end, if he’d never gone to war with Iraq and America (because he did go to war with half of this ocuntry) then his presidency would end with a legacy of global outreach.
However, I doubt he’ll be remembered for it.
Like I said…I don’t like him or his ideals but I very GLAD he did PEPFAR. We can agree on that, at least.
By Eric1
January 13, 2009 1:34 PM | Link to this
Bush was, is and forever will be a moron. His tenure did more harm to the entire world than we may even discover in a life time. Good riddance to that piece of trash!
By Maniacal Pariah
January 13, 2009 1:45 PM | Link to this
Bush said yesterday that there’s no such thing as short-term history; that it will take years “to understand the breadth of his administration….”
I agree.
It will take generations and generations to fully gauge and judge W and Cheney.
By CommunistAJC
January 13, 2009 1:47 PM | Link to this
Bosch, Good comments on your part. A lot of my generation, which would be Gen Y, do not save a dime they make. They want to live like their parents live now but without the time it takes to get that point in life. I would also blame credit card companies for enticing young people as well. Bottom line: If you can’t afford it then don’t buy it. Pretty simple, huh.
By Bosch
January 13, 2009 1:47 PM | Link to this
Swami Dave,
“I would include members of our society who expect government (through taxation) to fund what they want, which they redefine as a “need”. It might be better identified as “needs” that they “want” someone else to fund”
Like who?
By RW-(the original)
January 13, 2009 1:48 PM | Link to this
Interesting take that economic and job growth during the middle years of President Bush’s terms should be discounted because the interrelated booms of housing market, consumer spending, and financial markets make those gains illusory.
Should we set about the task of revising President Clinton’s legacy downward for the very same reasons and tack on the dot com bubble?
Basically the Bush legacy as written by the left is that anything they perceive as bad happened because President Bush didn’t act preemptively to prevent it and anything he did to preemptively prevent something accomplished nothing, even if that’s impossible to know.
By What is man?
January 13, 2009 1:50 PM | Link to this
Once upon a time an Infidel was guest in the house of a Christian widow whose little boy was ill and near to death. The Infidel often watched by the bedside and entertained the boy with talk, and he used these opportunities to satisfy a strong longing in his nature—that desire which is in us all to better other people’s condition by having them think as we think. He was successful. But the dying boy, in his last moments, reproached him and said:
“I BELIEVED, AND WAS HAPPY IN IT; YOU HAVE TAKEN MY BELIEF AWAY, AND MY COMFORT. NOW I HAVE NOTHING LEFT, AND I DIE MISERABLE; FOR THE THINGS WHICH YOU HAVE TOLD ME DO NOT TAKE THE PLACE OF THAT WHICH I HAVE LOST.”
And the mother, also, reproached the Infidel, and said:
“MY CHILD IS FOREVER LOST, AND MY HEART IS BROKEN. HOW COULD YOU DO THIS CRUEL THING? WE HAVE DONE YOU NO HARM, BUT ONLY KINDNESS; WE MADE OUR HOUSE YOUR HOME, YOU WERE WELCOME TO ALL WE HAD, AND THIS IS OUR REWARD.”
The heart of the Infidel was filled with remorse for what he had done, and he said:
“IT WAS WRONG—I SEE IT NOW; BUT I WAS ONLY TRYING TO DO HIM GOOD. IN MY VIEW HE WAS IN ERROR; IT SEEMED MY DUTY TO TEACH HIM THE TRUTH.”
Then the mother said:
“I HAD TAUGHT HIM, ALL HIS LITTLE LIFE, WHAT I BELIEVED TO BE THE TRUTH, AND IN HIS BELIEVING FAITH BOTH OF US WERE HAPPY. NOW HE IS DEAD,—AND LOST; AND I AM MISERABLE. OUR FAITH CAME DOWN TO US THROUGH CENTURIES OF BELIEVING ANCESTORS; WHAT RIGHT HAD YOU, OR ANY ONE, TO DISTURB IT? WHERE WAS YOUR HONOR, WHERE WAS YOUR SHAME?”
-Mark Twain
By DebbieDoRight
January 13, 2009 1:51 PM | Link to this
Commentary from Ed Rollins, who served as political director for President Ronald Reagan, is a Republican strategist who was national chairman of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/13/rollins.obama/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Well, to the best of my knowledge, Nixon wasn’t a crook (in the technical sense). He was dishonest, he abused the office of the presidency, and telling the truth wasn’t his strong suit. And he resigned in disgrace and would have been impeached if he hadn’t. But there were also periods in his presidency that were very good for this country and the world.
President Bush is not a crook either. And even more importantly, I don’t believe he is dishonest or an incompetent. The mistakes of his presidency were caused by overconfidence, bad information or a certain arrogance that was still fully on display yesterday.
How can you reflect on going to war, a war of choice, and argue that “not finding weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment,” as President Bush did yesterday? And putting the “not finding the weapons” in the same breath as “We shouldn’t have hung the sign, ‘Mission Accomplished’ “!
A disappointment is when you’re a football fan and your team lost in the playoffs or in the national championship game. Eliminating weapons of mass destruction was the rationale for sending hundreds of thousands of men and women to Iraq to risk their lives and spending billions of dollars of American taxpayers’ money.
The rationale for the war wasn’t that Saddam Hussein was a bad guy — which he was — and that he violated every sanction and agreement that the United Nations put on him.
President Bush went on to say: “One thing about the presidency is that you can only make decisions based on the information at hand. You don’t get to have information after you make the decision — that’s not the way it works.”
That is correct and that may be the most important lesson our new president can learn from the failures of the last. Make sure you get the information to make the right decisions.
President Bush, referring to the Abu Ghraib scandal and the missing weapons of mass destruction, said, “I don’t know if you want to call those mistakes or not, but things didn’t go as planned, let’s put it that way.”
By AJC/DNC Management
January 13, 2009 1:53 PM | Link to this
There’s just not much good to say about the last eight years.
Man, did you just set an awfully high bar for your guy.
And you can believe we will let you know when he doesn’t clear it.
By Paul
January 13, 2009 1:58 PM | Link to this
Jen 1:31
I think the difficulty many who don’t see Bush as Evil Incarnate have is that he received next to zero credit for his Africa initiatives. Even now, when this huge accomplishment that has saved millions is mentioned, it’s as if people respond with, “oh yeah, that… Africa… good thing… sure… but he’s still a moron and blew everything else.”
By AJC/DNC Management
January 13, 2009 2:04 PM | Link to this
Can we get the italics fixed or what?
{{{{There’s just not much good to say about the last eight years.}}}}
Man, did you just set an awfully high bar for your guy.
And you can believe we will let you know when he doesn’t clear it.
By AJC/DNC Management
January 13, 2009 2:12 PM | Link to this
Speaking of legacy’s-
{{{{WASHINGTON – Secretary of State nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband’s foundation, an Associated Press review of her official correspondence found.}}}}
So who’s the second in line for SoS?
“Bandaid” Kerry?
By What is woeMan?
January 13, 2009 2:17 PM | Link to this
…But Palin said she had adopted a philosophical attitude on the downside of the spotlight. “You have to let it go,” she said. “Even hard news sources, credible news sources — the comment about, you can see Russia from Alaska. You can! You can see Russia from Alaska. Something like that — a factual statement that was taken out of context and mocked — what you have to do is let that go.”… Does the new leader of the Republican party ever quit whining. Come on, Sarah. Give it a rest. Just let it go like we have let you go…North…To Alaska…And, take all your Johnny Horton vinyl with you.
By Paul
January 13, 2009 2:18 PM | Link to this
Management 12:12
You can be confident that the inquisitorial panel will ask that question, and more, as well as question past associations, actions, future possibilities, hypotheticals, personal feelings, ad infinitum ad nauseum.
Just as they did with any of Pres Bush’s nominees.
By RW-(the original)
January 13, 2009 2:19 PM | Link to this
I’m starting to understand why some of you are always whining about Fox News. Somebody on there just said history will judge Hillary Clinton as one of our greatest ever Secretaries of State.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it just a tad premature for that assessment?
By Bosch
January 13, 2009 2:21 PM | Link to this
Debbie,
Good article. I like Ed Rollins, I wish he were my grandpa.
I liked Bush until Iraq - I didn’t vote for him, but I didn’t have a problem with the man up until he decided to invade Iraq.
I started growing a little concerned for things with Cheney’s NEPDG meetings, his refusal to disclose the documents he was supposed to and then we invade Iraq. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but that just doesn’t smell right.
Some have said they feel sorry for Bush, I don’t, for one second. It really was just a matter of time before our economy went into a recession. You don’t do away with your manufacturing sector and outsource all your jobs, borrow billions from the Chinese of all people, and have a climate of spending 300% or what you make, and not see a problem.
I guess Bush was like most Americans at the time, he thought the economy would work itself out, or rather didn’t see a problem coming back then.
But he decided to invade Iraq, and to me, not only was that totally unnecessary, but was the ultimate catalyst that caused this economic crisis.
By GodHatesTrash
January 13, 2009 2:29 PM | Link to this
Bottom line - Bush is a weasel, wimp, whackjob and welcher, voted for by same.
Weasels, wimps, welchers, and whackjobs vote for weasels, wimps, welchers, and whackjobs.
By CommunistAJC
January 13, 2009 2:29 PM | Link to this
How do you explain this Jay? Is Hussein going to cure terrorism?
Pentagon: 61 ex-Guantanamo inmates return to terrorism.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Tuesday that 61 former detainees from its military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release from custody.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed and 43 suspected of “returning to the fight.”
He said the figures, updated at the end of December, showed a higher rate of recidivism than seen in a previous report showing 37 former detainees as active militants.
He provided no details about the detainees or their countries of origin.
“The overall known terrorist re-engagement rate has increased to 11 percent” from about 7 percent, Morrell said.
The numbers were generated by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency based on fingerprints, photographs and intelligence reports, he said.
President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office on Tuesday, is expected to issue an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, possibly within his first week in office.
By Bosch
January 13, 2009 2:32 PM | Link to this
Commie,
I think credit card companies are a good candidate for blame, and they will be the next with their hand out for a bail out. I wonder if those are the people Swami was talking about earlier? :-)
But many people don’t save because they can’t. I think you’d be surprised to find out exactly how much money alot of people make.
By mm
January 13, 2009 2:34 PM | Link to this
When Americans can get past the “our guy” and “your guy” mentality, America will begin healing.
By DebbieDoRight
January 13, 2009 2:39 PM | Link to this
Commentary from Ed Rollins, who served as political director for President Ronald Reagan, is a Republican strategist who was national chairman of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/13/rollins.obama/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Well, to the best of my knowledge, Nixon wasn’t a crook (in the technical sense). He was dishonest, he abused the office of the presidency, and telling the truth wasn’t his strong suit. And he resigned in disgrace and would have been impeached if he hadn’t. But there were also periods in his presidency that were very good for this country and the world.
President Bush is not a crook either. And even more importantly, I don’t believe he is dishonest or an incompetent. The mistakes of his presidency were caused by overconfidence, bad information or a certain arrogance that was still fully on display yesterday.
How can you reflect on going to war, a war of choice, and argue that “not finding weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment,” as President Bush did yesterday? And putting the “not finding the weapons” in the same breath as “We shouldn’t have hung the sign, ‘Mission Accomplished’ “!
A disappointment is when you’re a football fan and your team lost in the playoffs or in the national championship game. Eliminating weapons of mass destruction was the rationale for sending hundreds of thousands of men and women to Iraq to risk their lives and spending billions of dollars of American taxpayers’ money.
The rationale for the war wasn’t that Saddam Hussein was a bad guy — which he was — and that he violated every sanction and agreement that the United Nations put on him.
President Bush went on to say: “One thing about the presidency is that you can only make decisions based on the information at hand. You don’t get to have information after you make the decision — that’s not the way it works.”
That is correct and that may be the most important lesson our new president can learn from the failures of the last. Make sure you get the information to make the right decisions.
President Bush, referring to the Abu Ghraib scandal and the missing weapons of mass destruction, said, “I don’t know if you want to call those mistakes or not, but things didn’t go as planned, let’s put it that way.”
By Paul
January 13, 2009 2:40 PM | Link to this
CommunistAJC
And just a few months back we had people here asserting that any statements that anyone released from Gitmo had taken up arms against Americans was a flat-out lie.
RW-(the original)
Fox/Faux news lies. Everything they say is a lie. Therefore, to say Hillary Clinton will go down as one of our greatest Secretaries of State is a lie.
Wait… most of what Fox says is a lie… except that… and, uh… a couple people have said nice things about Obama…. some of their anchors supported him….
Waitwaitwait RW - you said Fox News, right?!!?
By CommunistAJC
January 13, 2009 2:42 PM | Link to this
Bosch, That all goes back to making good life choices. Staying out of trouble, finishing school, and not getting in to a lot of credit card debt. I still have student loans to pay off but that is good debt. I know people who don’t make a lot of money yet they live within their means. That means having a budget and sticking to it. We are still the richest nation on Earth and people who call themselves poor in this country are nothing compared to the poor in Africa and elsewhere. I remember talking to an African who told me that it must be great to be poor in this country because a lot of the poor people he’s seen in this country is very over weight. He had a good point.
By Paul
January 13, 2009 2:42 PM | Link to this
Bosch
I think anyone who gets one of those “you’re preapproved” credit cards should be exempt from any credit history reporting on the account. And the companies should be barred from pursuing collection action. And colleges should ban them from setting up in the student union and passing them out in return for kickbacks to the colleges.
By Andy the Welcher
January 13, 2009 2:42 PM | Link to this
I’d bet that Dubya is a welcher too… But I wouldn’t take that bet from Andy because, while I assume that Dubya is, we all know that Andy is a welcher…
Andy’s a welcher
ew
By Andy the Welcher
January 13, 2009 2:48 PM | Link to this
Andy the Welcher bleats:
“And you can believe we will let you know when he doesn’t clear it.”
You’ve already informed us time and time again that not only will he not clear it, he will be a spectacular failure…
You, the corporal, dusty, and RW are all excellent prognosticators. You must all have used your prognostication acumen to win the lottery since all any of you seem to do is blog here all day long.
ew
By @@
January 13, 2009 2:50 PM | Link to this
Jen @ 1:31:
Well good for you in spite of and anyway…..(ISH).
I will also give Bill Clinton credit for his Global Initiative.
