Thinking Right

By Scooter

February 8, 2007 08:31 AM | Link to this

Well, everyone knows politicians goal is to increase their power. What better way to do that than removing or reducing the consequences for bad behavior and offering incentives (financial and social rewards) for poor behavior. It also helps if the government that gets power from those who cannot get along without it can also educate the next generation of dependents… I mean free people.

Can a society be truly free and dependent, or responsible for the dependence of others?

By Southern Democrat

February 8, 2007 08:41 AM | Link to this

Jbmlaw,

I don’t know your feelings about the Council on Foreign Relations, but here’s a very well-thought out pamphlet on Iraq if you have the time: http://www.cfr.org/publication/12172/afterthesurge.html

By AstroPain

February 8, 2007 09:11 AM | Link to this

So Dem: we are seeing the last stages of the “pull out responsibly” (plan b) options in the iraq debate.

Soon, the fear will envelope us as we realize what the truth of Iraq is: We are stuck there. We’ve opened a pit of unending global reaching catastrophe. We cant leave. What part of that dont you git?

It’s not that we’re right to stay and seek a peaceful resolution, because that will never happen either. It’s not that militarily, we cant leave either, because there’s nothing militarily preventing us from leaving. It’s not that the Libruls could vote to end the funding of the Iraq war and then we can leave, cause even the libruls will soon know we cant leave.

We cant leave because we cant leave. The reason will be clear to everyone on the planet at the same time, yet the reason will be unique to each mind on the planet, and all the while, that reason will be unassailable, and leaving iraq will be impossible.

Impossible to leave? An invisible might of reason will freeze us in place in Iraq. I’ve got a good reason we cant leave. I’ll bet you do too, and I’ll bet it’s different from mine.

How can that be? Bush planted our geo-political infant mind on the Temple Mount and fused our god myths with our jingoism and national conscience. SO that whenever we imagine Iraq, we now tap into the mystical realms of godism for which we snap to attention and obey every time, and for which we are trained not to question.

It’s the worst possible human zeitgeist ever perpetuated, and it was accomplished by George W Bush and that devil Cheney.

Bush/Cheney= imcompetence for righteousness.

By jbmlaw

February 8, 2007 09:22 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. Thanks for the link Southern; I am swamped today, probably be tonight before I can stop to think about anything serious. Your language suggests that you are conscious that for some of my conservative brothers the CFR is the equivalent of the bogeyman under the bed, but I hold the group in reasonably good regard. Not as philosopher-kings mind you, but as intelligent people chatting together. The staff that writes the reports swings left generally, but they are not idiots.

Jim’s essay reads as an intelligent summary of the 100+ disjointed arguments I’ve made on this site over the past six months. I wish I had such concise writing skill. An excellent exposition of the philosophy of a Reagan-libertarian.

By jbmlaw

February 8, 2007 09:33 AM | Link to this

Last note until late: leftists, give me credit for speaking about Jim’s great essay without using the term “Luddites.”

By CJ

February 8, 2007 09:37 AM | Link to this

No, the premise of education vouchers, health savings accounts and Social Security reform isn’t about informed choices and responsible decisions, but it is about the ideology that “the business of America is business”. These proposals were developed exclusively for the benefit of the very few.

The first proposal is intended to undermine public education and increase enrollment in private schools. More evidence of this is the fact that the Special Needs voucher bill only applies to students who move from public to private schools after the bill becomes law. Why? Because the legislature is not trying to help parents at all. They’re simply trying to encourage those who haven’t left the public schools yet to do so. The parents of special needs children who chose private schools over public schools before the bill becomes law? Not eligible. In the meantime, children in families who can’t afford private education under any circumstances are left behind in already under funded public schools.

In addition, Health Savings Accounts are high deductible health insurance plans that can do absolutely nothing to reduce the cost of health care (I’m not sending my children to the cheapest doctor. Are you?) while providing tax deductions that only benefit the upper middle class and wealthy. And — Jim’s kind of Social Security reform only benefits big business at the risk of all Americans who would depend on SS benefits. Social Security funds are for long-term safety and security. Removing that safety net by exposing such funds to the volatility of the stock market will undermine the original intent of Social Security (remember the stock market crash of 1929?)

On New Orleans – President Bush, a Yale M.B.A., takes over government, screws up everything he touches, and then his apologists continue to use his incompetence as evidence that government doesn’t work and that we’re too reliant on it.

And so the right-wing con continues. Those who are adamantly against holding elections on Saturdays or making Election Day a federal holiday while bending over backwards to suppress the vote among the working class (those who don’t get paid when they go to vote) accuse the left of trying to keep the poor from making rational choices.

By Dennis

February 8, 2007 10:01 AM | Link to this

Mr. Wooten, this is the biggest bunch of crap you’ve posted in a long time.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

p.s. Thank you, CJ

By Silver

February 8, 2007 10:22 AM | Link to this

Financial incentives, you mean like the multi billion dollar give aways to the fat cats? or the 12 billion dollar financial incentives to the iraqi’s to “welcome the liberators?” or the multi billion dollars uncle stupid (George the Simple and his pals) failed to collect from the oil companies? That’s right neo-scum, nickel and dime the poor while looting the system yourselves. There will be payback some day, perhaps not against you directly, but against your children and grandchildren for sure.

By Scooter: you are still a crook and a traiter

February 8, 2007 10:24 AM | Link to this

I hope your name sake gets life without hope of parole, in a cell with his fellow traitor, Johnathan Pollard, may he never be freed.

By Dusty

February 8, 2007 10:25 AM | Link to this

Hi Jim, I read your column this morning and wondered exactly how you would attack this problem of dependence. The frustration at the ne-‘r-do wells in New Orleans is hard to suppress. Yet a closeup of these people showed mostly the old,the ignorant and children.

So many things have been tried; job training, health clinics, even a cut-off of some funds. What should we try? I’d love for them to be self-supporting. I am not sure how we should do it. I am not even convinced that we can do it. “The poor we have with us always” is a thought over two thousands years old expressed by the most compassionate one ever to come to this earth.

By Chazman

February 8, 2007 10:31 AM | Link to this

People had become so passive that when politicians failed to send the buses or to give them instructions, they sat below sea level awaiting the arrival of a category 5 hurricane.

Dennis stated this is the biggest bunch of crap Woot’s posted in a long time. The above quote is an example of this. Many people didn’t leave because they didn’t have the means or ability to leave. They simply didn’t have transportation or anywhere to go if they did have transportation. Didn’t get instructions? To me, that is part of the duties of the government. They should help the citizens with information and the means to leave if a predictable catastrophy is on the way to a major city - if they have no other way to leave.

Can you get them all out? No. Will everyone leave if you did have means to get them all out? No.

All levels of government could have done a better job. But, hey, some think the government should not meddle, you know? It’s every man for himself.

By TW

February 8, 2007 10:38 AM | Link to this

“But we saw in New Orleans and Katrina’s aftermath the consequences of over-reliance on politicians and government”

What ‘we’ saw was ‘Homeland Security’ for nothing more than the joke that it is. What ‘we’ saw was how those who favor their wallet over the well being of others can completely trash a once valuable governmental agency in basically no time at all. What ‘we’ saw with Katrina was society at its worst, the republican party at its best.

By Brian Curtis

February 8, 2007 10:55 AM | Link to this

The notion of “rational expectations” (and its forerunner, homo economicus) when it comes to consumer decisions has not only proven a gross oversimplification—it just plain doesn’t work.

There will never be enough information, or enough time and expertise to review it all, for a consumer to make the truly informed choices that so obsessed the monetarists. Especially not when there’s a financial incentive for capital to withold information, spread disinformation, and otherwise muddy the waters.

This idea was tried, both in the U.S. and in other countries, and it failed. The “free” market does not solve all problems; rather, it works to the benefit of capital. It’s up to us, through the arm of government, to look out for the interests of workers and consumers in response.

By Curious Observer

February 8, 2007 10:55 AM | Link to this

Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons?

How dare these bums make poor decisions by choosing to be born into impoverished families!

It is good that jbmlaw makes reference to the Luddites. Wooten and his legion of admirers will be viewed in the same light a century from now—as political curiosities and regressives. We don’t live in a political and economic jungle, and by God’s grace we won’t in the future. The right-wingers will simply be run over by those who view human needs as more important than the petty, self-serving money-grubbing, racism, and selfishness of the Wooten/Newt/DeLay crowd.

By Brian Curtis

February 8, 2007 10:56 AM | Link to this

On a political level, this notion is blindingly obvious: It’s not a good idea to put people who hate and mistrust government in charge of government. They’ll simply refuse to do their jobs and blame you for expecting anything different.

By Dusty

February 8, 2007 10:58 AM | Link to this

Well, Southern Democrat,

I read this morning all the name-calling you did yesterday, You know, jingoist, chauvinist, etc., etc. and the list of well known friends of yours I should revere.

Congratulations! You are getting the blog spirit. With a little more spunk, you may get to act like a Southerner.

Anyway, I read your link “After the Surge—The Case for U.S. Military Disengagement in Iraq”, a thoughtful piece on how to cut’n’run with dignity. Yes!!

And all the related material listed:

“Report calls for Military Disengagement from Iraq”…

“Simon: ISG Report Essentially Calls for US to ‘Cut’n’Run’ from Iraq…

“It’s Time to Get Out of Iraq”..

OH, we would never have to guess where you stand on this war of ours.

By the way, I have lived all over the USA but always came “home” to the South where I was born. AND I wasn’t “just born yesterday”. Just another one of your misinterpretations. Cheers!

By DebbieDoRight

February 8, 2007 10:59 AM | Link to this

The nation witnessed all of the failings of that approach in New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina

Oh wow!! Rewriting history AGAIN Wooten?!? The failings for Hurrican Katrina came from the local, state and FEDERAL level!! There were no procedures or checks and balances set up to weed out some of the flagrant abuses, until AFTERWARDS. If you leave the cheese out in the open, don’t blame the rat for going after it! They had incarcerated individuals receiving KATRINA ATM cards!! Come on!