By AJC/DNC Management
January 13, 2009 2:56 PM | Link to this
{{{{We will, though, have his chosen one, our junior senator, to remind us of how a governor about to be defrocked defied his own lawyer’s pledge and filled Obama’s seat. Of how Illinois Democrats, more obsessed with holding that seat for their party than with the scandal that threatened it, didn’t try to preempt Blagojevich and give us citizens the election some of them said they wanted—until they just took the seat for themselves.-Chicago Tribune}}}}
When you got the people of Chicago, democrats all, teed off, you have really accomplished something.
ew
By Bosch
January 13, 2009 3:02 PM | Link to this
Paul and Commie,
I agree. I think the porn industry should be bailed out before the credit card industy.
J/K
How many of the pre-approved credit things do you get per week? I get about five.
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 13, 2009 3:09 PM | Link to this
Paul @ 2.40, I figure you already know about the somewhat cozy relationship Hillary enjoys, or at least used to enjoy, with FNC’s owner Rupert Murdoch, but if not…
By DebbieDoRight
January 13, 2009 3:22 PM | Link to this
Bosch: Thanks!!!
And although I shouldn’t do this, and i know better, i’m gonna respond to commie lover, who said “I remember talking to an African who told me that it must be great to be poor in this country because a lot of the poor people he’s seen in this country is very over weight. He had a good point.”
Commie — I don’t mean to say flat out that what you said is BS — however, it’s really, really close. No African, from Africa, where they have starving children with big bellies, said anything like that. It would mean that either a) This was a very ignorant African; or b) He/She knew that he could say something really dumb to you because you were dumb enough to believe it. Take your pick.
Maybe not BS but let’s call it CT…….
ALL: Sorry for the multiple post!! My server died and I refreshed it; guess that’s how I did the multiple post thing. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
By @@
January 13, 2009 3:25 PM | Link to this
I also talked with an African immigrant who resented Americans calling themselves “African” Americans. Why? He said it was because they knew nothing of the pain or struggle of having lived on the continent.
I took him at his word. Who would know better than he?
By @@
January 13, 2009 3:29 PM | Link to this
Oops! I guess DDR will take issue with the immigrant I mentioned.
I guess Debbie assumes the role of speaking for ALL Africans, be they truly or not so…..
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 3:30 PM | Link to this
Ah, Andy the Welcher
If you only knew …….. just keep paying those taxes.
By Tank
January 13, 2009 3:30 PM | Link to this
Jay,
What a load of B$. I hope the AJC charts a new path under it’s new leadership.
The push for “universal” home ownership, the attacks of 9/11/08 and subsequent measures to ensure US security, hurricane Katrina. These were all Bush’s fault?
Fact is, we haven’t had an attack on US soil since 2001. Clinton’s policy of do nothing to repeated attacks on US interests around the world during his administration did nothing appease militant Islamic terrorists.
Hey folks, we are at war. If Bush had been an apologist, redirected US policy in a new direction and not invaded Iraq; do you think radical Muslims would have sat back and done nothing.
Yeah, it was all Bush’s fault.
Typical liberal rectal cranial inversion.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 3:32 PM | Link to this
Is Obama the Messiah or Moses? He can’t be both.
By AJC/DNC Management
January 13, 2009 3:36 PM | Link to this
{{{{“He said that Obama is committed to withdraw but he wants the withdrawal to be a responsible one. Obama does not want to waste the security gains that have been achieved,” al-Dabbagh said.}}}}
So how’s that ending thee war deal going for y’all?
By OfficerOftheDay
January 13, 2009 3:40 PM | Link to this
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 3:32 PM | Link to this
Is Obama the Messiah or Moses? He can’t be both.
AT EASE Gomer!
By mm
January 13, 2009 3:44 PM | Link to this
Tank,
Isn’t it time you wingnuts quit blaming Clinton for 9/11? Ya’ll pretend Bush’s term started on 9/12.
AND ONCE AND FOR ALL, AL QEADA WAS NOT IN IRAQ WHEN WE INVADED. NEITHER WERE THE WMD’S.
Typical wingnut horse sh*t. Never admit failure, never admit a mistake.
By CommunistAJC
January 13, 2009 3:44 PM | Link to this
And Jay wonders why so many Americans DISTRUST the media. Well Jay, here is the answer.
Sun-Times: Journalists Being Shut Out by Obama
By Warner Todd Huston
According to Sun-Times columnist and long-time Chicago journalist, Carol Marin, journalists at Barack Obama news conferences have come to realize that Obama has pre-picked those journalists whom he will allow to ask him questions at the conference and many of them now “don’t even bother raising” their hands to be called upon.
One wonders why journalists are allowing this corralling of the press? Would they have allowed George W. Bush to pre-pick journalists like that? Would they meekly sit by and allow themselves to be systematically ignored, their freedom to ask questions silenced by any Republican? Would journalists so eagerly vie with one another for the favor of Bush like they are Obama’s?
For her part, it seems that Carol Marin is starting to wonder at the “bizarro world” that is being invented by the pliant and smitten Obama loving press corps.
As ferociously as we march like villagers with torches against Blagojevich, we have been, in the true spirit of the Bizarro universe, the polar opposite with the president-elect. Deferential, eager to please, prepared to keep a careful distance. The Obama news conferences tell that story, making one yearn for the return of the always-irritating Sam Donaldson to awaken the slumbering press to the notion that decorum isn't all it's cracked up to be. The press corps, most of us, don't even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of correspondents who've been advised they will be called upon that day.Will the rest of the press retake their manhood and again become the tough guys they have always claimed to be or are they going to stay so smitten by Obama and their love for The One that they will allow themselves to continue being forced into a subservient role?
One has a sinking suspicion that the press is allowing itself to become Obama’s lapdog extraordinaire.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 3:47 PM | Link to this
To OfficeroftheDay
Sorry, you are no longer in my chain of command.
Rock and Shoals out back?
By Swami Dave
January 13, 2009 3:47 PM | Link to this
Bosch:
You asked……
How about folks that think that you or I should be taxed to fund their health care. They “need” it, but want us to fund it. Same goes for any number of other things they want, claim to need, but expect that we should fund. All the while, the taxes we pay are never enough to fund the litany of services that they want / need so (by their insane logic) the failure is ours for what they do not have instead of theirs for not earning it.
The reality is that the entitlement mentality among many is a direct extension of the “I-want-it-so-I-should-get-it” attitude that you reference.
In the cases that you specifically reference, you are highlighting situations where individuals are extending themselves beyond their means to fund (through credit or high-risk investment practices) trying to enjoy benefits that they cannot afford. In similar ones to which I am referring, it is the same kinds of actions / perceptions by individuals expecting others to provide things to them that they have not earned.
On the one hand, you have individuals acting in irresponsible ways; on the other, you have individuals attempting to shirk their responsiblity onto others. Neither group is acting in responsible ways that we should expect from an active citizenry.
-Swami Dave
By @@
January 13, 2009 3:49 PM | Link to this
O-:MG!
“He said that Obama is committed to withdraw but he wants the withdrawal to be a responsible one.
George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Bob Gates, Dick Cheney and Joe Biden are the men behind Obama’s curtain of anonymity.
Take a bow BO! You have become your followers’ worst nightmare.
The cliques that Midori always mentions…..
There’s no place like The Homeland
There’s no place like The Homeland
There’s no place like The Homeland
To-to funny!
By CommunistAJC
January 13, 2009 3:53 PM | Link to this
DebbieDoRight, might you also be a holocaust denier? Assuming that you have never been to Africa I will assume that you still live in your moms basement and get a weekly allowance for your drug problem. Indeed, I did meet and am still friends with the African that I met at Duke. He was on scholarship from Kenya. You’ve called him an ignorant African which is a bit ridiculous because a: you’ve never met him and b: you’ve probably never been outside the continental US. Why is it that bigoted libs such as yourself, can not comprehend that maybe, just maybe, people from poor countries think that we are a rich nation? Go sell your ignorant BS somewhere else.
By CommunistAJC
January 13, 2009 3:58 PM | Link to this
DebbieDoRight, I went back and re-read where you assumed that I was ignorant in believing my friend from Africa. One, I’d like to know how far you went in college seeing that you assume I am not very smart. Two, have you ever been to Africa or actually met an African? And no, I don’t mean your one black friend who had ancestors from Africa over 150 years ago.
By .
January 13, 2009 4:03 PM | Link to this
Commie likes to think that the people that ask him to clean up a spill or empty the trash are actually befriending him when in fact they learned long ago that asking nicely gets the hired help to simply do their tasks with the least amount of whining. They’re not really your friends, Commie, they’re your employers. Now please tend to the dry erase boards, won’t you, and let me just say that you did an excellent job with the mopping. Thank you ever so much.
By Midori
January 13, 2009 4:05 PM | Link to this
actually, “homeland” sounds a bit too nazi(ISH) for me.
By Bosch
January 13, 2009 4:06 PM | Link to this
Swami,
We pay for both kinds of irresponsibility. But with healthcare, people don’t choose to get sick or injured.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 4:10 PM | Link to this
Regarding this “African” discussion:
I have been to Ireland (not a terrible place) but I thank God often that my ancestors were brought here in the 1700’s as indentured servants (not as bad as slavery) and lived in dire poverty working in the dangerous coal mines of Appalachia (worse than some slavery) so that I was born in this great country instead of Ireland.
I have a good black friend who says the same thing regarding his ancestors. Since I have been to the worst parts of Africa, I know how right he is.
By @@
January 13, 2009 4:10 PM | Link to this
The Psychology of Victimhood
The victim’s basic stance is that he or she:
Is not responsible for what happened.
Is always morally right.
Is not accountable.
Is forever entitled to sympathy.
Is justified in feeling moral indignation for being wronged.
The paper mentions that both lawyers and psychologists argue against the claims. But keep in mind that both psychologists and lawyers make buku bucks (dirty capitalists) off of maintaining said argument
(((While some victims are truly innocent (i.e., the child who is being molested, a victim in the other car in a drunk driving accident), ——->most violence involves some knowledge, familiarity or intimacy between victims and victimizers.<——-)))
Victimizers=The Democratic Party
Victims=Those (enablers) who vote IN FAVOR OF the dem party
By CommunistAJC
January 13, 2009 4:10 PM | Link to this
By ., What are you supposed to be besides BS? Are you DebbieDoRights crazy aunt from North Georgia who keeps getting caught stealing Xanax from Grandma? Too bad your IQ is that of a carrot.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 4:13 PM | Link to this
actually, “The Department of Education” sounds a bit too commun(IST) for me.
By Bosch
January 13, 2009 4:13 PM | Link to this
I know two people who immigrated (emmigrated?) to the U.S. from Africa —— and their both white.
By @@
January 13, 2009 4:14 PM | Link to this
actually, “homeland” sounds a bit too nazi(ISH) for me.
Sho ‘nuff?
You and the Chatty Wick…..
By Bosch
January 13, 2009 4:17 PM | Link to this
Gene Robinson has been chosen to open the inaugural festivities. That’s good news, Obama really is bringing out all the diversity cards on this one.
Does anyone know what time the swearing-in is?
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 4:21 PM | Link to this
Word association:
When I think of the word liberal, one word usually always comes to mind ……..
appeasement
……. as it applies to this definition:
to yield or concede to the belligerent demands of (a nation, group, person, etc.) in a conciliatory effort, sometimes at the expense of justice or other principles.
By getalife
January 13, 2009 4:25 PM | Link to this
Worst.Ever.
When your own party wants you to shut up and go home pretty much states his legacy.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 4:29 PM | Link to this
Bosch
A couple of interesting stats I ran across recently:
1) Only 3% of the captive slaves from Africa sent to the New World were brought to North America. The other 97% went to Central/South America and the Carribean.
2) The ratio of black Americans today who are descended from free black immigrants vs. slave immigrants is 5 to 1.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 4:30 PM | Link to this
as in CARTER ?
By Midori
January 13, 2009 4:32 PM | Link to this
lol,
i didn’t know Ann Coulter posted on Bookman’s blog.
By Tank
January 13, 2009 4:38 PM | Link to this
To mm:
Never blamed Clinton for 9/11. Never said al Qaeda was in Iraq. Never said anything about WMD.
You see things through your liberal, extremist perspective.
You truly scare me.
By .
January 13, 2009 4:44 PM | Link to this
Who am I. You have to ask, Oh, offshoot of a tuber. Get back to what you do best, you clueless extension of a brainless plant. I am the end all of all that is written. I am the last thing you should hope to see. Period. Duke called. Due to the lack of enrollment, they no longer require your services. They said they’ve had much better janitors than you anyway. Their recommendations were to 1)get the toilets really clean, 2) try not to leave standing puddles when mopping, and 3)quit wasting your employer’s time surfing the Internet.
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 4:46 PM | Link to this
@ RW—
You asked me if I believed in states. If you mean that the US is divided into states, of course. I imagine your questioned was aimed at some perceive federalism situation where you think I have advocated diminishing states’ rights or the importance of states being able to decide a wide panoply of issue for themselves.
If that was what you meant I do.
Speaking of states, Georgia has governor with a myriad of problems, and one of them has been lack of water in Lanier. He has approached it by “praying for rain” or waddling his fat body around doing rain dances.
Purdue was shot down by the Supreme Court yesterday who declined to grant cert. to Georgia’s case against Florida and Alabama in order to appropriate Lake Lanier for Georgia’s water shortage.
U.S. justices won’t take Georgia water case
I guess it’s back to praying for things when Sonny has no development plan that would have conserved water. Welcome to Rethug government. Pray for what you don’t have the ability to do.
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 4:48 PM | Link to this
Kudos to AJC for redesigning their website a bit and making it easier to navigate. I heard the italics were missing here. AJC should get someone who knows what they’re doing on this blog to fix the blog’s ability to post and confer HTML Hypertext markup buttons on it and instant posting. The fact it’s not here is shameful.
I’m responding to comments made by 3 Rethugs downstairs early this morning that seem to put a premium on Palin’s “looks” rather than her ability to function in a national governing position. I also want to make it clear I only bring her up when someone here construes as ability what the nation rejected in November.
It’s also an insult to the Republican women here to insist that because the Republican men find Palin sexually stimulating that this translates somehow into qualifications for office.
You’re not deciding tips at a nude dancing establishment and Palin wasn’t running for Lap Dancer in Chief although maybe she was in your mind. Get an inflatable Palin doll; dress her in a teddy and knock yourself out.
What is on point to this issue ia a column by JIm Galloway (Political Insider) who is one of the brighter columnists at AJC and remains non-partisan. He’s always worth reading.
Handel puts twists into 2010 election by Jim Galloway AJC
Galloway points out that the glass ceiling is thicker for Republican women, and it will create an uphill battle for Handel against Kagel and Jim Oxdeinde The math is that I predict there will be a runoff between in the Rethug primary,. probably between Handel and Cagle who I predict will win, but Oxedine could eclipse Handel. He’s far better qualified.