People had become so passive that when politicians failed to send the buses or to give them instructions, they sat below sea level awaiting the arrival of a category 5 hurricane

That is the most ridiculous thing you have said in a long while. And believe me, YOU CAN BE INCREDIBLE RIDICULOUS, scurrillous, and down right stupid! To say people deliberatey sat there because no one PROVIDED buses for them is asinine to the nth deegree. How about some people didn’t have the money to go, some were waiting on job paychecks that never made it, some were trying to get out but couldn’t make it out because of the traffic that tied up the roads and bridges, (remember poor people live from pay check to paycheck some were waiting on pay day so that they can AFFORD to leave); some were elderly, some in hospice, some just plain stupid — thinking that they’d survive a H5 no problem. But to say they were PASSIVE, speaks a lot about the republican mindset.

You’re such a big religious guy, here’s my favorite bible verse for ya:

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24. Similar verses are in Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25)

By TW

February 8, 2007 11:11 AM | Link to this

“But we saw in New Orleans and Katrina’s aftermath the consequences of over-reliance on politicians and government”

What ‘we’ saw was ‘Homeland Security’ for nothing more than the joke that it is. What ‘we’ saw was how those who favor their wallet over the well being of another can completely trash, in basically no time at all, a once valuable governmental agency. What ‘we’ saw with Katrina was society at its worst - the republican party at its best.

By Van

February 8, 2007 11:16 AM | Link to this

The same old empty rants about Katrina - again.

The Government is the answer to all needs, except …

Why is no one looking at the Louisiana version of FEMA? I guess LEMA. What I can not understand is why other states respond to disasters better than others. Oh, I know, those are “red” states and they get better treatment. What a bunch of snot.

Louisiana, is to blame for the 100 billion not spent so far on recovery and rebuilding. Why is the state so slow in helping? Oh, I know, they are a “blue” state and are taking care of their people. We don’t want the ordinary folks to spend it foolishly, now do we.

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 11:17 AM | Link to this

The Captain detects a moment of possible reconcialiation of the right-left divide that plagues our discourse, and often turns it toxic (of course, it is the trash of the pansy bedwetter Islamoliberal traitors that always starts the name calling, but I digress). So, my own Modest Proposal.

Jim rightly points out that those people in New Orleans were told that there was a big storm coming, and that should have been enough for them to get in their welfare-paid-for Cadillacs and hightail it out of town. But they didn’t. And Jim rightly tells them they got what was coming to ‘em.

Well, now, I know this thinking gets the limpwristed Democrat people all in a twist, but it is exactly this kind of attitude that will finally extricate us from the mess in Iraq (which we would have won by now, if only the libs and the media had not undermined our war effort, but again, I digress).

Okay, the Captain is slowly but surely making his way to the point of this post, much like a lingering steamer swirls the bowl in pursuit of the escape flow….so here it is.

Tell the people of Iraq that we are leaving, and that a Category 5 $hitstorm is coming their way. Give them the exact date and time when we are going, so there will be no way for anyone to claim that they were surprised. Then, it’s up to them to get out of harm’s way, and if they don’t, then they’re gonna get what’s coming to ‘em. Just like what the non-sand variety of Those People got down south in New Orleans.

By getalife

February 8, 2007 11:19 AM | Link to this

Drivel.

Retire already Jim.

Geez.

By getoveryourself

February 8, 2007 11:27 AM | Link to this

Van,

Louisiana is a red state and has been for quite some time.

By JK

February 8, 2007 11:27 AM | Link to this

Like the magician who amazes you with his brilliance, the rich, white, me-first contingent in this country is distracting you with one hand while performing the “trick” with the other.

They don’t want us to LOOK at the right hand, picking our pockets via corporate welfare, tax breaks for the rich, sweetheart contracts in never-ending conflict, and regulations that allow them, in the name of “free enterprise,” to control and manipulate the flow of money out of our pockets and into theirs, with no civic responsibility for the results of these actions.

They want our eyes to look the other way. “LOOK! Over there! The POOR PEOPLE have your money! The lazy, no-good, bad-choice-making POOR PEOPLE are robbing hard working Americans blind! OHH the outrage!”

Hellooooooo! The poor people don’t HAVE your money. If they did, well, they wouldn’t be poor. Think about all the checks you wrote last year, and your bills that went up, up, up, up. I KNOW who has my money, and it isn’t the poor people, Mr. Wooten. The trick’s over, and I’m not impressed.

By Redneck Convert

February 8, 2007 11:37 AM | Link to this

Hooray for Wooten! He really gave it to Those People in New Orleans. Bunch of bums waiting to take my tax money and waste it on meth and booze and sex.

Let them all starve and live in the rain. We don’t need no burrowcrats throwing money at them. Anybody with a lick of sense would have hi-tailed it out of there when the weather forecasts came on the 1st time.

The Homeland Security folks need to be arresting people, not throwing money at them. I’m all for a good sweep of all the streets of New Orleans and locking up everybody they see. If everybody is locked up there can’t be no murders. And the best part is locked up people can’t vote. That way maybe Luisiyanna would elect a Republican govner, instead of the pinko woman they got in there. That’s if we can’t find a good Libraritarian. Maybe David Dukes would run. I was real crushed when he lost a few years ago because of Those People.

I’m sorry to learn jbmlaw has to be away most of the day. See, I found out he’s a lawyer for a insurance co. and needs to see if he can keep from giving money to some poor widow that got in a axident and raise our rates. And I hope TFTT don’t still have his feelings hurt by the librul trash that got on here yesterday. TFTT is very sensative. He can cuss out the libruls real good, but he gets his tail in a ringer if they cuss back. Sounds like a real good Republican to me.

By Van

February 8, 2007 11:43 AM | Link to this

getoveryourself,

What party does the Governor belong to? What party does the mayor belong to?

By Dusty

February 8, 2007 11:47 AM | Link to this

DebbieDoRight.

I think you need to review the facts on New Orleans before you start blaming the Federal government.

Wikipedia has a good review. For instance, the school buses Jim mentioned were left behind by the hundreds. They did not rescue anybody because the drivers had left town just like 1,000 of the police.

The first mismanagement was by the Mayor and the Governor of Louisiana. As has been said many times, Federal Government does not act until the governor calls on them (state’s rights, etc.).

President Bush went on the news to warn people EARLY that a hurricane was approaching and make plans.

FEMA went overboard and put the “cheese out for everyone including the rats”. Was there a faster way to get help to New Orleans? I don’t think so. Now we are catching the “rats” with the justice system. How would you have managed aid to New Orleans during the hurricane and afterwards?

By jm

February 8, 2007 11:50 AM | Link to this

I see Mr. Wooten must have looked at his Hayek and Friedman this morning. Like most economic treatises, they sound good but the devil is in the details.

By JP

February 8, 2007 12:03 PM | Link to this

“The nation witnessed all of the failings of that approach in New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. People had become so passive that when politicians failed to send the buses or to give them instructions, they sat below sea level awaiting the arrival of a category 5 hurricane.”

This is a pure fallacy. 2 things actually happened: 1) Overconfidence in the levees. Though the population was told repeatedly that the levees were sound, corners were cut. The responsibility for the engineering disaster was accepted by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The walls failed before water reached design height. They were not drilled to specification. More here.

People knew the Army Corps was in charge since the Flood Control Act of 1965, and as the Corps didn’t realize the levees were not trustworthy, they didn’t convey that message to the population.

That brings us to item 2.

2) No transportation options. Had the 9th Ward residents truly recognized the danger they were in, some percentage may have hitched rides with friends, but a large percentage had no option except the buses which were not deployed. This does not absolve Nagin the Incompetent, but also does not fault those with no opportunity for not taking advantage of the opportunity they didn’t have.

By JK

February 8, 2007 12:05 PM | Link to this

In case anyone forgot about the President’s important priorities and busy schedule, here is a photo of him on stage, having fun, playing his guitar at a Republican fundraiser while Americans were trapped and dying in New Orleans, and devasted throughout the entire region. At $400K per year, I think he is grotesque waste of my tax dollars.

By panda

February 8, 2007 12:09 PM | Link to this

Voter Poll Litercy Test:

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it

By JP

February 8, 2007 12:10 PM | Link to this

Van,

Please take note, from the reputable right-wing News source called FOX:

”..during the run-off campaign, Nagin actively courted conservative white voters by emphasizing his business background in contrast to Landrieu, a longtime politician”

He is as much of a true Democrat as Joe Lieberman. He was formerly an executive with Cox Communications, ironically. He’s a Republican. It shows: he let the buses sit there assuming everyone would fend for himself, doesn’t it?

By getoveryourself

February 8, 2007 12:11 PM | Link to this

Van,

Which presidential candidate got Louisiana’s electoral votes in the past several elections? California has a Republican governor although it’s a blue state. Even Massachusetts, the most liberal state in the country, has had a Republican in the governor’s office until last year.

By DebbieDoRight

February 8, 2007 12:17 PM | Link to this

Dusty:

This is what I said: * The failings for Hurricane Katrina came from the local, state and FEDERAL level!! There were no procedures or checks and balances set up to weed out some of the flagrant abuses, until AFTERWARDS.*

I blamed ALL levels of government, not just the federal.

Was there a faster way to get help to New Orleans? I don’t think so. Now we are catching the “rats” with the justice system. How would you have managed aid to New Orleans during the hurricane and afterwards?

Florida, (Hurricane Andrew), is a GOOD example on how to manage aid to thousands of people systemically and practically after a major disaster. It’s been done before — all anyone had to do was pick up the “How to Manage A FEMA Disasater Budget For Dummies” Book.