Galloway relates an anecdote that’s telling. He points out that Republican women (good for them) are making an issue of the unfair obstacles in their way.
“Millie Rogers, president of the Georgia Federation of Republican Women, thinks money is another reason. Republicans have no Win List, a group that provides seed cash to Democratic female candidates in Georgia.”
“Georgia-specific incident last month also has GOP women steamed.
During the celebration after Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) won his runoff election, trouncing Democrat Jim Martin, state GOP Chairman Sue Everhart —- the party’s first female leader —- was barred from the stage where congratulations were being handed out. Everhart had written the check for the stage.
The Chambliss campaign said the slight was unintentional…”
Galloway’s useful article goes to the heart of my response to 3 Thugs who take me to task because apparently they think I lack the ability to recognize when a woman looks “hot” or is very attractive outwardly. I think this underscores the problems Republican women are having with thicker glass ceilings besides a Patrician current that women are somehow less qualified to do any job that perhaps isn’t based on physical weight and strength like for example, fundtion as a line backer or tackle on the Baltimore Ravens.
I hope this clarifies for 3 Rethugs who can’t read carefully, and apparently thing that running for national office is some kind of superficial beauty contest:
Yo @ Williebekind—
I’ll make sure you have the chance to see this since this thread is old.
I’m a “liberal” and I fully support Israel stopping Iran who is the main cause of problems in the middle East, so the simplistic uneducated stereotyping that the Rethugs often do isn’t going to appy to me here.
What I’ve noticed though is that the conservatives are all about projecting their fantasies about liberals in respect to Iran’s using their puppets Hezbollah, Hamas, and Syria to create instability and lob missles into Israel defiantly and then to whine about how cruel Israel is, but as usual there are no Rethug solutions as to how to paradigm shift Iran’s attitude.
Israel has the bunker busters that Jay Bookman simplistically believes they don’t have after reading the borrowed Sanger article from the NYT whcih was wrong on several counts and photos of ships carrying them prove this.
@ Communist AJC—
Comparing Jay Bookman’s grasp of foreign and domestic policy and Jay Bookman’s ability to write and express himself to the moron Palin is like comparing one of the NFL quaterbacks in the playoffs to your or your wife’s thowing arm.
And as for college graduate insight—I know a slew of people who have graduated “college”, med school and law school who have no grasp at all of the complexity of problems that Palin has displayed she doesn’t begin to understand.
If you perceive Palin to be a ten, (and I suppose you mean her looks, wtf does that have to do with governing this country?
@fed up—
I bring up Palin only when one of the nutcase Rethugs mentions her favorably. She’s going nowhere. Run her again and we’ll beat you by 10 X the margin we beat you by this time. The RNC isn’t going to make that mistake twice, but I’d love to see it.
I think Palin’s character, bigotry, racism, and McCain’s poor judgement in fantasizing he could put her a heart beat away from the Oval when he has had 4 recurrent melanomas—the last one requiring what amounted to a radical neck procedure is totally ugly. Only a moron would equate good looks as a criterion for voting for somoene and apparently you all are out there.
Her looks won’t get her elected beyond her current office as I’ve said many times and I could care less what she looks like. If a woman’s looks were important for office, all of the Republican women in the Senate would not be there. Kay Bailey Hutchison wouldn’t be running for governor of Texas when Perry leaves. I don’t judge a woman’s potential or accomplishments by her looks. I know that Rethugs like to imply that if you’re not focused on Palin’s looks, you must not be a “real man”{ which makes your perspectives even more stupid.
What issue do you solve by telling anyone you think Palin is hot, or you’d like to get your hands or other harder to find parts of your anatomy on Palin? Why don’t you mozie up to Alaska and see if you can get her away from First Dude? Bring clothes—she likes those, and then maybe you can use them to get them off her.
One thing faborable to your Palin fantasy is that she’s going no where beyond Governor of Alaska. No one but a minority of poorly politically educated people will vote for her.
Check and see if she’s anywhere near the innauguration in a week. Maybe you haven’t heard. She helped contribute to losing the election. Her unfavorables with voters who aren’t the hard core poorly educated Rethug base were exponentially high.
By @@
January 13, 2009 4:50 PM | Link to this
Midori:
(((i didn’t know Ann Coulter posted on Bookman’s blog.)))
I’m tall and slender…..but brunette.
“The Psychology of Victimhood” was written by Ofer Zur, Ph.D.
For you, a personal appointment may be in order.
You do know that the Jewish people escaped to THEIR homeland seeking refuse FROM the Nazis. If it’s your wish that they hadn’t, just say so or have you and your liberal sympathizers already visited your sentiments upon Hillel?
(((“It was a good opportunity for us to come here and experience life in the States,” said Hillel, who moved to Los Angeles five years ago with her husband, Yossi, and three children — currently ages 15, 12 and 9 — after winning a green card lottery. “But now it’s time to go back home while the kids are still young.)))
(((Hillel says that while they are financially secure in Los Angeles, there’s some uncertainty about what awaits them upon their return to Israel. And yet she’s sure her family will manage.)))
(((“We were alone here, and there is no price for loneliness. Even though we do have friends here, they don’t come in the place of a family; they don’t come in place of feeling like you belong, that this is your country and this is where you should live,” she said.)))
By AJC/DNC Management
January 13, 2009 4:53 PM | Link to this
Snicker, snicker-
{{{{WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to run the Treasury Department and lead the economic rescue effort disclosed to senators Tuesday that he failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004, a last-minute complication in an otherwise smooth path to confirmation.}}}}
Tax and spend, tax and spend, no wait, spend and spend, spend and spend.
By Commie Mommie
January 13, 2009 4:57 PM | Link to this
Son, I had a call from the school today. They said that you need to turn in your mop. They told me all sorts of disturbing things about you. Why would you do those things — those horrid things. Anyway, don’t bother trying to move back home again. I rented your room out to a nice young man that tells me that I’m like the mommie that he never had. He even pays rent. His name is . and he’s so intelligent and kind. Don’t forget to write sometime.
By CommunistAJC
January 13, 2009 5:08 PM | Link to this
Chad Harris, When did I mention anything about Sarah Palin? You’re confused. But since you bring her up, yes she is hot. And yes, she has more experience in governing than Hussein Obama. And from what I am seeing and hearing Obama say right now proves it. Good luck being unemployed at the AJC Chad Harris. Hope Jay and Cynthia are paying you well.
By DebbieDoRight
January 13, 2009 5:10 PM | Link to this
From @@: “Oops! I guess DDR will take issue with the immigrant I mentioned. I guess Debbie assumes the role of speaking for ALL Africans, be they truly or not so…..”
I guess YOUR friend speaks for ALL Africans too right? I mean you just mentioned the ONE…….
From commie lover: [ASIDE: I KNEW I was gonna regret saying anything to you!!! Oh well, I’ll just take my medicine…..Sigh…..] “DebbieDoRight, I went back and re-read where you assumed that I was ignorant in believing my friend from Africa. One, I’d like to know how far you went in college seeing that you assume I am not very smart. Two, have you ever been to Africa or actually met an African?”
OK let’s take this one sentence at a time….It was a logical assumption that you were either (a) dumb or (b) being duped. How can ANYONE with an ounce of common sense make a statement like (paraphrased) “The Poor in America got it good cause they’re so fat” and expect to be taken seriously?
I mean that statement is so ridiculous on so many levels!! Have you never heard of the countless studies done on the poor and their eating habits? The poor eat cheap, ‘cause, heck I don’t know, maybe ‘cause they’re POOR and can’t afford Whole Foods, Harry’s etc., where a small bag of groceries cost $190.00 — so they usually buy the cheapest cuts of meat, (which by the way has the highest fat count), and they tend to buy processed foods over “green” foods. Appalachia, the poorest part of the country has some of the heavier people because of such instances.
Have you never seen pictures of starving children with big bellies? Does that make them “lucky” ‘cause they have big bellies or because they’re starving? Duh,…..
I have not only BEEN to Africa, but, guess what? I did missionary work when I was younger with my old church in Washington. I STILL have friends in Africa, (mostly Nigeria and Kenya), that I correspond with regularly.
Don’t make the mistake of judging me by YOUR qualifications.
By Bud Wiser
January 13, 2009 5:10 PM | Link to this
Obama is already writing the pre-script. if you will, for his legacy.
He has nominated, and still stands behind, a tax cheater, for Secretary of the Treasury.
Makes sense to me.
He knows his drooling followers won’t mind; in fact, they will still probably praise his choice.
He knows that he already has stuffed the ballot box via ACORN (although the end result would have been the same - sort of like the reasoning of the Nixon people with Watergate)… may as well let his buds and tax cheaters stuff their wallets with your money. Its all the same thing, isn’t it?
By Taxpayer
January 13, 2009 5:12 PM | Link to this
Geithner didn’t pay taxes! Just who does he think he is — A Republican? Well, who would have ever known that the IRS wants folks that work for the IMF to pay taxes. What’s next? Will they start demanding that Americans stop hiding their earnings in off-shore accounts. What is the USA coming to.
By DebbieDoRight
January 13, 2009 5:17 PM | Link to this
To all who have that one “Good Black Friend” who speaks for all blacks in America, Canada, South America and the West Indies; KUDOS to you!!! Ask your one good friend to please put that race card back in his/her pocket; we’re sick of looking at it.
By AJC/DNC Management
January 13, 2009 5:23 PM | Link to this
{{{{By Taxpayer January 13, 2009 5:12 PM Geithner didn’t pay taxes! Just who does he think he is — A Republican?}}}}
Yeah, like this took a lot of effort-
{{{{By Taxpayer October 16, 2008 5:26 PM What is it with these Republicans and paying taxes. I mean, this Joe the plumber guy apparently cannot even pay the taxes that he owes under the Bush tax plan. What does he want, a free ride.}}}}
Second blog on the Google search of “bookman taxpayer plumber taxes.”
You’re a celebrity, taxpayer.
By getalife
January 13, 2009 5:31 PM | Link to this
Yeah, too bad Podesta found it and he paid his taxes.
Tim will get confirmed as easily as Hillary.
By Taxpayer
January 13, 2009 5:33 PM | Link to this
I have a celebrity cult following and his name is Andy. I feel so special. Just don’t start stalking me, OK, Andy?
By Bud Wiser
January 13, 2009 5:35 PM | Link to this
What’s up with the no Italics, the incorrect link structure, the wide pages?
Just like a liberal; take a perfectly functional, useful system, tinker with it to try and improve it, and screw it up.
There are certain pieces of machinery that have DFW switches, you know, the ones you never touch unless you are absolutely, positively sure what the result of touching that switch will be … hence the name, Don’t &#@% With.
The same principle is in play here. It is not that I resist change, but that I resist change that is not an improvement.
Kind of like this last election; the change we are getting is changing back into the Clintonian era, with a few tax cheats and such thrown in for good measure. Where the hell is the change that is going to be the improvement? Looks like politics as usual to me.
By CommunistAJC
January 13, 2009 5:36 PM | Link to this
DebbieDoRight, You fired the first shot friend. Not me. And no, my friend is not ignorant being that he got his PHD in medicine. You can point to whatever study you want because I can point to studies on how the poor live better than any third world country.
By AJC/DNC Management
January 13, 2009 5:37 PM | Link to this
al-Gitmo: It isn’t like the democrats are rummaging through his garbage cans, spying on his family or rampaging his community library in search of something, anything, that they can shriek hysterically about.
Wanna bet that Holder doesn’t make it?
By Hillbilly Deluxe
January 13, 2009 5:41 PM | Link to this
In my opinion many of our current economic problems stem from putting our eggs in the globalism basket. We’ve shipped our manufacturing and many jobs overseas in exchange for cheap consumer goods. Maybe ok in the short term but not good for the long haul. I don’t think the downward pressure on real wages is a good thing. Back in the 60’s when wages were higher in real terms the economy was stronger. When people have disposable income they buy things and this creates jobs.
I’m not a computer whiz but I don’t like this new format.
By getalife
January 13, 2009 5:42 PM | Link to this
Bet a welcher?
No thanks but Arlen can’t stop Holder.
By @@
January 13, 2009 5:45 PM | Link to this
Does the immigrant I mentioned (not a friend, just someone I encountered at the airport) speak for all Africans? I said he was “an” immigrant, and that “he” said. I couldn’t argue with him since I have no personal experience of having survived the pain and struggles in Africa.
I do have several neighbors who just happen to be what they, themselves, call black. They’re none too pleased with some within their own race. One’s a fireman who dabbles in rodeo. The other’s a business owner whose business has been robbed thrice.
We all live in Clayton County, not Africa.
By CommunistAJC
January 13, 2009 5:45 PM | Link to this
DebbieDoRight, Assuming that all poor Africans have big bellies is racist. You may as well say all white people are in the KKK. Go sell stupid somewhere else.
By Bud Wiser
January 13, 2009 5:48 PM | Link to this
Debbie typifies the liberal who has seen a snapshot and can write the Bible on the picture.
Were we married once?
By Mrs.Godzilla
January 13, 2009 5:54 PM | Link to this
COMPLETELY OFF TOPIC:
Bush declares emergency at the innauguration!
Really.
How wonderful. They are expecting millions. Millions of Americans. I can see how it might scare the weak of spirit.
So many Americans want to be a part of this. Wow.
Who’s paying for it? Me and you and you and you.
I do it gladly. Who among us would deny any American the right to assembly? Any putz’s wanna’ gripe
By @@
January 13, 2009 5:54 PM | Link to this
Drat! Make that:
You do know that the Jewish people escaped to THEIR homeland seeking REFUGE, not refuse FROM the Nazis.
refuse from the Nazis can be found here in the anti-semitism that exists in the form of our skinheads and the communist left.
By Wyld Byll Hyltnyr
January 13, 2009 5:56 PM | Link to this
Today, more than ever, I am proud to stand with President George W. Bush. History will consider him as a President who recognized the preeminent threats (Islamo-Facism and GSEs) to our great nation. History will further recognize his success in the war on terror which lead to the birthing of a free democracy in the Islamic world. History will further recognize that he faced an unprecented enemy that was in every respect moral repugnant and vile, and in addition to Pelosi and Reid, he also had to deal with Al Qaeda. I thank the Good Lord for President Bush and pray for our country and PEOTUS.
By Taxpayer
January 13, 2009 6:09 PM | Link to this
I am glad to see that you caught that really trashy prose, @@.
By CommunistAJC
January 13, 2009 6:11 PM | Link to this
If this were Bush’s pick the large vein in Jays forehead would burst open for all to see.
Treasury nominee failed to pay taxes.
By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE
WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to run the Treasury Department and lead the economic rescue effort disclosed to senators Tuesday that he failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004, a last-minute complication in an otherwise smooth path to confirmation.