By Billy Wiggins

February 8, 2007 12:17 PM | Link to this

Lets talk about Pelosi’s demand for a military C-32 as her personal plane if you want to talk wasteful, elitist whites. Want to talk about tricking the American people JK?

The dems are the Houdini’s of government, and pulled off the amazing deceit of the century in the last election.

You dems are the biggest bunch of liars and two faced cons the earth has ever seen.

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 12:20 PM | Link to this

get over yourself,

Romney is not a Republican, he is a Mormon. True Belief Christian Conservatives will like the Captain would never tolerate a member of a fringe cult in the White House.

We are much more comfortable with a staunch, practicing Catholic like Giuliani (unlike that cafteria Catholic Kerry, who just picks and chooses what he wants to believe.) I realize this cuts against the Captain’s staunch anti-Papist creed, but Rudy knows how to kick a* and take names. No deviant practices in his closet, no sirree.

By Tank Murdock

February 8, 2007 12:22 PM | Link to this

JK, I prefer the parody picture of president Bush playing his guitar in front of the morbidly obese, soap opera watching, 23 year old mother of 5 welfare babies. No that was a good photo op.

Ah one, ah two, ah three…..hit it George! LMAO!

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 12:32 PM | Link to this

I say cut the freeloading housing project NOLA leeches off permanently. Give them ONE month to get any kind of a job and then cut off ANY/ALL financial assistance. Delivering pizzas, working as a petrol station cashier - rather than robbing one at gun point, cleaning toilets/rooms in motels - rather than mugging the paying guests or stealing from their cars etc. ANY kind of job, given the much vaunted in the party of hate media supposed shortage of labour down there is easy enough to get. That way the ADDED BONUS of reducing the unfortubnate infestation of ILLEGAL Mexican types will be swiftly addressed, if the local welfare leeches get off their humungous lard arses and actually make an effort to support themselves.

Other wise these worthless freeloading criminal predator scum will just continue killing and robbing each other and even worse, innocent tourists. And the noxious white trash ‘elitist’ liberal vermin will keep telling them keep voting for us and we’ll keep paying you for no effor, just enough to keep you alive to be violent/thuggish/petty criminals.

And make the racist chocolate city incompetent mayor drive a NOLA school bus for a while, one of the ones he refused to evacuate anyone out of the danger zone in!!

By FYI

February 8, 2007 12:32 PM | Link to this

To be accurate, Speaker Pelosi didn’t demand a military C-32 or specify a make or model at all. She asked for a plane that get her home non-stop (Speaker Hastert’s plane to Illinois didn’t have the capacity to go all the way to California without refueling). It wasn’t size she was interested in, it was distance (no pun intended).

You can still criticize her request if you like — but don’t misrepresent it to make your point that dems are liars and two faced cons. Otherwise, the accusation backfires, doesn’t it?

By panda

February 8, 2007 12:34 PM | Link to this

Pelosi’s demand for a military C-32 is not as bad as the Secretary of Human Services, Mike Levatt, confiscating the CDC leased jet for his personal neo-con politicking. CDC itself should not be spending millions of dollars per year for a private luxuary jet, but they especially should not be sucking up to their political boss in washingass by basically giving him the jet for his “thinly disguised as businee” personal political use. You neoscum should not throw stones, your diamond houses are subject to shock damage.

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 12:37 PM | Link to this

Yo go, Billy Wiggins!! Kick that IslamoPelosi witch right in the place where she doesn’t even have a pair!

Stories like this one warm the Captain’s heart as it proves the innate greed and hypocricy of the liberal bedwetters. So Pelosiwitch expects to be treated the same way the godly Speaker Hastert was treated, with a military transport that can actually make it from DC to her home district without refueling? The nerve of that…that….woman. Well, at least she has not closed down an airport just to get a haircut….yet.

Sure, sure, the unfair and unbalanced networks might have you believe that this is just another ginned up controversy that has no basis in fact. But I say DON’T BELIEVE THEM. It’s just like the liberals to cover up for one of their own. And already, they have dug up several instances where Speaker Hastert used his plane unethically. But of course, since he is Republican of True Belief, it is inconceivable that he did anything wrong.

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 12:41 PM | Link to this

Great post Tank, a real knee slapper. Nearly as funny as today’s Mallard Filmore. Who says conservatives are not funny? (Okay, I grant you that Dennis Miller is about as funny as a broken leg, but he started out liberal, so we don’t have to claim him.)

But a word of advice, Tank. Be sure to specify that the welfare queen is a darkie. It’s just no funny to think of a Godly White Woman who has had some strokes of misfortune pictured that way. And you don’t have to call a spade a spade, but you can use some sly implication. You can reference any of Wooten’s columns on Katrina for a handy primer on how to call down the nigggras without actually using any really bad words.

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 12:43 PM | Link to this

Give Pelosi an old Starfighter, one of the really faulty ones and teach her (but only for 3-4 hours on a simulator) to fly it. Otherwise let her have a poorly maintained large jet, get her to pack the entire Kalifornia congressional demoNcrat mafia pack on it {especially the hateful Boxerbitch} and send them off down the runway with Stevie Wonder as the pilot into a really violent thunderstorm.

By harold

February 8, 2007 12:48 PM | Link to this

harold should be able to shop on the internets for a new government for himself

there’s no reason for a government to be tied to physical borders anymore

if harold wants to be a swede, he should be able to do so right here in the good ole USA

By harold

February 8, 2007 12:50 PM | Link to this

the govnerment is always goign to do something it thinks is best for somebody

republikins do what they think is best for themselves and their buddies. result=iraq

demmerkrats do what they think is best for poor folk. result = not iraq

harold will take “not iraq” over “iraq” any day!!!!!!!!!

By AstroPain

February 8, 2007 12:50 PM | Link to this

You trogs are in hog heaven over the Democratic Majority and their foibles. You’re whistling past the graveyard as Iraq’s shadow encroaches your little bash-party and will soon devour it. You’ve set in motion your own ruin, and when the world realizes, (as it’s about to), what Bush/Cheney have gotten us all into, then you neo-trogs will be hunted down one by one and strung up like the uncrucified Spartaclods you truly are. You trogs still dont know what Iraq means. You poor little slogs.

Oh yeah, we’ll just pull out when they can sustain and defend and govern themselves and be an ally in the war on terror, oh yeah, sure, uh huh, sloopy dupey doo.

The most frightening words yet spoken were Hillary’s as she declared her intention to end the war as prez. Those words will be remembered when the full impact of the Iraq War is felt by the world. IT’s all about to unwind, so just hold on a little longer, you’ll feel it. (the fear of what we’ve unleashed).

By Billy Wiggins

February 8, 2007 12:51 PM | Link to this

Hey “Captain” Freedom, First, I strongly doubt you have ever done anything nearly worthy of the title or rank of Captain, but I digress.

Hastert flew on a small private Air Force jet. Nothing near the operating expense and intense maintenace requirements of the C-32. Do the research you clown.

Sincerely, Commander Wiggins

By panda

February 8, 2007 12:51 PM | Link to this

Captain Freedom said “Kick that IslamoPelosi,” I say deport the fanatical pro israrel crowd, including that israeliofascist joe lieberman. No less an expert Albert Einstein said in 1949 that israel was a fascist state, and zionism was a form of fascism. Yet as I read the american media, all I see is muslim bashing, led behind the scenes by the pro israel traitors the the simple minded Captain Freedom. Kick em all out of the country now.

By harold

February 8, 2007 12:53 PM | Link to this

the disingenuous can blame klin-ton for 9/11 and the what 3200 deaths

but nobody can blame anybody but dubya and frens for iraq and thats into the hundreds of thousands dead

dubya is premeidated mass murderr!

anybody on the street might attck harold, but that doesnt allow harold to kill them all just in case, so why does dubya think he is special? he aint special. he is a common criminal except that he is uncommon. hardly anybody has caused more killing than him. nobody still alive has.

By panda

February 8, 2007 12:53 PM | Link to this

better yet time for the truth, lets test one of our W-88 warheads on Tele Aviv, and leave the Chairwoman of the House alone.

By harold

February 8, 2007 12:54 PM | Link to this

does cheney have a twin brother? if he does, they seriously need to go hunting together

does dubya have more pretzels? he should eat mor pretzels

By harold

February 8, 2007 12:55 PM | Link to this

speaking of dennis miller it’s about miller time for him to switch back to being liberal. he is useless, totally he is.

By Tank Murdock

February 8, 2007 12:55 PM | Link to this

Well Cappy, The hag in question is now nigggra rich thanks to FEMA so no worries mate.

Its all chicken and gravy and greasy smiles for that family today.

By getoveryourself

February 8, 2007 12:57 PM | Link to this

I realize this cuts against the Captain’s staunch anti-Papist creed, but Rudy knows how to kick a and take names. No deviant practices in his closet, no sirree.*

Capt.

I think Rudy’s sporting of a painful combover for so long is a good example of one of his deviant practices.

By DebbieDoRight

February 8, 2007 12:57 PM | Link to this

The dems are the Houdini’s of government, and pulled off the amazing deceit of the century in the last election

Those dems sure did!!! They decieved Haggard into thinking he was gay AND a meph user. They deceived Abramoff into admitting money laundering! They decieved Foley into hitting on underage children! They deceived Dumbya into thinking there were WMD’s in Iraq! They deceived Rice into NOT listening to the Feds when they brought her evidence that Bin Laden might strike the US soon! They decieved EVERYONE!! Those dirty deceiving curs!!

You dems are the biggest bunch of liars and two faced cons the earth has ever seen

Amen brother!! Haggard said to tell you hello.

By Billy Wiggins

February 8, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this

I have news for you panda et al., Christian “facists” started this country. If muslims or anyone else wants to take it, they will have to fight for it like we did.

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this

time for the truth knows that harold’s cynically lying again .. harold really want’s to be an Albanian/Hottentot mix with a smidgeon of VT/Frisco queer. Thus somwhat compensating for his last life which was spent as a lickpsittle henpecked Saudi Prince’s fave eunuch in a Mecca harem of enslaved 1930’s New England black feminazis.

By harold

February 8, 2007 12:59 PM | Link to this

panda could you be any more obvious? dang go back to peachtree city and try to catch the child molsterereres. maybe they are within your graps

By Tank Murdock

February 8, 2007 01:02 PM | Link to this

Hey Astropain, First, lay off the weed ok. Its making you a little paranoid.

Secondly, your ancestors fought bigger and badder individuals/regimes/governments, down through history than we are facing today.

Lighten up. Open the windows. Take off the black trench coat and eyeliner. It will all be ok.

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 01:04 PM | Link to this

even better pandasqueeze, lets just (post-natally) abort all hateful anti-semitic leftist liberals. and get the Pelosibitch and ALL the other congressional leftist cut and run cowards to dance on their graves (burial far out at sea of course).

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 01:05 PM | Link to this

Commander Wiggins? More like Chief Wiggums, I daresay. You impugn the Captain at your limpwristed liberl peril! So, you’ve been outed, you Islamohomo, pretending to be a True Believer, but actually a subterranean pinkoqueer. Only a liberal would try to win an argument based on facts, you nancy boy.

Why should I do any research when I have stalwart Americans like the people at Fox News and the Washington Moonie Times to do it for me? That’s why there are people like Rush and Sean and Savage and Beck and Looufah O’Reilly and those other fine, manly, strapping manly virile Americans like those strapping men who can tell me what to think so I don’t have to.

By panda

February 8, 2007 01:07 PM | Link to this

Wiggins you idiot, the muslims have no desire to “take” this country, and you christians don’t own it anyway. We have invaded the muslim’s world, not the other way around. The fanatical pro israel crowd has gained too much political power in this so called christian country, and drawn us into their war against muslims. You christians are too gawd damned stupid to see thru the “poor helpless little jews settling a desert and making it bloom and just wanting to be left in peace” lies of israel and the pro israel crowd of traitors currently running this country. The truth is Israel seeks dominion over the entire middle east, and they want to send the bill for that dominion to us, the Americans.

By DebbieDoRight

February 8, 2007 01:07 PM | Link to this

JK, I prefer the parody picture of president Bush playing his guitar in front of the morbidly obese, soap opera watching, 23 year old mother of 5 welfare babies

You mean the women of Appalachia? Why not check out the Table 1 on Page 3 (of the survey — Page 7 of the PDF document) and see what STATISTICS say? It will be a good eye opener on who’s REALLY on welfare!

PS: Don’t let the truth stop you from your biases though. Truth hurts. It has away of doing that

http://www.urban.org/Uploadedpdf/discussion99-17.pdf

By getoveryourself

February 8, 2007 01:08 PM | Link to this

Ah…the Katrina bait.

Yes Wooten, TFTT, and others…we all agree that every last one of the darkies stranded in New Orleans were violent criminal rapsists and thugs looking for their next welfare check. We already know that emergency management is not one of the federal government’s responsibilities. And we know that anyone can afford the costs associated with evacuation—transportation, hotels, etc.

Now if we can just get the drive-by media to stop helping the jihadists and report only the good things happening in Iraq…

By Dennis

February 8, 2007 01:08 PM | Link to this

By Billy Wiggins February 8, 2007 12:58 PM | I have news for you panda et al., Christian “facists” started this country.”

If you will study the political philosophies of some of the founding fathers, you will learn that a great many of them thought that only those with the money should run this country. That’s hardly a “christian” concept.

And, George Washington owned slaves. That’s hardly a “christian” concept either.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By panda

February 8, 2007 01:10 PM | Link to this

time for the truth, why is anti-muslim speak ok on this blog, and everywhere in america, but any critism of israel is banned as anti-semitic? Are the arabs and the pals not also of semitic origin?

By Rod

February 8, 2007 01:12 PM | Link to this

Don’t we all wish someone else had made the choice for time for the truth’s mom when she decided against abortion! I know she’s regretting it - she told me last night as I was banging her.

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 01:15 PM | Link to this

Anyone wondering why we haven’t heard from rednekkks NAMBLA for a while should read this story. It factually explains what s/he/its been up to.

Tut tut NAMBLA …

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=561377&category=ALBANY&BCCode=LOCAL&newsdate=2/8/2007

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 01:15 PM | Link to this

getover,

The Captain has compassion for the follically challenged, as he too suffers the crippling shame of male pattern baldness. Like any good Christian Conservative, the Captain laughed at those so afflicted, until it happened to himself. Now I realize that those of us with shiny domes deserve compassion, and a health plan that covers Rogaine.

But the Captain can admit a mistake. It appears that Rudy, depsite his solid authoritatian credentials, has far too much tolerance for the friends of Dorothy to be allowed to become President. True Belief declares that we should love these sinners, but hate their sin and beat the living snot out of that sin, since it causes good men like the Captain to harbor disgusting imure thoughts about virile opinion leaders like the handsome and comely Hannity.

No, instead, the Captain throws his early support to Mike Huckabee, who is in fact an ordained minister, just like the 100% heterosexual Ted Haggard. And he recently professed his desire to “return America to Christ,” who apparently left it in the overhead bin after a recent red-eye flight.

By Billy Wiggins

February 8, 2007 01:17 PM | Link to this

Well, I certainly wont turn to the ancestors of slaves to tell us what IS a Christian comcept. Certainly murder, drug use, thievery, child abuse, car jacking, drive-by’s and government fraud are not Christian concepts either.

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 01:18 PM | Link to this

good one snivelling moron rod … so you’re into necrophilia as well as the rest of your sick leftist perversions. my mother died nearly 15 years ago now.

By Dennis

February 8, 2007 01:18 PM | Link to this

Mr. Wooten writes; “A feature common to many of the Big Idea reform efforts showing in Congress and in the Statehouse stems from the belief that people given sufficient information to make an informed choice will make responsible decisions that they consider to be in their best interests.”

Yet, Sen. Roberts refused to release phase one of the Senate Select Committee report in 2004, on what evidence led up to the Bush decision to attack Iraq “until after elections. We don’t want the report to interfer with elections.”

Here is a case of the government refusing to inform the American public so that that public could make “informed choice…make responsible decisions that they consider to be in their best interests.”

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 01:22 PM | Link to this

Gently goading leftist anti-semitic afterbirth like PANDASQUEEZE is a fabulous way to spend the afternoon. Bubbaturds like pandasqueeze glibly bleat futile support for muderous mohammedans and lazy black leeches and if it were not for the valiant efforts of yours truly to dutifully challenge reptilian marxist pond scum on these boards we would all be living under the dominion of a brutal, backward darky mohammedan regime!!

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 01:23 PM | Link to this

Rod,

Your tasteless attack on my good friend TFTT is over the line. His poor mother died almost 15 years ago, a suicide in despair over her only son’s decline into insanity and incontinence.

Besides, she was ugly as original sin, so even if she were alive, you could not possible have mustered the lead in your ole Eberhard Faber to poke that mud fence.

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 01:26 PM | Link to this

Ah, never mind Rod, I see Truth has already posted about your horrible name calling.

Reeally, it’s all so painful. TFTT was raised without a father, conceived as he was from his mother’s encounter with a blind rapist with no sense of smell. It’s the only way it could have happened, and explains so much about TFTT’s own hygience practices. The apple does not fall far from the tree, you know.

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 01:26 PM | Link to this

pandasqueeze

yes the jews are ‘semitic’, the term anti-semitic is used wholly as a term describing anti-Jewish attitudes. as seen in the genocide of nazis, mohammedamn facists etc.

factual statements about towel head terrorism, mohammaden fascism, mohammedan imperialism and genocide etc are simply fair comment.

Being extremely even handed I do criticise jews/Israel quite robustly. I utterly condemn the Israelis for their appalling tolerance and craven restraint in dealing with murderous mohammedan fascists/terrorists!! I also similarly depise whining self absorbed liberal New Yaaaawk jews.

NO I am NOT jewish myself. But I am saving up to become one.

By getoveryourself

February 8, 2007 01:27 PM | Link to this

Chief Wiggins,

Don’t forget that fried chicken, watermelon, dancing, jiving, gold teeth, and Cadillacs aren’t Christian concepts either!

That’s so funny…especially since Christ was born in Sweden where blond hair and blue eyes are very common!

By Tank Murdock

February 8, 2007 01:30 PM | Link to this

Oh, ok Dennis. Climb down from your wooden high horse now ok sonny boy.

What do you think the dems did by holding the Foley story until election time, and then purposefully blowing it out of proportion in order to sway the election and con the American people. It works both ways limp wrister.

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 01:35 PM | Link to this

L Cpl Syhilis’ mammy is actually still working today in Montana as a stuffed cigar store red (as in commie creep) indian. before she died the leprosy became extremely serious, to the point she failed her driving test when she left her foot on the accelerator.

her testimony to the congressional thalidomide hearings was quite heartrending. poor old syphilis - initially conceived in a cracked Katrina refugee type test tube - apparently was so badly deformed that its HUGE sphincter muscle and tiny brain had swapped places - giving a whole new meaning to that old saying that syphilitic lefties have sh!t for brains.

By getoveryourself

February 8, 2007 01:37 PM | Link to this

It works both ways limp wrister.

Tank,

Nowadays it seems that a lot of conservatives view their sexuality in this regard. Thanks for the insight!

By Billy Wiggins

February 8, 2007 01:40 PM | Link to this

Where is it written that if you arent blonde and blue eyed, but dark skinned and dark haired, its OK, no, expected, that you be a theiving thug with no Christian values whatsoever.

I said it before. Christians, like thier beleifs or not, founded this country. Maybe your God today doesnt condone slavery, but thiers did, or at least they thought so.