Timothy Geithner paid most of the past-due taxes days before Obama announced his nomination in November, an Obama transition official said. The unpaid taxes were discovered by Obama’s transition team while investigating Geithner’s background, the official said.
The transition official requested anonymity because the source was not authorized to discuss Geithner’s situation.
Obama reiterated his support Tuesday for Geithner as senators who are considering the appointment quizzed Geithner behind closed doors.
“He’s dedicated his career to our country and served with honor, intelligence and distinction,” incoming White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. “That service should not be tarnished by honest mistakes, which, upon learning of them, he quickly addressed.”
Geithner failed to pay self-employment taxes for money he earned while working for the International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2003, the transition official said. In 2006, the IRS notified him that he owed $14,847 in self-employment taxes and $2,383 in penalties from 2003 and 2004.
Transition officials discovered last fall that Geithner also had not paid the taxes in 2001 or 2002. He paid $25,970 in taxes and interest for those years several days before Obama announced his nomination, the transition official said.
Geithner also didn’t realize a housekeeper he paid in 2004 and 2005 did not have current employment documentation as an immigrant for the final three months she worked for him, the transition official said.
Geithner is the second Obama nominee to face controversy. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his name on Jan. 4 as Obama’s Commerce secretary after questions surfaced about an ongoing federal investigation.
By Paul
January 13, 2009 6:14 PM | Link to this
Mrs. Godzilla
Was talking with a friend the other night, lives outside DC, scored a ticket to the inauguration. Said how great it was to be part of something truly historic. Also said it was neat that a candidate he voted for finally won.
Just thought you’d like a little vicarious joy this evening -
Bosch
[[I know two people who immigrated (emmigrated?) to the U.S. from Africa —— and their both white. ]]
You’re familiar with Charlize Theron? No?
Link: Charlize Theron
She emigrated from South Africa. Recently became an American citizen. So she’s….. a real African-American!
too good to leave alone…
By Paul
January 13, 2009 6:22 PM | Link to this
Wasn’t someone here earlier going on about how Pres Obama would engage the Iranians and bring peace and Nirvana and heal the relationship destroyed by Pres Bush?
Good Luck.
Link: Iranian protesters burn Obama picture
So, when talking doesn’t work, the next step is what, exactly? SecState Clinton has ‘tools’ in here ‘toolbox,’ she said this morning…
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 6:23 PM | Link to this
Geitner will be easily confirmed. Holder will be easily confirmed. I’m sorry that Holder will be confirmed.
By @@
January 13, 2009 6:24 PM | Link to this
Drat! Make that:
You do know that the Jewish people escaped to THEIR homeland seeking REFUGE, not refuse FROM the Nazis.
refuse from the Nazis can be found here in the anti-semitism that exists in the form of our skinheads and the communist left.
Missed the opportunity to respond to dave at Wooten’s. I have no doubt he’s a bouncer to and fro…
(((By dave:)))
(((They are in PRISON morons…if they are STILL in prison…be it here or in Cuba…what threat do they give or cause to anyone? He’s not letting them free….he’s going to move them to other PRISONS…)))
(((WOW! The FEAR from the right never lets up…)))
(((Let’s get this straight… those in prison..will STAY locked up! Where is the threat? Tell me morons!)))
Due process — William Ayers “Guilty as hell, free as a bird.”
Yup!
Obama’s friend and associate in education reform.
By Paul
January 13, 2009 6:25 PM | Link to this
Chad Harris
Some have opined that Holder being confirmed is why Pres-elect Obama couldn’t find an experienced intelligence officer to head the CIA and why he had to turn to a politician/academic. GHW Bush he ain’t.
By Taxpayer
January 13, 2009 6:26 PM | Link to this
Ah yes. More of the truth is slowly leaking out. Some state retirement systems have seen losses in derivatives as well as stocks. Public pension funds bought more than $500 million in so-called equity tranches of collateralized debt obligations, according to public records compiled by Bloomberg in 2007. CDOs are packages of securities that are backed by bonds, mortgages and other loans. Their equity tranches are considered their riskiest portions. Yes indeed. Without all these bailouts, government pension funds all across the US will be hit hard. This credit crunch affects a lot more than the typical Republican can even imagine. Even the politician’s pensions and healthcare benefits are likely affected. Now, that’s enough to get some attention.
By Paul
January 13, 2009 6:32 PM | Link to this
Anyone care to guess if such topics will be addressed here in the future?
Link: According to Sun-Times columnist and long-time Chicago journalist, Carol Marin, journalists at Barack Obama news conferences have come to realize that Obama has pre-picked those journalists whom he will allow to ask him questions at the conference and many of them now “don’t even bother raising” their hands to be called upon
Lessee, who was it who tried to muzzle the press and restrict access to those who wanted to hold him accountable?
By Bosch
January 13, 2009 6:41 PM | Link to this
Paul,
Yeah, I know Charlize Theron, well not personally, but I’ve seen some of her flicks.
The acquaintances of mine are South African as well.
By @@
January 13, 2009 6:42 PM | Link to this
(((SecState Clinton has ‘tools’ in here ‘toolbox,’ she said this morning)))
Really?
Thppbbbtttt!
Some have wondered, but I see it as purely speculative.
Bill?
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 6:43 PM | Link to this
Ooooooo ….. threats already!
(CNN) — President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday tried to persuade Senate Democrats to get behind his plan for the second half of the $700 billion bailout, warning he would veto a threatened disapproval resolution, according to senators who met with him.
Ah, the arrogance of power.
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 6:44 PM | Link to this
It’s a damn good thing Obama is nothing like anyone named Bush. They ran the country into the ground.
@Commie—
You rambled about Palin being hot which has nothing to do with holding office at 10:30AM this morning on the prior thread.
She continues to make a fool of herself.
Palin continues to be a Clown yelling at Katie and Tina for pointing out her idiocy
By @@
January 13, 2009 6:51 PM | Link to this
O.K., so I don’t know ANYTHING about web design — big deal.
If you spread it out and squash it up, does that make the posting delay shorter?
The new layout? It’s probably The Chatty Wick’s fault.
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 6:53 PM | Link to this
What I see here 95% of the time are a bunch of frustrated and poorly read Thug winers who couldn’t get their mutts elected and spend literally all day and all night whining about their Obama fantasies.
Get a life, ‘cause you aren’t going to see any Thuglican Wingnuts in the White House the rest of your days.
By Paul
January 13, 2009 6:54 PM | Link to this
Bosch
American Idol premier tonight. Mgt decision was to cut back on the embarrassingly horrible performers. Drat. That’s what made the first few episodes of the season so entertaining.
Good comments at 12:14, 2:21. Chuckled at the bailout for the porn industry proposal. You are aware they have asked for a bailout, too? Once you let the genie out of the bottle…
By Mike
January 13, 2009 7:06 PM | Link to this
Bookman’s analysis of politicians is as useless as that of Sean Hannity’s. They are both predictable and tedious partisan hacks who hew to their rigid ideological lines.
Now Bookman didn’t get his reputation as a partisan hack by chance. He EARNED it with years of mindless partisanship.
By @@
January 13, 2009 7:07 PM | Link to this
(((Get a life, ‘cause you aren’t going to see any Thuglican Wingnuts in the White House the rest of your days.)))
Never once did I look to the White House in order to get a life.
Perfectly capable of getting one on my own.
Sheesh! Chatty Wick…..chill it dude…..it’s dems that’s got the pickle.
By Midori
January 13, 2009 7:11 PM | Link to this
Chad,
that’s all they have — fantasies.
It’s hilariously ironic and sad.
look at the garbage they post.
A scandal in the making here!! a scandal in the making there!!!
and after 8 years of defending and cheering on that criminal abomination of a walking, talking disaster named Bush. “
“we need something, ANYTHING, to prove that Obama is a HOAX!! and we need it NOW!!!”
Morons.
they had 8 years to show/prove that they could govern. and what did they do? completely f*ck up everything they touched, and have the gall, the NERVE, the blinding stupidity to try to blame all their failures and shortcomings on the Democrats.
Yeah, right.
good luck with that.
And Corporal — why don’t you just slit your wrists already and be done with it?
By Paul
January 13, 2009 7:14 PM | Link to this
Midori
You’re about to begin the braised pork shoulder with caramelized onions and cider. It’s a Zen experience. Tuuuune the energy….
By Paul
January 13, 2009 7:16 PM | Link to this
Bosch
Tonight - 10pm (eastern?) SciFi: battlestar Galactica: TGhe Top 10 Things You Need to Know
By Paul
January 13, 2009 7:19 PM | Link to this
Bosch
And OMG, Fri morning straight thru, last of season 3 and season 4
Link: BSG Schedule
By AJC/DNC Management
January 13, 2009 7:20 PM | Link to this
My, aren’t we angry this evening-
{{{{And Corporal — why don’t you just slit your wrists already and be done with it?}}}}
geez.
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 7:31 PM | Link to this
@@—
The layout doesn’t impact the delay which is the result of some kind of filter for a stupid reason beyond comprehension.
Maybe it’s the same person who used his coloring book on the movies in their TV section which is helpful.
By @@
January 13, 2009 7:42 PM | Link to this
I thought jay was the filter system. Kinda like the gizzard in a chicken.
There’s a TV section? I did not know that, nor did I need to know that, but thanks anyway.
By Taxpayer
January 13, 2009 7:43 PM | Link to this
Well,
Corporal does sound, at times, as though he expects to see a moon-sized meteor crash into the Earth on January 20.
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 7:47 PM | Link to this
Midori—
The same happens on most blogs where there is a mix of party allegiance and the trend is always the same.
I wouldn’t mind at all having a debate about whatever but all I can figure is that these people are too lazy to read or delusional about what they thing they see.
An issue where there is tons of blame to go around is the previous “bailout” and the $350 billion more requested. There is no idea where the money is going, and we sure could use it in other areas.
Your money is being thrown away by investment bnaks. It’s the dumbest thing in a cascade of dumb things Congress has done and Rethugs and Dems are both screaming for it.
By Bud Wiser
January 13, 2009 7:51 PM | Link to this
Chad, you write so much stuff that I just knew if I read it, there would eventually be one thing we agree on.
Well, I say that your pronouncement on Sonny Perdue and his approach to dealing with the water situation was right on.
He is a blowhard politician, like most all politicians.
His accomplishments border on nil.
You and I apparently agree on his incompetence.
That being said, I must say that I am reminded of the theoretical concept that if one put enough chimps in front of typewriters, with enough time (virtually unlimited into the future), that eventually all of Shakespeare’s masterpieces would eventually be written.
I don’t know why………..
By @@
January 13, 2009 7:52 PM | Link to this
(((Corporal does sound, at times, as though he expects to see a moon-sized meteor crash into the Earth on January 20.)))
Large meteors have hit the earth wreaking global damage which begs the question…..
What’s the big deal about global warming when living in the shadow of a HUGE METEOR over which we have no control?
“THIS IS OUR TIME!”
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 7:54 PM | Link to this
@@—
You’re perfectly capable of getting a life of your own which is why you hang here 18 hours a day.
LOL
By @@
January 13, 2009 7:58 PM | Link to this
(((what they thing they see.)))
Do you see “things” Chad?
Question: Who, besides the big corps is counting on the bailout to save the world. It sho ain’t “conservative thinkers”.
I’ve been opposed to all from the get go, like I’m opposed to HUGE METEORS hitting the earth but……
the peeps have spoken.
By Midori
January 13, 2009 7:58 PM | Link to this
Andy,
you need to join him. Put ALL of us out of our misery.
Chad,
I’m still trying to gauge my feelings about the bailout.
I take offense at how Bush presents everything as a “dire emergency” just to get his b.s. passed. And I also take offense at the democrats for allowing yielding to his insanity.
Having said that, I would think the standards should be the same across the board. Why throw money Wall Street’s way, and leave the auto industry high and dry?
By @@
January 13, 2009 8:08 PM | Link to this
Chatty WICK:
Today was one of those days. Kids come in, some are out sick, a couple are off to a doctor’s appointments leaving a couple of us with less than a 3 to 1 ratio.
In the interest of saving expense to benefit the school and the kids who attend, there are those who (me) can afford to shift and go.
Pay attention! I usually don’t show up until the afternoon (12:45 - 1:30). Most of our kids are half days. There are other days when I don’t show up until late afternoons (4:00) because I’ve assumed the responsibility for someone else’s students. Teachers have appointments too, ‘ya know.
I thrive on uncertainty. Never knowin’ what……
Thanks for caring.
It means soooooo much. /sarc/
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 13, 2009 8:12 PM | Link to this
Wyld @ 5.56, thanks for confirming that you are, in fact, among the 8% of Americans who actually “strongly approve” of this outgoing buffoon.
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 8:20 PM | Link to this
@@—
‘Cause the odds of the meteor missing you are far greater than your odds of winning Mega Millions in a few hours and the odds of Global Warming impacting you are 100%. Other than that…
Just keep on chuggin’ down the road with that big gas guzzlin’ Soooooooveeeeee.
If little fat man Cheney likes Gitmo so much, why doesn’t he haul his large butt down there and live for the years it takes to close it.
Ah am so sorry that the McSame campaign muzzled Palin as she claims in her 15 billion interview now that they don’t mean anything. If only she hadn’t been muzzled, lesseee McCain would have croked and she could handle that nuclear football the way it should be handled.
Reining in the Imperial Presidencey: HJC
A complaint has been filed against Coleman today with the FEC. Ho Hum. As if they could do something about it.
It alleges that: the RNLA is funding Coleman’s recount committee with illegal contributions in excess of legal limits; the RNLA is funding Coleman’s recount committee with illegal contributions from corporations; the RNLA has failed to register with the FEC, as its contributions to Coleman’s recount require it to; and Coleman has failed to report any contributions from the RNLA.
And da hits keep on comin’
Conservative Judge John Bates in D.C. District Court has ruled that the incoming administration of Barack Obama must be given copies of documents the Bush White House has been withholding from Congress on the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.
This has long been sought by HJC.
The White House has refused to provide the crucial documents, which were subpoenaed by Rep. John Conyers’ Judiciary committee. In addition, Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, and Josh Bolten - all senior White House officials at the time of the firings, have so far defied subpoenas issued by the committee.
The Bush White House won’t be around to appeal the order ‘cause it ain’t up to them no more.
By AJC/DNC Management
January 13, 2009 8:22 PM | Link to this
{{{{By Midori January 13, 2009 7:58 PM Andy, you need to join him. Put ALL of us out of our misery.}}}}
Be one with your inner Hamas, i r o diM, launch the rockets and kill those who don’t agree with you.
cool
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 13, 2009 8:24 PM | Link to this
“Having said that, I would think the standards should be the same across the board. Why throw money Wall Street’s way, and leave the auto industry high and dry?”
Well goodness gracious—it should be obvious. If one were to help out the auto industry you’d wind up with these filthy laborers thinking they deserve a living wage in exchange for building things of value.
Can’t spoil the natives, dear.
By @@
January 13, 2009 8:25 PM | Link to this
Me too Wyld Byll!
I would like to thank you for confirming that:
History will further recognize that he (Bush) faced an unprecented enemy that was in every respect moral repugnant and vile, those being the uber do doober leftists who fell in line behind Reid and Pelosi.
Babbling buffoons, the lot of ‘em.
By RW-(the original)
January 13, 2009 8:26 PM | Link to this
Chadly,
Do you consider yourself to be away from the blog when you’re banging out one of your manifestos to post here?
By @@
January 13, 2009 8:32 PM | Link to this
Chatty WICK:
(((Just keep on chuggin’ down the road with that big gas guzzlin’ Soooooooveeeeee.)))
I’ve never driven anything that got less than 26 mpg in town. My tires are always inflated giving me better gas mileage much like your ego.
But thanks for your misplaced envy.
It means soooooo much. /sarc/
By Paul
January 13, 2009 8:40 PM | Link to this
Midori
[[I take offense at how Bush presents everything as a “dire emergency” just to get his b.s. passed. And I also take offense at the democrats for allowing yielding to his insanity.]]
The “BS” was two parts. The “dire emergency” hoopla has passed. Bush said he wouldn’t release the second part until Pres-elect Obama requested it - which he did.
How do you reconcile that? And how’s the pork roast going?
But Most Important for Tonight: On American Idol, Paula Abdul’s wearing her Sara Palin Dress-up Glasses! So much for Hollywood bias -
By Paul
January 13, 2009 8:40 PM | Link to this
Oh, and @@ - I think Paula’s wearing your stilettos -
By fed up
January 13, 2009 8:56 PM | Link to this
Sorry Chad you can rationalize your bringing up Palin all you want. You are the one that brought up her looks no one else. There have been plenty of blogs that her name is not mentioned until you post. Peddle your BS about your not being obsessed with her to someone else.
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 9:03 PM | Link to this
@@—
In fact—(and I guess you learned to call names from those kids you babysit for part of the day)
If you check. most Republicans in the House and the Senate are jumping up and down to release the additional $350 billion of TARC money as are many Dems. And all of them are beyond stupid because that is a lot of money that needs to go elsewhere.
The banks aren’t doing anything to liquidize credit. They’re buying other banks, consolidating and hording the money, and they are paying as many large bonuses as they can, and if they feel constrained on the bonuses, they’re just pushing the money around and using it to raise salaries.
By Bud Wiser
January 13, 2009 9:11 PM | Link to this
WASHINGTON – Tested before taking power, President-elect Barack Obama privately delivered a pre-inauguration veto threat to fellow Democrats on Tuesday, saying they would not deny him use of the remaining $350 billion in federal bailout funds.
*Obama coupled his threat with a promise to revise elements of the original bailout program that have drawn widespread criticism, pledging that billions will go toward helping homeowners facing foreclosure. *
It looks like Peggy Joseph’s dream will come true.
Suckers.
By @@
January 13, 2009 9:17 PM | Link to this
Well dang Chaddy! Obama’s gonna burn those billions and get a trillion more to go to “the elsewhere”. Damn the deficit….full speed ahead. If I recall correctly, it was majority Republicans who were opposed at the outset. Now they’re just along for the ride on Obama’s FREEDOM train.
BTW, it’s not babysitting. It’s instructive and constructive work — difficult but rewarding, Chaddy WICK!
Paul:
Paula’s short. Her shoe size is likely half of what mine is.
And NO! I won’t be tellin’ you what my shoe size is except to say that my Dad often took great pride in calling them little @@’s gun boats. He was retired military.
By fed up
January 13, 2009 9:24 PM | Link to this
chaddy WICK…..I like that.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 9:27 PM | Link to this
Oh, no no no !
Not slitting wrists ……. but fixing bayonets!
I predict that the Obama Administration will be the major factor responsible for the resurgence of true conservatism in this country.
And I don’t believe it will take long ………..
By @@
January 13, 2009 9:28 PM | Link to this
Oh, and Chaddy WICK?
The majority of kids in my care are non-verbal due to their mental and/or physical challenges. When communicating through sign language, we don’t include name-calling unless it’s to call them by their givens. We assign those….like, for instance…..if a child’s name started with a “K” and his or her hair was curly, it would be a “K” at the head moving away in a circular motion.
Get it! Dipstick?
By fed up
January 13, 2009 9:35 PM | Link to this
How about “chatty kathy” as long as his posts are that might be more appropriate. lol
By @@
January 13, 2009 9:37 PM | Link to this
Onto more important things. From Stratfor:
11 Anti-Israel incidents have been reported since the Gaza operation began:
Dec. 29: Chicago - An incendiary device is thrown at a Jewish temple.
Dec. 31: Odense, Denmark - Two Israelis are shot and wounded in a shopping mall.
Jan. 3-4: Antwerp, Belgium - Demonstrations result in anti-Israeli protesters stuffing burning rags through mail slots in Jewish homes.
Jan. 3: London - Assailants carry out an arson attack against a synagogue.
Jan. 5: Helsingborg, Sweden - An assailant breaks a window of a Jewish temple and drops in an incendiary device.
Jan. 5: Brussels, Belgium - An incendiary device is thrown at a synagogue.
Jan. 5: Paris - Assailants ram a burning car into the gates of a synagogue. Investigators find incendiary devices inside the car and in the yard.
Jan. 7: London - A Jewish man is pulled from his car and assaulted by three men.
Jan. 7: Paris - A young Jewish girl is assaulted by 10 youths outside her school.
Jan. 8: Montreal - Pro-Palestinian demonstrators storm the lobby of the Israeli consulate.
Jan. 11: Paris - An incendiary device damages a synagogue and kosher restaurant.
The above list is by no means exhaustive. Security sources tell Stratfor that hundreds more attacks like these are occurring (especially in the United States) but are not being reported. These include: vandalism and public demonstrations involving anti-Semitic slogans.
In addition to these attacks, sources have told Stratfor that radical Muslims have been conducting surveillance on Jewish individuals. A list of the United Kingdom’s 100 most prominent Jews showed up on a radical Muslim Web site along with discussions about targeting them in reprisal attacks for the Israeli operations in Gaza.
There is also significant threats against less-prominent Jews such as Jewish community center leaders in the United States and Canada. These people are less likely to have the same level of personal protection as the “most prominent” Jews and, with a little research and surveillance, would be much easier to target. Many cities around the world have well-known Jewish neighborhoods, which makes targeting Jewish individuals and businesses a relatively simple procedure.
Even the less-violent actions described above can easily turn violent. Many anti-Israeli demonstrations that have started out peaceful have degenerated into violence, as high emotions can turn a group of protesters into a mob fairly quickly.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 9:40 PM | Link to this
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — Officials say two men in Iran have been stoned to death for adultery and murder……….
Ah, the wonderful world of Islam
By @@
January 13, 2009 9:44 PM | Link to this
fed-up:
I’ve already applied Chatty Kathy, it just didn’t do him justice. His lengthy posts were preceded by his over-inflated ego.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 9:46 PM | Link to this
There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and the enemy. Everyone else has a second-hand opinion. Gen. William Thornson, U.S. Army
Freedom is not free, but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share. Ned Dolan
By Frederick Douglass
January 13, 2009 9:54 PM | Link to this
Corporal of the Guard, your prediction is just a bunch of hot air. Realistically obama’s tenure more than likely signals a near death knell for the brand of conservatism we see today. I said “near death knell” because cancers die hard, but it goes without saying that that rigamorole must come to an end.
By @@
January 13, 2009 9:55 PM | Link to this
Quotes! I love philosophical quotes…
“We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” —former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir
Leftists should think about that when promoting abortion of the most defenseless and innocent among us.
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 10:12 PM | Link to this
@ Fed Up—
I’m not obsessed with Palin and I could care less what she looks like. I am amazed and insulted that McCain and the RNC were so stupid as to run her. It was the icing on the cake of a terrible campaign.
My predictions have been pretty on target. She’s going no where. I said Burris was a Senator the day Blago nominated him because and I quickly pointed out S. Ct. precedent. I said Frankin will be a Senator. I’m 2/2 there. I said Obama would be President when everyone said Hillruh would crush him. I said Ayres and Wright were dead horses and dead horses they be.
Here’s one more you can take to the bank. The thugs are done with her. And Rush’s mancrush object Rove said this morning she was through. He knows she’s consumately stupid and he despises McLoser for picking her.
I don’t know why you keep bringing the imbecile up. I’m amazed at the pandemic of stupidity in people who don’t understand you run smart candidates to win. Neither McSame nor Palin is that bright but McSame would like to have a redo over his pick. It really doesn’t make any difference because you all were f*cked whoever you ran. Katrina and Iraq were enough, and the list is endless.
@ aa Mrs.Tire savvy—
The relation between air pressure and mileage goes something like this: 10 percent underinflation (with 24 PSI being the norm), 5 percent mileage loss; 20 percent under, 15 percent loss; 25 percent under, 20 percent loss. As for pressure/tread life, 15 percent underinflation mean 10 percent loss of tread life; 25 percent under, 20 percent loss; 50 percent under, 40 percent loss.
If you increase pressure from 24 to 30 PSI, you’ll increase your gas mileage about 3-4 percent (more in some cases) and your tire life maybe 3-6 percent. As a general rule, the best thing to do is check the maximum safe pressure printed on the side of the tire and maintain inflation at or slightly below that level.
Tire pressure usually lowers itself in winter and raises itself in summer-it requires no action on the part of the motorist apart from keeping the pressure at the level recommended on the sticker that is usually located just inside the door, glove box, or fuel door. Under normal loads, inflate tires according to the vehicle manufacturer’s recommendations, NOT the maximum pressure listed on the sidewall. In any case, one should never exceed this maximum pressure.
The sidewall, incidentally, also shows the type of cord and number of plies in the sidewall and under the tread.
Every time the outside temperature drops 10 degrees Fahrenheit, the air pressure inside your tires goes down about one or two psi. Drivers should check their tire pressures frequently during cold weather, adding enough air to keep them at recommended levels of inflation.
Never reduce tire pressures in an attempt to increase traction on snow or ice which you almost never see here anyway.
Over imflating them wears them out faster.
You’re going to take a whiz on anything I say, so it really doesn’t matter.
By Chad Harris
January 13, 2009 10:33 PM | Link to this
@ @@
I don’t minimize the value of your teaching but you can muster up a little more resepct if you want to exchange ideas. If not convince yourself that the thugs can do no wrong.
The major architects of the near depression we’re in were 12 year Senate Finance Chairman Graham, Greenspan, and a number of Thugs in the Senate.
There is plenty of blame to go ‘round but the Dems weren’t in control at all when the dereg juggernaut cranked up and I doubt if any thugs here let out a peep back then to stop it.
The SEC has been moronic in allowing Madoff’s Ponzi to happen, and it will probably continue to be moronic under Obama in recovering any money buried in off shore and illegal shelters.\
As to the bailouts, they’re bipartisan clusterf*cks of major proportions and I can’t do a thing to stop them.It’s like watching a movie where you flinch during a car chase and they both dive off a steep cliff.
By @@
January 13, 2009 10:39 PM | Link to this
Excuse me? I do not whiz, I piddle.
Good grief Chad…..I was just methin’ wit’cha on the inflated tires.
I have a “fat tire” gauge. Push it in the valve “stem” and up pops “the thingy”.
As evidenced by your post, it works GREAT!
By 32 psi
January 13, 2009 10:51 PM | Link to this
Do you know what astonished me most in the world? The inability of force to create anything. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the spirit. Soldiers usually win battles and generals get the credit for them. You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war. If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.
-- Napoleon BonaparteBy Hillbilly Deluxe
January 13, 2009 10:56 PM | Link to this
Over-inflating your tires will increase gas mileage, however I wouldn’t go over a couple pounds over recommended pressure if I did it at all. Over-inflation will cause excessive tire wear in the center of the tire. Under-inflation will cause excessive tire wear on the outer edges of the tire. Generally it’s best to stick to recommended pressures.
Sometimes the recommendation will vary slightly between the car maker and the tire maker. The car maker recommendation is for the best ride while the tire maker’s is for the best tire life.
One should probably check their tire pressures about once a week.
I spent many years in the auto business and this post is just intended to help out.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 13, 2009 10:56 PM | Link to this
To Freddy D.
No sense arguing back and forth (my dad can beat up your dad, etc.).
We’ll see ……… and then let’s talk again.
By @@
January 13, 2009 11:08 PM | Link to this
Chad:
Don’t come in here talkin’ to me about respect when you’re just as likely to drop it as anyone else. For years I was respected by many on the left here until they realized that I was reluctant to see ALL THINGS FROM THEIR enlightened perspective. Then it was all out war with @@.
‘Ya ever hear of “The Glass Cliff”, Chad?
Google it+Barack Obama.
That’s what the democratic party has become in my opinion. I used to vote democrat — still do in some state and local elections. When they started to play identity politics, I bailed.
Do you honestly believe they didn’t see what was coming over the horizon? And no, I don’t excuse Obama as innocent. He is first and foremost a politician AND a democrat, using the same “offensive” plays to his personal advantage.
Politicians do very little that IS right. I’m on the side that doesn’t want to give them MORE to screw up.
I’ve updated yesterday’s data sheets with intermittent breaks to here. It’s time for bed.
By RW-(the original)
January 13, 2009 11:23 PM | Link to this
{{{{{In fact—(and I guess you learned to call names from those kids you babysit for part of the day)}}}}}-Chadly @ 9:03 PM
{{{{{I don’t minimize the value of your teaching but you can muster up a little more resepct (sic) if you want to exchange ideas.}}}}}—Chadly @ 10:33
Chadly,
You have no standing to lecture on respect or civil discourse.
Goodnight
By Chad Harris
January 14, 2009 12:10 AM | Link to this
@@
Hillbilly’s tire advice is solid.
Of course Obama is first and foremost a politician, but he’s a lot better than what we’ve had for eight years in every respect. I detest some of his appointments—Clinton, Holder, but I can’t do anything about that.
I detest his change in voting for warantless wiretapping after saying he would fillibuster it after Greg Craig told him to vote in a way that was “pragmatic.”
Most of Congress (Senate and House) are clowns and I wouldn’t trust any of them as far as I could spit most of them.