The bottom line is, those people with those beleifs founded this country, and there are still 10’s of millions of people with those same convictions and beleifs alive today. If you think a bunch of Muslims or Mexicans or blacks for that matter, are going to stop that movement or impose thier beliefs and practices over those that started this great nation, you have another thing coming. Better get ready for a civil war the likes of whcih have never been seen.

By DebbieDoRight

February 8, 2007 01:43 PM | Link to this

What do you think the dems did by holding the Foley story until election time, and then purposefully blowing it out of proportion in order to sway the election and con the American people

Too Funny!!! You must be a comedian!! Blowing an attempt to get into a child’s pants out of proportion!!! You must be related to that guy who just go 60 years for raping and taping his daughters.

Haggard said to call him, (wink)

By getoveryourself

February 8, 2007 01:46 PM | Link to this

L Cpl Syhilis’ mammy is actually still working today in Montana as a stuffed cigar store red (as in commie creep) indian. before she died the leprosy became extremely serious, to the point she failed her driving test when she left her foot on the accelerator.

Interesting story TFTT, but I’m a bit confused. In the first sentence you say Capt’s mother is still working and in the second sentence you insinuate that she is dead. Huh??

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 01:47 PM | Link to this

Good one Tank. “Blowing” the Foley matter out of proportion. Some would say that your Freudian slip, but I know you are 100% manly and heterosexual just like Rev Haggard.

Do you like to wrestle?

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 01:50 PM | Link to this

Ooops … one of my dogs just hiked on Syphilis’ mammy’s left knee by the cigar store’s door. the badly dessicated right knee finally fell off last week when a small grey field mouse kicked it accidentally when it ran out of the store whilst being chased by the bully boy cowardly anal obsessive stalker who was almost sleepwalking again … the very clever mouse was cunningly trying to get the anal stalker to run into the busy Montana traffic.

By getoveryourself

February 8, 2007 01:52 PM | Link to this

Chief Wiggins,

Now I see your argument! We really do have to watch out for those Catholic Mexicans who are attempting to eradicate Christianity. What’s even more scary is that more and more of them are becoming Evangelicals! A true threat to American Christianity indeed.

…and let’s not forget those idol worshiping African Americans. All of those megachurches are just a front for the movement to overthrow Christianity in America and convert everyone to worshiping their ancestors.

By Amber

February 8, 2007 01:55 PM | Link to this

Billy Wiggins @1:40 “Better get ready for a civil war the likes of which have never been seen.”

Billy,

Don’t be so mysterious. Do tell.

By Tank Murdock

February 8, 2007 01:56 PM | Link to this

Yes Captain. I wrestled your wife and daughter while you were getting your dialysis. Guess what? I won. Twice.

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 01:59 PM | Link to this

getalegoveryourself

all lefties are badly confused - that’s why they vote demoNcrat!!

Syphilis’ mammy is still (after death) laboriously working off the massive debts incurred for all that experimental sex change surgery his whole family selfishly failed to pay for back in the 1980’s. One has to admire her selflessness and surprising lack of moral terpitude, at least in death.

When Syphilis dies it will apparently be expected to also ‘work’ full time as an ecological friendly pigeon droppings ‘magnet’ on the new pointless pandering MLK memorial in Crack City DC.

By getoveryourself

February 8, 2007 02:03 PM | Link to this

TFTT,

So where exactly do people work off their debts in the afterlife?

Oh yeah…nice try with the “MLK memorial” bait.

By Rod

February 8, 2007 02:04 PM | Link to this

Hey tftt - your mom’s as good now as she ever was!

By panda

February 8, 2007 02:09 PM | Link to this

The pro israel crowd wants to paint the debate as leftist vs rightest, while their operatives control both parties. They cannot lose as long as the debate is about Democrates (led by pro israel fanatic joe lieberman and his ilk) and republicans (led by the current fanatical pro israel crowd of wolfie, pearlie, feithie, and libbie et al). The real issue is control of american government by operatives loyal to a foreign power, israel, which seeks to profit from our misfortune. Iraq is all about the pro israel lobby, Iran is all about the pro israel lobby, and israel even as I write this seeks to gain an oil pipeline, at our expense, running from Kirkurk to Haifa. As long as israel supports an independent Kurdland, they expect to get cheap iraqi oil over a pipe line to be paid for by us, the americans. How many of our divisions will it take to secure this pipeline over arab land, syrian, iraqi, Jordanian?

By panda

February 8, 2007 02:12 PM | Link to this

Hey wiggins, I don’t give a damn who or what founded the country, its mine now, and I won’t share with stinking mexicans, pro israel fanatics, or neocon scum. Now go chase Cartman, he is your better, but sometimes the scum gets to win.

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 02:17 PM | Link to this

snivelling moron rod

your own senile mammy is now fittingly enough spending her sunset years on her knees endlessly licking clean with her possum like tongue the area around Ronald Reagan’s (PBUH) grave.

@ Tank

DAMN!!! So Syphilis’ wife/daughter have been cheating on me again!!! Typical liberals … NO morals!!

By jbmlaw

February 8, 2007 02:18 PM | Link to this

Dear Jim, I will arrogantly speak for all of our conservative regulars: you have never written better. With that simple and thoughtful essay you drove many of our leftist friends into pure apoplexy. Well done.

Dear TFTT @ 12:43, that mental picture of the Kalifornia delegation is the funniest idea of the week, sounds like something out of “Airplane – the Movie.” I truly wish I had your imagination.

Note to my conservative friends, Chairman Ann has a great essay today, http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/welcome.cgi

It turns out Joe Wilson’s notorious report PERSUADED the CIA that Saddam was trying to buy yellowcake. What you will need to know, to follow her argument:

ECONOMY One of the poorest countries in the world, Niger’s economy is based largely on subsistence crops, livestock, and some of the world’s largest uranium deposits. Drought cycles, desertification, a 3.3% population growth rate, and the drop in world demand for uranium have undercut an already marginal economy. Traditional subsistence farming, herding, small trading, seasonal migration, and informal markets dominate an economy that generates few formal sector jobs. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5474.htm

Dear Panda @ 2:09, quick, get the aluminum hat, that Mossad helicopters are headed your way.

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 02:24 PM | Link to this

Tank, you overreach…

The Captain, alas for posterity, has left no progeny. It is a sad case of insufficient motility, better known to lesser intellects like yourself as “weak swimmers”. Perhaps you mistook your own daughter for the Captain’s during today’s filming session?

As to Mrs. Freedom, she has been nursing the ailing Pedro back to health over the past several days, so surely whomever you were wrestling was someone else. Pedro injured his back while revamping the plumbing in Mrs Freedom’s vanity, and the saintly Mrs F has been so guilt-ridden that she has not left his side since the unfortunate accident.

So, thanks but no Tanks in the Captain’s lair.

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 02:27 PM | Link to this

By jbmlaw Dear Jim, I will arrogantly speak for all of our conservative regulars: you have never written better.

Damning with faint praise, bm law.

Nice touch, quoting the linsome and virginally delightful Ms Coulter. It is rare that anyone has the courage to site her these days. The vixenish and Asiatically-come-hither Ms Malkin is more my speed.

By panda

February 8, 2007 02:30 PM | Link to this

jbmlaw, bring the mossad scum on, I will send them to hell, and they will not be buried by sundown, rather I will let the coyotes feast on their flesh! Speaking of helicoptors, have you noted the seven american coptors downed in Iraq in the last 30 days? Payback says the russians are supplying advanced shoulder fired anti aircraft missles to the iraqi freedom fighters, you know, like we supplied the afgan freedom fighters with stinger missles to use against the russians in the 1980’s. Payback is hell, hey boys!

By time for the truth

February 8, 2007 02:32 PM | Link to this

jbm

it (almost) goes without saying that Pelosi would indeed, given her new found feculent power, be the first to use the outside toilet on any such flight!!

By ICEMAN

February 8, 2007 02:38 PM | Link to this

As a conservative African American male, I am continually disgusted at how the left has hijacked what would be an otherwise helpful solution to America’a poor problem. Most of the left wingers only support Civil Rights in order to get some of their Anti-God agendas past.

If it were’nt for left wing idiotic political agendas the minority population would not continue to wait on the government for handouts, they would have no choice but to realize that family values,education, and the ability to make sound decisions would eradicate so called racism in America.

By JK

February 8, 2007 02:39 PM | Link to this

Hahaha! Right. I’m really going to give thoughtful comtemplation to the ramblings of a man who thinks Ann Coulter is a good source of insight. Yeah-huh. All the edu-ma-cated quo-tating in the world can’t make you look smart now. No cred, dude. Zip, zilch, zero, notta. The image of the virgin Coulter that appeared in my dog’s lumps this morning has more intellectual credibility. She spoke to me… She said: “Pppbbbbllllpppptttt!” Hahaha!

By Dennis

February 8, 2007 02:41 PM | Link to this

By Tank Murdock February 8, 2007 01:30 PM | “Oh, ok Dennis. What do you think the dems did by holding the Foley story until election time, and then purposefully blowing it out of proportion in order to sway the election and con the American people. It works both ways limp wrister.”

Being an independent and neither democrat nor republican I hope you’ll find my wrist not as limp as you imagine.

I understand your concern about Foley. I don’t disagree that the event was poorly handled. Whether it affected national elections all that much, we might have some different judgements.

But at this point he pales compared to the witholding of evidence that the Iraq war was rigged from the beginning by Bush/Cheney that is costing the lives of thousands of American soldiers not to mention the huge debt both in terms of “good will” and finances that it is creating for the nation at present and in the future.

I have watched this particular issue closely, and Roberts behavior has been disgraceful for the good of the nation.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By Devastator

February 8, 2007 02:49 PM | Link to this

Anyone who supports the greatest debacle in American history that we call the Iraq War deserves to be shot down out of the sky themselves. This administration has added nothing positive to the American way of life.