I hardly adopt the point of view that everything the Dems do is golden, but things have become pretty polarized and most thug fans woulnd’t know a bush major screwup if it bit them in the butt/
@ RW—
At what point in your life did you think I looked to you to validate what standing I have?
By AJC/DNC Management
January 14, 2009 5:38 AM | Link to this
{{{{Washington —- Terror suspects who have been held but released from Guantanamo Bay are increasingly returning to the fight against the United States and its allies, the Pentagon said Tuesday.-Urinal/Jihad}}}}
You reckon?
~~~~~
{{{{Washington —- The incoming Obama administration should launch a criminal investigation of Bush administration officials to see whether they broke the law in the name of national security, a House Democratic report said Tuesday.-Urinal/DNC}}}}
So which came first, Herr Pinko, the laws or the nation?
duh.
By GodHatesTrash
January 14, 2009 5:43 AM | Link to this
Very cold here in Vermont this morning.
If my dog were a Bookman RightWingnut, he’d see how cold it was, and decide to defecate and urinate right near his food bowl, since the cold would be all the proof he’d need that he can trash his environment any way he wants to.
But the old guy has more sense than that, so I let him out to do his business…
By AJC/DNC Management
January 14, 2009 5:44 AM | Link to this
luckovich is clinically insane.
You know he can sue your as-ses, right AJC, for post Bushie traumatic stress syndrome?
Classic study in it, he is.
By Mac
January 14, 2009 6:15 AM | Link to this
In many respects, GWB will be judged in 10-20 years on what happens in Obama’s first term.
If Obama screws it up or we have another big attack, GWB will be viewed favorably.
If Obama is a success, Bush will not be. Ask Jimmy Carter how that works, he’s still bitter about how Reagan’s success diminished him.
Also, you don’t know what GWB prevented that could have been worse. We all take for granted what didn’t happen until it does.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 7:16 AM | Link to this
New Thread Not working…
Off Topic
But wouldn’t you have liked to be a fly on the wall at dinner last night with Obama, Will, Brooks, Kristol and Krauthammer?
By Paul
January 14, 2009 7:51 AM | Link to this
Mrs Godzilla
A fly on the wall? Yeah, with a digicam!
Now, this really is change. Will’s been regularly critical of the Bush Administration, others somewhat so, but still staunch conservatives.
Can you imagine, though (and this is real change) a few columnists for MoveOn or DailyKos, or heck, even (pick your favorite liberal syndicated columnist - like Thomas, Krugman, Page - or the entertainers like Olbermann - going to a private dinner for a policy discussion, all background, just an exchange of ideas - with Bush, Cheney or Rove?
By Sean Manetee
January 14, 2009 7:58 AM | Link to this
You can put lipstick on a PIg and its still George Bush. COLOSSAL FAILURE.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 7:58 AM | Link to this
No Paul I can’t imagine your scenario in the least.
I can’t imagine George W. Bush or Dick Cheney having the courage to sit across the table from Markos, Arianna, Keith, Josh, Larissa,John, Steve etc.
By Paul
January 14, 2009 8:06 AM | Link to this
Mrs. Godzilla
For all the war and such, when it comes to personal interaction, Pres Bush strikes me as pretty discord-averse. Rather think that’s why he held on to some folks who should have been let go long before. Cheney, on the other hand, with his background in Congress, Presidential staff and VP, spanning decades - that’d be an interchange I’d love to hear. I’ve seen Arianna on a couple of interviews - not impressed with her grasp of issues past the first or second layer. Markos? Passionate, dedicated, but as far as the capability to see another side, especially the nuances…
My main, but likely (again) way to subtle implication is that the level of sheer hatred exhibited by many on the farfarLeft (not just the Left - many in Congress are great at political theater and acting) would preclude their ever having dinner with the “enemy” - especially if there was no publicity and a commitment that it was entirely for an exchange of ideas and was to remain private.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 8:19 AM | Link to this
Well Paul,
I think you are seriously wrong and I would not expect you to appreciate Arianna or Markos. You certainly don’t expect me to appreciate Brooks, Krauhammer or Kristol do you? EEEK!
Any one of the bloggers I list above would have been more than happy at any time to be face to face with Bush or Cheney. They would have been polite but emphatic. But, as your nuanced post supposes Bush is pretty discord averse. I’d take that thought further to Bush and Cheney both being discourse adverse.
Now keep in mind that they all began AFTER Bush 43’s first election in fact, they began in response to Bush. You might say that Bush was a liberal blogger enabler.
By Dr. R
January 14, 2009 8:20 AM | Link to this
Said it before, I’ll say it again: Presidents get too much credit or too much blame for the economy. Most economic policy takes years to have an effect — that which does have an effect — meaning that what Reagan did affected Clinton and what Clinton did affected Bush, etc. The economy is what it is and can’t be “handled” by the guy in the Oval Office. There’s plenty to criticize Bush over but at least be realistic about it. Katrina, a bungled Iraq invasion, too much spending, pandering to voters, all that is fair game. But the economy is no more Bush’s fault than the boom of the ’90s was Clinton’s genius. But too many uninformed voters will create and cause and effect relationship there regardless. If your dog barks when the sun is out, it doesn’t mean the sun was the reason.
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 14, 2009 8:28 AM | Link to this
“If your dog barks when the sun is out, it doesn’t mean the sun was the reason. “
See also: “The Surge is working!”
Dr. R, there is a fair amount of truth to your thesis about Presidential credit/blame. Obviously the overall Federal Government exerts a tremendous influence over the economy, and as its CEO a President must ultimately shoulder much responsibility, but of course much of it’s well beyond Bush’s control.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 8:28 AM | Link to this
OH AND JAY
I also strongly disagree with your last statement.
I think the excitement about Obama is very healthy.
By Arf
January 14, 2009 8:33 AM | Link to this
My dog barks at wind. And, Dr. R’s dog just wont hunt. Bush is an abject failure in all respects. He failed the American people on day one and he’s gone down hill since. His legacy is that he made every other president look better. Now that’s something for the history books.
By AJC/DNC Management
January 14, 2009 8:38 AM | Link to this
I guess this is the comment section for the new blog-
This is what an alcoholic would call a “moment of clarity.”
Two ways you can go from here, Bookman, sobriety or resume hammering the Oblahmi Koolaid like a lush.
We all know where that will lead you, back to the delusions, the psychotic episodes, the paranoia.
Be strong, you are finally on the path to recovery.
By RW-(the original)
January 14, 2009 8:40 AM | Link to this
Where is this last statement from Jay about unhealthy excitement? Maybe you have to be looking at the minnow wrapper edition to see it.
Off to the forest
See y’all upstairs for happy hour if they ever unlock the door.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 8:43 AM | Link to this
Ring Ring Ring
Hello?
George This is the Prime Minister of Australia, stop showing Crocodile Dundee movies in America it makes us look bad.
Ok Can do.
Ring Ring Ring
Hello
George This is the King of Norway, please make all Americans eat lutefisk, it’s good for them.
Ok can do.
Ring Ring Ring
George this is Olmert of Israel….let me tell you what I want you to do.
Ok. Sure. Yes. Right away.
By Paul
January 14, 2009 8:45 AM | Link to this
Mrs. Godzilla
That’s one reason I mentioned those columnists, while conservative, have criticized Bush Administration actions and policies - and not just when they’ve strayed from the conservative philosophy. The Markos types strike me more as ideologues - those who adhere to ideology, no matter what. I’ve written before - that’s one reason I didn’t take as one hundred percent Obama’s pronouncements on Iraq - because the Markos-type left would turn on him in an instant if he didn’t adhere to their position, regardless of how circumstances have changed. Similar to the Krauthammer column - which I thought you might agree with - that Obama very well could have associated with Rev Wright and Ayres but not shared or been tainted by their philosophy. I thought that was the point many on the Left made.
My bigger reservation with the Ariannas and Markoses is what I said - their ability to think beyond the first layer. Here’s an example. I watched John Stewart make a statement on what should be done with Iraq and he put forth the partition into three zones idea (that Biden championed). When the implications were noted - Kurdish autonomy, problems resulting from lack of oil revenue sharing, Iranian proxy control - his response, and I kid you not, was “Well, I don’t know that much about it.”
That’s how I see many on the Left. The Right too, but that’s not the topic of our discussion.
I really like your “discourse averse” play on words. Lot of truth in it.
Maybe, as you say, they would have been willing to meet. Maybe. But I still suspect it would have been, as you noted, emphatic. I don’t mind someone being emphatic. But what I do expect from people at that level is the ability to seek out and understand their opponent’s point of view. Not, as tied into my thoughts yesterday, to say “this is what you did, and in spite of what you said, this is why you did it (might’ve been clearer if italics worked), you liar.”
Maybe they would have been emphatic, but I doubt they would have been empathetic.
By Paul
January 14, 2009 8:47 AM | Link to this
DB 8:28
“See also surge is working”
First schism with the rank and file? Pres-elect Obama said the surge succeeded past his greatest expectations. Now his policy team is talking about not jeopardizing the gains that have been made.
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 14, 2009 8:50 AM | Link to this
“I watched John Stewart make a statement on what should be done with Iraq and he put forth the partition into three zones idea (that Biden championed).”
Paul, you do know that John Stewart isn’t actually a pundit, yes?
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 8:53 AM | Link to this
Sorry Paul once you got to the “Markos type” being more “idealogue” I quit reading.
By Paul
January 14, 2009 8:59 AM | Link to this
Mrs. Godzilla
That’s too bad. As I defined what I meant. Rather strike me as very, very similar in attitude to religious zealots - those who “know” they have “the truth” and how they view others who don’t adhere to their philosophy. I don’t say that to be provocative. I really see some similar characteristics. Then I went on to explain what I meant by pundits who make their point but are unable to get past the first layer - the John Stewart example. Heck, I even noted many on the Right have the same characteristics.
Now perhaps you’ll finish reading it.
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 14, 2009 9:02 AM | Link to this
From Jay’s newer post: “something very strange, and not entirely healthy.”
Jay, I think what you’re witnessing is just unabashed capitalism, no? This is a great opportunity for vendors, service businesses and the like to cash in on an unprecedented wave of visitors, not unlike what Atlanta surely experienced in ‘96.
Of course you’re there and I’m not (although I know several who will be there next week and will be eager to hear a firsthand report.)
By Paul
January 14, 2009 9:09 AM | Link to this
Mrs. Godzilla
Let me illustrate it this way. I do not see Pres-elect Obama as an ideologue (adheres to ideology regardless of new information or changing circumstances), as evidenced by his recent policy pronouncements. Including his statement on the surge I referenced at 8:47. I do not believe Markos has ever shifted from his original position. That defines the difference between the “Obamas and his type” and the “Markoses and his type.”
DB, Gwinnetian
Sure. Stewart’s smart, an entertainer. But his stock in trade is politics. He comments, skewers, ridicules, makes fun of and satirizes politicians, their ideas and their policies. So he may not be a pundit, but he does make declarative, this is the way it is statements - including on Iraq. So I find it amazing when a guest says “here’s what you said, here are the implications” his response is what it was.
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 14, 2009 9:10 AM | Link to this
FFS, Paul, they have to say that stuff. You don’t get elected President without kissing the DoD’s arse.
sheesh.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 9:11 AM | Link to this
Paul
when you slide into your Uriah Heep mode….no I don’t read it.
Maybe later.
By SAR
January 14, 2009 9:13 AM | Link to this
The Bush legacy will not be written by some idiot on this blog.
By Bosch
January 14, 2009 9:13 AM | Link to this
David Brooks is great. I like it when he’s on Meet the Press. Did anyone read his Op-Ed yesterday?
If not, I’d like to share:
In Defense of Death
By Bosch
January 14, 2009 9:18 AM | Link to this
Change? Yeap, having those four for dinner? I don’t mind talking to conservatives as long as we can leave out religion and war. Because to be honest, if you take out those two issues, I’m much more “conservative” than you’d think.
Oh, it’s gonna be so nice to have an intellectual President again. We haven’t had one in so long.
By Arf
January 14, 2009 9:19 AM | Link to this
There’s floors and then there’s levels. The surge is working is ground floor stuff — ear-candy for the politician types in need of a good sound bite to further awe their entranced followers. Wow! Ooh! Ahhh! That was such a profound statement. I connected with it on so many levels. Now, take it to the next level — not the next floor. The next floor is just a place that catches the overflow — the ones that cannot be accommodated on the first floor. What is a surge. It’s just a sudden and forceful thrust in a given direction. So, what does it mean to say that the surge is working. Let’s start by examining the opposite. What would it mean if the surge did not work. Simply put, it would mean that it was not a surge. After all, how can it be a surge if it did not result in a sudden and forceful thrust in a given direction. So, the bottom line is that statements such as the surge is working have as much value as drill baby drill. They can all be summed up in a single more succinct statement such as the PG-rated, “Trust Me”. By the way, the surge worked for my dog a while back. The neighbor called and told us that our little fella was the proud daddy of a litter of seven little ones. They all have his eyes and nose and hair and innocent “what did I do” look.
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 14, 2009 9:19 AM | Link to this
Oh, and another thing, Paul—sorry this is so disjointed, I’m gonna have to bail in a minute—but if you want to quote chapter/verse on middle east policy from an actual respected-by-the-left pundit you go to Juan Cole.
You want thoughtful takes on the malAdministration you go to Glenn Greenwald.
You want snarky takes on economics, duh, it’s Atrios.
And obviously if you cared about the election you checked Nate Silver’s site compulsively. Not so much now, although he’s better positioned to prognosticate than anyone I know going forward.
Bluntly put, if you don’t know these guys you don’t know jack about modern liberal ideology. That you have as your touchstones pedestrian amalgamators like HuffPo, or think Markos speaks for us, or that JOHN! STEWART! (!) is a pundit, you aren’t trying very hard.
By Paul
January 14, 2009 9:22 AM | Link to this
Jay
Top thread still not up? Was it intentional you left out as a causative factor the fawning coverage by commentators and journalists with tingly legs? The ones who didn’t change their tune until Saturday Night Live parodied them so brilliantly?
DB, Gwinnetian
To whom were you referring at 9:10? What’s FFS? I thought we were discussing Stewart? Who was kissing up to DoD?
By gatorboy62
January 14, 2009 9:23 AM | Link to this
Jay, It does not matter what Bush did or did not do, you would be critical. I hope you have the same standards 4 years from not.
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 14, 2009 9:28 AM | Link to this
“To whom were you referring at 9:10?”
Obama saying sweet nothings about The Mighty and Glorious SURGE!!!11!!
“What’s FFS?”
For Frog’s Sake. Just substitute the common expletive for “frog.”
“I thought we were discussing Stewart?”
See my 9.19.
“Who was kissing up to DoD?”
Anyone running for national political office. You have to make sure not to upset very thin-skinned folks who take any criticism of our military establishment as not “supporting the troops.”
later, all.
By Bosch
January 14, 2009 9:30 AM | Link to this
Paul,
From last nights thread:
I worked last night (which I do every Tuesday and Wednesday night) and I didn’t see your BSG message until it was too late. BTW, it came on at 11:00 here. But Friday’s lineup? Why hasn’t Sci-Fi been re-capping at night? An all day marathon during the day? What’s up? Do they think all us sci-fi freaks live in our mom’s basements, playing videos all day and are around to watch something like that?
Wait a minute. Don’t answer that!
By Paul
January 14, 2009 9:41 AM | Link to this
DB 9:19
I referenced those types in a discussion with Mrs. Godzilla. They are names regularly referenced here by those on the Left. I do not recall any of them ever citing the names you listed. Too bad you think those who represent the Left here “don’t know jack about modern liberal ideology. “
Your later post
FFR - ahem, the modern substitute for “Frog” is “Frak.” Ask Bosch.
Obama’s comment? So you agree with Krauthammer that he says what he must and uses whom he will? Cool.
DoD - you haven’t been here all that long so you’ve not read my positions about an immediate 20 percent cut in DoD’s budget and my thoughts on those who pander to the voters by supporting ever-increasing Defense budgets.
Hey there Bosch!
I wondered what happened to you last night. You gotta admit, you are a holdout! DVRs are wonderful. You’ll wonder how you existed without one.
And some of us live in our dad’s basement, thank you very much -
By Dave
January 14, 2009 9:42 AM | Link to this
The few Bush defenders left are just like him they just can’t admit they are wrong. Bush is the worst president in US history. He is the second worst president in regards to the economy after Herbert Hoover. The Bush defenders fail to even think he has any blame at all for the second worst attack on American soil 9-11. They just pretend it was all Clinton or no one gets the blame for it at all it could not have been prevented. Bush presided over the longest US war in history after World War 2 in Iraq. Bush mismanaged the worst natural disaster in recent US history in Katrina. Bush allowed America to lose it financial standing by causing US debt to reach staggering levels and crippled our standing as a major voice in world affairs. The American consumer, housing market, US job market, and economy has been severely crippled probably for decades. No doubt there will be a few who will tell us Clinton or Jimmy Carter were worse. I want to see them give a longer list than this to prove it it just can’t be done. No matter what Jimmy Carter brokered the only successful peace agreement in middle east history between Israel and Egypt. Clinton actually paid off some debt, reformed welfare and presided over a very healthy economy for 8 years.
By Arf
January 14, 2009 9:42 AM | Link to this
You just gotta love deregulation and that good old boy, Phil Gramm for making so many things possible.
…Morgan Stanley isn’t an oil company in the traditional sense of the word - it doesn’t own or control oil wells or refineries, or gas stations. But according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Morgan Stanley is a significant player in the wholesale market through various entities controlled by the corporation.
It not only buys and sells the physical product through subsidiaries and companies that it controls, Morgan Stanley has the capacity to store and hold 20 million barrels. For example, some storage tanks in New Haven, Conn. hold Morgan Stanley heating oil bound for homes in New England, where it controls nearly 15 percent of the market.
The Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs also has huge stakes in companies that own a refinery in Coffeyville, Kan., and control 43,000 miles of pipeline and more than 150 storage terminals….
…It’s impossible to tell exactly who was buying and selling all those oil contracts because most of the trading is now conducted in secret, with no public scrutiny or government oversight. Over time, the big Wall Street banks were allowed to buy and sell as many oil contracts as they wanted for their clients, circumventing regulations intended to limit speculation. And in 2000, Congress effectively deregulated the futures market, granting exemptions for complicated derivative investments called oil swaps, as well as electronic trading on private exchanges…
By RealityKing
January 14, 2009 9:50 AM | Link to this
I’m better off than I was eight years ago…, some would give the president credit for that. But for me, the next eight years is what’s really important. And who here has spent their way out of debt?? Your time for blaming Bush is almost up Jay..
By Paul
January 14, 2009 9:51 AM | Link to this
Bosch
Good column about Neuhaus. Thank you.
You may enjoy Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Her “On Death and Dying” was published decades ago. She has another, “On Life After Death” that’s received good reviews.
But you’ll never convince the cynics.
By John
January 14, 2009 9:56 AM | Link to this
There is no way in the public mind you can put lipstick on this pig. That’s why the whole legacy offensive by Bush himself and all the usual spinmeisters on the right is actually totally counterproductive. Who you going to believe, Karl Rove or your own lying eyes. And so for anyone outside of the 27% that think Bush is doing a heckuva job you you reinforce the whole notion that Republicans lie about everything and you are therefore further devaluing the brand. It’s like all those lies Ford told about the Pinto. This is such basic marketing I’m amazed Republicans can’t see it. But then Republicans do seem to be retreating into an alternate reality now that they no longer have the power to create their own. You have the leading right wing blog proposing to set up something they call the Red State Army Strike Force who seem to think Mitch McConnell is a dangerous liberal; conservative pundits on TV shows arguing about a torturing character in a fictional tv show as if it were a documentary; and most hilarious of all the dispatch of Joe the Plumber as a conservative war correspondent to Israel. These are not good signs for a movement that wants to stay in the mainstream.
By Bosch
January 14, 2009 10:01 AM | Link to this
Paul,
It’s the hippy in me. You know, “I don’t need all this materialistic crap. I’m not wasting my hard earned money to give to China so they can take over our country. I don’t NEED a DVR, I may WANT one, but should we waste our money on things we don’t really NEED just to watch a TV show - TV, the evil institution that is ruining our family way of life.”
And yes, I think like that ALL the time. It’s why I don’t shop much, because I pretty much wage everything I buy according to those standards, it’s why I have to drink after going to the mall, just to make my head stop.
But sometimes I think, “OH well, screw it. I want that and I’m gettin’ it.”
I guess that was pretty sexist of me to say “mom’s basement” although most dad’s throw their good for nothing sons out of the basement.
But I am looking into the DVR thing.
DB,
Yeah, “frak” look into it. And do you watch Battlestar Galactica? You’d understand the “frak” thing if you did.
Are Paul and I the only ones who watch this? We are obviously the only ones here obsessed with it.
By Arf
January 14, 2009 10:03 AM | Link to this
Obama is going to make the Republicans start paying for the massive mounds of unpaid and delinquent bills that the Bush administration has been keeping hidden in every crack, crevice, corner, and closet in DC. Bush has done more to destroy the US than any terrorist, group of terrorists, communists, rogue state, etc., all combined. He piled on trillions of extra dollars onto the national debt and just to keep the Republican voters happy he said “charge it.” Legacy! Who the hell is he kidding? Oh, that’s right, his right-wing fanatic followers that still don’t have a clue. Maybe they’ll “get it” when they get their bills but I doubt it. The ignorant followers of Bush and the borrow and spend Republican party will just blame it on Obama. Oh well. Pay your tax bill and blame whoever, losers.
By Bosch
January 14, 2009 10:06 AM | Link to this
Paul,
I have heard of the first book, but haven’t read it. That was a popular book a while back.
Instead of letting life mystify death, death mystifying life? Yeah, those are good words to live by. I feel a t-shirt idea coming on.
By Paul
January 14, 2009 10:11 AM | Link to this
Bosch
Look at it like getting… a Mr. Coffee instead of keeping an old percolator. Or getting rid of a land line and getting a cell phone. You know, things that make your life easier.
Now just go get one, frak it!
By Paul
January 14, 2009 10:14 AM | Link to this
Bosch
“I feel a t-shirt idea coming on.”
“Frak Death”?
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 10:14 AM | Link to this
John
I read about the Red State Strike Force….
add that to Hannity’s conservative underground and you get a whole lotta funny.
By Bud Wiser
January 14, 2009 10:14 AM | Link to this
So Jay, and Urinal staff:
How’s this new format working for you?
It sucks for the rest of us.
More change we can believe in?
What a pathetic joke.
If you paid someone 10 bucks for the work they did on the change, you were overcharged.
Ask O for a bailout.
By Bosch
January 14, 2009 10:23 AM | Link to this
Paul,
“Frak Death”
Excellent. Brilliant. You win.
What the frak is wrong with percolators? Coffee makers break every three or four times you use them - cheap pieces of Chinese made crap! A percolator (or French press as I like to use) will last forever (as long as you don’t drop them).
BUT, I don’t have a land line anymore. I’m getting there. And I’m looking up Comcast’s number right now.
By AJC/DNC Management
January 14, 2009 10:25 AM | Link to this
Being a stone cold Conservative without a liberal bone in my body, I am qualified enough to say that the reason most Cons don’t approve of the job Bush has done is because he didn’t stomp the guts out of you worm ridden pinkos when he had the chance to do it.
Stick that in your 27% pipe and smoke it.
“Bipartisanship,” ew
By Bud Wiser
January 14, 2009 10:26 AM | Link to this
Anyone besides me see Botox Pelosi on GMA this morning? She typifies the idiocy, the lunacy we see in partisan politics.
When referencing the upcoming $350B that PE Obama has asked for, she went to extraordinary lengths to say …”but it is President Bush that put in the request for it.” Her questioner repeatedly said that Obama is the one that asked for it in the first place, but she kept repeating that Bush is the one that has to do it. Faithful to the party monkey to the end, she is always poised to blame the oncoming failure as not a failure of her and her party, but ‘the others.’
Already her dim little mind is set up for failure, so when the Chosen One dumps that money in the toilet and flushes it away, it will be Bush’s fault. So typical.
It would be laughable, except for what I have already seen disappear from my retirement accounts and investments. It is not.
What is sadly laughable, and pitiable, is her and the Democrats stance on this issue.The same incompetent fools who stole, swindled, mishandled, and lost our money is given a multi-billion dollar reward for their failure.
And the sheep keep sending the wolves back to the hen house.
What is really dysfunctional though is that you sheep keep applauding and cheering on yourselves for your good choices.
Sickening.
By Paul
January 14, 2009 10:41 AM | Link to this
Bosch 10:23
Nothing’s wrong (italics) with percolators, ‘cept they can cook and cook and cook the coffee. I’ve sung the praises of Technivorm Moccamasters - and you illustrated the perfect excuse - cheaper in the long run than replacing cheaper ones that break. I have a Bodum French press, too - but dang, too much work!
Be aware: Comcast, Verizon, others - I think when you get a DVR with their packages you cannot buy it. You have to pay a $12-15 rental fee each month. An alternative is to buy a DVD player that also records. Which I had with Comcast. You could record their broadcasts. But Verizon Fios? Oh no - they scramble the frakkin’ signal so you can’t record it!
If you need a bit more self justification, just repeat several times a day:
“I will not be dictated to by the corporate media and forced to watch programs when they say so. I will be independent and live life on my terms. I will record their broadcasts and watch them when I decide.”
Howzzat?
Out for a while -
By RealityKing
January 14, 2009 10:43 AM | Link to this
Bush’s legacy includes 9/11, 2 new democracies and 57 million newly freed people…, not to mention no new attacks, aids, NCLB and the, yes still, historically high homeownership rates for all races.
I wonder what the corrupt media will use to excuse Obama’s crappy legacy of disasterly high liberal deficit spending? The ensueing Obama depression era due to the diasterly high deficit spending? Another 9/11 perhaps, the one missed by his cluelessly defanged CIA?? Or how about the trillions in spending for temporary road jobs, state bailouts and his promised tax give aways??? At least Bush freed 57 million people with his trillion. So tell me again about how Obama is saving jobs, even though Jay’s own words give us only a dismal 2% increase over the last 8 years.
You guys had better start pinching your pennies because Obama and his drunken band of merry liberal spenders are leading us right into a traditionally defined depression. No, not the progressively weak definition.., and don’t say you weren’t warned.
By AmVet
January 14, 2009 10:44 AM | Link to this
Downstairs, I saw where someone posted the ten great accomplishments of this president as written by the illustrious Fox personality/Bush sycophant/fraud conservative/Republitool Fred Barnes.
What a laugh.
He and the other buffoons on Faux News and reich-wing talk radio must be secretly thrilled with the results over the past two November votes.
Though the bumbling neo-cons have suffered through a combined 60 - 4 annihilation the past two elections, the talking d!ckheads very practiced fear mongering/xenophobic opinions will probably cause their ratings to actually go up. As the “faithful” sheep, aka the BushCo bootlickers, aka the 20% crowd, hope beyond hope they may have a shred of relevancy going forward into this new millenium, whilst they seek divine guidance from these wackos.
BTW do any of you fraud conservatives truly believe those humiliating results are NOT going to be repeated for the foreseeable future? And are we looking straight in the face of a second 40 year stint with this (hijacked) GOP being the minority party in Congress?
Given the current disgraceful rogue’s gallery of Republican “All Stars”, I would say it is very, very likely you have played out the very last act in your Crime of the Century.
The nation can only hope.
Six more days…
01-20-09 The End of an Error
By Bosch
January 14, 2009 10:46 AM | Link to this
Paul,
And, can you please explain to me how coffee makers make my life easier than percolators?
With percolators you do the same exact thing as coffee makers - put the coffee in the basket, water in the percolator, plug it up, or put it on the stove, presto - coffee.
French presses? Pour in hot water, that you’ve either brought to a boil or in my case get out of the hot water dispenser on my water cooler, put in the coffee, wait a couple minutes, press down - presto, coffee.
With coffee makers, you have to get a fraking filter (if it’s that kind), put the coffee in, fill up the decanter with water, pour the water in the machine, go get a towel because you always spill some of the water on the counter while pouring the water in the machine, wipe up the water. Then you have to eventually wash the towel.
So there.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 10:52 AM | Link to this
Did y’all read about the TN house surprise?
Good Going!
By Bosch
January 14, 2009 10:54 AM | Link to this
Reality King,
Your post earlier would make alot more sense if you could please explain away the drunken merry band of corporate executives with the help of politicians from both sides of the aisle who’ve made the Dow Jones go from roughly 14,000 points to 8,500 points since September.
Pinching pennies? It’s already happening dude.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 10:55 AM | Link to this
Jay
You have shown some wisdom in your latest thread this morning about Obama.
Idol worship is a scary thing. The bigger they are …. the harder they fall. Americans in many ways have become lemmings. Obama was voted in as President out of ignorance and pure self-interest vs. what is right and good for the country. Sow to the wind and reap the whirlwind. This is all very, very dangerous territory for the unwashed masses.
OFF TOPIC
1) Brrrrrr ……… this global warming thing is out of control.