By @@

February 8, 2007 03:15 PM | Link to this

If you see this Devastator, It’ll be the proof you need that I haven’t been banned here.

I’ve bannished myself, for the most part, in the interest of all the other posters.

I was being stalked.

Howzthat?

By Devastator

February 8, 2007 03:22 PM | Link to this

In case the rest of you are wondering what @@ is talking about, the answer is nothing. @@ has nothing better to do than to stalk people like me and daydream about snicker bars. I hope that this message doesn’t confuse any of you out there today.

By Dusty

February 8, 2007 03:25 PM | Link to this

Devastator,

Don’t buy your ticket to Canada yet. There’s no draft. You don’t have to run yet.

You posted “Anyone who supports ….the Iraq War deserves to be shot down out of the sky.”

Devi, since you are too afraid to fight the enemy, it is no surprise that you suggest shooting American citizens. That’s about your speed.

On second thought, go ahead and buy your ticket to Canada. Good riddance!!

By Devastator

February 8, 2007 03:39 PM | Link to this

Musty Dusty,

What enemy? You mean the one we created by invading a country that was just sitting there minding its own business? I made my comment because,evidently, since you Bush supporters don’t mind americans dying over there surely you wouldn’t mind them dying here. For the same idiotic reason: nothing.

By @@

February 8, 2007 03:43 PM | Link to this

Devastator:

Let’s tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, shall we?

I made a post at Luckovich’s after having been gone from the site for hours.

I returned to post a quick little story.

Devastator came in immediately and wanted to know if I had been blocked from Wooten’s.

By Devastator February 8, 2007 03:01 PM | Link to this

getalife and @@,

I see you decided to spread your virus to a new blog. What’s the matter? Did Jim Wooten catch on to your stupidity and block you?

I simply invited the Devastator? over here to enjoy a quickie to see if I’d been banned.

It looks like he/she jumped at the invitation.

Whose stalking who Devastator?

By DebbieDoRight

February 8, 2007 03:45 PM | Link to this

Where is it written that if you arent blonde and blue eyed, but dark skinned and dark haired, its OK, no, expected, that you be a theiving thug with no Christian values whatsoever

Are you insane?

By Devastator

February 8, 2007 03:49 PM | Link to this

@@,

Tell you what. Let’s just call it a truce for now. I have my hands soiled by dealing with idiot Dusty at the moment. Meanwhile, I’m going back to Luckovich.

By The Devastator

February 8, 2007 03:51 PM | Link to this

@@,

One more thing: I like the “the” you put before my name. I’m going to use that from now on.

By Dusty

February 8, 2007 04:00 PM | Link to this

Devastator,

No, we don’t think like you, fortunately. We don’t shoot each other in disagreement. That’s your insane suggestion for wining the war, isn’t it? Or maybe I should say, for wanting to lose.

Oh sure, Iraq was a pretty little picnic park until we got there. Terorists were nice fellows who just were not good at landing and couldn’t miss USA buildings. Saddam never met a terrorist or gave thought to WMDs. Just pen pals.

Yep, Devastator, keep up the excuses for your cut’n’run. We understand.

By @@

February 8, 2007 04:14 PM | Link to this

Devastator:

You’re gonna have to do better than you’re doing presently to live up to “the” name.

My money is on Dusty.

By panda

February 8, 2007 04:31 PM | Link to this

Dried Dirt (aka Dusty) you talk big about not cutting and running, yet when you were offered the opportunity to prove your valor, you refused a contract position in Iraq in support of your glorious mission to murder innocent arab men, women, and children. Dried Dirt, like all cowardly neocons, prefers war by proxy.

By panda

February 8, 2007 04:34 PM | Link to this

We luv Devastator, who is kicking both dried dirt dusty and @@’s collective asses. Too bad their proxy warriors can’t cut and run the way dust and @@ (aka at at) do! Dusty, do you wash your @ss before you post? I thought not, I can smell you thru the monitor.

By GodHatesTrash

February 8, 2007 04:43 PM | Link to this

Native Georgians are vile disgusting trash, more likely than not.

Along with greasy little wankers from Manchester trade schools.

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 04:44 PM | Link to this

Where is Chief Billy Wiggums when you need him. This just in:

Filed at 2:56 p.m. ET

*WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Thursday defended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi against Republican criticism that her desire to fly in an Air Force transport plane is an extravagance.

”This is a silly story and I think it’s been unfair to the speaker,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said.*

Now even the formerly virtuous Fox News stalwart Tony Snow has been co-opted to cover up for IslamoPelosi. She tried to be miss all that with a big old plane, and I know it’s because she’s a big, stupid, ugly, old Democrat weenie.

In my heart, I know I am Thinking Right.

By Dusty

February 8, 2007 04:45 PM | Link to this

@@,

Oh, that’s a good one. Thanks a lot. I feel so good I probably won’t even burn dinner tonight. Sometimes I waste too much time here and then rush to the kitchen and then burn!!

The gentlemen in my household are beginning to think that BURN is IT! I don’t tell them any different. I just say new recipes and all that!!

By panda

February 8, 2007 04:45 PM | Link to this

Do any of you know what the first sign of a psychopath is in a child? It is usually cruelty to animals. George Bush reportedly enjoyed torturing animals as a child, including but not limited to blowing up living frogs with fire crackers. When you see our young men and women coming home from Iraq without faces, arms, legs, and sometimes brains, remember what you have sitting in the wh calling the shots. For those of you too stupid to put it together, you have a psychopath who is surrounded by worm tongued pro israel fanatics who whisper to the phycopath that killing arabs is good, and our casualties are acceptable. Does anyone want to bet about a nuclear war starting prior to 1/20/2009?

By "The" Devastator

February 8, 2007 04:48 PM | Link to this

Dust ball,

I’m sorry did I miss something? I thought Al Queada or however the hell you spell their name, was responsible for hitting USA buildings. I guess since your beloved president couldn’t find them you needed a scapegoat. Meanwhile, the real terrorists have put out more videos than Jessica Simpson.

Tell me something Dusty, when you see our troops dying and Bin Laden’s crew continually creating havoc what goes on through your mind? Do you feel warm inside? Tell me, how does it feel knowing that you support a loser?

By Captain Freedom

February 8, 2007 04:51 PM | Link to this

A moment of silence, please, for the recently departed Anna Nicole Smith. She was one gorgeous, godly, Republican woman.

This poor woman was hounded to her grave by a liberal press that refused to countenance the redemptive power of religion and money. Though she may have begun as a slatternly hoochie girl, when she died she was a wildly rich slatternly hoochie girl, and thus, a model for young Republican women everywhere.

Fortunately, good role models of Republican womanhood like Paris “Video Girl” Hilton and Britney “Behold My Awesome Slit” Spears have followed Anna Nicole’s lead and are showing our young women the way to a glorious Conservative future.

By panda

February 8, 2007 04:51 PM | Link to this

This is copied with permission form the writer:

February 07, 2007 Coming soon to an arrogant government very near you: Fiscal Armageddon The president’s nearly $3 trillion, 2008 budget proposal reads like a happy “how-to” manual for what Chalmers Johnson, the East Asian historian and thoughtful author of the eye-opening “Blowback” series, unhappily surveys:

We are on the brink of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire. Once a nation starts down that path, the dynamics that apply to all empires come into play — isolation, overstretch, the uniting of local and global forces opposed to imperialism, and in the end bankruptcy.

Add to that mixture an unhealthy dose of plutocratic protectionism, and you can see that we’re no longer merely on the brink: We have done toppled over. Indeed, Republican apostate Kevin Phillips, in works such as American Theocracy and Wealth and Democracy, forcefully argues that our system of governance is already a de-facto plutocracy — yesterday’s democracy is just that: yesterday.

But take whichever descriptive transformation you prefer, for it makes little difference. Whether we’re now a military empire that almost exclusively benefits the domestic rich, or a self-perpetuating playground for the wealthy backed by an overstretching military-industrial complex, the nut of it all is this: The nobler America we once knew is gone — and possibly forever.

Mr. Bush’s 2008 budget is mostly just a banal confirmation of this change. Little surprise remains.

It predicts with Orwellian certitude that we’ll have a $61 billion surplus by 2012, even though it calls for extending suicidal tax cuts that have already riddled us with debt and deprived government coffers in excess of $1 trillion, and even though objective budget analysts posit an explosive deficit train wreck ahead.

It calls for a whopping $623 billion in military spending, “including $141 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a $50 billion down payment on the president’s plan to permanently increase the size of the armed forces by 92,000 over the next five years.”

And it calls for about $35 billion for Condi’s now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t neocon State Department, “an increase of more than 20 percent over current spending estimates, plus $3 billion in emergency spending related to the administration’s ‘global war on terror.’”

It also reduces Medicare and Medicaid spending by more than $10 billion over the next five years.

It chokes the Children’s Health Insurance Program — more cash “but not enough to maintain the … enrollment” rate.

It provides less discretionary funding for the Department of Education than the department received in 2006.

It wipes out student loans for vocational and technical school training.

It “effectively cut[s] grants and other assistance to local police by 75 percent at a time when violent crime is rising nationally.”

And, best of all for those needy plutocrats tired of seeing their unearned income socialistically redistributed to the unworthy, Mr. Bush’s 2008 budget calls for an “18 percent reduction in funds to provide heating assistance to 5.6 million low-income families.”

It’s about time. We’re having really mild winters, anyway.

Professor Johnson’s rather fatalistic “hope,” as he puts it, is that if Americans don’t soon throw their colossally reckless, imperialistic machinery into reverse, our oppressively debt-incurring and needs-denying nation will end not explosively, but with a mere — and unavoidable — “financial whimper.” Our international creditors won’t feed our fiscal madness much longer.

Without radical change — a radical reversal — our fiscal madness will turn to a fiscal armageddon. And that gloomy prediction is far more than just faith-based.

[Be sure to look online for my forthcoming book, Political Low Roads: American Demagoguery and the Rise of the New Right, from Ladder Press. Release date to be announced here soon.]

Email this

07:23 AM | Permalink Comments The more I read and educate myself about what is really going on, the more depressed I get. I thought the Dems would do something to curb this madman and his cabal but they’re doing nothing. I am horrified by the damage that’s already been done in this country and obviously they’re not through yet. My dream would be to wake up some morning and see on the news that he has resigned and his cronies are gone with him. I hope he does own property in Paraguay…let him go far far away.

Posted by: Nina | February 07, 2007 at 12:46 PM

How about those Colts?

Posted by: Mooser | February 07, 2007 at 01:01 PM

I’m with Nina.

Posted by: Linnea | February 07, 2007 at 01:19 PM

Too bad for Paraguay.

Posted by: Harvey | February 07, 2007 at 01:19 PM

I agree with Nina too (OT-TPMCafe has an article on the Paraguay stuff but they fail to mention that the land is sitting on the largest aquifer in central america - they should look into that), but my question is what does this financial armegeddon mean to us on a personal level? I read the doom and gloom stories about how reckless government spending will result in financial armegeddon, but how will that personally affect me and you? And when will it affect us? What should we do to mitigate such effects? Should we shift all our accounts into gold or into yuan? Could someone please let us know? Help! Thank you.

Posted by: Simpleton | February 07, 2007 at 02:25 PM

Someone mentioned that Darth Vader “Cheney” had converted all of his assets to Euros. Iran is doing the same and many countries are converting to Euros distancing themselves from the dollar. Again, that’s something the MSM isn’t covering….Maybe it’s time for us to invest our dollars in Euros too?

Posted by: Nina | February 07, 2007 at 03:52 PM

Paraguay is located in South America.

Posted by: Mike | February 07, 2007 at 07:07 PM

Systemic collapse is certain. The myth of “sustainable growth” is now becoming obvious to anyone who is able to look with their eyes wide open. Financial collapse is merely the first marker of a system meltdown that will herald the beginning of the end of our species’ plague-like expansion. A die-off is absolutely certain. But, as in war, the only winners are the survivors. I came from the geological outskirts of peak-oil to the financial outskirts of peak-economy, and, although the two are intimately related, I now see they are only markers for peak-growth. In a finite world of infinite expectations the carnivorous and tribal nature of humans has created a Darwinian paradox that threatens not only our own species but all life on the planet. It must be remembered that personal survival drives every aspect of human endeavour to the exclusion of all competition, and, will guarantee conflict until the finale. Survival of our species can now include survival of all species, the decline in our own may include the end of all life; we have the power to make the planet unliveable as we fight for the remaining resources. At one time I watched the price of oil thinking that this would be the first sign of collapse, until I realised that manipulation of financial markets were distorting the value of the commodity. Looking further into the morass led me to the ruthless control of privately-owned central banks, especially the US Federal Reserve, and the geopolitical manoeuvrings of every nation, in particular America. The globalisation of economies has set-up a widespread collapse that is unavoidable, but may yet be controlled to the bottom by the vested interests of the elite few. With this in mind I view every US budgetary measure with extreme scepticism and much concern, even though I live on the other side of the planet and care little for America, its culture, or its future. No-one will be unaffected by the collapse of America though some may weather the storm better than others; they will be the ones who see it coming and take measures to prepare for total world chaos.

Posted by: William Jorgensen | February 07, 2007 at 08:22 PM

My best suggestion for preparing for the inevitable blow-up is to read Dmitry Orlov’s writings about the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent dislocations—and who coped, and how.

Personally, figuring out how to protect my portfolio is a moot question; I have none, and no money to speak of, either. Which may not make much difference if the chaos is worldwide.

But even if I did have a portfolio, I would want to own a piece of land sufficient to grow food—preferably fuel too—and a very small, heavily insulated house with a rainwater collection system. I would want to have neighbors nearby who were in a position to do likewise, and I would prefer that these neighbors liked me a LOT.

If I were you, I’d study up on how to rig up a kotatsu—the traditional Japanese heating method. Here’s the link—though I don’t know if it’s still good.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/LivestockandFarming/1976JanuaryFebruary/HowTheJapaneseStayWarm

Posted by: sharon | February 08, 2007 at 11:05 AM

George Bush did not buy a 98,000 acre ranch in Paraguay to escape financial armageddon. That’s his retreat for the Nuclear Armageddon that he is likely to incite. The ranch is located adjacent to a newly established U.S. military base, which was located there because of the Guiarno qquifer, so Bush will have plenty of protection in his retirement.

Bush has an obsession with death. He displayed it as a youth by blowing up frogs with firecrackers. He wasted no time as governor of Texas coddling death row inmates; rather, he mimicked and ridiculed them on their way to the death chamber. In his first term as president, he proudly introduced Torture into the U.S. code of law. Now in his second term, already with nearly a million Muslim killings behind him, Bush will demonstrate the power of nuclear warfare.

The guy is absolutely out of his mind. Pope John Paul II said that Bush was the AntiChrist described in Revelation. Pope John Paul grew up in Europe under two genocidal dictators, and no one was better qualified to recognize evil. Bush is evil beyond measure, and his depradations are barely in gear. He could kill billions before he’s through, and it’s all okay with slobs who support him, slobs like Lee Raymond who received a 500 million $ retirement payment from Exxon and is now a vice chairman of - guess what - the American Enterprise Institute, home of neocon warmongers who believe that nuclear war is winnable.

George Bush is going to start WWIII - a global nuclear war.

Posted by: Gorbalt | February 08, 2007 at 11:29 AM

I believe eveybody should get out of all paper assets, Stocks, Bonds, 401K, and buy Gold and Silver and take possession.

The USD is about to collapse and the US economy goes with it.

By "The"Devastator

February 8, 2007 04:56 PM | Link to this

Panda,

You’re absolutely correct. Anyone low enopugh to hurt animals is low enough to do anything.

By panda

February 8, 2007 05:06 PM | Link to this

Ten billion Iraqi relief dollars stolen by Israel:

‘Iraq was awash in cash. We played football with bricks of $100 bills’

At the beginning of the Iraq war, the UN entrusted $23bn of Iraqi money to the US-led coalition to redevelop the country. With the infrastructure of the country still in ruins, where has all that money gone? Callum Macrae and Ali Fadhil on one of the greatest financial scandals of all time

Monday March 20, 2006 The Guardian

In a dilapidated maternity and paediatric hospital in Diwaniyah, 100 miles south of Baghdad, Zahara and Abbas, premature twins just two days old, lie desperately ill. The hospital has neither the equipment nor the drugs that could save their lives. On the other side of the world, in a federal courthouse in Virginia, US, two men - one a former CIA agent and Republican candidate for Congress, the other a former army ranger - are found guilty of fraudulently obtaining $3m (Ł1.7m) intended for the reconstruction of Iraq. These two events have no direct link, but they are none the less products of the same thing: a financial scandal that in terms of sheer scale must rank as one of the greatest in history. At the start of the Iraq war, around $23bn-worth of Iraqi money was placed in the trusteeship of the US-led coalition by the UN. The money, known as the Development Fund for Iraq and consisting of the proceeds of oil sales, frozen Iraqi bank accounts and seized Iraqi assets, was to be used in a “transparent manner”, specified the UN, for “purposes benefiting the people of Iraq”.

For the past few months we have been working on a Guardian Films investigation into what happened to that money. What we discovered was that a great deal of it has been wasted, stolen or frittered away. For the coalition, it has been a catastrophe of its own making. For the Iraqi people, it has been a tragedy. But it is also a financial and political scandal that runs right to the heart of the nightmare that is engulfing Iraq today.

Diwaniyah is a sprawling and neglected city with just one small state paediatric and maternity hospital to serve its one million people. Years of war, corruption under Saddam and western sanctions have reduced the hospital to penury, so when last year the Americans promised total refurbishment, the staff were elated. But the renovation has been partial and the work often shoddy, and where it really matters - funding frontline health care - there appears to have been little change at all.

In the corridor, an anxious father who has been told his son may have meningitis is berating the staff. “I want a good hospital, not a terrible hospital that makes my child worse,” he says. But then he calms down. “I’m not blaming you, we are the same class. I’m talking about important people. Those controlling all those millions and the oil. They didn’t come here to save us from Saddam, they came here for the oil, and so now the oil is stolen and we got nothing from it.” Beside him another parent, a woman, agrees: “If the people who run the country are stealing the money, what can we do?” For these ordinary Iraqis, it is clear that the country’s wealth is being managed in much the same way as it ever was. How did it all go so wrong?

When the coalition troops arrived in Iraq, they were received with remarkable goodwill by significant sections of the population. The coalition had control up to a point and, perhaps more importantly, it had the money to consolidate that goodwill by rebuilding Iraq, or at least make a significant start. Best of all for the US and its allies, the money came from the Iraqis themselves.

Because the Iraqi banking system was in tatters, the funds were placed in an account with the Federal Reserve in New York. From there, most of the money was flown in cash to Baghdad. Over the first 14 months of the occupation, 363 tonnes of new $100 bills were shipped in - $12bn, in cash. And that is where it all began to go wrong.

“Iraq was awash in cash - in dollar bills. Piles and piles of money,” says Frank Willis, a former senior official with the governing Coalition Provisional Authority. “We played football with some of the bricks of $100 bills before delivery. It was a wild-west crazy atmosphere, the likes of which none of us had ever experienced.”

The environment created by the coalition positively encouraged corruption. “American law was suspended, Iraqi law was suspended, and Iraq basically became a free fraud zone,” says Alan Grayson, a Florida-based attorney who represents whistleblowers now trying to expose the corruption. “In a free fire zone you can shoot at anybody you want. In a free fraud zone you can steal anything you like. And that was what they did.”