2) Regarding the headlines re: Torture at Gitmo:
In USMC Bootcamp I was:
Isolated from the outside world
Physically abused at times
Suffered severe sleep deprivation
Was not allowed access to news, radio or television
My letters home were restricted
I was not allowed a watch
I was never allowed any visitors
My head was shaved
I was forced to use the head in full view of everyone (no stalls)
I was allowed only three meals a day (two on weekends) with ZERO snacks of any kind
I was forced to wash my own clothes
I was psychologically abused
I was effectively waterboarded in the swimming pool as I felt I was drowning with full gear on
MY QUESTION IS WAS THAT TORTURE?
P.S. It was all good for me and I would do it again in the defense of my country ……..
By Arf
January 14, 2009 10:58 AM | Link to this
Whine, you pathetic little Republicans. Whine all you want while you pay your taxes for a change instead of charging it off on future generations. Obama will see to it that the loser Republican party pays. To start with, you won’t get your elimination of the estate tax. Then, all those charge slips that Bush approved are gone in 2011. That’s right. No more Bush tax “cuts”, aka, non-payment of delinquent taxes. It’s time to pay for your Iraqi surge and your drug company prescription drug dump program and your free ethanol for farmers bill and your deregulated buddies on wall street bailout bill… Pay up, losers. It’s time you find out what it really costs to be a Republican loser.
By Sean Manatee
January 14, 2009 11:01 AM | Link to this
Most of us are judged at our jobs by whether or not things have improved since we took our jobs.
Is this country in anyway better off now than prior to BUSH ? If you answered yes you are obviously beyond any help.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 11:07 AM | Link to this
Corporal
did they attach battery wires to your testicles?
did they pile you and your band of brothers in bloody naked piles?
did your folks and family know you were at boot camp for a few weeks or did you completely dissapear for 4 or 5 years?
how many of your band of brothers died during boot camp?
did they force you into sexual positions for photo ops?
did they force you to masturbate for a photo op?
how many of your band of brothers were children?
did your drill leader force you to have sex with him?
did they pour phosphoric liquid on you?
were you beaten with brooms handles and chairs?
were you sodomized with lights sticks and broom handles?
Didn’t think so.
You ain’t so tough after all.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 11:08 AM | Link to this
P.S.
I left out:
Being forced to stand naked along side hundreds of other recruits (oh, the horror of it all).
And don’t forget, even the Marines were drafting during Vietnam so some of us didn’t even volunteer = involuntary servitude?
By Sean Manatee
January 14, 2009 11:16 AM | Link to this
The eight year BUSH curse will be lifted like a black cloud in 6days! Thank you GOD Thank you.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 11:16 AM | Link to this
Oh and Corporal
Have a nice day!
:>)
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 11:17 AM | Link to this
Mrs. G.
There are some things that happened there that even you don’t get to know about …….. especially escape and evasion training later ……… :o)
The POINT is:
There is football (touch) and there is football (the NFL) ……….
There is torture (Gitmo/USMC bootcamp**) and there is torture (North Vietnam/terrorist style) …………..
Since you have lived in your Ivory Tower you wouldn’t know about either ……… except that the former has probably saved your ungrateful a@@ !
By Arf
January 14, 2009 11:18 AM | Link to this
Take a bath Corporal. You reek of Bush. It’s enough to make a dog sick.
By WhoCares
January 14, 2009 11:22 AM | Link to this
I haven’t seen a video out of Gitmo yet where a prisoner gets his head cut off with a bayonet. Anyone know where I can find one?
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 11:23 AM | Link to this
to Arf
Freedom is not free, but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share. …….. Fido.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 11:26 AM | Link to this
Corporal
still not impressed.
and my arse is quite grateful. (a tad lower than it used to be but grateful)
the point is you were not tortured
you had a choice to be inducted or go to canada or apply for a CI
please have your wargasms in private.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 11:27 AM | Link to this
To Who Cares
Good one !
But they did teach us to twist the bayonet when we stuck it in so it would do more damage ……… would that be torture?
By RealityKing
January 14, 2009 11:27 AM | Link to this
What’s up with the missing web pages this morning? Did the AJC layoff it’s conservative IT staff rather than it’s liberal editors??
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 11:36 AM | Link to this
To Mrs. G.
1) You’re forgetting the draftees ….
2) Torture ….. the act of inflicting excruciating pain.
Therefore by definition ….. non-excruciating pain is not torture !
There that settles it ……..
3) And this too applies to you:
Freedom is not free, but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share.
By Trudy
January 14, 2009 11:41 AM | Link to this
BUSH BELONGS BEHIND BARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Andy the Welcher
January 14, 2009 11:45 AM | Link to this
Sean Manatee, Most every person posting here is beyond help. Nowhere, not a single time will you find an instance where “debate” changes any of thier minds, left or right. Therefore it’s not debate, just a bunch of redfaced leftys yelling at equally red faced rightys… this is not debate, to debate one has to be willing to actually consider your opponents POV, and possibly, maybe, sometimes concede a point.
And… Andy’s a Welcher so don’t make bets with him, he’s the reddest face of them all, kinda looks like Rush all pilled up, and he parrots Rush the pill-popper to the letter, never heard a conservative talking point he didn’t agree with…
Corporal’s a piece of work too, he claims to be a man of God and an ex-marine. But the Marines I know, and the truly godly men I know are neither boastful nor as acrimonious as the Corporal is, so I doubt either of those are true.
Anyway, “debate” here is pointless, just throw bombs and try to yell louder than the other side, because the louder the yell, the more true it is.
Andy’s a welcher.
ew
By Arf
January 14, 2009 11:54 AM | Link to this
Corporal,
I wouldn’t let you lick my rear and yet you still chase after it. It’s the smell that attracts you to Bush and the Republican party. You live for it.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 11:59 AM | Link to this
To Welcher
You’re right. No use getting into my dad can whip your dad.
But since you don’t know me or my background let me just say that Joshua was one of my Biblical heroes. A man of God AND a tough old warrior who never backed down. War against evil is never easy ……..
Look him up. You may learn something ………
Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. I Timothy
P.S. We never got our choice of religious foods in bootcamp either. Oh, the horror of it all !!
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 12:03 PM | Link to this
To Fido (aka Arf)
As the D.I.’s were fond of saying:
you wouldn’t make a pimple on a Marine’s a@@ …………..
Don’t take it personal. Many are called but few are chosen …….. we got your back.
Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 12:17 PM | Link to this
corporal
keep telling yourself that you pay my share…. if that’s what it takes to make you feel warm and fuzzy.
i think creatures like you increase the amount due.
By AmVet
January 14, 2009 12:17 PM | Link to this
Corporal, I LIKE that Samuel Johnson quote!
Very nice.
And it explains the behavior of men like Cheney, Frist, Delay, Gingrich, Chambless et al.
Chickenhawk extraordinaires…
By AmVet
January 14, 2009 12:23 PM | Link to this
Corporal, I LIKE that Samuel Johnson quote!
Very nice.
Maybe that explains the irrational, immoral behavior of men like Cheney, Bushie, Limberger, Sean Manatee, O’Lielly, Mann Coulter, Gingrich, Chambless et al.
Chickenhawk extraordinaires…
By Arf
January 14, 2009 12:31 PM | Link to this
Down Corporal, Down. I’m gonna sit on your face AGAIN. On second thought, that’s what you want more of, Corporal Moocher. The Corporal that lives off those very pimples that he claims to despise so much. Go buy yourself some medals on E-Bay. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to a hero.
By Cherokee
January 14, 2009 12:32 PM | Link to this
Corporal you didn’t quote the entire definition - it also inclues “extreme anguish of body or mind”. So… Bush authorized torture, and his minions carried it out.
And evangelical Christians like yourself still support him. Amazing.
By First Sergeant
January 14, 2009 1:13 PM | Link to this
Jay,
Has Corporal ever stuck to the subject; has it ever provided meaningful feedback pertaining to the subject. You see, I read your blogs daily and rarely do I submit input. This Corporal thing is most of the time, all over the place, and pretty much avoid logical responses by spewing garbage. It also seems that most posters here, agree with this assessment.
By Russ Carter
January 14, 2009 1:41 PM | Link to this
Poor Fred Barnes (and by extension all Republicans) always wishing and hoping that their ‘spin’ will be taken as truth. The GOP is permanently lost and will NEVER reconstitute in anything like it’s current confabulation. And they won’t have numbers for 20 years so can be safely ignored. I am CERTAIN that the movement is over and Reagan can rest in peace at last. However, I hope conservatives continue to do the exact same things…don’t change, don’t self-reflect, keep hating all the same things (and yelling about it loudly) and just keep pretending that we’re a center-right country. At least you can continue to provide bright electoral targets and a good laugh…
By Russ Carter
January 14, 2009 1:45 PM | Link to this
Poor Fred Barnes (and by extension all Republicans) always wishing and hoping that their ‘spin’ will be taken as truth. The GOP is permanently lost and will NEVER reconstitute in anything like it’s current confabulation. And they won’t have numbers for 20 years so can be safely ignored. I am CERTAIN that the movement is over and Reagan can rest in peace at last. However, I hope conservatives continue to do the exact same things…don’t change, don’t self-reflect, keep hating all the same things (and yelling about it loudly) and just keep pretending that we’re a center-right country. At least you can continue to provide bright electoral targets and a good laugh…
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 1:57 PM | Link to this
To Mrs. G.
You know I like you (you are very articulate, a worthy debator and “sometimes” funny) but your pretentious, patriotic poppycock does get old sometimes …….. :o) No hard feelings.
To First Sgt.
You are NOT in my chain of command so no pulling rank. But your are correct in that most posters on these threads disagree with me because they are liberals ….. well, DUH!! And I’m proud of it ………
To Fido
You’re right. I am not and never was a hero. Those guys never made it back and I can only hope you have the ability to appreciate that.
To Amvet
Here’s an even better one:
“Dulce Bellum Inexpertis (War is sweet to the inexperienced)
To Cherokee
Let me try something maybe you can understand just one more time:
Two terrorists have been captured on the battlefield. There is a massive bombing attack planned at numerous locations in the works based on papers found on them. We need to know where and whe in order to save American military and civilian lives.
A) An officer orders me to take them up in a helicopter to about 5,000 feet and make them think I am going to push them out in order to try to get the necessary information.
B) An officer orders me to take them up and push one out and then see if the other one will talk.
A … could be defined as a form of torture. B … is criminal.
To save innocent lives I could participate in A but never B.
Now, if you don’t think this is the real world you are fooling yourself.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 2:03 PM | Link to this
corporal
ditto
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 2:07 PM | Link to this
It appears that if McCain had asked Jack Bauer to be VP he might have had a chance. (Problem is the actor who plays the part gets that it’s fantasy)
A hypothetical ticking time bomb—the often-used justification for torturing detainees—falls apart under close examination.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 2:31 PM | Link to this
My, My, Mrs. G.
1) Anyone can write an article and claim whatever they want.
2) I (and you if you will admit it) know there are shall we say events going on out there that we will never know about. I used to run in some of those circles but I am not in that loop anymore.
3) Sometimes even …….. people just shall we say disappear (usually via a request to another unnamed government).
4) The best way to fight terrorism is to nip it in the bud ……… thus the disappearing act. No terrorist = no bomb.
Mrs. G., you are a very *smart woman but ….
““Every true genius is bound to be naive.”
Friedrich von Schiller
By Paul
January 14, 2009 2:43 PM | Link to this
Mrs. Godzilla
Corporal’s initial list was boldfaced “Gitmo,” current day. Your response was from Abu Ghraib. Years ago. Care to try again, citing documented cases from Gitmo? And he had another valid point - US military who go through what he called Escape and Evasion training are subject to practices that now constitute what is referred to as ‘torture’ when applied to captured jihadists.
So I suppose the point is, a practice that under one condition is torture, under another condition, is not.
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 3:29 PM | Link to this
corporal
you know the investigation is ongoing as to the location of torture tapes at both Gitmo and AbuGhraib.
I guess torture is like real estate….location, location, location!
By Mrs. Godzilla
January 14, 2009 3:42 PM | Link to this
OH AND
read the paper this morning? recent enough?
Susan J. Crawford?
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 3:59 PM | Link to this
Mrs. G.
Real world vs. armchair quarterbacking ……
To Paul
Exactly !!
By Swede ATlanta
January 14, 2009 4:43 PM | Link to this
Ref Corporal @ 1:57
The problem with your helicopter scenario is that if these detainees really had that information they are also probably prepared to die for their cause either by their own hand or by the enemy. In fact they believe they will get a wonderful reception into heaven for being a martyr.
By Swede ATlanta
January 14, 2009 4:43 PM | Link to this
Ref Corporal @ 1:57
The problem with your helicopter scenario is that if these detainees really had that information they are also probably prepared to die for their cause either by their own hand or by the enemy. In fact they believe they will get a wonderful reception into heaven for being a martyr.
So the likelihood that your torture would get information is minimal.
By Mrs.Godzilla
January 14, 2009 6:30 PM | Link to this
corporal
In the real world you don’t have layers of higher ranking officers telling you when to eat, think and poop.Some folks prefer having themselves managed by others. I never understood that.
From way up here on the 2nd floor of my Ivory Tower (I want to be able to walk down) I can see the game just find. We finally are getting rid of the iron handed quarterback and the figure head we have called President.
I imagine corporals don’t make many important calls in the military huddle, but they block and tackle quite well.
I’m more of a chaise lounge conductor anyway.
By The Corporal of the Guard
January 14, 2009 9:58 PM | Link to this
Mrs. G.
Two Points:
1) Yes, you can see the game just fine from your second floor tower … therefore you aren’t in it. Big difference.
2) The games are always won by those in the trenches!
By Mrs.Godzilla
January 15, 2009 6:20 AM | Link to this
corporal
Didn’t Joe Paterno coach Penn State from the press box for the Rose Bowl? Not to trenchy to me….
By Corporal of the Guard
January 15, 2009 9:04 AM | Link to this
To Mrs. G.
We can debate whether he was really coaching at his age or just watching (he’s basically still there to try to win more games than Bowden and for recruiting) but the real point is in his younger years he played the game as well as coached on the field !
You haven’t.
By rose
January 15, 2009 4:21 PM | Link to this
Mayor Bloomberg of New York, has plans of creating, (I think I have this number correct), 600,000 jobs. How anyone can pull of 600,000 jobs out of the blue, leaves me baffled. Maybe he will take off with Obama’s ‘Roosevelt’ plan and build bridges, roads or just clean up the place. But also according to the news, coffee drinking too much will cause hallucinations. Does Bloomberg drink coffee????????