A good example was the the Iraqi currency exchange programme (Ice). An early priority was to devote enormous resources to replacing every single Iraqi dinar showing Saddam’s face with new ones that didn’t. The contract to help distribute the new currency was won by Custer Battles, a small American security company set up by Scott Custer and former Republican Congressional candidate Mike Battles. Under the terms of the contract, they would invoice the coalition for their costs and charge 25% on top as profit. But Custer Battles also set up fake companies to produce inflated invoices, which were then passed on to the Americans. They might have got away with it, had they not left a copy of an internal spreadsheet behind after a meeting with coalition officials.

The spreadsheet showed the company’s actual costs in one column and their invoiced costs in another; it revealed, in one instance, that it had charged $176,000 to build a helipad that actually cost $96,000. In fact, there was no end to Custer Battles’ ingenuity. For example, when the firm found abandoned Iraqi Airways fork-lifts sitting in Baghdad airport, it resprayed them and rented them to the coalition for thousands of dollars. In total, in return for $3m of actual expenditure, Custer Battles invoiced for $10m. Perhaps more remarkable is that the US government, once it knew about the scam, took no legal action to recover the money. It has been left to private individuals to pursue the case, the first stage of which concluded two weeks ago when Custer Battles was ordered to pay more than $10m in damages and penalties.

But this is just one story among many. From one US controlled vault in a former Saddam palace, $750,000 was stolen. In another, a safe was left open. In one case, two American agents left Iraq without accounting for nearly $1.5m.

Perhaps most puzzling of all is what happened as the day approached for the handover of power (and the remaining funds) to the incoming Iraqi interim government. Instead of carefully conserving the Iraqi money for the new government, the Coalition Provisional Authority went on an extraordinary spending spree. Some $5bn was committed or spent in the last month alone, very little of it adequately accounted for.

One CPA official was given nearly $7m and told to spend it in seven days. “He told our auditors that he felt that there was more emphasis on the speed of spending the money than on the accountability for that money,” says Ginger Cruz, the deputy inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction. Not all coalition officials were so honest. Last month Robert Stein Jr, employed as a CPA comptroller in south central Iraq, despite a previous conviction for fraud, pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal more than $2m and taking kickbacks in the form of cars, jewellery, cash and sexual favours. It seems certain he is only the tip of the iceberg. There are a further 50 criminal investigations under way.

Back in Diwaniyah it is a story about failure and incompetence, rather than fraud and corruption. Zahara and Abbas, born one and a half months premature, are suffering from respiratory distress syndrome and are desperately ill. The hospital has just 14 ancient incubators, held together by tape and wire.

Zahara is in a particularly bad way. She needs a ventilator and drugs to help her breathe, but the hospital has virtually nothing. Her father has gone into town to buy vitamin K on the black market, which he has been told his children will need. Zahara starts to deteriorate and in desperation the doctor holds a tube pumping unregulated oxygen against the child’s nostrils. “This treatment is worse than primitive,” he says. “It’s not even medicine.” Despite his efforts, the little girl dies; the next day her brother also dies. Yet with the right equipment and the right drugs, they could have survived.

How is it possible that after three years of occupation and billions of dollars of spending, hospitals are still short of basic supplies? Part of the cause is ideological tunnel-vision. For months before the war the US state department had been drawing up plans for the postwar reconstruction, but those plans were junked when the Pentagon took over.

To supervise the reconstruction of the Iraqi health service, the Pentagon appointed James Haveman, a former health administrator from Michigan. He was also a loyal Bush supporter, who had campaigned for Jeb Bush, and a committed evangelical Christian. But he had virtually no experience in international health work.

The coalition’s health programme was by any standards a failure. Basic equipment and drugs should have been distributed within months - the coalition wouldn’t even have had to pay for it. But they missed that chance, not just in health, but in every other area of life in Iraq. As disgruntled Iraqis will often point out, despite far greater devastation and crushing sanctions, Saddam did more to rebuild Iraq in six months after the first Gulf war than the coalition has managed in three years.

Kees Reitfield, a health professional with 20 years’ experience in post-conflict health care from Kosovo to Somalia, was in Iraq from the very beginning of the war and looked on in astonishment at the US management in its aftermath. “Everybody in Iraq was ready for three months’ chaos,” he says. “They had water for three months, they had food for three months, they were ready to wait for three months. I said, we’ve got until early August to show an improvement, some drugs in the health centres, some improvement of electricity in the grid, some fuel prices going down. Failure to deliver will mean civil unrest.” He was right.

Of course, no one can say that if the Americans had got the reconstruction right it would have been enough. There were too many other mistakes as well, such as a policy of crude “deBa’athification” that saw Iraqi expertise marginalised, the creation of a sectarian government and the Americans attempting to foster friendship with Iraqis who themselves had no friends among other Iraqis.

Another experienced health worker, Mary Patterson - who was eventually asked to leave Iraq by James Haveman - characterises the Coalition’s approach thus: “I believe it had a lot to do with showing that the US was in control,” she says. “I believe that it had to do with rewarding people that were politically loyal. So rather than being a technical agenda, I believe it was largely a politically motivated reward-and-punishment kind of agenda.”

Which sounds like the way Saddam used to run the country. “If you were to interview Iraqis today about what they see day to day,” she says, “I think they will tell you that they don’t see a lot of difference”.

· Dispatches: Iraq’s Missing Billions produced by GuardianFilms is broadcast tonight on Channel4 at 8pm.

By Dusty

February 8, 2007 05:10 PM | Link to this

Devastator,

I don’t know how it feels to support a loser. I certainly don’t support you which would be the prime test.

I feel real good about supporting our President, the troops and the country. Nothing is perfect but we are fortunate.

Now go play with Panda. He needs a keeper.

By panda

February 8, 2007 05:32 PM | Link to this

Looks like someone’s trying to escalate the violence in Bolivia… now who would want to do that? Who was that guy in Iran…Mossadegh?

“The 1953 CIA coup in Iran was named “Operation Ajax” and was engineered by a CIA agent named Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt. Capitalizing on the oil-nationalization showdown between Iran and Great Britain, which had thrown Iran into chaos and crisis, Kermit Roosevelt skillfully used a combination of bribery of Iranian military officials and CIA-engendered street protests to pull off the coup.”

Hmmm.. wonder how those ‘peasant villagers’ got their hands on dynamite?

By Markus

February 8, 2007 05:32 PM | Link to this

Who’s the pathetic liberal neoMarxist demoncat pig spamming this blog with horsesnot cut-n-pastes?

Here’s a great Pope joke. Liberal al-Qaeda Rednexxx should love this one like a good little neoStalinist liberal pig.

The Pope took a couple of days off to visit the Rugged Mountains of Alaska for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the campground in the Pope Mobile when there was a frantic commotion just at the edge of the woods.

A helpless Democrat, wearing sandals, shorts, a “Save the Whales” hat, and a “To Hell with Bush” T-shirt, was screaming while struggling frantically and thrashing around trying to free himself from the grasp of a 10-foot grizzly.

As the Pope watched in horror, a group of Republican loggers came racing up. One quickly fired a 44 magnum into the bear’s chest. The other two eached up and pulled the bleeding, semiconscious Democrat from the bear’s grasp.

Then using long clubs, the three loggers finished off the bear and two of them threw it onto the bed of their truck while the other tenderly placed the injured Democrat in the back seat.

As they prepared to leave, the Pope summoned them to come over. “I give you my blessing for your brave actions!” he told them. “I heard there was a bitter hatred between Republican loggers and Democratic Environmental activists but now I’ve seen with my own eyes that this is not true.”

As the Pope drove off, one of the loggers asked his buddies “Who was that guy?” “It was the Pope,” another replied. “He’s in direct contact with Heaven and has access to all wisdom.”

“Well,” the logger said, “he may have access to all wisdom but he sure doesn’t know anything about Grizzly bear hunting! By the way, is the bait holding up, or do we need to go back to Massachusetts and get another one?

By Devastator

February 8, 2007 05:33 PM | Link to this

Dustmite,

Let the record show that you feel that our troops being shot and shot down in aircraft as being fortunate. How do you sleep at night being a traitor?

By Markus

February 8, 2007 05:41 PM | Link to this

GOP to Pelosivich: “You’ll get no 757 and LIKE it.”

Heh. Good stuff. We’ve already got the Alsore flying all over the world in a jet telling us we can’t drive SUVs which have lower emissions than those smoking piles of sheeit they drive in China and India, of which both nations are NOT part of the Kyoto Accord.

Now we’ve got Pelosivich that wants to impress her friends and family with freebie trips while squawking about what Hastert had last year. The RAT pack defines hypocrisy.

By Markus

February 8, 2007 05:44 PM | Link to this

The Jackass Party liberals always say they “Support The Troops” just not the war.

One question: exactly what in the HELL is it you people support the troops WITH?

By Markus

February 8, 2007 05:47 PM | Link to this

John “Slip-n-Fall” Edwards is coming under fire for his castle being built in North Carolina. The man who made millions on the pandering and assraping of companies and people in frivolous lawsuits has the gall to tell we who actually work for a living that we shouldn’t be driving SUVs and that we should economize. LMAO.

The RAT Pack truly defines the meaning of hypocrisy.

By @@

February 8, 2007 06:04 PM | Link to this

Devastator:

I haven’t gone anywhere. I’m dropping in on occasion to watch you crash and burn with your spam.

Too funny!!!!

I see you’ve engaged a friend?

Close to you, are they?

By Markus

February 8, 2007 06:08 PM | Link to this

You know your presence p!sses off the resident multiple-ID communist liberal pigs from hell when you get ID jacked and a sick, twisted, disgusting liberal sexual reference is made in an attempt to insult you.

Too bad these sick liberal jackass deviants can’t find their way like Anna Nicole Smith did.